The Great Novel Race of 2008
Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Novel Race for 2008 is on hold, and no further chapters will be posted. We hope to have the Novel Race up and running some time in 2009, so please check back!
Thank you.
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Writing a first novel is a daunting experience.
It seems like a long, arduous process of finding the right pace, developing the story and characters in a real and interesting way, and trying to find something interesting to say.
The Novel Race 2008 is here to help.
We have selected seven novel ideas that we think have the potential to be great. Beginning in April 2008, the authors will each submit a new chapter for each edition (once a month). You, the readers, will follow the novels chapter-by-chapter as they progress and evolve, watching first-hand as these authors work to keep momentum going and complete their novels.
Even more exciting is this -- each novel chapter will have a place where you, as a reader, can leave comments for the author.
Your feedback may help to shape these novels into the wonderful works of fiction they have the potential to become.
By April 2009 each author should have completed his/her novel...12/13 chapters – then the authors will enter the process of revising, rearranging, and finalizing their works.
There’s no prize, except the deep satisfaction of the authors knowing they’ve climbed the Everest of all challenges for aspiring writers – finishing a novel -- and for you, as readers, the pleasure of watching novels-in-progress grow, develop, and evolve, and the chance to provide your feedback on the process.
Seven progressing novels. Once a month: a new chapter from each writer. A chance for readers to witness works of fiction develop and to provide feedback to the writers. It’s that simple.
NOTE: Unlike with the pieces in other sections of the magazine, the editors do not edit the novel race chapters (except for spelling when necessary). These are ongoing works and things that may seem confusing in one chapter may come to light in another. Please leave comments for anything you, as a reader, feel is confusing or doesn't read right.
(Warning: Below novel descriptions may reveal future plot elements, and are subject to change as the novels progress.)
As you read the novels, please leave comments on the chapters - giving constructive criticism, suggestions, praise and thoughts on what you have read!
Katherine “Kae” Danner arrives at her childhood home in Faye, AL after being away for nearly twenty years. During her visit, she learns more about the disapperance of the daughter of her childhood friend, English professor Andrew Windsor, and as she discovers more about the situation and encounters some mysterious new residents of Faye, AL, Kae begins to sense that there is something suspicious going on in her old hometown...
Shaska, a magician of particular talent, suddenly finds her magic going frightfully wrong. But Shaska's magic is a bit more complex than special effects and optical illusions, and as she learns that her family has been feuding with another magician family, she must set out to discover the source of a curse which has been placed upon her by the rival family, and find a way to reverse it...
Carolina Wells, a 13-year-old girl living in Cocoa, Florida has known nothing but poverty and hardship her entire life. Her mother, or “Mama,” loves weak men and strong liquor, but seems to hate herself, and possibly her own children. Carolina has two brothers, Johnny and Austin, and she spends much of her time caring for them in their tiny home off of Chutney’s Creek, one of the more run-down, rural areas of the quiet town. Tumbleweeds is the story of a summer that will change Carolina’s life forever as she learns secrets about herself and about those around her, and most importantly, learns to forgive.
Set in the London of today and post second war Italy, this novel tells the story of Jamie, a disaffected teenage drug addict who has never known his real mum but dreams about her. He escapes his addiction by regressing into a world where everything revolves around his love of film and music, and this world periodically becomes entwined with his dreams. His one friend is Merlin, a complex individual who not only supplies Jamie with drugs but also heads an underground gang. Jamie meets a girl, Alicia, who proves the catalyst for him to track down his mother. However, he has to face several obstacles along the way...
Meet Underwood, on guard at the LPOP in the middle of the night. With his night vision goggles failing, his senses playing tricks on him, and his companion on guard duty alternating between snoring and being decidedly unhelpful, Underwood wonders if he will even survive the night, much less the rest of his time in the frigid Saudi Arabian desert...
Lisa O'Bourne, a young woman whose mother died in childbirth, now works for a local anti-bullying charity in Liverpool. The novel opens with Lisa's childhood memory of going to meet a friend of her mother's called Macy, a moment which proves influential for Lisa, who can't understand why her father is so upset that her Aunt has taken her to meet Macy...
Allison Johnson returns home to Westfield, Florida, after long-term cancer has finally claimed her mother’s life. However, as she attempts to sort through the possessions in her mother’s home, she finds herself suddenly enveloped in a whole side of her mother’s life she never knew existed, realizing that in the five years since she’d last been to visit, her widowed mother had taken on a multitude of interesting hobbies, not the least of which being a mysterious male friend; and even more intriguing, her mother seems to have left Allison a cryptic trail of messages, handwritten on various photographs, papers, and other objects. While Allison at first believes the messages are random bits of poetry, or even that her mother may have been going a bit senile, as her interaction with her mother’s many friends and acquaintances continues, she comes to believe that there is a method to it all, and to become consumed with her quest to uncover her mother’s elaborate last message.
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