Introducing: No Mere Mortals

Of course it would not be hard to guess, seeing as I nearly handed the news to you on a silver platter, but yes. I am toe-deep in a new novel. At 6,000+ words already, which comes out to about 26 Word document pages. Not an amazing distance into a new novel--hardly begun, really, but I am excited. I put off telling you for a while because I wanted to be sure it would stick. But I really think it will. I have a definite goal in mind for what I want this book to be and that is one of the first things one must have in planning a new novel. Furthermore, I intend to write it, which is a boon itself. So without further discussion, I'll give you a brief overview of the book:

Gregory Abbot is a young man with swag, class, and money. He wears nothing that isn't immaculately tailored, and tolerates nothing less than perfection in his dealings with the rest of the world. When his father-figure is dying of stomach cancer, Gregory promises to take care of "her," meaning the yacht he had often joined the older man on in vacations. But when Barnaby Harcourt dies and Gregory goes to the reading of the will, he discovers he's gained a strange and entirely foreign inheritance: a young deaf girl--Harcourt's illegitimate granddaughter--who doesn't even know American sign-language and who is entirely incapable of doing anything extraordinary.
Saddled with the sudden responsibilities of a father, and scrambling to keep his reputation as a well-known theatre-critic, Gregory hires a girl named Aura Sweeney to keep the little girl and teach her sign-language. What he doesn't know is that Aura only took the job because she has aspirations to be a Broadway star and knew she could get a foot through the back-door if she worked for a famous theatre-critic. The problem? Her voice isn't good enough for a stage career. Gregory Abbot now finds himself surrounded by perfectly "ordinary" people--the sort he's avoided and ignored his whole life. In fact, his whole world is tumbling down around his ears, reshaped by a God he's only just acknowledged and is more than a little suspicious of.

I have more of it planned out, but I'm certainly not going to spill it right now. That would ruin the book for you, wouldn't it? I plan to tantalize you all through the writing of No Mere Mortals. I am already quite fond of these characters. So far I've only met Gregory, Anders--Gregory's chauffer and surrogate conscience, Brian Chapman, a lawyer, and Winnie--the deaf girl.

Gregory has made me want to hurl him across the room many times. He's just downright weird. Arrogant, a perfectionist, OCD about his clothes, addicted to Altoids, and scared of hospitals. He's a total basket-case. I love Winnie, and she's never said a word. It's amazing. I love Anders too, and I cannot wait to get to Aura's part. It's going to be awesome to introduce her to you! If you have any questions about No Mere Mortals, leave them in a comment below, and if they aren't too revealing, I'll answer them in another post!

“What…have I…” he paused to clear the crackling in his throat. “…inherited?”

Instead of answering, Brian walked to a door in the ornate paneling on the other side of the room, and opened it. A little girl stood there, dressed in a pair of jeans and a candy-striped shirt. So not her size. Gregory winced. The child stared at him with the largest, bluest eyes he’d ever seen. Her lips were chapped, and her hair in a lop-sided ponytail. Brian settled a beefy hand on her hair and laughed shortly. “I’m not much of a hair-dresser, I guess.”

“You are infallibly correct, Chapman.”

“Well.” Brian bent his knees, then stood upright again.

“Well what?”

“Don’t you have any questions?”

Cold. A block of ice between his temples. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

“Then shoot.”

What,” Gregory eyed the child up and down. “is this?”

-No Mere Mortals