A Look Inside My Latest Novel - Faithless

  What you didn't know you needed.

  Today is the beginning of my New Year's resolution to post regularly on this blog. As this was the first solid idea that came to mind, I thought I would share with you all my third fully written novel, Faithless. I've droned on about The Sorceress and the Squid here for too long now - here's to new things!

THE SYNOPSIS

  "Katarian refugee and dignitary, Sagaar Remus, is reunited after seven years with her husband, Damien Sparr, a convicted war criminal in the Outer Reach whose coupe destroyed her country, city, home and family. After years of separation she meets him in his prison cell, aghast by the atrocities he has committed in the name of his people. With her husband facing the executioner's block and conspiracy swimming around her, Saagar must learn what it means to love someone that you cannot trust."

  I came up with the idea for this story last Christmastime after experiencing a weird dream in which my boyfriend at the time, Jonathan, had become a killer and I had gone to him to plead that he turn himself in and do the right thing. When I woke up the idea stayed with and haunted me. What would it be like to be betrayed so fully by the person you loved most in the world? And that's how Faithless was born. 

  So far, after slowly writing it over the past year, it has become a very *very* messy first draft that will take a lot of cleaning up but I'm proud of the process and the potential it has. 

THE CHARACTERS

  SAAGAR REMUS: Is the main character and doesn't deserve the horrible things I did to her in the name of exploring a social experiment through a story. She was orphaned as a young girl and adopted by her uncle, the Premier of Katar and his family. She has grown up among her cousins and in the luxury of a politician's life. This photo represents what she did look like and does look like underneath her bad burn scars from Damien's bombs. She is tall and slender and internalizes everything to the point of mental breakdown. Her trauma causes blackouts and confusion and occasional short-term memory loss but the doctors assigned to her by President Larkin of Tokar are treating her. They say she is healing but she isn't sure, and emotionally, she is still in ruins. She lives life without purpose and tries to get by without thinking or feeling too much about anything - until Damien comes into her life again and she is forced to confront this man who destroyed everything. 

  DAMIEN SPARR: Was born a desert rat and, after being "orphaned" in a terror attack, was adopted into the Premier's family as a young boy. He grew up among them all the while awaiting the day when his comrades would urge him to make good their attack plan. In the meantime, Saagar fell in love with him and he married her - whether he ever loved her or not is very questionable. Damien is a hardened young man full of anger at the government order which he seeks to topple at any cost. He is dark-haired and green-eyed and seems to have some lingering obsession with Saagar despite what he has done to her. 

  These are the two main characters, some other important players include...

• President Larkin of the neighbor nation of Tokar
• Reiko, Saagar's assigned body-guard
• Commander Rolfe, the Rebel leader
• Marsh and Valla, fellow rebels 
• Balor Remus, Saagar's deceased uncle
• Wirna, old village healer
• Inoraii, Damien's daughter

SNIPPETS

  Here are some never-before-shared snippets from the sucky first draft of the novel (don't worry, I edited them). 

  True to modern writer form, I have now a Pinterest board for this novel. I wish I'd discovered how fun it is to make those sooner! Actually, it's probably best I didn't, or else I wouldn't have written the book in the first place...

  You can check it out here.

  So, what do you guys think? I'm looking for a little feedback here. Is this a story you'd be interested in reading or not so much? What tips do you have for editing a very messy first draft? Let me know your thoughts below!

PS. I am now planning to post every Sunday, so keep your eye out for new content each week! :D