evanescent fireworks

lights will guide you home

and ignite your bones

and i will try to fix you
// coldplay

Yesterday I accidentally started a novel. Again. That seems to be how all my novels start: accidentally. 

 See, I was adamant I wouldn't start another novel. I already have Broken Wings that I need to write, and editing Because I'm Irish and plotting for that book's sequel. As for writing, I'd been hoping to make my main focus on writing the currently four-book fantasy series fondly called The Silverthorne Mafia. I just don't need  to start another project right now. I want to finish what I've already got going, because the Silverthorne Mafia is really important to me.

But that doesn't mean my other projects aren't important to me, either.

It started with a couple of pins, then morphed into a pin board. For some reason the phrase "Evanescent Fireworks" came into my head, so that's what it was called. I wanted to leave it in the transitional planning stage indefinitely.

But that's not the way things work sometimes.

Last night, Scarlett posted in the group calling for a word war. Caroline joined, and they did one word war. I wasn't going to join at first, but then, as it so happens with word wars, they're infectious. Scarlett went to bed, but Caroline and I decided to do another one. There was just one problem: I had no idea what to write.

"Write something from Evanescent Fireworks," she said. "It'll be fun," she said.

All kidding aside, I started it. "I'll just write the beginning, as a snippets," I thought. I write snippets all the time. "And then I'll leave it for when I officially start writing EF."

Hahahaha. Haha. Ha.

That's when Annah and Wren came on, respectively. And five or six word wars later, I had a 2,000 word long beginning to EF.

The premise is this: it's a romance, set in the South. Evyn is my girl main character, who was born into a rich socialite family, but she doesn't fit in and only prefers to watch endless TV shows on Netflix. Don't let her seemingly carefree lifestyle fool you, though: she carries around a lot on her shoulders and has some really deep stuff to sort through. Her penchant for Netflix only disguises the pain she feels. As for the other half of the lovely couple, Chris is the lead singer in a band, and he's being very mysterious thus far. I do know he plays guitar and rides a motorcycle and he has some secrets about his past that I don't think he's telling me. He also sang Part of Your World while dishing up his green bean casserole at Evyn's mom's party.

There's also Alec Mumford, aka Mum, who plays guitar and loves Eragon and wears Ring pops and is an incorrigible flirt. I adore him. (That's him playing banjo on the right.)

I don't know what this story is about in full, and I don't know how I'm going to write this, or what will happen when I do. But I do know that I love Mum and I connect with Evyn more than I ever thought I would and this story does need to be written.

I just don't know how or when. But I do know that my best and most beloved novels happen by accident. I have an inkling that this one will be no different.

(if these images belong to you, please let me know.)