Synopsis of The Pinniped Mance (WIP)

The Pinniped Mance is my project for Camp NaNoWriMo 2018. It's also my first foray into the YA category, and sees a switch away from my usual Third Person Omniscient narrative style to First Person Present Tense.

So who's telling this story?

My central protagonist is sixteen year old selkie technomancer Valerie Townsend. Yes, you read that correctly - it's a Paranormal Romance. Here be magical creatures, lol. I've opted to set the story in an alternate present day Britain, where magic and myth are simply the people living next door, and nobody's all that fussed about it. After all, normal is what you know. In a world where magic is common place, there wouldn't be any need to keep it a secret.

But of course it's not quite that simple. Sorry Valerie!

In this setting, mances (aka human magic users) are mistrusted by both sides of their communities. Regular human beings worry about all the chaos and destruction that their spells can wreak. Paranormal entities see them as rather pathetic figures whose powers pale when compared to their own. So for a selkie to dabble with human magic is a massive act of rebellion. However, as is revealed in the first chapter, Valerie isn't your average selkie.

Valerie can't swim.

Think about that - a selkie who can't swim; who in fact is deathly afraid of the water. How does an entity like that relate to her peers, or even to her family? What went wrong to render her landbound in the first place? And will she ever manage to conquer her problem?

There's a lot more happening as well in The Pinniped Mance, but for now, I'll leave you with the cover artwork (blurb still to be added)