November is here again.
It’s always been my favorite month of the year. (It’s almost my birthday!) I’m already looking forward to turkey and
stuffing and apple crisp and all my other favorite Fall things. But this year I’ve added something new to my
plate. This year I’m participating in
National Novel Writing Month. If you’re
following me on Facebook or keeping up with my news feed over on my website
(check the links on the right-hand side of this page), you probably already
know about it, but for those of you who aren’t all caught up, NaNoWriMo is a
competition that challenges you to write a 50,000+ word novel between November
1 and November 30 (that’s just 30 days).
It’s not completing a novel in
30 days, mind you. That would just be
silly. It takes much longer than that
just to edit a book properly. The point
is to crank out a fully penned and perfectly flawed rough draft. And for the first time, I’m
participating.
For any fans who would like to follow along with my
progress, make sure you LIKE my Facebook author page. I’ll be posting my word count updates and a
few of my favorite excerpts from the rough draft along the way, as well as
interesting discoveries I make along the way.
I always let my work evolve as I write, and often my characters surprise
me. For example, on day two I was
delighted to discover my main character’s sense of humor.
I usually don’t divulge much information about my books this
early in the writing process (who knows what might change by the time I arrive
at the final page). But for NaNoWriMo,
I’m letting my fans in on more of the process, beginning with the title and
synopsis:
Rushed
A horror and suspense
novel by Brian Harmon
Eric can't remember the dream that keeps waking him up at
night, yet for the past three nights he's risen from this dream with an
overwhelming urge to throw his clothes on and leave, as if there's somewhere he
desperately needs to be. Twice he returns to his bed, unnerved and embarrassed,
half-wondering if he might be losing his mind. On the third night, he decides
to let this odd compulsion take its course and sets out into the night,
believing that he will find nothing out there and put these odd dreams to rest
once and for all. Instead, he finds himself hurled headlong into a nightmarish
adventure as his forgotten dream unravels before his eyes one heart-pounding
detail at a time.
Rushed will be a
stand-alone novel, not a part of The
Temple of the Blind series, though it will likely take place in the same
universe (as will most of my work). It
will release sometime after book 6, so all my Temple fans don’t have to worry
that I’ve forgotten them. I don’t
anticipate it being particularly graphic, though there might be some elements
of blood and language scattered throughout the book (only time will tell what
will feel right for any given scene).
And I’m drawing inspiration from Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas books in hopes of ratcheting up the suspense and humor.