2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them.

5. No tag backs!

I am currently in the process of working on a new short story that is set in the world of The Sixteenth Kiss titled The First Princess. Both of which can be read on my Figment page. The First Princess is a retelling of sorts that has reimagined the popular German tale of Rumplestiltskin.  I won't go into too much detail so as not to spoil the twists I have taken on the tale. I decided to give the retelling a French Provincial feel to it since it is set in the "Kingdom of Dankert", an area that has become much more civilized than the Scandinavian inspired "Stalvart". "Stalvart" is set in the northern regions of Floryndal and is pretty isolated from the other kingdoms. I hope your eyes haven't glazed over my world-building ramblings. I really need to draw this all out on a map.

I'm pretty new to the whole world-building game as this is my first foray into fantasy. I've found that keeping a Pinterest board of inspiration helps as well as keeping a running list of all the different kingdoms I mention. I like to include what their forms of trade are and what makes the citizens visually distinct.  I'm not sure I'll ever use the vast amounts of background info I've written about Floryndal but it feels good to have it all written down. Like its an actual place with a system of trade and a logical geography to it.

I will be writing more of The First Princess this month but as soon as July hits I'll be using Camp Nanowrimo to FINISH The Sixteenth Kiss. You heard me! I said finish. That's the goal at least but I have a pretty poor track record of finishing Nanowrimo projects. Will I be a winner come August? I'll let you know.

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As some of you may know from my twitter, I have started a new novel for Camp Nanowrimo to overcome some writers block on my previous novel. I originally hadn't planned to participate in Camp Nano but the idea for this novel came to me in a dream, in fact. I never really remember my dreams long enough to use them as novel material but this  one stuck out to me so much that I literally jumped out of my bed and ran to my laptop to write it down. I dreamed up a rather amusing conversation of a Prince lamenting his inability to wake up sleeping princesses with the infamous True Love's Kiss and his parents' resulting dismay since, "that is just how Fairytale princes find their true love."

I have titled it "The Sixteenth Kiss" and the premise is simply this: A pandemic of maidens cursed with eternal slumber awaiting True Love's Kiss, and Prince Benedikt can't seem to wake any of them. So far the words are flying on the page and I made the decision to use only a very rough outline. I like to outline everything to death which has both helped and hurt me in the past but I wanted to leave myself open to inspiration on this one. So far it's working and I have had a couple of moments of clandestine inspiration that really helped me take characters to new depths.

If you are interested, I have posted the first chapter on my Figment page for your reading pleasure!