THE LAYERS BENEATH US: Introducing my new writing project

I’m delighted to finally announce my brand new writing project! This standalone novel is a YA contemporary that I’ll be starting to draft in November, and today I reveal what it’s all about. Come check out the mock cover, read the blurb, and learn the years-long background!! →

As you are probably aware, one of my goals for 2020 is to write 50k words of a new standalone WIP as a part of this year’s National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo). Last week I revealed the process I’ve gone through to prepare myself for this challenge, and today I am delighted to officially announce my new project. I’ve been sitting on this one for quite some time; I hope you’re as excited as I am to finally start talking about it!! So without further ado, I would like to introduce…

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Two boys with nothing in common. Eight days in the great outdoors. Who the hell thought this was a good idea?

Alex Florent is a self-professed nerd who isn’t afraid to speak his mind. Quick-witted, sarcastic, and somewhat dramatic, he’s determined to stand up for those who are different and return the smile to his big sister’s face. His own truth can wait…even if the secret he carries grows heavier by the day.

Ryan Nguyen is popular, talented, and completely stuck. Sure, he’s a scholarship kid on track to make the next Olympics, but what does that matter when his parents resent each other, his best friend is a bully, and the sport he once loved is now nothing but a source of misery?

When Alex and Ryan are thrown together on a school hiking trip, it’s a disaster in the making. Alex doesn’t think much of Ryan. Ryan doesn’t understand Alex at all. But as they journey along the rugged Victorian coast, their involuntary partnership turns into something else. Something that makes them question everything they know about each other—and themselves.

For how can you ever truly understand anyone until you unearth all the layers beneath?

The Layers Beneath Us is a young adult contemporary novel and only my second-ever attempt at writing a standalone! Alex and Ryan are a little younger than the MC of my other YA novel Holding Up the Sky, and a little less tortured, but they both have their own troubles to deal with. Their story will be told in alternating first person POV, and this time around I’m giving present tense a shot! I’m so excited!

The idea for this story first came to me all the way back in late 2016, shorty after I finished the first draft of Holding Up the Sky. I even drafted the first few chapters before I got completely stuck—unsurprising, as I’ve since come to the realisation I can’t finish a book unless I plan it in detail from the start. While I’ve focused on other projects in recent times, Alex and Ryan have stuck with me all these years, begging for their story to be told. And told it shall be.

I will start drafting The Layers Beneath Us in November as a part of NaNoWriMo, with the intent of having the first draft completed by the end of the year. If you’d like to keep abreast of my progress, keep an eye on my social media (see below), where I will be posting daily updates, thoughts, and perhaps even a snippet or two!

What do you think about The Layers Beneath Us? Have you ever sat on an idea for years before you start working on it? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo next month?