NaNoWriMo week 2

Again I have to make this quick because I'm really behind on writing Red Ellen for National Novel Writer's Month. All I'm going to say is that so far I'm up to chapter 6. Ellen has learned about her fairy origins and she's gotten her unicorn Rainbow who, ironically is actually pure white. She has met the major characters, Jason the werewolf, Ralph the wizard, Nathaniel the vampire, and Jade and Jasper the dragonkin. She is still getting to know the dragonkin, including her cousin Jasper who doesn't get along well with Ellen's father. She also went on her first date with Jason and is preparing for Ralph. Along the way she's getting a crash course in the supernatural world.

I came up with the idea for the world Red Ellen takes place in because I read a lot of stories that involve the supernatural and watch a lot of shows, and everyone seems to vary the rules slightly, so I decided to try my own take. Unfortunately I didn't really have a story for this all to take place in, until I realized there was a market for Paranormal Romance, so that's what I decided to make my story. I'm explainign the rules as I go along, leading up to a major history lesson coming up in this chapter.The basic gist is that the mortal world lies between two other worlds, the fairy world and the Netherworld. The other two worlds can't interact directly because they are diametrically opposed. Firies don't die and the dead don't dream, so they aren't connected, but they do both connect to this world, so they are kind of at war and this is the battlefield. The fairies leave changelings, the Netherworld is represented by the undead, but our world has it's own native supernaturals, including werewolves and weretigers who are the last of the animal shape shifters that got otherwise hunted to extinction and the magi, a catch-all term for every other mortal who has magical powers of any kind. The most powerful magi are wizards who have focused so much on their craft that they can do just about anything, but most magi merely dabble and have limited powers, usually just basic charms and rituals, maybe a few spells, whatever is practical. Magi and the werebeasts are neutral in the greater conflict between changelings and undead, but they can be swayed, and in Red Ellen, the region has only a few changelings left, so Ellen, as the princess, must sway the mortals to her side or the undead takeover. Of course, if the undead sway her, then all is lost, which is why her relationship to the devious Nathaniel is so critical.

As for the particular place, Red Ellen takes place in my hometown of Rochester, NY, because if you look at where stories usually take place, it would seem America consists entirely of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Miami. It's particularly annoying to live in upstate New York, because if you don't live here, you just can not possibly understand what it's like to live in a state which includes the most famous city in the world, and half of us live a day's drive away and almost never actually go there. I have been in the big city about twice ever, and I really don't care that much if I ever go back. In fact I actually would rather New York City would separate from the rest of the state and form a new state with east New Jersey and however much of Connecticut that actually seems to matter more to them than we do, and they can call that "Tri-State", because that's how they think down there anyway. My passionate hatred of New York City comes from meeting city folks when I was in college. They think they are better than rest of us, they have better pizza, better bagels, better public transportation, better buildings, better everything. Rochester is actually a pretty bustling city, you can see a part of it in the opening chase scene of Amazing Spider Man 2, they filmed here, I went down to the set and saw it. We are the inspiration for the soap opera General Hospital. We are an awesome city. If you ask someone from New York City, they just think we're a quaint little burg. They don't mind taking our tax money, but other than that, it's either move in or crawl back under your rock. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but my point is, Rochester needs some press, so I'm representing!