The Beginning

Even though I had a knack for transferring my imagination onto paper, just like any other writer, I've stumbled with so many ideas for possible stories that I have a lot of projects trashed or pushed to the back of my flash drive. And yet even after all these years, I still remember the stories I've trashed to this very day...maybe I’ll bring them back someday. Who knows but those are not important right now! Thankfully now, I only have 4 plots for the Zodiac series. I’ll talk about those individually soon, but for this post I’ll be talking about what brought up the idea for a series based off the Chinese Zodiac.

Before adding them to the series I've already had two other projects that I had no intention of connecting. The plot for the first book was created in my last year of high school. At Black River Public School the last four weeks of school are open for Project Term, this allows students to partake in extra ordinary classes like camping trips, trips to other countries like Spain, Japan, and Australia or collaborative art and music projects. One of the classes I was taking was called ‘Just Write!’ a class my Chemistry teacher was in charge of. We were each given a notebook that we were free to write about anything as long as it connected to the theme he taped to the white board.

So, the first day of class our teacher told us to write about something based on three random things of our choosing. So, the first three words that popped into my head were: Desert, assassin, harem. Next I thought of what I should write about and so I came up with this: A young woman whose father is a retired assassin, has caught the eye of the king so he puts her in his harem. As I began to write I started to really get into it and wanted to expand it some more. I handed in the short story version to my teacher but I couldn't get my mind off all the possibilities I could do with this plot, and that’s when I started to write seriously.

The Chinese Phoenix

For a while I started to play with this idea, doing some research, tinkering with the characters but what I focused on more was how could I insert a bit of myself into my Main Female Character. I will go into great details about that in the next post but for now, this is how the first book of the series was born. I wanted to write a series based off the Chinese zodiac so I could express the personalities of the characters representing the different signs. Even if those characters have nothing in common with my own personality.

After continuing to write Tiger’s Eye a thought caught my attention, to connect the projects I currently have into a series. I have four books with the Tiger sign, the Dog/wolf sign the Rabbit sign and the Rooster - however it will be a Phoenix instead of a Rooster and if you believe that there is no connection between the Rooster and the Phoenix check this out! At first I planned on writing 12 books, each for the zodiac signs but I realized that will be too much for me to handle. WHAT was I thinking?! So I cut the number of books in half, but I will have all 12 signs amongst the six books. Even though I still have a long ways to go, I believe that I will write six books and complete the series. With my trusty sidekicks, music, imagination and more importantly CHOCOLATE I will successfully publish my books!

Welcome to the Zodiac Chronicles blog!

This will be my very first blog so please be patient with me for it will take me a while to put up a new blog post. So, with that said I guess I will start with how this all began.

I've always had a love for writing, even if my writing didn't make sense at all I continued to polish my styles even to this very day. Plus, because I've grown up surrounded by music it has become my #1 inspiration for my stories. From the traditional classical to soundtracks as well as pop, rock, metal, hip-hop, rap, Celtic, soul and new age. One music group has put me on the edge while I'm writing and that is Two Steps from Hell, if you have not listened to any of their music before I suggest you check them out, the music is awesome!

Two Steps from Hell

I mentioned before that I also love soundtracks like Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Transformers (even it the movies are horrible, they still have a kick-ass soundtrack). My #1 soundtrack thought is The Prince of Egypt! I love that movie, and the music is beautiful, if you have not seen the movie go check it out, you will not be disappointed! 

More or less, music isn't the only thing that inspires me. As an African American, I'm sure that you can imagine, my childhood had its ups and downs. Especially in school, I've had my share of insults from other kids. I still remember the first time I was picked on about my race it was the year 2005 when I was in fifth grade when five boys called my brother and I chocolate bars. Thinking about that now...yeah that was a weak insult, he compared me to delicious candy that everybody loves. Again not the best insult but that was the first time I was bullied because of my race. At first my friends and family told me to ignore those people and everything will be fine...boy were they wrong!

Eventually the insults became worst and some physical damage was added to the mix. I became the target of two 8th grade boys who called me monkey and loved to throw snowballs mostly consisted of ice and gravel. When my parents found out about the bullying my dad took it to the principle and the boys were suspended and put on garbage duty during recess. 

Even though the bullying stopped, I became very wary of everybody around me. So I tried to avoid everybody, even my own friends. Because not only was I picked on because of my race, but whenever I develop a crush and the person I'm crushing on finds out I become an even bigger target for the bullies. 

Avatar: The Last Airbender 2006

It seemed like there was no ignoring the name calling, so I did what every kid would do when they want to escape the harsh world...watch TV of course! To be more specific, I was watching my favorite show Avatar: The Last Airbender and something about the show inspired me to do a little bit of writing. That's when I discovered how fun and interesting it is to create my own world, characters and creatures. I also discovered that writing was a great way to vent my emotions - mostly because I could kill the people who bullied me in my story than in real life ;)! Mostly, I was connected to my characters through the emotion I held inside. 

Then in 2008 my family moved from Zeeland MI to Holland MI and I had to switched to Black River Public School. A new school and that lead to a new me! During my time at Black River I was challenged...BIG TIME with my writing style but I improved little by little until it lead me to my final project in order for me to graduate high school. A five chapter Historical fiction book I named "Black Sun." Looking back at the story today, there are a lot of errors I could have cleaned up, but I treasure those five chapters because that was the first time I've ever shared my work to others. 

Now its 2014 and can definitely tell you that I have come a long way as a writer, using negative emotions as the foundation for my writing and building characters. Everything I've gone through has brought me to working on The Zodiac Chronicles, and I cannot wait to finish these books.

Wish me luck!

Willette Mitchell

*P.S.: Don't hesitate to ask me questions, I'll answer them in the next post!*