Empress Theresa: what do you do with limitless power?

empther · Dec 16, 2013

Hello. I'm a new member on this board.

I wrote a novel called Empress Theresa. It's about an eighteen year old girl named Theresa who acquires limitless power in present day America.

There's an interesting question. What would you do with limitless power? The book gives one possible answer, what Theresa does with it. She does pretty well!

[MOD NOTE: EDITED OUT YOUR STORY. NO POSTING OF WORK BEFORE YOU REACH 50 POSTS]

Nothing has happened yet,
but count how many things you already know about Theresa. :snoopy:

Approx 101,000 words. It took nineteen years to write. Well, that's fourteen words a day. Is there a hurry? My second book will come out in 2032.

Pushingfordream · Dec 16, 2013

Welcome to the forums! Do you have plans for manuscript or still working?

drzimo · Dec 16, 2013

Welcome to the Forum!

jvc · Dec 16, 2013

Empther, welcome to the forums. I've edited out your story from your first post. Members are not allowed to post work until they reach 50 posts. Please read this thread (password = vista) and the newbie guide.

rwm4768 · Dec 16, 2013

Welcome. I hope you get that second book written more quickly. Sometimes, those first books can be a special case. They take much longer than anything else we ever write.

regdog · Dec 17, 2013

Take some time and read the Newbie Guide and the Stickies found
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Tepelus · Dec 17, 2013

Hello, and welcome!

Chase · Dec 17, 2013

It used to be fun to read intros and welcome new members, but lately too many are drive-by commercials for some "totally unique" writing project, as if the rest of us are a mob of eager readers waiting to pounce on the latest self-promotion.

Whatever happened to hello, fellow writers?

empther · Dec 17, 2013

Oops! I didn't know you couldn't post excerpts until you have 50 posts under the belt. :poke:

Welcome to the forums! Do you have plans for manuscript or still working?

It's been on Amazon KINDLE for a while.

I'm working on a cover for an Amazon CREATESPACE printed addition. Hopefully that will be available within the next two months.

Empress Theresa is the ideal novel for kids. It has positive values, no sex scenes or violence, and presents a teenaged girl as a hero for a change. No, not as a survivor of trying situations. That's common. Theresa is proactive. She goes out there and does things, even at the risk of her life.
The book has no histrionics. Theresa has the serenity of somebody at peace with herself. However, she does lose her temper or cry when the occasion calls.

I'll order printed copies myself and send them to the English departments of high schools. Here, finally, is a book teachers can recommend.

jvc · Dec 17, 2013

Chase said:
It used to be fun to read intros and welcome new members, but lately too many are drive-by commercials for some "totally unique" writing project, as if the rest of us are a mob of eager readers waiting to pounce on the latest self-promotion.

Whatever happened to hello, fellow writers?

No idea. It doesn't look like we're about to experience it here, though.

empther said:
Oops! I didn't know you couldn't post excerpts until you have 50 posts under the belt.

It's been on Amazon KINDLE for a while.

I'm working on a cover for an Amazon CREATESPACE printed addition. Hopefully that will be available within the next two months.

Empress Theresa is the ideal novel for kids. It has positive values, no sex scenes or violence, and presents a teenaged girl as a hero for a change. No, not as a survivor of trying situations. That's common. Theresa is proactive. She goes out there and does things, even at the risk of her life.
The book has no histrionics. Theresa has the serenity of somebody at peace with herself. However, she does lose her temper or cry when the occasion calls.

I'll order printed copies myself and send them to the English departments of high schools. Here, finally, is a book teachers can recommend.

Sure, if the writing is any good, and the story is compelling, I'm sure they'd jump at the chance. Good luck.

thehairymob · Dec 17, 2013

L. Y. · Dec 17, 2013

Welcome to the Water Cooler!

:welcome:

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Enjoy your stay.

Old Hack · Dec 17, 2013

empther said:
I'll order printed copies myself and send them to the English departments of high schools. Here, finally, is a book teachers can recommend.

Teachers have thousands of books they can recommend. And with all due respect, I think it's a bad idea sending copies of your book to schools.

I've seen other writers try this, and all that happens is the books end up in the bin. Most schools have very specific requirements for the books they recommend to their pupils, and teachers and librarians don't have time to check for themselves that books which are given to them fit those requirements.

empther · Dec 18, 2013

Old Hack, ( I'm 65 myself! )

I've seen other writers try this, and all that happens is the books end up in the bin.

If I get no response after sending out a dozen copies I'll stop. :Shrug:

Most schools have very specific requirements for the books they recommend to their pupils, and teachers and librarians don't have time to check for themselves that books which are given to them fit those requirements.

Some high schools have "Summer reading lists". Students are required to read one or two books on the list during the Summer. ( How do they enforce that? :tongue

)
Some books are the classics you'd expect: Tom Sawyer, Tale of Two Cities, and stuff like that. But sometimes the lists include, or are even entirely made up of, contemporary books you never heard of.
The choice is up to the school's staff, very likely a single individual, and it seems anything goes. Some of these people want a present day, real life situation scenario.
[ The teachers may find it hard to sell stories that take place in the past. I've had a teenager tell me, "It happened a long time ago. Who cares?" A twenty year old told me he's never seen Gone With the Wind, The Ten Commandments, The Sound of Music, Spartacus or any other blockbuster movie like that although they're on television free every year. Why not? "I don't watch any movie older than me." That's what the teachers are up against. ]

Now, Empress Theresa takes place in the present day, with settings in Framingham, Mass, Boston, New York, Washington DC, London, Israel, and North Korea, and involves realities of our time: the animosity of Israel and Arabs, the world oil supply, and the North Korean dictatorship.
There's your present day, real life situation scenario. :snoopy:

empther · Dec 18, 2013

Oh! In the last post I forgot to mention one detail, but it deserves its own post anyways.

I'll be sending copies of the book to Catholic schools.

There is no religious doctrine or preaching or anything like that in the book, but it is mentioned that Theresa is Catholic. Well, she had to be something or nothing didn't she? :Shrug:

The reader will want to know. But an alien from Vulcan arriving on Earth would have no idea what a Catholic was from reading the book.

It is interesting that one important section of the book involves Israel. To keep it short, Theresa comes to Israel's rescue. Now, if Steven Speilberg or some other Jew was writing the screenplay for Empress Theresa, he'd make Theresa Jewish because she's heroic. :Trophy:

Well, what else would you expect! :tongue

But making Theresa Catholic makes this rescue operation more poignant.

Anyways,

there are an incredible number of Catholic high schools in the US, their teachers must be sick and tired of trying to find a story about a heroic Catholic girl that doesn't preach, ( how's that for an original? :Jump:

) and their eyebrows will go up when they see Empress Theresa. :PartySmil

[[[ Did I forget to mention there are 1,150,000,000 Catholics in the world?
I'm not just a pretty face. :tongue

]]]

Stacia Kane · Dec 18, 2013

empther said:
Now, if Steven Speilberg or some other Jew was writing the screenplay for Empress Theresa, he'd make Theresa Jewish because she's heroic. Well, what else would you expect!

Sorry? I'm afraid I don't understand your point here. Could you explain it, and why you're making it?

bluntforcetrauma · Dec 18, 2013

welcome

bluediamond · Dec 18, 2013

welcome!

Welcome
What would I do with limitless power?
I would make sure, all candy wrapper were edible.
I would take all my friend to all the planets.
I could play baseball all year long.
I would build the biggest tree house anyone ever saw.
I could play the piano better than Linus.
Oh! I make sure those screwball agents, recognized my work as a masterpiece.
The possibilities are endless!
Welcome again

empther · Dec 18, 2013

Sorry? I'm afraid I don't understand your point here. Could you explain it, and why you're making it?
_______

It's simply that everybody is naturally interested in their own background.
A Moslem would write a very different Theresa, ( and almost certainly change the Israeli situation I wrote to something very different :evil

),
and an Englishman writing Empress Theresa would probably make her a British Anglican but keep all the situations in the book the same,
etc etc etc,

but I made Theresa an American Catholic,
not to promote the Church's teachings, but because that's the background I come from.

That's all.

Marian Perera · Dec 18, 2013

empther said:
It's simply that everybody is naturally interested in their own background.

I actually prefer reading and writing about people of different backgrounds. I already know about my own homeland and the religion I was raised in, so I'm interested in finding out about other places and faiths.

empther · Dec 18, 2013

I actually prefer reading and writing about people of different backgrounds. I already know about my own homeland and the religion I was raised in, so I'm interested in finding out about other places and faiths.

I understand. Most of the books I've been reading lately are about Europe. I'm currently re-reading Pride and Prejudice after noting a comment by Will Durant in his The Age of Napoleon that by prejudice Jane Austen meant only a preconceived notion stubbornly adhered to and not racial prejudice.

However,.............
in Empress Theresa, Theresa becomes an international hero with great achievements.
Naturally, I wanted to see what an American girl with do with this. I'm not interested in what a Chinese girl would do.

James D. Macdonald · Dec 18, 2013

That's great that you've finished a novel, empther. Lots of people who try never make it that far.

What you should do now is start another one. Rather than 18 years, you have 18 weeks. But you're going to aim for 80,000 words so it isn't that bad. That's about two and a half pages a day (in standard manuscript format). The next book must have nothing whatever to do with Theresa or her situation. No characters in common.

Use what you've learned from writing this book to make the next one even better.

Ready, set, type!

AW Admin · Dec 18, 2013

empther

Welcome to AW.

Please do take the time and, as your Welcome PM suggests, read The Newbie Guide to Absolute Write.

You'll notice that there are stickied posts and FAQs; those are good to read before posting as well.

This is a big place, with lots of different kinds of people writing all sorts of things, but there's always room for a new member.

Empress Theresa: what do you do with limitless power?

empther

Pushingfordream

Writing about life!

drzimo

jvc

Fearsome Dragon Mod

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW

regdog

The Scavengers

Tepelus

And so...

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

empther

jvc

Fearsome Dragon Mod

thehairymob

If I had a brain I'd still be dumb

L. Y.

Thread surfer and virtual bartender

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

empther

empther

Stacia Kane

Girl Detective

bluntforcetrauma

Esquire

bluediamond

The scribbled word is alive!

empther

Marian Perera

starting over

empther

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

AW Admin