The Adventure of How My WIP Series Developed

For those that don't know, I'm in the process of creating a planned 5-Book series. There may be some side novels released at some point within the same world. This series will cover two generations.

I'm querying the first book, KONADAI, now. Book 2 is in the drafting phase.

Book 3, IMMUNITY HUNTER, was completed last year. The plan then was to publish it in a trilogy. But as writers, we know plans sometimes fail. After 130+ rejections, failed mentorship contest entries, and editors telling me the plot will never work without a full rewrite, I decided to put it aside. This blog post is about how IMMUNITY HUNTER came to be.

Back in 2007, I became obsessed with Naruto and other anime such as Inuyasha and Bleach. Before then I was watching DBZ, Gundam, and others. I was also playing Final Fantasy. Around 2008 I lost my soul to Naruto and all things anime, zombies, amateur filmmaking, and teen slasher films. It was then that my brother and I decided to write a Naruto fanfic.

There was no plot! Like most fanfic (sorry, not sorry). At some point, we changed the names and I created a magic system based on the skills each original character had. But still, there was no plot. Just teens being teens. We came up with the title BREAK. Why? Because a lot of things break in the story. Broken hearts, broken trust, broken bones. Seemed fitting.

My brother got bored and moved on to other things like skateboarding and rock bands. But I didn't. I came up with an actual plot...or idea. Around this time, Left 4 Dead was released and again, I lost my soul to this game. Now I knew what I wanted to write: Teens fighting zombies with magic!

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Whoever heard of mixing zombies with magic! Well, I didn't. So yeah. Good plan. I called them Konadai. I have no idea why. I think I was trying to come up with something that sounded Japanese? Who knows.

I discovered Daz3D and rendered the characters and some scenes. Again, these were based on Naruto characters so I improvised a bit. Some people caught on but didn't care. It's not like I was stealing the characters, right? Right. Of course not. It was MY creation. Heh... I even included a subtitle, BREAK: WELCOME TO CAARA ISLAND. Talk about cool! By the way, Caara came from Gaara...don't ask.

As I created the characters in their 3D world, I posted each chapter on fictionpress.com and gained a nice following. People actually liked what I was writing. But I wasn't satisfied. My real goal was to turn my novel into a manga. I honestly thought I could create an American manga. Silly me. I had no idea how to write a comic script so I set out to find an artist who would actually read my prose and create panels from it. Didn't work for obvious reasons. But that didn't stop my dream of publishing my very own manga! I mean how hard could it be? Hire an artist, send it to Dark Horse, see my new manga in Barnes & Noble. Hahahaha I was so stupid!

I wrote 29 chapters (no structure or ending in sight) before my hard drive crashed. EVERYTHING I EVER CREATED WAS GONE!!!! Well, all except the 29 chapters I posted online. I downloaded what was left but my motivation disappeared with the hard drive.

A few years later, I tried again. I figured maybe I could give each main character their own section in my manga (still holding on to that dream). But I was broke and couldn't find anything to team up with for free. But I still have the novel so not all was lost...expect my motivation again. It took me 9 years to finally decide to finish the damn thing.

In 2017, it took me 3 months to change everything from 3rd person to 1st person. I ended up with SIX POVs by the time I was done. I figured I needed to end it on a cliffhanger if I was going to publish the thing. I was already over 90,000 words and I still had a lot of story to tell plus a lot more characters to introduce.

I was excited. I was going to publish my first book. HAHAHA NO! Publishing sucks and I was slapped in the face with reality! I can't publish a 6-pov novel with no plot (but but but it had a plot!) I tried everything to get this thing into the hands of an agent but each one tore me down further.

After my defeat in Pitchwars which left me on the edge of suicide, I decided it was time to give up But my writing friends wouldn't let me. They suggested I write a prequel. After bouncing some ideas around I came up with the plot and found my excitement again.

IMMUNITY HUNTER will always be my first love, but as a writer there comes a time when you have to let go. I was told by everyone to "write something else." Well, I had nothing else to write. But thanks to my writing friends, they showed me that I didn't need to abandon Caara Island, I just needed to focus on another set of characters and the story they needed to tell.

Hopefully, I'll get to share this world I created with everyone else. Maybe you'll love it as much as I do.

Angelica Of Death

He wanted to taste me.

The words flashed in my mind as I walked through the deserted parking garage. My footsteps echoed on the concrete. My new date asked me to wear a very specific outfit: red high heels, a knee-length black dress, and black pantyhose. It was clear this guy was a fetish freak. A chill ran down my spine at the thought of what he was planning to do to me.

I met him on a dating application I frequent called "Hotness". It was created as a teen meet and greet site, but a bunch of weird old guys joined to hook up with teenagers.

Then a bunch of young girls went missing. The most recent victim was Jamie Anderson, my best friend. The police didn't find any clues to her disappearance. When her naked body showed up in a dumpster, I knew it was time someone did something.

My date tonight calls himself "guy4u83". Assuming "83" is his birth year, he might be the guy I'm looking for. Jamie mentioned an older guy in his thirties. So far I've come across three and none of them seemed like her killer.

I walked to the metal door with "P2" painted in red letters. That was the spot he said to meet. Mister "guy4u83" had creepy murderer written all over him. No sane person would seek out a seventeen-year-old, tell her to dress in red heels, and meet in a parking garage after dark. If he was planning to do something to me, I was ready. I had a stun gun hidden under my dress attached to my thigh with a garter belt.

Minutes passed before footsteps approached. I turned around to spot my date. He was tall with short dark hair. A smile stretched across his handsome face. I stood up with my head held high clutching my purse to my side. No sign of fear showed.

"Hey, are you Angel?"

I managed to crack a smile even though disgust took over. "Yes, I am. You must be--"

"Call me Craig." He extended his hand.

I grabbed it and he pulled me in close. Craig ran his hand through my hair with one arm wrapped around my waist.

"You smell nice," he said with his nose buried in my locks. "I love your strawberry red hair."

I tried to pull away but his tightened his grip.

"I want to taste you," he whispered. His hot breath sent shivers down my spine. His hand crept up my leg.

I pushed it away. "Not here," I said in as sweet of voice as I could muster.

Craig grabbed my wrist and pushed me against the wall. "Why not? No one will find us here."

He pressed against me burying his face in my neck. The stench of his cheap cologne burned my nose.

"Let's play, Angel," he said.

I reached under my skirt and removed the stun gun. "Okay, we can play."

The bastard didn't know what hit him. He dropped to his knees crying in agony. Once I removed the stun gun from his side, he fell back. I kicked him in the side on the head to knock him unconscious.

He was too heavy for me to drag to my car, so I had to do the interrogation in a dark corner. Using his belt and shoelaces, I tied Craig's hands to a rusted pipe. As soon as I was confident in my knot tying skills, I slapped his face a few times to wake him up.

"Hey, Craig, wake up."

His eyes opened a bit then closed again. He let out a deep groan.

"Do you know Jamie Anderson?" I asked in a calm voice.

He opened his eyes once more and pulled at his restraints. I double checked my knots to make sure he wouldn't get loose.

"Focus. Did you meet Jamie? Dark hair, green eyes..."

Craig focused his attention on me. To my surprise, he smiled. "So you like a little bondage don't ya?"

The words sent a chill down my spine. It took every ounce of me not to slice his throat after that remark. But I needed information so the pervert got to live a little bit longer.

"Answer the question. Do you know--"

"Jamie?" He asked with his head cocked to the side. Then he smiled again. "Oh, the sweet little thing that was found in an alley? She sure looked nice in her profile. That long dark hair and adorable smile. I wanted to make her mine. So young and tender."

I backhanded him fighting back tears. He laughed.

"Did I say something wrong, sweetheart?"

I didn't give him the pleasure of answering. He was a creep but he didn't kill Jamie. Still, Mr. "guy4u83" couldn't live to torment another girl. I pulled out a small knife from my purse. Kneeling in front of Craig, I held the knife in front of his face.

"I wanna play with you," I said with a grin.

His eyes widened as the short blade entered his neck. Gargling noises bubbled up out of his mouth with each shallow breath. The cut was small but deep. It was a slow, painful death. One a predator like him deserved.

"Goodbye, Craig. It was a pleasure meeting you." The words flowed out of me although I was freaking out inside.

He was my fourth kill since I went searching for Jamie's killer. The serial killer documentaries always said each kill got easier. When was the easy part supposed to kick in? I couldn't stop with the cheap cologne guy, though. I promised myself I would find the man that took my friend from me.

I stood up, slid the knife and stun gun into my purse, and headed for my car. A lump grew in my throat. I killed a man. No. He deserved it. They all deserved it. I had to clear my head. A deep breath in washed away the sight of his blood. A deep breath out cleared the smell of his cologne.

Determination drove me toward my goal. Besides, I was saving other girls my age better than the cops. I was basically Bat Woman. Or the Angel of death. That sounded better. Angelica Knowles, Angel of Death. I smiled to myself as I walked out of the moldy parking garage onto the dark, lonely streets of downtown.