American Whitney

For whatever reason, I love picking projects that require a lot of research. One is set in so many time periods that I might as well get a degree in history.

So this is my break from that. Since it’s an action/adventure serial similar to Indiana Jones and the Mummy (and all the wonderful novels and radio show that inspired movies like those), I get to play a little fast and loose with history.

It’s the same way that movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” succeed. They give you just enough indication of the time period that it seems like it could be realistic without making it a true historical piece. Contrast the first Pirates movie with the third. In the first, it was established that pirates were hunted and the penalty was death. It was established that some groups branded pirates. However, it was just enough to establish some of the stakes that the pirates faced, but didn’t focus on them. It focused solely on the treasure and the Black Pearl. The third movie, on the other hand, became bogged down by details. While there were elements of the fantastic- Davy Jones and Calypso, the majority of the plot was about pirates being squeezed off the seas, trade agreements controlling governments. The series went from being a supernatural movie set in a historical time period to a period piece with supernatural elements. One was successful, the other… not so much. (And for the record, I did love the third one, but I’m a history nut. I don’t think it was as well written as the first.)

This story has a couple things that are tricky. There’s my MacGuffin, which is rooted in a historical time period (go artifacts!). So I have to make it fit without giving so many details that it seems fake- since too many details makes me feel like someone thinks I won’t believe it otherwise. Then there’s the timeline that the story is set in.

I want the location to feel believable, but at the same time, I’m not writing a travelogue.

Things I’m researching:

Alexander the Great
Nazis
South East Asia in the 1930s

The picture for this post is of Amice Mary Calverley, who I discovered while looking for inspiration in pictures from the 1930s. If it weren’t for real women like her, fictional characters from Marian Ravenwood to Evelyn O’Connell (nee Carnahan) wouldn’t have been plausible. I’d never heard of her until this week, but honestly- what an amazing woman!

So this week I’ve been working on characters. Names, rough backgrounds, personalities. But I’m not going to share that yet. Sorry. But you know, there’s a lot of other stuff that I’ve worked on already that I thought needed documentation.

Inspiration comes from a lot of places for me. For the projects that I have notebooks for (and there are several) I have been inspired by television programs, dreams, movies, and even collaborations that fell through.

But this project? This one takes the cake. My inspiration came from a character that I’d worked up for a performance. And not just any performance… an ongoing performance that I did 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for almost 3 years. Read More…

I have something that I’ve been wanting to work on for awhile. A novel, with the first draft to be published serial style online. It’s a pet project, that I’ve been dying to write for almost 9 years now, featuring a storyline that is near and very dear to my heart.

Right now I’m working on the characters and design (there will be some illustrations), and I will occasionally need some help from you, my friends and readers.

So what am I working on? Well, here’s your weekly hint. Right now I have a brainy heroine who was formerly saddled with the last name Tremaine. However, I was looking for a name for an English Lord and his son… and now they’re the Tremaines. Currently I’m looking through French last names, and hilariously, I keep picking ones that I’ve used for characters in other projects. Yikes.

I’ve decided to ditch having the English Lord be an English Lord. Knighting a ficticious someone is much easier than creating a family that doesn’t exist. Sir Tremaine it is!