WIP Aesthetics Part Four

(Images via Pinterest)

Today's WIP is not actually technically a WIP yet. Once upon a time A Matter of Curiosity was a WIP, I'm actually have more than 40,000 words written in it but I've had it shelved for a couple of years because it just kept getting bumped back due to the fact that it ties in with A Season of Subterfuge, Courtiers, and War Councils and so cannot be published until after that one (and that one has caused me a good bit of trouble in the past). I'm not entirely sure if I am going to be able to really work on this story till closer to January what with me focusing on Rage Like the Gods as my NaNo project and then trying to get Of Stars and Shadows and A Tale of Gods and Glory ready for publication. But this story just had too many fabulous of aesthetics to leave out of this blogging series. Besides, I intend to be working on it soon so that has to count for something, right?

Genre: Young Adult, Portal Fantasy, Alice Through the Lookingglass reimagining

It is the second and final book in the Return to Amar duology. Book one is A Certain Sort of Madness and is available here.

This is set in the same world as the My Time in Amar series does. In fact this book is where the two series actually begin to intertwine. Hence why it cannot be published until after A Season of Subterfuge.

I will try to avoid spoilers for book one in this post, however be warned this is a book two. And if you haven't read book one you really need to remedy that.

I mean it's got Alice in Wonderland vibes, a sarcastic imaginary friend, a monkey named Chandler, a cowardly illusionist, a circus made up of misfits, rabid faeries that can control plants, and two cousins one who is too crazy for her own good and one who is too sane.

Seriously, what isn't to love?

Elevator Pitch: Alicia is struggling to finally live an ordinary life, but as reality begins to tear apart at the seams she finds herself fighting against her power-mad grandfather, and forced to use her friends as pawns in order to win a game constructed by an exiled faerie prince in his enchanted circus. "Normal" was never within her reach.

Characters:

(all images are from Pinterest, I take no credit for them)

Alicia Hareton

In a chess game she is the king

Curioser and curioser

She likes to imagine six impossible things before breakfast and then make them a reality

Is a girl torn between worlds

Olivia Linton

In a chess game she is the queen

You may underestimate her but she will kick your butt while wearing heels

You can't tell her what to feel or think

Loyalty is a currency all its own

Dante Carlos Alessandro Moretti III

In a chess game he's the rook

Is fluent in three different forms of sarcasm

Mad as a hatter

The imaginary friend who was just a little too real for his own good

In the cast we also have a cowardly illusionist pickpocket and his monkey, a huntsman and his wife, a queen in over her head who is just going to make a bloody mess of things, and her loyal followers.

We also have Marius the Great. Alicia's grandfather, a powerful but crazy mage that believes that only one of them can continue existing in this world. Then there's the faeries... corrupt, perverted, and just like everyone else in this series... completely mad.

Setting:

(Images via Pinterest)

This takes place in the same world as WIP Aesthetics Part Two. However, what A Season of Subterfuge, Courtiers, and War Councils shows on a wider scale, A Matter of Curiosity shows a far narrower view of.

In this story we focus on the faeries who are trapped in Amar due to being exiled from their own world (book one focused heavily on the faerie world itself). While the faeries still in the faerie world are power hungry, cruel, and manipulative, the faeries trapped in Amar have all of these traits with the addition of the fact that they are going mad. There is a darkness that is polluting Amar and all the creatures found within. These perverted faeries tend to roam the woods with little more than animalistic instincts, seeking only to dance their immortal lives away and curse any humans they come across. However, there is a small group led by the exiled prince that hope to live a slightly more civilized life. These faeries choose to slip away into their insanity while living in their elaborate circus, one where they trap any mortals who would happen to stumble upon it.

The majority of this book takes place in this faerie circus, where everything is a very deadly game. It's like chess only the pieces are living beings and you move across the board and win by completing challenges. Alicia and her players against Marius and his. While the faeries watch on with glee as these two sides tear each other apart.

This story definitely focuses on the stranger elements of Amar, showing just how much that darkness has twisted and changed what would have been beautiful magical aspects.

 

(Images via Pinterest)

For more aesthetics you can check out my Spotify or Pinterest Board. You can also add this story to your to-read shelves on Goodreads.

So there you have MoC, no I'm not really working on it just yet, but I do hope to pick it up soon and finally get around to publishing it sometime next year.