The Novel I’m Not Writing: A Summary

Really. I’m not writing this. I mean it! I’ve declared this year’s NaNoWriMo  an epic FAIL - one worthy of full LOLCat status. But if I were writing… the title would be:

Bell, Book and Bones

Overarching Theme:  Rebirth from the bones - an archetypal initiatory concept in which the initiate is stripped to the bones, disassembled, and then rebuilt and rebirthed, a new being. 

Summary:

When  freelance writer Darcy Tillman reluctantly accepts a contract for a book  on the history of a little known pagan sect,  she has no idea that she is about to tumble through-the-looking-glass, discovering uncomfortable truths about human nature, magic,  and miracles -  as well as a sinister intent behind the book project.

The Bell Book Believers  lay claim to a long tradition of magical practices, dating back to the Victorian Age, when their founder, Ol’George, watched his elderly grandmother (a midwife and herbalist) suffer through an Exorcism at the hands of the Catholic Church.  George’s entire family were excommunicated for having supported her witchcraft, and young George vowed then and there to keep their family beliefs alive by founding the secret society of The Bell Book Believers.

There’s just one problem - it never happened. 

The real origins of the Bell Bookers are  far more mundane than the popular exorcism-excommunication story, but still fascinating their own right - and perhaps even more legitimately spiritual.  

But truth isn’t always welcomed in The Tradition (as the Bell Bookers are known among themselves) and the deeper into the project Darcy delves, the more resistance she meets.    Uncovering the sect’s questionable claims threatens its member’s beliefs, influence and even income.  Within The Tradition itself,  various branches of the Bell Bookers are in competition with one  another, each claiming to be the legitimate heir to Ol’ George, each eager to  discredit the others.   And complicating things even further, a local fundamentalist church has been picketing the more mainstream Pagan and Wiccan community, whose members are not eager to have the more unsavory rumors about the Bell Bookers being spread around town.  

As the tension mounts, Darcy herself becomes the target of harassment from several fronts, culminating in being run off the road in an auto accident that leaves her hospitalized with a major concussion.  Concerned for her well being, Charlie Watson (a previously reluctant source from early days of Bell Bookers) finally steps forward, offering help not only with the project, but with her physical and spiritual healing.  

Finishing the book becomes an act of initiation for Darcy; an initiation not into "The Tradition" of the Bell Book Believers, but into a wider human spiritual tradition, one shared by mystics throughout time. 

Partial Cast of Characters:

Darcy Tilman:  A thirty something freelance writer. The successful  author of over 20 ghost-written books, she’s tired of building other people’s reputations, and eager to publish under her own name. 

Charlie Watson:  A sixty something ex-hippie, and one of the early promoters not only of The Tradition, but of neo-paganism itself.

Aunt "Tillie":  Darcy’s sole remaining relative on the Tilman side, Tillie knows far more than she lets on about folk magic and "The Old Religion"

Ol’George: The supposed "father" of the Bell Book Believers, George claimed a long standing family tradition of witchcraft and pagan religious traditions.  Dead from a nightshade overdose in the late fifties, George is present only in flash backs and hallucinatory visions. 

Mary Ellen: A contemporary of George’s, and matron of a then-competing tradition.

The Bell Book Believers: A secret religious tradition with a mysterious past and dark secrets

Dale Johns:  The gleefully gay proprietor of new age/neopagan shop, The Trickster Tree

So there you have it.  The book I’m NOT writing this year for NaNo.

Really. I’m not writing it!  I swear!