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Committing Trilogy?
Oct. 3rd, 2007 11:09 amI mentioned in Monday's post that I have a novel, Escape from New Deseret, sitting on my hard drive, getting fat and lazy. Said novel, or rather the query letter for it, was the topic of discussion at last night's meeting of the Naperville Area SF Writer's Group.
At the meeting, I discovered the reason my query letter went over like a lead balloon. My novel is dysfunctional. Now, I knew that the title was craptacularly bad, but it wasn't until last night that I realized (or more accurately admitted) that it started 20,000 words too soon. It wasn't until this morning that I realized I was sitting on two books of a trilogy. Thanks (if that's the right word) goes to Jackie Powers. (Actually, thanks is the right word.)
I'm not a fan of trilogies, or any other "damn I gotta buy ALL THREE BOOKS" work of fiction, but, well, here I am. So, the titles and brief plot synopsis are:
Taken to Mars - Octavia, a young woman raised by an extremist cult, is kidnapped by a member of the same cult to go to Mars colony, where she must struggle to survive.
Octavia of Mars - Ten years after the events of "Taken," Octavia runs afoul of the cult's leadership. She is banished, struggles to survive and adapt, and overcomes a crisis of faith to rescue her children.
The Lost Boys of Mars - three teenagers rescued in "Octavia" adjust to a new life on a different Mars colony, while cult leadership attempts revenge.
"Octavia" is the largely written, since it's the bulk of the now-scrapped "New Deseret." "Taken" is about a third written, and "Lost Boys" exists only in my head.
Oh, and bye the way, did I mention I was working on a sequel to The Mars Run? I guess I better get busy!
At the meeting, I discovered the reason my query letter went over like a lead balloon. My novel is dysfunctional. Now, I knew that the title was craptacularly bad, but it wasn't until last night that I realized (or more accurately admitted) that it started 20,000 words too soon. It wasn't until this morning that I realized I was sitting on two books of a trilogy. Thanks (if that's the right word) goes to Jackie Powers. (Actually, thanks is the right word.)
I'm not a fan of trilogies, or any other "damn I gotta buy ALL THREE BOOKS" work of fiction, but, well, here I am. So, the titles and brief plot synopsis are:
Taken to Mars - Octavia, a young woman raised by an extremist cult, is kidnapped by a member of the same cult to go to Mars colony, where she must struggle to survive.
Octavia of Mars - Ten years after the events of "Taken," Octavia runs afoul of the cult's leadership. She is banished, struggles to survive and adapt, and overcomes a crisis of faith to rescue her children.
The Lost Boys of Mars - three teenagers rescued in "Octavia" adjust to a new life on a different Mars colony, while cult leadership attempts revenge.
"Octavia" is the largely written, since it's the bulk of the now-scrapped "New Deseret." "Taken" is about a third written, and "Lost Boys" exists only in my head.
Oh, and bye the way, did I mention I was working on a sequel to The Mars Run? I guess I better get busy!
