I fully expect to fail this year, but I will at least do it with style and more than zero words!
I'm in the middle of a mostly-planned novel already, so for November, I'm taking a break from it and diving into a shiny new idea I got over the summer. I'll be using tonight and tomorrow to get a better idea of how I want to tackle it, but I've already got a general outline and look forward to using NaNo as a character study if anything.
Premise: It feels very Cinderella-y at first as Angella loses her mother at a young age to sickness, but her father, a German duke, dies before her eyes during an attack at a grand winter ball, during which Angella loses hearing in her right ear. She is left with her stepmother, who insists the only way their family and estate can recover is if Angella marries a rich bachelor with the business skills to save it. In the meantime, Angella falls in love with their pianist, being a violinist herself and regularly playing with him.
Her stepmother finally finds a suitor in a surprising man, the frail and sickly Prince Leopold of England. They travel to England and stay there as they court, and she slowly develops a care for the prince. During a fancy party in which the prince had planned to declare an engagement, another attack happens at the ball by the same criminals. Angella, instinctively clutching her violin, is shepherded away from the palace and winds up staying in secret with her pianist and his surprise fiancee.
Having lost nearly everything she had, Angella ventures off on her own and makes a life for herself from homeless to traveling musician. She hopes one day to raise the money and support needed to perhaps recover her father's estate, but with a developing mysterious disease going around, the lingering powers of men, a prejudice against the deaf (though she is only partially-deaf), a target on her back with a criminal organization on her heels, and her heart's emotions pulled left and right, can Angella find a happily ever after?
Spoiler! :
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