Mortal Coils

I'm starting a series of posts about my various novels and writing projects. And since I've been recently rereading it, we'll start with Mortal Coils, a novel I came up with for 2010's NaNoWriMo and which I failed utterly to finish.

Thistle and Weeds by Mumford and Sons - theme song for the story

This is one of those novels that I feel has been in the back of my mind for a long time. Because it's set in what is essentially my parents' hometown - a small but ancient (in American terms) mill town on the coast of New England. As I mentioned in my last post, I have tended over the years to write many detailed descriptions of places and people on random scraps of paper. I have a rather large collection of those scraps pertaining specifically to spending time in that town and being around the people who live and have lived there for most of their adult lives.

Here's a rundown of the story.

The Macpherson family has lived in Lamprey Falls for centuries. And for centuries the citizens of Lamprey Falls have known that there is something about the Macpherson family that is not quite normal.What they don't know is the family's long-kept secret that they are witches with demons bound to their service.

Noah Macpherson

Noah, a young scion of the Macpherson clan, has been summoned back to his family's house after finishing his college degree halfway across the country. His grandfather is dying. His sister is about to have the first baby of the new generation. His alcoholic uncle has moved back into the house after his latest divorce. And his grandmother, the clan's matriarch, is trying to choose an heir.

But Noah has his own problems that his family and even his demon can't seem to help him with. He's dreaming.

Miranda Fairchild 

Noah dreams repeatedly and with increasing frequency of a red-haired woman who is destined to fall in love with and destroy him. Not long after he returns home, he meets this woman from his dreams and is terrified to find that she is real - and working at his favorite bookstore.

Another theme song - for Noah and Miranda.

Miranda likes Noah right away. They both love art and history. They both want to visit Europe. And he makes her laugh. But there is something not quite right about him. And sometimes she catches him looking at her as though he's trying to decipher a puzzle. Then again, sometimes Miranda thinks something isn't quite right about her either. Ever since she moved to Lamprey Falls, she can't sleep at night. She wakes up from daydreams she doesn't remember having. Not to mention she can't quite explain to anyone why she wanted to move to this town in the first place.

What Miranda doesn't know about herself could not only kill her new boyfriend - but it could destroy his entire family.

There's the rundown. I'll post more in-depth about the characters later. This ought to be fun, considering I have a Macpherson family tree going back four generations (and heavily linked to two other witch clans).