novel in progress
Jacquard’s Flight
a young adult fantasy
Orphaned teen aerialist Jacquard keeps her precious wings in a backpack, and her cursed greenness tucked into the hours before dawn. But when the woods that follow her circus invade the grounds, the circus folk blame Jacquard, recoiling
from how the trees reweave her into a creepy green forest creature. Her only hope to put things right arrives in the form of Kolyu, a talking hawk from the invisible islands of Misqola. Jacquard discovers the islands are her homeland,
and their broken magic may explain the circus’ tree problem. If she helps Kolyu fix magic, Jacquard could free the circus of trees, eliminate her greenness and finally be her true uncursed self.
Jacquard hides her shameful greenness from Kolyu, then from the handsome refugee who joins them. It’s a good thing, too. If Misqola’s tyrant learns her secret, she could be doomed to lifelong torture. But hiding has its price, and fixing magic gets complicated, launching the three friends on a dangerous quest for a lost book of ancient wisdom. As they uncover magic’s true nature and how it could be hurtling the islands towards annihilation, Jacquard’s struggle to guard her secret becomes increasingly disastrous…and its discovery could not only ruin her friendships and clinch her homeland’s destruction, but forever shackle her to the creature that lurks within.
Inspiration
My first sense of the novel rose from a short story I wrote in response to a writing prompt, which included a deserted island and a mask. Somehow a talking hawk showed up in the story. I had so many questions about where this hawk came from, that a short story wasn’t long enough to explore them.
It’s funny how, no matter the project, you tend to return to the same fundamental questions. And these fundamental questions become the work of your life. I am curious about the interplay of truth and illusion, as well as the difficulties of finding your place in the world. I guess it makes sense that a prompt with a mask and a deserted island would have captured my imagination. Still not sure where the talking hawk came from though :o) I think the answer to that is the novel itself.
Status
The novel has gone through multiple rounds of revision.
Thanks in part to a grant from MSAC, I kicked off the revision process with help from book coach Jennie Nash. Thank you, Jennie! Thank you, MSAC! To discover more about the Maryland State Arts Council, click on the link below.
