Theodore Place

The Great Love of Fenneck Finnegan Frostears First Pages Submission.pdf

Story Statement: A tailor, a musician, and a ballet dancer liberate their country and their own identities in order to publicly and intimately love each other. Antagonist (200 words): (I have two main antagonists) General Lucyen Antov is the homosexual military leader in the fascist country of Lenisily that targets queer individuals with criminal punishments. He believes that by working hard in the military and his blessing of being reincarnated into a high class in this life, he’s earned the right to be queer and break the law he enforces over most lower class individuals beneath him. Intrigued by Erikur’s resilience to push his way through the caste system, he hooks up with him at a ball, like many other men he’s able to have trysts with and threaten into silence. He tells Erikur about a past lover who used him, his pessimistic views on love, and his cruel perspective on society at large. He betrays Erikur after rendering him vulnerable in a BDSM sex dungeon when he discovers Erikur’s revolutionary intentions. They both escape this encounter and later face each other on the battlefield once the revolution is underway, Erikur convinces him to surrender, but Lucyen demands Erikur kill him. He tells Erikur he hopes Erikur proves him wrong in his next life. Erikur kills him and destroys the giant bridge they’re fighting on, effectively ending the war. Emperor Anessen, the reigning emperor’s, rule has been in the shadow of the suspicious circumstances of his parents double suicide that everyone believes he orchestrated, and his wife, Natasha’s, premature death during the birth of their only child. As a result of these circumstances and isolating himself, Anessen became apathetic and the country suffered. Fenneck has memories throughout the course of the story that reveal he was Natasha and that he shares a magical soul connection with Anessen called sjelevyn. When the Revolution starts, Fenneck decides to confront Anessen, believing their love is strong enough to stop the war. Fenneck reveals to Anessen that Milena murdered Natasha with poison and convinces Anessen to stop dropping bombs on Flottenheim. Anessen kills Milena to avenge Natasha in front of Fenneck, torturing her and horrifying Fenneck by his cruelty. After Fenneck does his best to settle ceasefire negotiations, Anessen offers him a position as his advisor, but tells Fenneck he is straight and not interested in him romantically. Fenneck turns him down and convinces Anessen to allow him to leave. Anessen is upset by this, but he gives Fenneck resources to help him back to Flottenheim and tells him never to return. (This sets him up as a bigger villain for Book 2) Breakout Title: (In order of preference) Option 1: THE GREAT LOVE OF FENNECK FINNEGAN FROSTEARS Option 2: THE ART OF REVOLUTIONARY LOVE Option 3: THE ELVES OF NIVALYA: LIBERATION Comps: It combines the spicy gay romance and exploration of reincarnation, past lives and soul connections in THE EMPEROR AND THE ENDLESS PALACE by Justinian Huang with the Slavic, revolution, and high fantasy elements of TO CAGE A GOD by Elizabeth May. Hook/Pitch/Logline: The irreverently narrated tale of how a tailor and a musician's closeted queer relationship falls apart when, pressured by their fascist elven society, they choose contradicting paths to find happiness and freedom. Conflict: The tailor, Fenneck: Tension Areas: In the action of the first couple chapters Fenneck faces: Bisexual Crisis disrupts sense of self, makes risky/self-serving decisions under false pretenses with his partner, chooses to flirt with Evelyn and accepts her offer to date knowing he’s technically cheating on Erikur, put in awkward position when Lucyen stops the Petrovs and worried about being clocked for his queerness and he’s uncomfortable while using his privilege to protect them, he feels sjelevyn (soul connection from a past life) with the baby Kapelya and has a strong sense of longing that he projects to be the desire to have children, he’s stressed about money and buying a house for himself one day, and time to finish Evelyn’s dress before the ball Core Wound: Fenneck's core wound is his self-doubt as he reconciles with his bisexuality and his resistance to turn to violence to fix the problems in the world when the people he loves most pressure him to. The musician, Erikur: In the action of the first couple chapters Erikur faces: fight with his father, loss of security and home, tension coming out to Fenneck, sexual tension with Fenneck the first time they kiss, he gets filthy and uncomfortable running away from his home, vulnerable, lies to Fenneck about the revolutionary group he’s involved with, reader realizes that both Fenneck and Erikur are lying and keeping secrets from each other creating tension through dramatic irony, he walks in on Fenneck and Evelyn’s fitting and instinctively knows Fenneck was being disloyal but he can’t prove it, he’s worried about the war and has pressure on him to confess the plan to Fenneck Core Wound: Erikur's core wound mirrors Fenneck's self-doubt as he starts to doubt the foundations of his beliefs in his gay/effeminate identity and the political and social world around him. The ballet dancer, Evelyn: The character who is revealed as the narrator halfway through the story, is a transgender man who discovers this aspect of his identity over the course of the novel. He doesn't get an actual POV chapter until that reveal. But he is on the page creating tension between Fenneck and Erikur but flirting and coming onto Fenneck and then later getting 'kidnapped' by Erikur right before the revolution. Core Wound: Evelyn's core wound also revolves around self-doubt and insecurities over his noble family who neglects him and his body and gender dysphoria as he falls in love with two queer men. Setting: The High-Fantasy setting of Nivalya contains a large continent of which the northernmost snow-covered country, Lenisily, is where this story takes place. Lenisily is very large and cut off from the southern countries by a mountain range, with an arctic ocean to the north and east, and a gulf and tundra to its west. At the southern border, the highest mountain in the region is where a complex city of caves fill out the entirety of the palace-topped mountain called the city of Flottenheim. Then there is the Vallee beneath it, one of the largest expanses of land within the country where crops can grow. This is the main setting, where the highest classes live on the highest layers of the mountain of Flottenheim and the wealth gap gets increasingly larger the further down you go, until you get to the Vallee where viscounts and lords manage the farm land with massive estates, as this is the breadbasket for the nation as a whole. The only way to easily travel to and from major cities is by way of The Great Skyway, a massive, ancient stone bridge that extends vertically across the entire continent, from the capital of Lenisily, Leniscow, to the north, through Flottenheim and into the countries to the south hitting the metropolises Ringstad and Sivania. I plan on including a map in the published book. Their technology/magic system is based on kristals,. Quartz is the most common, used for lighting, superficial healing spells, and is accessible to most people regardless of class/financial status. More powerful, rare kristals have different abilities, like citrine, which is used to artificially create sunlight and energy, has transformative properties, and can help speed up the process for growing plants. Or ruby that can be used to cast fire-related spells and can be quite dangerous if used by someone well-practiced. Labradorite is also very plot specific in this novel as it can grant a person the ability to teleport. Emperor Anessen lives in Leniscow, the capital city north of Flottenheim where their military is based out of. The Grand Duke Georgi and Duchess Milena, the Emperor’s sister and her husband, live in the grand palace at the top of Flottenheim as it is a very prosperous city and often the first hub for trade with the southern countries. They’re known for hosting lavish parties and performances, like the ballet our story starts during, and they have two children, Princess Jasna who is aligned with the revolutionaries trying to gain independence and Prince Nikolai who ends up sexually accosting Evelyn at one of the balls and is killed by Erikur during this attack. Evelyn is a Lady and child of Viscount Popov who has a large estate and power in the region. The story takes place during the week long Winter’s Eve Festival, the last hurrah of elite parties and performances before everyone huddles down for the harsh winters that Lenisily is known for. There are special performances, like the ballet at the beginning of the book. There are different themed balls, like the Snowfall Ball where everyone in attendance must wear head to toe white. The final night of the Festival is when the revolutionaries plan to enact their coup. The working class consists of people of varying races and backgrounds, compared to the elites who are primarily elves - indicated by their androgynous features, long lives, pointy ears and their consciousness of their past lives and reincarnation history. The other predominant races within Flottenheim are other elves, halflings, humans and some half-elves who are the most discriminated against, as elves believe that is a cursed way to possibly be reincarnated. It is illegal for elves and humans to reproduce or be married. Halflings are most notably indicated by their short statures, slightly pointed ears and thicker, hairier bodies. In Flottenheim, halflings have strong familial communities and union-like bonds as many of them work in the mines where they have managed to smuggle kristals to stockpile as weapons for the revolution they’re planning. The farms in the Vallee tend to be staffed by humans, elves and half-elves who are essentially living as slaves to the controlling landlords and viscounts, sometimes without the means to even afford proper housing. Within the city, craftsmen are able to make what would be deemed the middle class where Fenneck and Erikur, our two main protagonists, live and work. Fenneck’s father is a scribe who works in the palace, commuting from the second level of the mountain where they live in an apartment style 2-bed 2-bath home. His mother’s brother is a bachelor tailor on the first level of the mountain so Fenneck was given a choice to become a tailor or a scribe, and he chose to become a tailor and has managed to build a promising career for himself and hopes to move into a home on the first level of the mountain soon. Erikur was born to an animal farmer on the third level of the mountain who disowned him as a teenager when he came out as gay. Fenneck’s family took him in and he was able to advance his music skills and earn a spot in the Flottenheim Symphony Orchestra. With Fenneck’s savings, and his family’s connections, they helped Erikur buy a house right down the road from them, as a result, setting Fenneck’s own ability to buy a home and move out back by decades.