My Turn at the Blog Hop

A good friend of mine, S.M. Carriere, stopped by here the other day and left me a gift. She tagged me in a blog hop. You should check out her website, it's really quite a site. I think you like all the cool things you'll find there.

This is how this thing works. I've been tagged, and so I must re-tag the person who tagged me. Then I get to answer the list of questions below, and then pass this along to four other awesome authors. That's the hardest part, deciding who to pick. Hmmmmm

While I think on that, on to the questions

What is the working title of your book?
Most of my ideas get dubbed with something; after all I have to have some means of identifying all those documents in my file of ideas, but to keep things simple, I'll talk about what I happen to be working on now. At the moment, and likely permanently, my book is called Druid Derrick.

Where did the idea for the book come from?
The idea came from a roll-playing game called Dungeons & Dragons. It's pretty much the only roll-playing game I have ever liked. With rolls of the dice, the characters come alive and develop a look and personality. More rolls of the dice and they develop skills. During the course of the game, other rolls of the dice determine the outcome of whatever the character-player has decided to do. Handled correctly, the game can be every bit as fun as a good book where a group of friends are gathered to read and each person reads a particular part. It can end up with a lot of laughter and extend into the wee hours of the morning.

For this book, I rolled up a druid, and following the rules, I gave him all the things the dice said he was. Even random encounters in his world were rolled up, though it was up to me to put a face and a purpose to the encounter, and to breathe life into Derrick's story.

What genre does your book fall under?
I classified all of my work under fiction, mostly because I have a poor understanding of the different classification. This one might also fall under paranormal though, since Derrick does eventually gain the ability to shapeshift, and of course, he works magic at need. His world is also peopled with elves, centaurs, pixies and dryads among other D&D creatures. Though fortunately, over the centuries since the time of dragons and monsters, most monsters and other plainier creatures have been eliminated from the world, and the D&D history has been reduced to legend.

Which actors would you choose to play for your characters in a movie rendition?
This was a hard one for me. I pick movies to watch much the same way I pick books to read. If it looks and sounds like something I might like, I give it a shot. Who the actor is or who wrote the book have nothing to do with it (or very little anyway). So I did a google image search looking for someone I thought might fit the part of Derrick. I see him as a somber, even guarded, young man with dark hair and blue eyes, and wouldn't you know it, I found someone to match, though I've never heard of him before. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is an Irish actor, take a look. Other actors and actresses play distant and mostly unseen, or passing rolls, and of course the rest of the creatures will need to be computer generated. For this job, I want to get the guy who did the Narnia movies. Those centaurs are simply awesome. I'm sure he'd do just as good with my creatures.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? 
(Eewww The one question every writer dreads hahaha)
"What happens when one of the most powerful druids of ancient times is growing up in the twenty-first century?"
How's that for a one-liner? Pique your interest yet?

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Now that's a good question. This book is too long to present to a publisher. It's already over 700 pages long and a little less than half way to it's planned ending. Maybe someday I can get it published as a television series. It's either that or something like a series of really short books, since the only place I can think of to divide it is whenever Derrick gains a level. It's kinda like the Harry Potter books - every school year was a new book.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I started this book way back in 2008, but then publishing and advertising and editing and platform-building kinda got in the way of much real writing. Grabbing bits and snatches of time to write made this project drag out. And when I did get the chance to do some writing, I was so lost, I had to do some reading to get back in the groove and that too cut into the actual page progress. Recently I've started a new strategy and it seems to be working. At least this will work during the winter. I'll have to see what I can work out during the summer when work gets in the way.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Hmmmm - my comparing my work to someone else's isn't something I'm willing to do. If I happen to be imitating anyone, it's purely by accident. If someone else has written a D&D character into the twenty-first century USA, I haven't heard of it. Of course, to have someone else compare my writing to one of my favorites is always a thrill.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Ever since I first started writing, creating the next story has always been so much fun. All I needed was an idea and they came from anywhere. It seems my muse sits on my shoulder all the time, and she can get quite inpatient with me sometimes, even to the point of demanding more than one story at a time. She's been getting rather neglected lately, and hasn't been as demanding as she once was.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
I certainly hope this book is interesting to more than the average D&D gamer. Derrick is your average American teenager who grew up in your average American dysfunctional family. After a physically traumatic event, he abandons all memory of his past and steps into his life as a full-fledged druid, only it turns out to be far more real than anyone had any right to expect. It turns out he just might be a clone of an ancient druid, one of the last to have any real power with magic. Why was he created? The people who knew the plan are now dead, taking their plan with them to the grave. Can Derrick put together the puzzle of his existence? Does it matter anymore? Only time will tell.

Well, those were the questions. What did you think of the answers? Would you read this book? Would you watch this TV series?

Now to pass this on to some other great writers.
Alisha Page's blog - Addicted to Genre Bending
Siggy Buckley's blog - Siggys Omnibus
Alan Place's blog - Here I am at the edge
Jacqui Murray's blog - Jacqui Murray's WordDreams