Yikes, is the 3-Day Novel Contest ever coming up quick.

This is the first year for me–I’ve done (and won) NaNoWriMo for the last two years, so taking on the 3-Day Novel Contest as a new challenge seemed like the obvious progression. The timing is either terrible or fantastic this year–I return to my day job literally the day after the contest ends. So on one hand, I’m likely to be exhausted when I start back to work, but on the other–at least I won’t have any time to fret about going back.

Because I’m so bogged down in rewrites for HH, I wanted something completely different. I’d originally planned to write a serious book, but after looking at my back cover blurb, I think it’ll end up being more of a snarky book than anything. The genre is YA urban fantasy, probably loosely based in Saskatoon (though I don’t know if I’ll specifically name the city). Here’s the blurb:

Sophia is sixteen, and what’s supposed to be a carefree time in her life has devolved into futile attempts to balance school, her part-time job, and her boyfriend. James is smart, handsome, and older—but he’s also controlling and pushy, and when one of their fights turns violent, Sophia accidentally sets James on fire while trying to escape.

Terrified and unable to figure out how the fire even got started, Sophia confides in her parents and her dad, in turn, confides a secret back to her—she’s not the only one in the family that’s set someone on fire. She has a half-brother twice her age that she’s never heard of—and right now, his place is the only place her parents are willing to send her while the repercussions of the James incident are sorted out.

Before she knows it, she’s travelled halfway across the country to an unfamiliar city and her half-brother’s sterile apartment. Elliot’s boyfriend, Thad, is warm and welcoming, but Elliot himself is cold and wants nothing to do with her. She knows she’s supposed to sit and wait, she knows that her parents are working on sorting things out back home—but she can’t spend the rest of her life sitting in an apartment that could double as a showroom. What she finds when she adventures outside will change her life forever …

(I’m definitely pulling too many punches in the summary–what she finds is a Secret Scientific Research Project for Strangely Talented Children and Adults. Things get complicated.)

I actually was looking out for future me (that is, the me that will be frantically editing things on Labour Day) and wrote out a vague plot summary, so at least I have some idea of where I’m going with this.  Usually I go into projects with way less of a skeleton than this, so hopefully I’m able to just slam some meat on these bones and call it a day (she says, while quietly figuring out how many words she has to write in an hour for this to even be feasible). ((It’s a lot of words. Don’t think about it. The numbers get scary.))

Wish me luck!! And good luck to everyone else participating in the challenge!