I promised the story behind The Ring Academy: The Trials of Imogene Sol. So here it is.
At the end of 2019, I had just released The Bones of Who We Are, and in the in between before a new project was discovered, I decided I wanted to both have fun with writing, develop my craft, challenge myself, and include the people who followed me on Instagram. In my stories, I asked my followers to vote on what they were interested in me writing by choosing their top categories for me to mash up. The winning categories were SciFi and Romance (which is probably much better suited to Maci Aurora than CL Walters, but this was before Maci Aurora made the scene). Thereby, Imogene Sol was created. At the end of 2019, I wrote several chapters, but in early 2020 (pre-pandemic), after a trip to the hospital for an emergency gallbladder surgery, I lost the thread of the story.
For the next nine months, Imogene Sol’s story sat. Toward the end of 2020 in the midst of lockdown, I decided to look at Imogene’s story again, knowing I needed something for my newsletter and wondering if it might be something to include. I wrote another draft—a complete one—and published it in my newsletter in 2021 as a serialized story.
As I worked on publishing The Messy Truth About Love in 2022, I knew I didn’t have the creative bandwidth to write a new novel yet. So I decided to strengthen The Trials of Imogene Sol with a revision and publish it as a novella, hoping for a bit more time to refill the creative well. I was aware the story needed a few more scenes to help it feel more complete, but knew that could be done given the amount of time I was providing myself.
Now, three months into rewriting, it turns out there is enough story for a novel—and a fun one at that. I’m in the process of the first revision (after the drafted rewrite and armed with some feedback). With a few new scenes still to write, the book is nearing the 50,000 word mark. Shorter than most of my novels, but still considered a full length novel. For comparison, Swimming Sideways topped out around 82,000 give or take a few words and The Messy Truth About Love was around 95,000 words. My longest novel is The Stories Stars Tell which altogether is around 135,000 words give or take (very long for a contemporary).
Besides the length of the story, the biggest difference is the category. All my books up to this point have been contemporary stories with the exception of The Ugly Truth and The Bones of Who We Are which while still mostly contemporary, both contain elements of magical realism. Imogene Sol’s story is going to be the biggest change.
Set on a planet in an interplanetary federation, Imogene’s story takes place at a Federation Academy called The Ring Academy during her final year. She’s competing for job placement in the Federation, only it becomes very clear that someone is after her, and it isn't just her job on the line but her life. This story is going to be more plot driven than many of my other stories, but there’s still an important emphasis on interpersonal relationships, including a budding romance. While not strictly science fiction, I’d label it more space opera, or a subcategory of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare while capitalizing on the melodrama of high-stakes and high risk adventure, interpersonal relationships, and romance. A famous example of a space opera is Star Wars.
Ultimately, I am enjoying the opportunity to write outside the “norm” of what I’ve offered so far in stories I’ve published. I absolutely adore contemporary stories, but I am also a huge fan of other categories. Imogene Sol isn’t the last story you will get from me that steps outside the bounds of contemporary stories. I hope you are as excited about that as I am.
The Ring Academy: The Trials of Imogene Sol is scheduled for publication on August 1, 2023.