A New Witch
Although this is the fourth novel I completed, I moved it up to the top of the list because it is the first novel that I've edited and am ready to try to publish.
This is a story about Edie, a twelve-year-old girl who acquires an old and powerful Book of Shadows, the instruction book for a witch.
While she tries to learn about being a witch, she has to keep the book hidden, not only from her parents, but also from a coven of evil witches bent on finding it.
A New Witch is a fun book about coming of age in an "old" new age kind of way.
I started working on A New Witch on Friday the 13th, July 2007. I chose to use the NaNoWriMo method of writing on this book, which is to say that I wanted to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I completed it in exactly 30 days with 54,460 words on August 11th, 2007. I started editing it on August 13th, 2007 and completed the first edit on September 2nd, 2007. I've continued to work on it since then and the current version (Third Draft) came out at 61,851 words and 243 pages.
There is most likely a sequel to A New Witch coming up. Edie has a lot more story left in her to be contained within a single novel. Watch here for updates.
A New Witch now has its own web site at www.anewwitch.net! I'm not going to say that it's under construction, but like all web sites should be, it's a work in progress. Feel free to check it out!
Update: On Wednesday, September 23, 2009, I was notified that my novel, A New Witch, was one of seven finalists in the San Gabriel Writers' League WritingSmarter manuscript contest. The winner will be announced on Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 11:30am.
Update: On Saturday, October 24, 2009, A New Witch received Honorable Mention in the San Gabriel Writers' League WritingSmarter manuscript contest.
Edith stood on the edge of a freshly dug grave looking in. It was a new grave; still unoccupied by the corpse it was intended for. Today, it was just a hole in the ground, six feet deep.
It didn't look that deep. Edith, everyone called her Edie, was nearly five feet, five inches tall; almost as tall as the grave was deep. She wondered how hard it would be to get out if she were down inside of it.
It was summertime in Bemidji, Minnesota so Edith Elizabeth Harris didn't have any school. She had just finished the fifth grade and was about to start sixth. She made it a point to correct her parents every time they called her a fifth grader.
She lived out in the country and about the only place she had to play was the cemetery across the road from her house. The closest neighbors were about a half mile away in either direction. The neighbors to the east were old and didn't have any school-aged kids. The ones to the west had two boys, but both of them were quite a bit younger.
She was an only child, although her mother still referred to Edie as her first. Since she didn't have any brothers or sisters and both of her parents worked, there really wasn't anyone else to play with; Edie was left on her own when it came to occupying her free time. She didn't mind because she had a wonderful imagination and a free spirit. She could find enough trouble to get into, all on her own.
Today's trouble came in the form of a rectangular hole in the ground that was six feet deep. Before she had a chance to think about it too hard and reconsider, she jumped down into the hole. She landed softly in the loose dirt that was left in the bottom of it, bending her knees as she landed to cushion her fall. When she stood erect, she looked up and realized that the hole was deeper than it seemed from topside. She could just barely reach up to the top.