Is anyone working on their own art/novel/creation - can you share?

[Valiant]

I'm sure there are others who have dreamed of their own plots and story devices. I've always tried to keep my 'amazing' ideas to myself, so I can't ask anyone to share their best, but if you feel like giving a short glimplse into one of your own creations, please share.

[Roni Lockhart]

I just found this site this morning. It seems like there are a lot of cery creative people here! Since I am stuck in a house with an engineer husband and a very literal minded soon to be doctor daughter, I am thrilled to be able to find someplace I can share some of my more creative ideas with!

To answer the question, I have published one novel. Althouh it was through a hybrid publisher (meaning I had to pay half of the marketing costs and do all 90% of the legwork to get it sold) and it seems to be doing well so far. I sold out the first run before the books were actually delivered. It took a lot of legwork and talking to bookstores/friends/family, etc... but it was worth it.

The story is about two high school sweethearts who are broken up by the girl's very wealthy and very powerful father who used some very manipulative tactivs to make each of them think that they had been dumped by the other one. 15 years later, the boy has become an international singing star and returns home to be by the side of his dying mother. Needless to say, the two hook back up but her father still refuses to allow them to see each other without throwing a fit and starts planning the young man's murder. It has a nice surprise twist as there is an extra-marital affair thrown in to complicate things.

I mainly focus on romance and am now trying my hand at a paranormal romance that invloves 13 witches who have powers bestowed upon them by the ancient pagan gods in order to fight against an ultimate evil entity who wants to destroy the Earth. I am finding that the paranormal genre is very different from straigt romance but just as much fun!

The problem I am having is trying to find an agent who will even look at my work. As we all know, you can't get anywhere near the big boys without an agent. I am making the round of agents again with this new story but I doubt that I'll have any better luck than I had the first time. I may end up trying for one of the smaller publishing houses directly but still wish I had an agent that would smooth the way.

I have read some very interesting ideas on this thread. The tricky part is to keep going no matter what. I have found that free writing is what works best for me. I just sit at my computer and type whatever comes into my head and then edit it later.

[Amber J. Gardner]

I'm working on a dark fantasy that still needs a lot of work. After reading the NA trilogy, I really got depressed cause it was SO MUCH BETTER and had a lot of similarities. The main character is an orphan. There's magic, and one of the magics involve patterns in the skin (okay fine, they're scars, but it felt kind of like the vir). There's a prophecy. Sword fighting, yadda yadda yadda.

But then again, A LOT of stories have those things, so I'm got back on course.

It's about a boy whose destiny was foretold before he was even born...and when he was old enough to speak and understand words, they told him. After that, his life has been dedicated to that destiny, whether he likes it or not. But actually, there are two prophecies. One's fake. The other's not. In fact, the boy's entire life is one big lie. So when he discovers this, what will he do? That decision will doom or save the world. Dun dun duunn. So dramatic lol.

I really like the prophecy and destiny idea cause I wanted to twist it into something more fresh. I hated that the characters never knew about their destinies/prophecies till much much later (Harry Potter, etc) and I wanted it more like he actually knows and is actually aiming towards it. That's where I first started with the idea. I never saw someone actually try to make the prophecy come true. ...Well other than Dorian XD.

Anyways, that's my baby ^_^.

[Giovanni Brown]

That sounds super cool amber! i would love to read some short excerpts from the book or to hear more about it! Sounds epic!

[Amber J. Gardner]

Thanks! I hope it will be. ^_^

[Roni Lockhart]

Sounds as if you have a really good start on a great plot ine.

I am trying my first paranormal romance. It has to do with a council of 13 contemporary witches that are bestowed witht he powers of the ancient pagan gods. Each witch possesses a different power/ability. They have to battle an ultimate evil creation that is released after being imprisoned for the past thousand years. Of course since it is a romance there has to be a love connection and lots of good sex mixed in with the danger. I would love to be able to do the entire series for each of the 13 witches where they find mates with psychic powers that strengthen/compliment their own. Much darker than my first book and I am struggling to find a mix of dark/light that will balance things out in the end.

[Kera L]

I know I've posted in this before, but I had one of those ideas that doesn't let you sleep no matter how tired you are. If you ever had this kind of idea, you realize how frustrating it is when you have to get up at 5am and at 2am the idea is still bugging you. I had to finally write about three pages before the plot bunnies calmed down enough for me stuff them in cages until I had time to work on them again.

I call it "The Watchtower" because those were the first two words of the story. I'll let ya'll catch a glimpse of what's in my head. Just remember to stay on the designated path because my head is a scary place to be without a proper tour guide.

~~~The Watchtower stood strong against the waves crashing against it. Wind and rain pounded against the solid white stone and the dark cliff the tower stood on. Lightning streaked across the sky, bathing the area in blinding light for an instant before throwing the land to darkness once more. Another wave crashed against the tower.
But only the tower seemed effected by the storm. Though darkness spread over the land, the black clouds remained in a circular formation a hundred feet in diameter with the tower at its center. Beyond the clouds, the sky was clear and calm. Stars filled the void with a crescent moon shedding its feeble light along the stone road that snaked away from the tower toward the main highway along the coast.
Though dawn was still a while away and nothing should have stirred in the darkness, a black form approached the tower from the sky. It looked like a bird from the distance, but as it drew closer, the movements seemed less birdlike and more like a snake slithering along the wind. The twisting, elongated body descended toward the road at the edge of the secluded storm. The creature finally reached the road, dropping silently from the sky. It was a snake, a large one with black scales stretched along the body that took up half of the stone pathway. The black pits of its eyes and the pitch black scales along its body became a shadow in the night. Then the snake’s mouth opened, white fangs suddenly appearing in the darkness.
With a hiss of annoyance, as if offended by the rain pounding the ground only feet away from where it sat, the large snake turned and coiled over itself. Scales melted away into mist, before reforming into a smaller form. Suddenly a man stood where the snake had been.
The man approached the line that separated the calm night from the raging storm. Passing through the barrier, the man seemed unaffected by the wind and rain that should have had him tucking his head down and his dark cloak soaked through. But the weather didn’t touch him. Though the sky was clouded and the wind howled and the rain pounded into the ground, the man remained dry and his cloak stayed settled around his body. Not even the hood over his head was disturbed. It was indeed a strange sight to behold.
He walked toward the tower, covering the ground much more swiftly than his slow gait indicated. The base of the Watchtower seemed bare without a possible means to enter. But the man who traveled as a snake and remained unaffected by a storm seemed untroubled by the fact that he had no door to enter. He veered off the path, walking toward the solid stone a few yards to the left of the path. Without hesitation, the dark figure walked straight into the wall…
And disappeared.
Inside the tower, the man pulled back the hood of his cloak as the doorway closed behind him. Though the wall seemed solid from the outside, on the inside of the illusion, the walls had windows and the single door that marked the entrance. A spiral stairway wound up the wall of the tower to the left of the entryway, and to the right another stairway spiraled down into darkness. The floor of the circular room was engraved with a dozen lines of runes placed in a spiral until the twelve lines converged in the center of the room where a carving of a gargoyle rune. The runes were all inlaid with gold and covered in glass.
The man stood in front of the door, listening to the sound of approaching footsteps. Turning his head to the right, the man witnessed the ascent of the obedient servant doll walking up the stairs from the darkness below. The features of the doll were plain, carved from porcelain, and would have been perfect except for the jagged crack across the animated creature's left cheek. Glowing blue eyes stared at the man from under the wig of brown hair. The doll wore a fine silk suit, much too extravagant for a mere servant.
“The master will see you now,” the servant spoke, though the carved lips never moved. The man turned to the doll, which was animated from the power of its creator and spoke with the voice of the poor soul trapped inside. The servant turned back to descend the staircase once more. The man followed, gliding silently as if his feet weren't even touching the floor. Perhaps they weren't.
Into the darkness the two descended, the servant leading the man into the lower reaches of the Watchtower. Though torches lined the walls of the spiraling stairs, they remained unlit but the man moved as if he could see perfectly. It seemed as if hours passed and the stairs kept going. Anyone who counted them would have passed a hundred long ago. Finally a light appeared ahead, signaling the end of the stairs. A doorway stood before the man and the servant was nowhere to be seen. Somewhere, the doll had stopped, though his footsteps continued to echo along the walls.
Unperturbed by the disappearance of the porcelain servant, the man continued through the doorway and into the room beyond. An impossible scene greeted him.
A vast garden lay before the man, with trees and bushes lining a stone path leading further into the maze of hedges. Flowers bloomed plentiful under the clear blue sky above and from somewhere deep in the garden, birds could be heard chirping away. But no sun could be seen in the sky. Where did the light come from then?
“Do you like it?” asked a voice from behind a tall hedge. The man turned to the voice, but didn't seem startled. A figure in blue walked from behind the shrub. Obviously this was no ordinary man. His beautiful face was pale with high cheekbones and dark eyes that seemed to glow just a little. He wore a robe the color of the sky above over his thin, almost feminine frame and long black hair spilled down past his shoulders to his knees. A smile graced his pale thin lips, one that would make any woman weak in the knees. But a flash of fangs revealed the sinister being behind that beautiful face.
“Where is he?” the darker man asked.
Gliding forward, the man in blue approached. A pale hand reached toward the dark man, but suddenly stopped. An unearthly aura consumed the man in blue, nearly choking him. The aura flowed from the dark man.
“Do not touch me, incubus,” the dark man said. His voice remained calm, but his aura lashed out, cutting into the pale hand hovering close to him. Blood splashed against the stone path. The incubus withdrew with a hiss at the man, holding his injured hand to his chest.
Bring him to me.
The voice echoed through their minds. The incubus glared at the dark man before turning and walking back toward the garden maze. The man followed like a shadow through the twisting hedges and winding leafy corridors until they reached the absolute center.
A large bed occupied the center of the circle of hedges. A frail form lay propped against the pile of pillows at the head of the bed. Shrouded by a fall of transparent blue cloth, the form’s features were obscured. A hand rose to beckon the men closer. The incubus glided forward, climbing onto the foot of the bed to curl up like a lazy cat. The dark man approached to stand beside the bed, gazing down at the withered form. The figure sucked in a shaky breath.
Have you found them?
“Yes,” the dark man replied.
Bring them to me immediately. The withered figure spoke through the dark man’s mind. Time is short.
The dark man nodded. “Anything for you.”~~~

Even I don't quite know for sure what's going on yet. It sounds like fun though.