Announcing a new short story: The Boat by Elle Otero

Exciting news!! For those of you anxious to get reading, The Boat is launching on November 14th. Get ready for an apocalyptic short story that sets the stage for the Efrenen Sea series:

When her lover succumbs to the virus plaguing the remains of the civilized world, Lindsay is left alone on a sailboat she can't operate. With nuclear bombs deployed to destroy the infected and the storm season just beginning, she must find a way to survive—without losing her mind in the process.

Solitude, saltwater, and survival. There's no better way to get ready for Out of the Efrenen Sea than by reading The Boat!

Available for pre-order on Kindle now!

“It was clear then, as the rolling motion of the cabin grew more sudden and violent, that there was nothing she could do to change it. If it killed her, that was it. She was powerless to stop it. A calm came over her and she surrendered to it, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. Death couldn’t be any worse than this mode of existence.
The boat jumped and her eyes opened. No, she wanted to live.”

— The Boat

Motivation

One memorable night several months ago, I lifted my tablet off the nightstand. It was late, I was over it, but I was going to get through Chapter 12, damn it. But I felt like the story was meandering into a dark, uninteresting hole. So I told myself, "Let's see what Writer's Digest has to say." Instead of clicking on their actual Facebook page, I accidentally loaded everything that had been tagged with #writersdigest, where, lo and behold, someone had tagged a friend with this: "Elle, could you provide a link to the quiz?" 

I am not ashamed to admit that I clicked to see what the heck they were talking about. Divine providence, I thought. It took me to a quiz on character motivation, designed to uncover your "storytelling superpower". Seemed innocuous enough. I started the quiz.

At first, the questions seemed kind of silly. "Pick a season". Okay, sure, whatever. Now I have to pick a color? *sigh* Fine. A photo? Between the ocean, mountain, and desert, duh, I'm going with ocean, have you even read my book description? I made my selections of that and other such nonsense for another thirty seconds or so, and submitted the quiz, feeling like I'd wasted a good half minute of writing time. And then it gave me a result that blew me away: 

Superheroes? I never, ever, ever- are you listening? EVER- thought of myself as writing about superheroes. But when I read the description, I realized that they nailed it. My leading lady, Mida Efren, wears sealskin, not a supersuit. But she has an underlying motivation to protect those that she loves. And that motivation seeps into every scene, every interaction, every moment she shares with the reader. Mida wants nothing more than to end her people's suffering, and she'll accomplish it by any means necessary.

You know, I don't know that I fully appreciated my main character before I took this quiz. She seemed sort of selfish and inexperienced; at odds, even, with Efrenen tradition. But once I began critically examining her motivation, her reason for being, the story pretty much wrote itself. I wonder if that affects how we live our own lives in the same way. Once we uncover our deepest motivation and follow it above all else, do our own stories pretty much write themselves?

Characters that change our storylines

I have a love/hate relationship with my character's relentless ability to change my storyline. I'll map the whole thing out, write each chapter description so that it fits neatly within my story arc, and then, as I actually write the thing, suddenly my heroine doesn't like the way a character says something, and she won't stand for it. It's like being at war with myself- and I can be a defiant little shit.

There's also something wonderful that happens when your characters have finally developed enough to become their own beings. The story tightens, the interactions are more genuine, and the reality of this other world bleeds into every sentence. It's fulfilling to see their personalities take shape, but it's also uncomfortable, because it becomes a battle to reign in these fictional people just enough to keep the story moving, without stifling their self-expression and killing the flow of the book. 

I guess it comes down to this: writing is weird. I'm down to the last couple chapters of my book- almost at the finish line. I know where my characters are going and I have this vague idea of how they're going to get there. Inevitably, they'll fight back against fate like we all do here in the "real world". I can't wait to see what they do with the ending I have planned.

What is the Efrenen Sea Series about?

I keep getting questions on what my book is about. Not surprising, right? And it shouldn't be hard to describe. But I am an awkward person, as it turns out, so I describe it like this: 

It's a mermaid book. Well, not entirely. Okay so listen- it's kind of like a mermaid book in that it's about merpeople.

And then, when I get really confident, I continue with something like this: 

It's a novel about a post-apocalyptic tribe of people who live in the ocean because land is contaminated in the early 2500s. These "merfolk" are not half-fish or anything, and they don't have gills. But they do live at sea, they bind their legs and cover most of their bodies with sealskin to keep their body temperature up, and they have pretty badass armor and weaponry. There are 3 main tribes- okay, pods- and their alliances are unraveling. Meanwhile, land people are just now beginning to come out of their underground cities. And they're not dying. So what does that mean for our heroine, Mida Efren, direct descendant of Murtaugh the Rebel, and High Councilmember of the Efren pod? It means she has to step up to her leadership role in ways she never expected. 

It's a tail (eh? eh?) of death, romance, campaigns, betrothals, betrayals, and all the grace of humanity paired with its most wretched ugliness, set in an ocean world unlike any you've ever seen before.

So. That's what the Efrenen Sea series is about.

Welcome to insanity

You've stumbled upon my blog! Lucky you (well, lucky me). It's funny how inspiration works. I got a wild hair today to finally start my official website and blog, and I haven't even finished my first full length novel. But here I am, almost 2 am, dreaming and hoping that this call to create is the right path. So if you're reading this, the general public, here I am. I'm no one. I'm anyone. I'm you.

Maybe you really are a lot like me- you've got big dreams and this niggling feeling that tells you that you're not half bad at writing or singing or dancing or whatever form of expressive art you've landed in. That voice means something, and I'm going to try my best to listen to it. And maybe I'm destined to continue being no one but my humble self, and maybe you're reading this because you're the one destined for Greatness with a capital G. Either way, this feels right. So I'm going to stick with it. And get straight to the point. 

I'm writing a book. It's not a fancy book, or even probably a particularly good book. But what this book has done for me is give me a grand sense of purpose. By creating this world and these characters, I feel like I'm breathing life into my dreams and fantasies of a beautiful water realm, one that is harsh and unfair, but not outside of reality entirely. And I hope that you'll get a chance to read it when it's finished, and I hope, above all, that it transports you to a place that's different than any you've had the pleasure to envision before.

In short, I'm spent. More updates to come as we approach the launch of my debut novel: Out of the Efrenen Sea.