HOW THIS NOVEL HAPPENED:

The weekend before Halloween, Marzio came over my house and we started tinkering with a silly online program that generates plots. I said to Marzio that I was going to base my next big novel on this Emily Brönte insta-book plot generator that spit out a story about an old house and a werewolf. We had a good laugh over it. We switched up the details and twisted the story this way and that until it seemed (at least to me) that it was a worthy tale. That night after Marzio left I took the time to formalize an outline of the thing. Needless to say, when I read it the following morning, it was godawful. Fun experiment, but definitely not a story I wanted to slave over. But at least one glaring truth emerged: I was bored of editing The Tendrils of Fate. I needed to write something new.

The day before, I had seen a tweet go by that reminded me that NaNoWriMo was about to begin. I've known about NaNoWriMo for years, just never felt like I had the mettle to succeed, so instinctively I avoided it. Then, I don't know what happened, I looked at my dumb werewolf book outline and asked myself: What if? What if I actually tried writing a novel from an outline? What if I sat down and outlined something I really wanted to write? Could I do it?

I could try.

So on Tuesday night (Oct 31st) after my husband and I got done celebrating his Halloween birthday, I sat at my computer and began to outline a new story. This one still involved an old house full of secrets and the Gothic Brönte feel, but alas, no aging werewolf. At first, I was tempted to set the story in Italy c1760 but then changed my mind. I'm a meticulous researcher and I knew that taking on a historical drama would bog down my process during NaNoWriMo. That's when I decided to set the story in the fantasy world of Laremlis which Marzio and I had already developed for The Tendrils of Fate.

Late that night I bounced an email to Marzio and asked his opinion on my outline of The Secret of Dom Arjona (eventually retitled Daevil's Tears), an epic fantasy, erotic thriller. He thought it was a worthy pursuit and overall liked the storyline, so with his blessing, I got started. I'm a visual person so my first point of inspiration was , an old estate on the fringes of Rome which I had stayed at several years ago. This old house had left a lasting impression on me. It's where I wrote The Olive Grove in its entirety. With Villa Grazioli in mind, I put together a quick cover in Photoshop using one of my photos. After the cover was drafted, it felt like a real book to me. I can't explain it, but suddenly I wanted to pursue this. I went to NaNoWriMo, created an account and began writing.

I went to bed at some ungodly hour after penning the novel's first 2,000 words.

Several times on November 1st, I looked at that empty NaNoWriMo graph and I panicked. I had no idea how I was going to write 50,000 words in one month, never mind 1,666 words in one day. There are weeks where I'm not capable of writing that much. I'm a slow writer, I fuss over sentences; I soul search for the perfect phrasing. I'm not a drafter, I'm a sentence by sentence kind of writer who can't move on until the paragraph sings. What had I gotten myself into?

Then, the story began to lead me. I focused on one chapter at a time with minimal edits. Editing is what I couldn't fall back into; editing was my kryptonite. I completed the first chapter, then the next, and suddenly I had earned a 5,000-word badge. Holy cow! Every day I would send Marzio my progress, and every day he would cheer me on. It meant a lot to me to know that he was enjoying the progression. After those 5,000 words, something happened to my brain. I began to really want it. My husband was away on business in Bangalore, India and I was home alone. I missed him, but his absence also helped me focus. I began to slowly rearrange my life. I'd write at lunchtime, I'd write before breakfast, I'd write all night. I turned down dinner invitations and episodes of Outlander. I said no to all the new cool Netflix shows. I FOCUSED. I got down to business with my Aries determination.

NaNoWriMo was my Iron Man. My marathon. And I was going to win it!

The novel was also turning out surprisingly good. I wasn't writing garbage (which amazed me) considering the pace. For fun, I worked out. I worked out every day with the exception of Thanksgiving when I fed 11 people at my house. That's when I thought I would lose this thing. That weekend tested my willpower. Seriously I was like–FUCK!–there goes my victory! But no, the next day I "brought it" like Tony Horton says. I sat my ass down and I didn't get up until I caught up. Then, I worked out. During the writing of this novel I worked out 63 consecutive days! It was tough to balance my full time job, NaNoWriMo, and P90, but had I not worked out, I swear I would have been atrophied by the time NaNoWriMo was done. God knows, the keyboard became a permanent extension of my fingers.

By the time the 40,000-word badge rolled around I was excited, really excited. I was like damn, not only am I doing this, I actually like the way this book is turning out. My husband returned from India on the 22nd and he was too jet-lagged to even talk to me, so I kept going. I kept tapping away every chance I got. On November 29th, two days ahead of schedule, I hit 50,000 words.

I wrapped up NaNoWriMo with a total of 52,164 words which I feel is a momentous achievement for me. It's epic and I'm super proud of myself. The stars truly aligned in November.

I felt like a rock star!

SO, WHAT'S THE PLAN:

As much as I'd love to share all my work for free on Wattpad, the truth is that indie writers need to eat. I will be posting some of the novel here and self publishing the rest. Right now, the manuscript is at 80K words and it's still not finished. I'm toiling away on the last chapters. After that, I have to edit, edit, edit. Once I've cleaned up my act, I plan on self publishing on Amazon, B&N, APPLE, etc. I will post the links once the novel is available. More than likely it will be both an eBook and a paperback.

Last but not least, thank you for all your encouragement. Your votes and comments have inspired me to keep writing. 

Much love, 

-Narcisse

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COPYRIGHT

THIS BOOK IS REGISTERED WITH THE FEDERAL COPYRIGHT OFFICE.

I WILL PROSECUTE THEFT/ PLAGIARISM TO THE LARGEST EXTENT OF THE LAW. 

Please respect intellectual property.

Daevil's Tears, is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors' imaginations or are used imaginatively.

Copyright © May 24, 2018 by Narcisse Navarre

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the authors, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, send me a private message.

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