Editing: Week 4
Hello! Sorry for the late post—today is my dear sweet mother’s birthday and my late night yesterday was dedicated to setting up for this morning and her birthday celebrations. (Love you Mum!)
Anyways, my editing and worldbuilding and plotting has been really effective this week. I’ve started roughly outlining book two—because I believe in the subtle art of foreshadowing and I want to know what’s going to happen next and how my characters need to be prepared for it—and fleshing out not only my protagonists, but my antagonists and their motives as well. I’ve also written a prologue (which you can read at the end of the update) that informs the reader about all of the important history for my book without info-dumping—at least, I hope. When you read it, let me know if you think it’s a lot to great a first-time reader with!
So, for the longest time, ‘The Secret of Moonflower Valley’ was a standalone. My characters breezed in and out of this conflict and saved the day after a few near-death experiences, and everyone was happy! That was all it was going to be, until one insightful conversation I had with my vegan Tío. We were walking Blue, my little chihuahua, and I was telling him all about my book. (Mind you, this was back when I was working on draft two or three.) And when I was finished he said to me, “That sounds like a very clever villain. Are you sure he should be defeated so easily? Are you sure he can be defeated that easily?”
That got me thinking. It was then, on that peaceful walk in Miami, that I decided how book one would end. It wasn’t going to be a victory. It was going to be a shocking and jaw-dropping failure. The ideas on exactly how that jaw-dropping failure would look has changed since then, but I always knew my book would be a duology.
And then, yesterday, I was writing in my notebook during homeroom, and all of a sudden I had a vision for how this book would end. And it was another failure! This time a completely unexpected one, even for me.
It’s with this drawn-out story that I inform you that SMV is now a trilogy, and I desperately need to figure out a series name for it. And I have a few ideas…
The Reverie Realm Chronicles (or The Chronicles of Reverie Realm)
The Eight Kingdoms of Reverie Realm (Not a huge fan)
Okay, two ideas. I had two ideas. If you have an idea for the name of my series or want a little more information on my world in order to think of one, let me know!
Prologue
Anonymous
Nobody is allowed to set foot in the Black Forest. Nobody. That is the newest yet most respected law in the entire kingdom. Because that’s where the foxes live. Foxes are among the most dangerous and bloodthirsty creatures known to Moonflower Valley.
For two centuries, five separate kingdoms ruled the Eastern Peninsula of Reverie Realm. Four of them were ruled and primarily populated by foxes. Despite the close proximity, these five kingdoms were able to remain allies for many years. However, in the year 1916, just five years after the queen of Moonflower Valley mysteriously passed away, everything changed. Samara, the crown princess, was away on a trip to reinstate the peace treaty between the Valley and East Ridge. She was there for a month before a plague swept through the kingdom, killing the King and crippling their military. Samara decided to cut her visit short and return when the plague was over.
But what she didn’t know was that a group of East Ridge foxes had been waiting for her to leave the safety of the kingdom. She was attacked and brutally murdered in the Black Forest, and her broken body was found three days later by a search party issued by King Emerald of Moonflower Valley—in other words, her father.
And he was not a man to be trifled with. Without bothering to hold court with the queen of East Ridge, he sent his military to burn it to the ground. Thousands of foxes died that night, and by the time Moonflower Valley was driven away, East Ridge was completely destroyed.
But the bloodshed wasn’t over—not yet. Two days later, King Emerald and his entourage traveled to the barren land that now belonged to him. He made plans for how he would put it to use, and returned to his kingdom five hours later.
Dead.
The men who carried his body back described a vicious ambush of a dozen East Ridge foxes. The king was killed almost instantly, and the others died in battle. The crown princess, the last heir to the kingdom’s throne, was only ten years old. King Emerald’s advisor was appointed Regent by vote of the council until Willow was old enough to rule.
This is the story you’ll be told in every classroom across Moonflower Valley. The foxes are always the villains, and our kingdom always plays the part of the wounded hero. Regardless of whether or not this was all true, I would do anything in order to keep people believing it.
Because this means I’ve already won.
P.S. Any feedback is always appreciated!!
