Glistening Harbor

Genesis

The idea for this book came vaguely when I was writing Book 5 in the Dream Slayer series. In this series there is a hybrid vampire/demon creature who can live among humans, go out in sunlight, but need to feed on blood. An offshoot develops into a monster who doesn't want to harm people, but only wants to be normal. In that book, Natalie, must decide if she continues to kill monsters simply because they are monsters even if they've done nothing wrong. In the end she stands against her team for what she knows is right.

It led to me wanting to take the plot where I thought would be too heavy for a YA book. So the Glistenings were born so I could take the basic principal of racism, segregation, where humans aren't necessarily the good guys anymore (but maybe they aren't the bad guys either).

My Dream Slayer series, almost everyone in it is likeable. This book I'm finding is far different and I'm really enjoying writing something so different than what I've been doing for the last three years.

Themes

Other themes it covers is the desire for most people to want to live with blinders on. Forget the bad, focus on the good, live with their heads down and pray for the best. Unfortunately  for the Glistenings, it means for them that they are constantly being monitored through cameras and the police, even in their own homes.

The Glistenings are major players in the beginning of the book especially and you see everything from their POV, from their eyes they are the good guys and when the POV switches to the humans, same thing. Some humans are sympathetic to them, while others definately are not. The book aims to tell a story and whose right and whose wrong, that'll be left up to the readers.

Technology

This book takes place in about 30 years in the future, but I'm not really a sci-fi girl so the tech isn't all that advanced. It has things we have now like the internet, computers. There are advanced communication systems between team players and computers and cell phones are essentially the same thing. Camera and survalliance recordings are stored on servers called 'vids' rather than on tape and cell phone technology is advanced enough now that instead of playing Tetris on them to pass the time, they play First Person Shooters instead.

I may introduce some other small things, if I can think of them. I'm hoping the subtle tech will be enough to appease critics, but I'm sure my husband will tell me otherwise and give me suggestions. Maybe I should just steal his Link idea :P