November with Liza Seebury

November is Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month. So beginning at midnight, people all over the country will begin pounding out works of fiction, hoping to hit the 50,000 word mark by November 30.

This year, my completely fictional heroine is Liza Seebury, a 17 year old from Williamsburg, Virginia. Her parents, worried about the impact of the impending Civil War on their "precious petal," send her away to visit friends in the still neutral Nevada Territory. Out there, in a new and completely different world, she begins to question the teachings, values and suppositions of her old life and discovers strength and passion within herself she didn't know she had.

I'm excited about writing this because I've been thinking about this period a lot ever since seeing Gone With the Wind on the big screen last month, I miss Williamsburg, and it will be fun to write a character with a big arc of development. The thing is, at the beginning of the story, she's pretty hideous: spoiled and most definitely racist. Of course, much of that is just part of being 17, and much of that comes from being a product of the antebellum South. It will be nice for me to find things to admire about her as she matures and evolves.

My title is Compact of Fire, taken from Shakespeare.

"Love is a spirit all compact of fire, Not gross to sink, but light, and will aspire."

Wish me luck!