I told y’all I’d post about my NaNoWriMo project… y’know, since I finally decided what I’d be doing. I had a major toss up between two novels, but GOLGATHA won out. Buckle up kids, and let’s see what this novel is all about…
GOLGATHA
GENRE: FANTASY, SUPERNATURAL (those are the main genres…)
RATING: PG-13 (though I am not actually sure if I will market this as young adult or not…)
WORD COUNT: over 50k, for sure, haha (send help)
BLURB:
Prince Moray will stop at nothing to earn the throne over the Buacach Kingdom and gain control for Golgatha–the world of hell. His brother, Finnigan, will stop at nothing to see the plan ruined: especially when Finnigan realizes the betrothed princess, Breeda, is unhappy. When an unlikely traitor slaughters the Buacach king and queen and casts Moray, his brother, his betrothed, and his merc, into Golgatha… they have no choice but to rise from the ashes.
LONG BLURB:
Prince Moray and Prince Finnigan haven’t always clashed heads–but with a throne precariously hanging in the balance, neither are willing to go down without a fight. Being eldest, Moray chooses his bride to be before Finnigan ever has a chance. He will become king and gain power over Golgatha, the second world of chaos and hell. However, fate has no mercy on his plans.
Breeda, daughter of the chief of Red Clan, will never marry Prince Moray–his black magic is nothing that Elohai can ordain. Despite her attempts at fleeing, the wedding continues–until it doesn’t. After Moray and Finnigan’s parents are slaughtered and a traitor rises to power, Breeda–along with Moray, Finnigan, and the merc–are thrust into Golgatha.
A ragtag group of unlikely heroes, the four must face unholy conditions to survive. Meanwhile, the traitor, the wizard, and the peoples face their own hell.
Yes, the blurbs are rough, and not final.
QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE…
IS THIS YOUR FIRST TIME WRITING FANTASY?
Nope. Back when I was 10-14 yrs old, fantasy was pretty much the only thing I wrote. I was greatly inspired by Narnia, LOTR, Ted Dekker, the Inheritance Cycle, and Cornelia Funke back then!
However, I stopped writing fantasy after none of the projects went anywhere, and since God gave me Seek… Fantasy hasn’t been something on my plate for a while. I’m super excited to jump back into the genre!
WHAT MAKES GOLGATHA DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER FANTASY NOVEL?
Something that bugs me about most fantasy is the unclear line between good vs. evil. It’s pretty popular nowadays to blur that line: make dark magic/spells/etc OK, make good guys bad and bad guys good, and focus a lot on thing that aren’t really of God. I enjoy fantasy but honestly, can hardly read most of it, and that’s disheartening!
GOLGATHA is different because the dark magic and related things are not made into good things. The good elements and Gifts are good, but there’s a clear difference. So, basically, there’s “magic” (not good!) and “Gifts” (good!). And GOLGATHA also has some strong Biblical themes that are NOT preachy… Which, personally speaking, I feel is lacking in most fantasy novels I read nowadays, haha.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PLANNING GOLGATHA?
Months, haha? I’m not quite sure on the date, but I had the idea(SSSS) rolling in my head for a while. I finally sat down a month or two before NaNo to actually write the plot down and outline it the best I could.
WILL IT BE INDIE PUBLISHED OR TRAD?
Fantasy is pretty hot on the Indie market, and at the same time, it’s also something easier to pitch to presses. So… while I want to try traditional, I have a small feeling this book will probably be Indie.
Why? Well, I’ll be writing a post about this, but basically: I love Indie. I love being The Boss. I love learning and applying what I learn and watching God do the rest. I love all things it takes to be an Indie author–yep, even marketing. So while trad is cool and I’ll try one day… I don’t know if God is saying today is that some day, and that’s cool.
So, yep, no strong idea WHEN this bad boy comes out, but follow the blog/newsletter and you’ll get first beta reader dibs, ha.
I’M THINKING OF DOING NANO–DO YOU HAVE TIPS?
I wrote a post dedicated to NaNo HERE so, rock on, friend!
And here’s my NaNo, if you wanna be buds.
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NOW for real, ask me anything about GOLGATHA! (Or, hey, Indie publishing, since that post is coming up…) I’ll probably be doing a Q&A for this novel again (during November) IF y’all give me enough questions about it. 😉
Thanks for reading and I sincerely hope you’re a lil’ excited for GOLGATHA…
God bless,
Ang
I love magic in fantasy, so long the main character doesn’t start or end with it. I mean, it’s fine if the main character gets it in the middle, but if the main character gets magic, I find the only good endings are the ones where the magic is sacrificed to save the world
Also, I used to write a whole lot of fantasy, too! I still write fantasy, but a majority of my focus is on realistic fiction for this NaNoWriMo
And I sent you a NaNoWriMo buddy request! (Part of me is happy they changed nanowrimo to be more private, but the other part of me is like, “I know I’m forgetting at LEAST one buddy I used to have on the site, but I don’t remember who he or she was…” lol)
Most of my friends love magic if they read fantasy, honestly, haha! I can’t quiite relate thoUGH I LOVE THE SACRIFICE THEME ANYTIMMEE.
Yeah, the new site is… tricky to get used to. It glitched and I lost alll my new buds and I was worried they wouldn’t fix that…
A story without sacrifices, in my opinion, is a story where the main character’s actions weren’t challenged
Oof 🙁
EXACTLY!
Lol When I read that message this morning, I kept thinking, “Wait why is the phrase ‘EXACTLY!’ in all caps familiar to me?” Then I JUST realized I use that all the time when talking to my friends. Frankly, I’m shocked it took me that long to remember one of my iconic reactions xD
Is it honestly iconic until you rECOGNIIZE IT?! 😛
Eh, not as iconic as me shouting, “Awesome!” or giving a smirk that implies someone’s missing something incredibly obvious xD (It’s funny, ’cause that trick never works on others, but it always works on me. If I get that smirk, I panic, but if others get that smirk, they shrug it off)
They have become immune to your atrocities…
AAAAAHHHHH YYEESSSS THIS SOUNDS AMAZING
By the way what do you mean by not being sure whether you’ll label it YA? Is there a different option you want to use? Just curious!
I totally agree about the whole icky dark magic stuff… It always puts too many questions about the story in my head and I don’t need that. I’m personally superannoyed with the very word magic because it appears different in different contexts. I mean, look at fairytales. Fairy godmothers? Enchanting magic. Wicked witches? Spell magic. Dude, what?
Okay, enough of my rant. 😛 I think one of the core differences lie between gifted “magic” and learned “magic,” but the annoying thing is that can be twisted too.
Anywayyy. Both blurbs for Golgatha sound wonderful. And the aesthetics are beautiful– I WANT TO KNOW WHY THERE ARE WOLVES. I can’t wait to read it 😀
THANK YOUUUUUUUU!
Well, the ages of the characters aren’t exactly teenagers, and the story matter isn’t super duper… young adult? I don’t know how dark ‘n gritty it will get, and I’d also like to market it to adult readers (though, of course, they can read/love YA too!) so I’m waiting to see what the story says, haha! The mood might be less YA.
I feel you! It can get so tiring–all the magics and why magic can be super OK and why badness can be good… ICK. Ramble away, girl!
Wow! This sounds incredible! I love how different it is.
Thank you SO much, Arysta! 😀
I don’t generally read fantasy — or even really like it, actually 😀 — for the very reasons you listed. The blurred lines between evil and good, the use evil being accepted and used as a means to the end . . . and I could go on. But I won’t.
This though.
This sounds good. Different.
It piqued my interest, and I actually really want to read it. Like — REALLY want to read it! I’m looking forward to your writerly updates as you finish this! And praying for wisdom as to traditional/indie publishing 😀
I can totally relate, haha! I definitely pray GOLGATHA is something you’ll like and that speaks to you. ♥