Z is for Zone Trippers

Novel Synopsis

Owen MacIntyre’s daughter is missing but he can’t just file a missing person’s report—Eve is a first generation zone tripper. While her body is safe at home, host to a revolving door of other zone trippers; her soul skips into other infected trippers all over the world.

Or at least, her soul had been tripping. Now it’s complete radio silence. There has been no word from Eve since she tripped out of a dying woman who was only a train stop away from her waiting father. And the odds are falling fast. Suicide rates are sky high for zone trippers, a tasteless reality show debases victims on international television and a zone tripping serial killer calls himself the Infinity Killer.

Is a father’s love enough to achieve the impossible? Or is he too late?

I typically discover a new novel idea in August, which gives me three months of incubation before I write the first draft in November. In those few months, I become intimate with my characters, I plan a complete outline and I refine the story.

In 2010, I was in the middle of outlining the story I planned to write when I went to dinner with one of my NaNo friends. I shared an inkling of an idea I had with Amy, bemoaning the fact that it had an element of science fiction–which is not my style.

Amy, who does enjoy science fiction, encouraged me to ponder the idea a bit more. After our dinner, I did think about the plot–and overnight it all clicked into place. The whole world existed in my mind in an instant. With one domino tipped, I had to create all the benefits and consequences for my new disease.

It’s my favorite part of the writing process–the moment I discover the story I am telling myself.

The first draft was rougher than usual because I was still outlining as I was writing. But I also lost in the story.

This week I will complete a big revision round, moving the book one step closer to finished. I feel anxious to finish because 1.) I am pitching the novel in July at a conference and 2.) I expect my next novel idea to appear in August.

How do your novel ideas come to you?