Stirring Embers

One dark-ish and drizzling night, twelve-year-old Lucas was in the car on the way back from his Grandparents’ house when he had an idea. It was a beautiful thing, completely crazy, but that one idea sparked his obsession with writing.

What was that idea?

Simply put, it was a boy who turned into a dragon. Oh, and his father was literally Fire.

Of course, there couldn’t just be one generic protagonist. No–there had to be twelve, one for each of the elements.

Twelve elements?

Yes, that’s right. Fire, Water, Air, Lightning, Wood, Earth, Metal, Ice, Light, Cosmecity, Darkness and Magic. Obviously.

As you can tell, from a young age I’ve had absolutely no idea how to plot.

It gets worse, though. If there’s one thing in my adolescence that haunts me, it’s not the fact I thought I was straight. Oh no. I thought Comic Sans was an acceptable font choice.

I matured, of course, and I also discovered Photoshop.

After switching the font to Arial, I actually finished the first draft. What was the story? A mixture of Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and Percy Jackson.

A moment of silence for my Mum, who actually read this atrocity and convinced me it was good.

I love you, Mum!

After several years, I finally had a draft that was awful, but not as awful as the atrocity twelve-year-old Lucas committed. By this point I’d had the idea that became A SINNER’S SHADOW, but that’s a whole other mess.

Will STIRRING EMBERS eventually make a comeback? Probably. I’ve had new ideas on how to completely rewrite it (without any elements at all!), which I’m actually excited about.

Who knows? One day I might have a version of this book that I don’t completely hate.