Jillian Chantal

National Novel Writing Month starts tomorrow, November 1. I’ve been on a bit of an involuntary hiatus from writing, but am determined to get back to it. I love the crazy madness of NaNoWriMo, so I’m hopeful I’ll get some words on paper this coming month. I hope to be back with more Tuesday Tales as well.

My NaNo story will be a bit of another ghost story, this one taking place in modern times but focused on the historical district of my hometown. We have a brilliant history here in the City of Five Flags—we’ve been ruled by the Spanish, French, English, Confederacy, and the United States. Significant battles have taken place here, a widow of a signer of the Declaration of Independence lived her after his death and is buried in one of our historical cemeteries. We even have the shame of having held Geronimo as a prisoner at one of our forts. This book will—hopefully—shed some light on some of our stories from the past with a fun little twist. Geronimo will most likely not make an appearance as I am not proud of how the community treated him—like an exhibit in a zoo —breaks my heart. I want the novel to be mostly light-hearted, so I’m choosing to leave that out.

Andrew Jackson, first governor of Florida when it became a US territory, will be in the opening scene. He’s kind of a problematic figure, but he’s an integral part of the opening I have envisioned.

The working title is ”Psychic or Psychotic” — my NaNo page says it’s an untitled Pirate story and I need to fix that—as soon as I remember my password—or get to my work computer where it’s saved. 😀 There may or not be a pirate in the book—as a pantser, I won’t know until I know—I CAN say there ARE some to choose from in local history. 😀 Even rumors of Jean Lafitte.