Hi there. Starting on November 1st I'm going to be participating in National Novel Writing Month for the fourth year in a row and, if all goes according to plan, winning for the fourth year in a row. For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge in which you have to write a 50,000 word novel in one month: November (boils down to 1,667 words per day). It's a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend doing it. There's no real prize or anything besides accomplishment, bragging rights, and discounts on writing software, and it's very casual and friendly. The site is this way.
My novels in the past years are as follows:
-Sky: A dystopian novel that started off as kind of a rip-off of The Giver, but went in a more interesting direction once the main character left his compound and went into the outside world.
-The Devil Next Door: A comedy in which a group of devils cast out of Hell move into a Suburban neighborhood and recruit their neighbor to help them get back home.
-The Lifetree: A fantasy about a mystical forest, the conflicting races inside, and a mysterious darkness trying to overtake it.
This year, well, I know what I'm going to write but I don't want to say anything yet in case I change my mind (I already have once). In any case, keep reading for an excerpt from The Devil Next Door, because The Lifetree isn't on my computer right now:
Jacob laid down on his bed and closed his eyes. He was surprisingly tired, even though he hadn’t done much today. Just as he began to drift off to sleep, he heard a noise. It sounded like a small creature scrambling rapidly across the floor.
Probably a mouse, Jacob thought. Just as he was about to close his eyes again, he saw a streak of red in front of him and suddenly there was a two-inch high man standing on the bed in front of Jacob’s eyes. The man was naked except for a large brown loincloth. He was extremely lanky with a long and pointed chin. His skin was bright red and there were two small red horns poking out of his bald head. His eyes flashed alternatively yellow and red.
The man chuckled and said in a high-pitched voice, “Yes, you just go keeping on sleeping.” The creature slowly crept up to Jacob and, as Jacob braced himself for whatever it was going to do to him, pinched him roughly on the cheek.
“Ow!” Jacob said as he jumped up. The little man’s eyes widened and he quickly tried to dive off the bed, but Jacob got him by the toes and lifted him up to his face.
“Uh, hello,” the creature said.
“What are you?” Jacob said, “A mutant mouse?”
“Not a what. Thank you very much! I’m a who! You may have heard of me. My name is Abaddon! I am the King Of Tormenting Locusts and Lord Of The Bottomless Pit!” Abaddon squeaked.
“Yeah, I’m scared,” Jacob said. “Look, this is a dream, right?”
“No.”
“Well, since it’s a dream, what are you doing?”
“Fool!” Abaddon said. “I may destroy the world at my whim and you ask me what I am doing?”
“Yep.”
“Er, actually,” Abaddon looked down. “I got banished…”
“What’d you get banished from?”
“Where do you think? Hell!” Abaddon coughed. “Woo, that really wares out the old throat.”
Jacob shifted but kept a tight grip on the demon. “Why did you get banished?”
“Ah, well,” Abaddon said, “Satan and I had a bit of a disagreement. I got banished out here with that fool Beelzebub and a few others.”
“Beelzebub?”
“I never should have gone along with that stupid little plan,” Abaddon grumbled. “It obviously wasn’t going to work, I don’t know why I did it. It was just stupid! I mean seriously, who would ever believe that it would work, right? Right?!”
“Right,” Jacob said.
“And, I mean, maybe I was hoping it would work, but it obviously wouldn’t and it didn’t! And now I’m stuck in this wasteland with some idiot demon and no powers! What could possible be worse?”
Jacob looked out the window as rain began to fall. “What did you do? He said.”
“It is beyond your comprehension, mortal!” Abaddon said. “Now will you please let me go?”
“Alright. No pinching me in my sleep though, okay?”
“Fine. Beelz seems to like you anyway.”
“Wait, what?” Jacob said, but Abaddon was gone.
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