This week I have a guest post by Jennifer Allis Provost the author of Copper Girl which released in June this year. Copper Girl is an NA Urban Fantasy novel although it wasn't planned to be so, Jennifer explains all in her guest post
Copper Girl by Jennifer Allis Provost
Synopsis
Sara had always been careful.
She never spoke of magic, never associated with those suspected of handling magic, never thought of magic, and never, ever, let anyone see her mark. After all, the last thing she wanted was to end up missing, like her father and brother.
Then, a silver elf pushed his way into Sara's dream, and her life became anything but ordinary.
Book Trailer Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml9Q3WmSHBw
Story First, Genre Later by Jennifer Allis Provost
Thank you, Laura, for letting me stop by!
I’m Jennifer Allis Provost, and I’m going to talk about the convoluted path I
took writing my latest release, Copper
Girl.
I began Copper
Girl with the scrap of an idea gleaned from my boring job as a cubicle
monkey. While this seed was germinating, a few other ideas fluttered forth, and
before I knew it, I had the makings of a story: I was going to write a YA
dystopia.
Or so I thought.
In this initial version, the main
character, Sara Corbeau, lived in a world that used to be full of magic, but no
one believed in it anymore. Then Sara started seeing a man in her dreams, who
turned out to be an elf lord from the Otherworld. Sara even had a snarky best
friend, who disbelieved in everything magical, and worried that Sara was losing
her mind.
Well, that didn’t work.
You see, an integral part of Sara’s journey
revolves around her boring desk job. (I know, art imitating life at it’s
finest) Most teens don’t have full-time office jobs, so that, along with the
romance level in the book, pretty much knocked Copper Girl right out of the YA ballpark. Taking a cue from said
romance level, I set out to rewrite it as a paranormal romance.
Or so I thought.
In this version, Sara and the dreamy elf lord,
Micah, meet in their physical forms fairly early on, and establish a
relationship. I also moved a good portion of the action to the Otherworld, and
added some political drama. Since I had also added the Element-based magic
system during this go-round, this is when Sara actually became a copper girl.
That version didn’t work either.
Ack.
Before I started the third rewrite, I took
some time to really think about the plot. So Sara worked at a lame office job,
then an elf showed up in her dreams, and chaos ensued. That’s all well and
good, but what was the chaos ensuing to? Then it hit me, the integral part that
I was missing:
What the heck was the point of this story?
And that, dear reader, is exactly what Copper Girl had been missing. The
characters were there, but the stakes weren’t high enough. I didn’t really
understand what Sara wanted badly enough to defy her totalitarian government
and begin using magic again. Then it hit me.
That totalitarian government had taken
Sara’s brother away ten years ago, and she hadn’t seen him since.
Shortly after this revelation, Copper Girl went through its third and
final major rewrite, and became a dystopian-flavored urban fantasy. Snarky best
friend stayed, missing brother entered, and the rest of the story fell into
place. The best part about this version was that it flowed. The words almost arranged themselves on the computer screen,
and the plot never felt slow or stilted.
What’s more, it became something I really
never thought it would be: a NA urban fantasy. It was really the ideal NA
premise: girl, aged 23, had graduated college, moved out of the family home,
found a job that sucks and has inadvertently ended up in a boring life. Then,
chaos ensues, but it somehow makes everything better. It’s good chaos, ya know?
This was the story, just as it was meant to
be. Finally, I’d thought right.
It took almost a year of rewrites, crumpled
sticky notes, and anguished calls and emails to editors and critique partners
before Copper Girl finally came
together. But, you know what? In the end, it was all worth it.
Excerpt
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
My office, like most modern offices,
cranked the air conditioning down to Arctic proportions during the summer
months. Consequently, we workers arrived in the morning dressed in sandals and
sleeveless tops, donned heavy sweaters upon reaching our desks, and ended up
shivering by noon. Ironically, when our workday ended we were hit by a wall of
oppressive heat the moment we stepped outside the main doors. No, this wasn’t a
flawed system in the slightest.
That day, I wasn’t having it. I had the
grand idea of spending my lunch hour outside, away from the icy wind stiffening
my fingers and chilling my neck. After I unwound myself from the afghan I kept
in my desk (and only used in the summer months), I gathered up my lunch and my
phone and headed out for an impromptu picnic in my car.
What I hadn’t considered was that the
office runs the air conditioning so cold because it was, well, hot outside.
Very hot, in fact. So hot that the cheese was melting in my sandwich and the
lettuce looked like something that had washed ashore months, maybe even years,
ago. I was parked in the shade and had taken down my car’s convertible top, but
I still couldn’t manage to get comfortable. I’d already shed my sandals and
cardigan, which left me wearing my sundress and…
Dare I?
I glanced around the parking lot of Real
Estate Evaluation Services, the ‘go-to firm for all your commercial real estate
needs’, according to the brochures. No one, human or drone, was taking a
noontime stroll, and, by virtue of my being on the far side of the lot, no cars
were near mine. Most of my coworkers didn’t even have cars, so the lot was rarely
more than half-full. What was more, from where I sat, I couldn’t even see the
office.
I dared.
I took a deep breath and channeled my inner
wild woman, then leaned the seat back and slipped off my panties. Removing that
small bit of cotton made an incredible difference, and the heat became somewhat
bearable. Enjoyable, even. Was that a breeze?
Ignoring my decrepit sandwich, I fully
reclined the seat, set the alarm on my phone, and closed my eyes. A nap. Now that
would make today bearable.
***
Suddenly, he is there.
Here.
Kissing me, holding me.
I know I'm dreaming, because he's
perfect. His lips are soft but insistent, his hands gentle. I glide my fingers
across his back, feeling thick cords of muscle, before sinking my fingers into
his hair. It’s superfine, like cobwebs, and when I crack an eyelid, I learn
that it’s silver. Not gray or white, but the elegant hue of antique
candlesticks and fine flatware. Cool.
I squeeze my eyes shut again, not
wanting the dream to end any sooner than it has to. He kisses me once more, and
I can’t help melting against him. His hand travels up my leg, up past my hip…
shit! No panties!
I try twisting away, but he already
knows. I feel his mouth stretch into a smile, and he moves to nuzzle my neck.
"What’s your name?" he murmurs.
"Sara," I reply.
"Yours?"
"Micah." By now, his hands
have traveled to my waist, and he slides one around to stroke the small of my
back. "Why did you summon me, Sara?"
"I didn’t," I protest. "I
don’t know how." I would say more, but he nibbles a trail from my neck to
my shoulder, and pushes my dress to the side. As for me, I let him.
Micah raises his head, and I get a good
look at him for the first time. His eyes are large and dark gray, like
thunderheads, his features chiseled into warm caramel skin, and his unruly mop
of silver hair seems to float around his head. He wears an odd, buff-colored
leather shirt, made all the odder in this heat, and matching leather pants and
boots. Boots?
"You did summon me," he
insists. "My Sara, you must tell me why."
"Does it matter?" I ask. I pull him back to me, kissing him with all the passion I’ve never felt with anyone during my waking hours. Micah kisses me back, fingers deftly unbuttoning my dress while his other hand rubs my lower back. I’ve never felt so free, so alive as I do in Micah’s embrace, and I have no intention of rushing this. None at all.
About the Author
Jennifer Allis Provost is a native New Englander who lives in a sprawling colonial along with her beautiful and precocious twins, a dog, a parrot, two cats, and a wonderful husband who never forgets to buy ice cream. As a child, she read anything and everything she could get her hands on, including a set of encyclopedias, but fantasy was always her favorite. She spends her days drinking vast amounts of coffee, arguing with her computer, and avoiding any and all domestic behaviour.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/copperraven
Twitter: https://twitter.com/parthalan
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Thank you for letting me stop by!
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