My WIP is a YA, Yay!

 I am proud to announce my WIP is a YA fiction. Unfortunately, i was a bit discouraged by the norm of the world where colour plays an important role in the makeup of the characters. My YA concept borders on a main character with a mixed heritage background and other characters from the west. The problem however, is selling this 'mixed heritage person' to an audience who dwells on the contents of a person's blood. Whether readers or publishers like it or not, we cannot relegate this unique group of people to the background just because a particular colour is deemed superior and others, deficient.

Writers cannot be creative in the world of being politically correct. Without being misconstrued, i am not against sexual relationships of individuals of the LGBT range but i am solidly against these hypocrites that dwell on colour. For instance, why should characters in books, movies, etc be exclusively white? What is wrong in being black? Don't get me wrong, i like whites (afterall, they make up most of my characters!) but I think people should be encouraged and praised for their talents and abilities and not about whether their colour will not sell their works. I read somewhere about an author who was rejected a record 20 times because of what the publishers felt uncomfortable with but it still got published and the book became a bestseller. Contemporary tims call for contemporary books. We say, oh, we want the story to be believable yada, yada, yada and yet we hardly recognise the good in the 'mixed people'.

Putting aside the anger bursts, i present my WIP which is entitled The Wildebeest Within. The title was derived from the wildebeest animal which is regularly hunted as food by crocodiles. I liked the name because it has intended pun for Wildbeast so i compared it to a person's innate animal or beastly candour.

The concept of the book dwells on the tests of friendships and relationships amidst pressure, murder, corruption and emerging psychopathic personalities, all mixed with flavours of intrigue and suspense. It is set in a fictional country. This project commenced in June and with the distractions of work and my hunky fiance, it's 24,700 words and still counting. All, bearing in mind, my goal to reach 85,000 words.

(Trumpet blowing, cheers and confetti throwing...)

I am proud to present my characters.

Tamara Fey

• 19 years old
• Voluptuous eye-catcher
• Plays volleyball
• Has personality issues
• Loves caribbean food
• Her strength is in her loyalty
• Her weakness is in her naivety
• Never truly lets go of her first love, David Reynolds
• Leaves an example for the establishment of a law regarding 
  women

                                                                                    Marie Bouchard 

•  Childhood best friend to Tamara
• Quite a tomboy
• Cynic
• A bit of a detective
• Acts as a super-ego to Tamara (borrowing a term from Sigmund Freud)

David Reynolds

• Playboy
• Masters student

                                                             Steve Wright

• University football captain
• Born into a diamond empire
• Not into one night stands and female advances
• He likes Tamara or does he?

   
  Ms Fey                                                                                                                    

                                                   

•   Tamara's mother
•   A loner
•   Has secrets
•   Part nurse, part vegetable farmer
•   Caribbean food lover

 
Barry Fey

•  Tamara's estranged father
•  Ex-soldier
•  Desperately seeks comeback with Tamara

So, these are the main characters with several supporting characters that make up the story. Big thumbs to Inmagine, Google and other search engines for their useful pictures that help bring my characters to life. Avril Lavigne definitely fits Marie but i couldn't find a mixed heritage voluptuous young lady that doesn't look X rated so this would have to do...for now. But she's cute, anyway. 

I definitely cannot wait to get home from work and get keyboard cracking on the story.  This might sound prejudiced but this story will rev up emotions in the reader because that is what i'd like to do. I do not want my story to be read and forgotten or be lost in the slush pile among millions of other books. And, one statement of advice: The person you look down on today might just be the person that will make it tomorrow and you may need their help (think Zuckerberg of Facebook who is a dropout but is now a billionaire). Do have a lovely day. Peace.