melanie corinne

Chapter One (Katya POV): Losing a twin is a kind of suicide. Alexi loved the woods. I only ever liked it because he was there with me. There was no other reason I’d be loitering alone in the Adirondacks on a balmy summer evening if not for him. I preferred the beach. I dialed Alexi’s cell and swatted a mosquito away. “Алло. Alexi here.” I leaned into the phone. “You have my number, so text me like a normal person.” The line cut to a beep. I texted him. Again. I kicked another pile of leaves. “Cука!” Two birds stopped foraging to offer beady-eyed condolences. I doubted anything would make me feel better. Cursing him out wasn’t cathartic like it was when I could do it to his face. I wandered off the trail, past a stretch of missing-persons tape. It had withered to the tree in the time since his disappearance. This was the unremarkable spot where he vanished. I pulled our brand of tequila from my pack, popped the cap, and took a swig in his honor. Even obfuscated by conifers, ferns and moist air, with a gummy forest-bed of dead needles and moss beneath me, I felt closer to him here. We may have been fonder of the apartment, but this was the last place I saw his feet on earth. Sacred ground. The sun dipped below the canopy and bled a gold wash into the sky. What I wouldn’t give to be sharing chilled sips of vodka over dinner with him, instead of drinking alone in the woods. I missed sharing midnight cigarettes on the fire-escape of our Brighton Beach apartment. I missed our exam study-sessions listening to his Spotify lists, and our beach trips to Long Island, and our petty fighting over the remote because his Netflix picks were always stupid. The tequila burned. I sunk to the base of a tree trunk, as tears pricked at my eyes. What a miserable fucking summer. The worst of our lives, when it should have been the best. Graduating college. Getting jobs. I never learned how to live without him. I thought that by returning to where Alexi went missing, he might’ve come strolling out of the forest, hands in his pockets and hair a defiant mess. He’d return from a missing persons bout in the Adirondacks like some people return from a trip to the corner store – casual, undaunted. But my text remained unread. I slumped back. Golden rays streamed over the canopy. My phone startled the birds in my periphery. Mom was on the caller ID. I swiped the ringer to silence. I couldn’t stomach the sound of her unhappy sobs. Papa was easier at least, with his quiet mourning. After the Park Police called it quits, and SAR moved on, Babka and Ma’s bleak wails filled the Dacha like a funeral parlor. I couldn’t handle it. I swallowed another sip and grimaced. Alexi would say I was being overdramatic with all the tears, but I missed him. Losing a twin is brutal. If he were dead, part of me would be dead too. That’s how I figured Alexi was alive somewhere. I could feel it. I eased to sleep against the bark, under the weight of the week’s unbearable sadness. I didn’t dream. I drifted in the quiet, hoping I’d see my brother’s face again. Time became a liquid thing and in the abstract chemical dark beneath my eyelids, I saw him clear as day. I recalled making dinner together, or him at the piano playing Rachmaninoff like it was some casual thing. I could never figure out the keys. Not even to start. Excerpt from Last Chapter (James POV): “I don’t get you.” Dimitri cautiously left the water’s edge. “I tried to kill you every time we met. You know all of my secrets, through you’ve yet to blackmail me – which I find suspicious. And despite my strongly held opinion that you’re a try-hard piece-of-shit royalist, you’ve consistently put yourself in harm’s way on my behalf. That’s a lot of effort for a man you’ve never met before.” Dimitri holstered his gun and produced a lighter. He lit James’ cigarette. The flame warmed their corner of the garden, however briefly. Dimitri took the cigarette and inhaled a long drag. “I’ve had a long day, too,” James said. “Do you just get off on being a dick?” “You want to know what I get off on, hm?” Dimitri said, dry as dust. He blew the smoke into James’ face. Despite his icy façade, his posture indicated that all of his earlier fury and loathing had passed like a summer storm. “No. You just reminded me of…” “Of who?” James didn’t enjoy being trapped between Dimitri’s prying stare and the brick. “of when I was deployed…” James felt instant regret in his bones. The words were immediately like uneven ground. His tongue felt as clumsy as his scattered thoughts. “There were times where we gave everything we had, but…” James shrugged. “It didn’t work out. Bad policy. Bad people. Bad calls… And you can be two things at once.” James paused, unsure how to continue. Finding the words was new to him. And sitting with it hurt like it hurt to breathe. But Dimitri watched him, quiet and attentive. The possibility that Dimitri might want to understand spurred him on. “You can be part of a community that you come to love more than yourself, and at the same time be an instrument in a system that hurts that community… or helps it, depending on the day. Depending on a change in the weather... You’re not a monster, Dimitri. But you are part of something monstrous, and you fed it. You can’t run from that. Killing yourself won’t absolve or erase it. You just have to carry it.” Dimitri took another drag and passed the cigarette back in quiet contemplation. The cigarette quickly dwindled down in the thick silence between them. The heat of its embers tickled James’ skin. Dimitri stared into the hungry dark. “What if it’s too heavy?” He lingered on the glow bugs and the fragments of their light reflected on the dark water, and the soft orange burn of James’ cigarette. “I didn’t say you had to carry it alone. Just that you had to carry it.” The heat bit at James fingers the same as the pain in his ribs. It was an easy quiet as Dimitri ruminated. “It was easier when Rowan…” He choked up and went stubbornly silent. “I get it.” James ground out the stub, killing the embers. “When I got back, I couldn’t talk to other vets. I’d listen. I agreed with a lot of stuff they said, but I couldn’t…” Dimitri lingered on each word. “…share my own experiences. I only told my sister. Dunno why. Other vets say it’s hard to lean on family, but Rachel and I were always close. After she died, I leaned on my ex more than I should have.” Dimitri chuckled. “She ditch you for someone with less trauma?” “No.” James smiled despite the pain. “He emptied my accounts and fucked off to go do it to someone else I guess.” Wherever David was now, James hoped he was happy. He was a thief and a savior, and it was possible to be two things at once. Dimitri stared in awe. “You… fell for a confidence game?” James didn’t dignify Dimitri with a response. Dimitri burst out laughing. A lyre bird weaved out of his path as he stumbled and held his sides with laughter. He composed himself, wiping tears from his eyes. His mood was decidedly better.

FIRST ASSIGNMENT: write your story statement. Katya: Track down her brother in order to return home together. James: Solve his spiraling caseload (as a means of not dealing with his personal problems) SECOND ASSIGNMENT: in 200 words or less, sketch the antagonist or antagonistic force in your story. Keep in mind their goals, their background, and the ways they react to the world about them. Castri Gangs: Obstructing James and Katya’s goals are the myriad gangs of Arx Castra, who always maintain the status quo of their own power, punish deviance, and uphold their image, even if it means murder. These gangs are entrenched institutions, acting as community pillars, balancing the ambitions of both the aristocracy and corporations. Engaging a gang on equal footing requires institutional backing, leaving our protagonists with an uphill battle. Dimitri Novak: Dimitri’s main goal is survival, and unbeknownst to the protagonists, all their cases lead back to him. Dimitri, a longtime Kozlova syndicate manager, oversees their girls. He is known as uniquely vicious and guarded, even for the Kozlova, on account of being the only elf on staff. When his boss orders him to entrap the husband of a rival gang’s boss, Dimitri knows it’s a no-win situation. Whether he complies, does nothing, or whistle blows, the consequence is death. Dimitri complies to buy time and finds a genuine friend in his mark, sharing his deepest and most dangerous secrets. Their friendship sparks a reactionary chain, where Dimitri will kill to protect what he’s gained. THIRD ASSIGNMENT: create a breakout title (list several options, not more than three, and revisit to edit as needed). · Current working Title: Two-Faced Lovers · The Violent Type · Love is a Losing Game FOURTH ASSIGNMENT: Develop two smart comparables for your novel. This is a good opportunity to immerse yourself in your chosen genre. Who compares to you? And why? Lev Ac Rosen’s Lavender House Both a mystery with a queer detective. Also focuses on found family, uses the culture/environment as a hostile character, and has similar themes of identity, suicidality, and community. Ben Aaronovitch’s Amongst our Weapons (Rivers of London) for its inclusive cast, humor, and fantasy-crime genre mash-up. Tonally it feels similar, the city is also a character. FIFTH ASSIGNMENT: write your own hook line (logline) with conflict and core wound following the format above. Though you may not have one now, keep in mind this is a great developmental tool. In other words, you best begin focusing on this if you're serious about commercial publication. TFL (Mystery/Fantasy): An impulsive young woman teams up with a struggling detective to track down her missing twin through a dangerous, fantastical, and violent city. SIXTH ASSIGNMENT: sketch out the conditions for the inner conflict your protagonist will have. Why will they feel in turmoil? Conflicted? Anxious? Sketch out one hypothetical scenario in the story wherein this would be the case--consider the trigger and the reaction Next, likewise sketch a hypothetical scenario for the "secondary conflict" involving the social environment. Will this involve family? Friends? Associates? What is the nature of it? Katya inner conflict Context: Katya and her twin, Alexi, have just graduated college. They have been inseparable since forever, yet for the first time he’s leaving her for a tech job in California to navigate life on her own. His loss happens earlier than expected when he goes missing during their last summer together in the Adirondacks. Katya’s search lands her in the fantastical city of Arx Castra, where she must learn to live without Alexi, in order to find him. Inner Conflict: Katya is anxious, terrified, and furious about losing her brother, and is impulsive in her pursuit of him. She suppresses the feelings of fear, anxiety, and sadness, and instead focuses on the tasks in front of her. She is reactive when they are not focused on her case, and she wants to cut corners or rush the work that needs to happen to find Alexi - which leads to complications. She needs to slow down, give her emotions space and be more methodical. Secondary Conflict: Katya’s gets a lead on her brother, but because of her impatience, and tendency to rush into things - she loses the lead, which forces her to address some of the issue. She also gets herself into trouble because of her impulsiveness, which strains her relationship to James, and puts her in danger. James Context: James is a military vet, and Castri native, who despite spending most of his life deployed to Aeonia, takes a forced retirement and returns home where he joins his sister at her detective Agency. Within six months, she kills herself, leaving him alone in a city he doesn’t feel at home in any longer. His lover steals his savings and disappears - leaving him at a lifelime low and with a laundry list of problems to address. Inner Conflict: Unfortunately, James doesn’t want to talk about his problems or his past. He’s isolated, depressed, and without purpose. Refusing to ask for help, and stubbornly prideful, he insists on toughing everything out himself. He refuses to acknowledge his struggle and can’t concede that he might actually need help. Secondary Conflict: James’ pride gets his main case derailed when he refuses to humble himself and work things out with the Union, who claim he owes them money. His problematic all-or-nothing approach gets his building damaged, and nearly kills him, leaving him unable to continue on his cases. FINAL ASSIGNMENT: sketch out your setting in detail. What makes it interesting enough, scene by scene, to allow for uniqueness and cinema in your narrative and story? Please don't simply repeat what you already have which may well be too quiet. You can change it. That's why you're here! Start now. Imagination is your best friend, and be aggressive with it. Arx Castra is the setting – and a city that is a character of its own. It’s like a lockbox or a honeycomb. Some people feel safe in the angles and corridors that can’t seem to stay the same, while some people feel dogged by it. James’ agency sits at the edge of two culturally distinct districts, and everywhere that he and Katya go - it’s a negotiation with the culture of the community they step into. For Katya - it’s reminiscent of New York, but far more intense. For James, it’s difficult to step outside. Both of them have to navigate the different architecture, cultures, and expectations of the spaces they pass through, and try to survive it unscathed.