That is the question. Which is worse, a bard with a vendetta and a song to sing or a monster that can chew your face off? Mai Askerma tries to answer this question in my novel Hunt of Fools.

For my “H” entry in the A to Z Challenge, I’m going to talk about something I usually save for my Mythic Scribes “Cover to Cover” articles. Those not familiar with them, I’m doing an article series which chronicles my current novel tentatively titled Hunt of Fools. I’ll most likely change the name, as I changed it before, but that’s my working title for now.

If you’d like to check out my “Cover to Cover” articles you can view them here:

Cover to Cover: From Inception to Publication

Cover to Cover II: From Idea to Story

Here’s the synopsis of my novel as well:

Mai Askerma, a celebrity monster hunter, finds that fame can turn to infamy literally overnight. After doing what she thinks is right, she is smeared in songs and tales by the very bards who used to sing her praises. She heads out a quest for redemption to both silence her critics and stop the dangerous monster hunter who has since taken her place as the nation of Abeth’s idol. But she finds that sometimes the pen is actually mightier than the sword. 

So that’s what I’m working with at the moment. I want it to be kind of the fantasy version of paparazzi spreading rumors about a celebrity, except she’s able to actually deal with them. Basically, Mai is wronged, and she goes on a “hunt of fools” to find the bards spreading horrible rumors about her. But along the way she finds that rumors are difficult to kill and she must turn the tide by using different resources at her disposal. The original version has changed a lot and I have to do a good deal of editing to make the story the way I still want to make it (which is more focus on the bards’ destructive nature and less on monsters, although I do love monsters!)

Also, I want to include humor in this story as much as possible. I find that with my longer works, the humor kind of seeps out of it as I go along. Editing will hopefully fix this situation. I want Marla to be compassionate, determined, a great hunter,  but have a silver tongue to match.

For now, I have 140,000 something words to edit. I’m in the midst of editing now and it’s a long haul. At the rate I’m going now, I’ll be lucky if I have it read for critique partners come this summer. Here’s hoping!

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions about Hunt of Fools or my process in writing it, feel free to ask!