A long long time ago before I made a harder pivot to fantasy fiction, I wanted to dive into writing a young adult horse story. I began the first story in my Silverwood Academy series, Double Standards. My protagonist is the daughter of a senator who wants to be allowed to follow her dreams rather than be the poster child of a politican. Her free spirited nature gets her in trouble, and while I really enjoyed writing this story, I also felt a bit off about it. Why when it comes to writing a young adult horse story were we constantly telling the tales of rich people and the children of rich people? And yes, horses can be expensive (they also don’t have to be). So I lost interest in the story.
Then the Pegasus Academy happened. And while that series takes place from the point of view from the new director of the academy, I have written a few young adult horse stories that take place at the academy (such as Winter Unicorn, a free novella available here). The more I got into that world, the more I wanted to bring it into Silverwood Academy? After all, if the Musimagium is setting up regular academy-type schools for the Musimagium, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that those who don’t have magic, but are from magical families, would end up in non-magical academies like Silverwood.
Following that thought, I pondered having a character show up who was *gasp* from a magical family, and of course Jilly’s Senator Father wouldn’t want his daughter to have anything to do with someone from a magical family, even if they didn’t have magic themselves. It’d be a good foil for Jilly’s free spirited nature and her sense of justice and fairness that I set up early in the story, not to mention a possible romantic connection down the road.
Though looking at my schedule I’m not sure when I’d get a chance to write this story, but now, I have a chance. I wasn’t sure about bringing magic into a very mundane story before. Now? This could be the kind of introduction to my young adult world that I need. It’s something to think about. We’ll see what the future brings for this story. I so do hate to leave things unfinished.
Have some tokens to spend before Vella is gone? Check out Double Standards.
