Beginning

Today I shall begin to write. Yes. I shall. I've been getting this idea straight in my head for a while, trying to fit a few elements together to get it clear in my head what I'm actually going to write. And voilà, in the shower this morning, it all came together. There's something about lemon and tea tree shower gel that just gets my synapses firing, apparently.

I'd had the title (December in the Dark) for ages. I had my main character, I had a sort-of-plot. What I didn't have was a monster. For this is a tale with monsters, as all good tales are. I just hadn't been sure what kind of monster. I toyed with vampires and werewolves, but my muse rightly rejected these as overdone. I wanted something different. I thought about British folklore, which is ripe with faeries, goblins, and witches, but although that felt better, it still didn't feel right.

And then, this morning (well, this afternoon if you want to be accurate about it, but it's Sunday, I slept in, it's fine), as I reached for the lemon and tea tree shower gel, it hit me. I wanted to write about these guys:

These guys are known as drow or trowe, and they're the dark elves. Well, that's actually a lie. In Scottish folklore, drow are actually troll-like, short, and ugly, but the nice thing about fiction is that I can pick the bits of folklore I like and embellish them how I choose. So the drow in December in the Dark won't be short or ugly. They will be tricksy and dangerous. And they will fit beautifully in my tale of creepy mansions, violin-playing heroines, madness, suicide, and family secrets. I can't wait to get started!