NaNoWriMo Year 5 - 2009

My fifth year doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) had me penning the drafts of two different novellas, neither of which have seen the light of day. Yet. They will be polished and published once the Expired Reality series gets up and running again after the Black Earth series comes to a close this winter.

Expired Reality: The Dark Past was split into two parts, each of which told a 25,000 word backstory to Veronica Amorou and Turquoise - both protagonists from my young adult series.

Veronica's story went into detail as to how she met Simper Creed and was trained to use her powers to manipulate rhodenine - a gift of hers that is revealed in the first novel in the series, Endangered Memories.

The second half of the manuscript gave background to Turquoise, a Wedge special agent in my series, and detailed how her powers revealed themselves once she hit puberty, how she was welcomed into the Wedge organization, and also gives a bit of story regarding her parents and her past as an adolescent. 

That year I ended up finishing the NaNoWriMo challenge with 50,132 words, and only finished a day ahead of schedule.

Black Earth Flash Fiction #2 - Black Butterfly

Back in 2010, when Black Earth: End of the Innocence - Book 1 in my Black Earth series - was released, I also released five separate flash fiction stories that I inconspicuously hid on my website for fans to find. Since close to nobody knew what the Black Earth series was even about, I didn't have much success getting the stories read.

Now that I've dug them out of the vault, here is the second in the series, giving a little glimpse at Howard Grey - and even Veronica Amorou from my Expired Reality series.

Black Butterfly -
Howard Grey ducked down beneath the window as the black shadows moved past the vacant office building. He felt the dark presence of Legion moving through the street outside and it troubled his heart. He held his breath as it passed him and continued on into the city.

He peered up, seeing the empty street and the black sky overhead. It would take him a while but he had to try and get back to his house, get to his laboratory where his time machine was at. It was the only hope their world had left.

Grey turned around and started shuffling through papers and folders that were on the desks in the small, unkempt office. He knew she had put her message somewhere in here, but he wasn’t sure where. After digging around for about five minutes, he found the small purple cylinder with the black butterfly painted on it. She had hidden it in a random, or what he thought to be random, desk drawer.

He sat down in one of the office chairs and popped open the cylinder. Out slid the piece of parchment, rolled up into a small scroll. Unraveling it revealed her final message to him:

I am safe. That is all I can say. You don’t need to worry where I am because I have taken precautions to make sure even you cannot find me. This is simply to ensure my own survival and make sure that I am able to live long enough to fight the darkness that has engulfed our world. I know that you and I haven’t seen eye to eye on things as of late, but that is okay. You and I will always do what we feel is best to protect Anaisha and that is all that really matters.

Please do not concern yourself with my well-being at this point. I know what you are aiming to do and I truly hope that you succeed. I cannot join you on your adventure through time because I feel called to follow another path. Not the path of darkness that you have so kindly accused me of a number of times now, but a path that will hopefully put an end to Legion and its hordes, an end to Evanescence and her malevolent rule over this world, an end to everything evil.

Take care. You and I will always share a friendship, no matter how far our paths stray from each other. I feel it necessary to warn you that the Dark Dragon knows where your house is and will no doubt be watching over it to warn the evil witch when you have arrived there. She knows nothing of what you are up to and I hope to keep it that way.

I will miss you. Never forget the losses that you and I have shared, the friendships we have lost to this gruesome war. My love for David will only grow stronger with his absence from this world, and I will use this love to keep moving forward, to do what I can to save humanity from evil’s tight grip. He will not have died in vain.

May your travels be blessed, now and in whatever time you journey to.

~ Black Butterfly ~

Grey sat back in the chair, holding tightly to the piece of old parchment. I will miss you immensely, Veronica.

Copyright © 2010 David N. Alderman   

As Worlds Collide

When I was twelve years old and first decided I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, I was just beginning work on the characters who would later show up in Endangered Memories, my latest young adult science fiction/fantasy novel. And when I first started the Expired Reality series - which Endangered Memories is pulled from - I pictured the series running at least a dozen books.

I still picture the series running at least a dozen novels, in addition to some shorts stories and novellas I plan on throwing in there every now and then. But when I started my Black Earth series - a sort of prequel to the events that occur in the Expired Reality series - I planned on the series running about four or five books. And then the fifth book would bump up against the first book in the Expired Reality series and the novels would continue down the line.

But something changed the other day. Something happened which was a bit unexpected and I guess all the blame can fall on my characters.

That's right - my characters.

As long as I've been writing, I've come to realize that my characters have a mind of their own. I can do my best to try and kill them, but if they want to live badly enough, they'll find a way to live. The reverse is true as well, and nothing saddens me more than to watch a beloved character die. I'll admit that it does scare me a bit that my characters can have such a mind of their own.

This brings me to my main point of this blog post. The other day I was working on Dark Horizons, the third installment of my Expired Reality series, and a couple characters showed up unexpectedly. Both are from my Black Earth series. Both are unique in that they were able to survive and live through the 100 year gap between the events of Black Earth and the events that serve as the beginning to Endangered Memories.

These characters, for those who have read the books in my Black Earth series, are Griffin and Pearl.

I originally planned on having Pearl show up in the Expired Reality series, but much later down the line - like maybe the fifth or sixth book. But she just strolled on the page while I was writing Dark Horizons and revealed herself to me and some of my other characters. "Hi," she said as she waved to the rest of the cast. "Just dropped by to make my presence known."

Griffin on the other hand wasn't a character I planned on revealing in the Expired Reality series...ever. The scenes I have been working on in Dark Horizons have a young man who paired up with one of the heroes - Veronica Amorou - as she attempts to escape the police. Throughout the scenes I wrote, he's only mentioned as a young man. I had no name for him, figuring I'd come up with one by the time the second draft came along. But it seems my characters got sick and tired of him not having a solid identity and finally pressed him to reveal his name.

"My name is Griffin," he said.

So there you have it. Two worlds, two unique novel series, thrust together, joined with a bond that cannot be broken. All because of my characters. Characters who refuse to die, who refuse to remain in the shadows of the past and strive to remain immortal.

Endangered Memories Ebook Edition Now Available!

It's Tuesday, and that means the release of the ebook edition of Endangered Memories, the first volume in my Expired Reality series! It's available for only 99 cents on your Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, etc, and will be available in paperback through Createspace very soon.

To celebrate the release, those of you who follow this blog can grab a free copy of Endangered Memories today in whatever ebook format suites your fancy. Just head to Smashwords via this link - http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/65576 - and enter code - MK55C - during checkout to get your free copy. This code is valid for today only, so grab the book while you can.

On top of the free copy of Endangered Memories, I'm also revealing my new website facelift today. Head over to - www.davidnalderman.com - and let me know what you think!

And so, without further ado, here is Endangered Memories, the first novel in the Expired Reality series....

When ex-hero David Corbin receives an unexpected wedding invitation from the girl he once loved, he sets out on a journey to South Ryshard to crash the event and proclaim his true feelings to her. With help from his close friend, Veronica, and a girl named Kimberly, David battles his way through crooked agents, a crazed farmer and a demon hybrid to reach the wedding on time. Only when he runs into Turquoise, a mysterious woman on her own mission to stop the wedding and procure an enchanted timepiece, does he realize that the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

Carrie Green is days away from marrying Jerad Montlier, one of the richest men in the world. Lacking any memory of her past, and displaying a peculiar spiral birthmark on her shoulder blade, Carrie is spun into further confusion when a diary with her name on it falls into her possession. Reading the entries inside sparks a recollection of her past and reveals the horrifying trap that’s been set.

As heroes’ paths collide, the beginning of the end launches in this epic first volume of the Expired Reality series.

An Introduction to David Corbin

With the debut of Endangered Memories, the first novel in my upcoming young adult series, less than a month away, I wanted to take an opportunity to introduce some of the characters of my series. Weeks ago I introduced Carrie Green, and this week I'd like to introduce everyone to the main protagonist of the series, David Corbin.

David Corbin, once shy and a bit of an introvert, became a reluctant hero of sorts in the later years of junior high. When his sister, Cybil, was abducted by the criminal mastermind, Mr. Big, David flew into action, saving his sister and stopping Big's attempt to murder a crowd of people.

That single event put David and Mr. Big at odds against each other for the rest of their lives.

With the taste of heroism still fresh on his tongue, David devoted his adolescent life to putting a stop to Mr. Big's criminal actions. With the help of some of his classmates -  Carrie Green, Veronica Amorou and Veronica's brother, Sean - David managed to continually foil Mr. Big's nefarious plans, eventually putting the crime boss away for good in the Galtaia Penitentiary years later.

During his escapades, David quickly and easily fell in love with Carrie Green. Despite the fact that Carrie fell for him in return, the two neglected to tell each other how they felt for fear of the consequences that would result. When David finally did decide to reveal his feelings for her during the shut down of the government initiated program known as The LZR Project, she fled without explanation to South Ryshard, not to be seen again.

At the beginning of Endangered Memories, David is in a somewhat tumultuous relationship with Amber Setterson. Ties with his sister are strained, his finances are in dire straits, and he wonders if life will ever be the same as it once was before Mr. Big was locked up and Carrie ran. A strange wedding invitation from Carrie changes all that though, awakening David's feelings for her and pulling him back into the adventures he thought he left behind.

Look for more of David in Endangered Memories this coming June. You can also check out my introduction to Carrie Green at http://abrokenreality.blogspot.com/2011/05/introduction-to-carrie-green.html.