Hi Readers, A. E. Costello here.

So it is National Novel Writing Month November 2023! I am finally taking part again since 2021, I skipped 2022, and broke my streak, since I had taken part every year since 2014 to 2021. Urgh! Its frustrating now that I think about it. I’ll have to start all over again.

Also, if anyone wants to be my buddy, this is my NaNoWriMo buddy link! I’m on as A.E. Costello, so you can add me as a buddy if you like.

So as I said last post, I have to announce what my NaNo novel is this year!

On my blog I’ve talked A LOT about my current project, the middle grade novel Zippy Mae and the Seven Kingdoms.

I spoke of the novel here (the inception of the story), here (the current state of the project), here (how the story changed over time), here (state of the story at the time), and here (a change in the setting of the story). A total of five times, detailing the journey about the story.

Side-note, if you want to follow the journey of Zippy Mae, you can also find all of these all at once if you click one of above links, then click the tag zippy mae and the seven kingdoms, it’ll bring you to a page that has all of the blogs in one page, and you can read them that way!

However there was a big change in Zippy’s story in 2021, when I introduced a New Novel: The Emmy Bell series, with the first book being named Emmy Bell and the Gate to Myra.

And essentially, once I began writing on Emmy Bell, Zippy Mae took a backseat, in a big way. I stopped writing Zippy Mae. And THEN I got a NEW IDEA again, in 2022, and along with Emmy Bell began developing a third novel (which I kept as a secret project and never posted about), so I was multitasking with Emmy Bell and this secret third middle grade novel, while not working on Zippy Mae at all.

Well, of course, nothing was getting finished.

And I need to finish something, and publish it.

And right as I decided to pick a story, between either Zippy Mae, Emmy Bell, or this third novel, I realized National Novel Writing Month was literally next week (it was like October 27^th or something like that) and this was the perfect opportunity to make it happen.

I looked through my files, and even debated making an entire brand new novel to write on, start fresh.

But…I decided to go ahead and go back to Zippy Mae.

And with doing that, I made new changes, breathed new life into the story, and am feeling good about the directions the story is taking.

So first, the story name has changed, including the character’s name. Not entirely, just the Mae part, because I gave the world of the story naming traditions, and “Mae” doesn’t fit.

The new title is Zippy and the Archmage’s Wish.

Feel free to comment whether or not you like the new title!

Also, the Seven Kingdoms title isn’t lost forever! It’ll be used later on down the series, just not for the first book!

To give a snippet of what the book is about…

Princess Zipporah Delaren of the Kingdom of Delar, aka Zippy, is the first of the royal family to be born with the Gift of mancery in generations.

In the fantasy world of Taralera, people (Taralerians) who have mancery (aka magic) are specifically chosen by the One True God to have the Gift of mancery.

These Taralerians are called Gifted.

Zippy is a princess who’s born with mancery aka “magic” though the word magic is never used in the story. She’s a newborn baby in the Prologue, but Chapter One will open when she’s 12 years old.

However, Zippy doesn’t use her mancery as a Gift, and doesn’t see herself Blessed to be born with the ability to use mancery and or believe that its her solemn duty to use the Gift of mancery with grace and respect.

Instead Zippy skips her mancery lessons with the Court Magus Kaliyah, and uses her mancery to play pranks on the guards, and to become invisible to sneak into the kitchens.

Zippy also isn’t the best Princess of Delar either. Unlike her older sisters, the Crown Princess Devora and Princess Rebekah, our main character Princess Zipporah likes romping in the fields and sleeps in the gardens under the stars and she’s a princess who prefers getting dirty. She can barely sit still for her tutoring on history,  daydreams during etiquette practice, and sneaks off with her mancery animal sidekick, Pipkins to explore The Strange Woods.

She’s a mage, so she can do plenty of mancery, has an talking animal sidekick, and has a mischievous, likable yet impish personality. She’s a black girl with curly dark brown hair that has golden flecks, has dark brown eyes with stars that circle around her irises.

The above is the freewriting exercise I did while figuring out what my story is about.

Not a lot, is it? But I can’t give much else, since I’m still writing!

Still, I feel like its interesting and fun and I’m excited to learn more. And since I’m a pantser, I learn more by writing the novel, not by outlining.

I wrote an entire post about Why I Don’t Outline too.

However I’m actually more of plantser now, kinda half-planner half-pantsing, and I’ll probably have to post about how I’m going about that, writing a mixture instead of just going full pantsing the way I did with The Other Side. So there is a new process by which I am going about writing this novel.

So yeah! That’s what I’m working on, Zippy and the Archmage’s Wish.

Let me know in the comments if it sounds interesting at all.

I’m working on the name of the series, since even though I thought Zippy the Princess Mage sounds okay, it’s a very “youngish” title, and the story is projected to last her from ages 12 to 18, and I think the series title should sound a bit older, maybe a bit more mature.

Maybe any series title ideas in the comments?

So that’s a wrap! Zippy and the Archmage’s Wish is my NaNo Novel this November 2023! Its very slow going, I literally haven’t hit 1,000k words yet, which pains me, but I’m going to catch up.

I am working hard! I will keep working hard.

I think I did a post on this.

Intentions don’t write books, only words do.

So I’ll just keep writing, and let the words speak for themselves.

So, see you at the end of NaNo, with 50k words! That’s the goal, anyway, right?

A. E. signing, off!

Hey Readers! If you liked this post, why not read my other posts here on my author website? Try out any of my posts on my blog such as my previous post was National Novel Writing Month- Day 1 2023  and my next post   will be on the First Week of NaNo.

If you want to follow along with my journey as a writer and artist, consider following my blog, and get an email direct to your inbox each time I post! Also hit my socials on Instagram @aecostellowrites and @aecostelloart, and don’t forget my author page on Facebook!

Hope to see you there!