That means I’ll soon be pounding out another 50K words in my annual ritual of literary masochism. This year’s project (working title Ivory Merchants) is my first attempt at a period piece, set in London in the 1880s. To make it official, I wrote the following synopsis for the NaNoWriMo website:

Young Charles Sowbury lives with his father in east London in 1886. The high walls and barred windows provided a barrrier between the house and the abject poverty of the surrounding city streets, but that barrier has eroded after his father’s business fell on hard times. The arrival of new business promises an end to all their money woes, but at what cost? Who they are and where they came from are shrouded in mystery. The closer Charles gets to learning the truth, the more astonishing it becomes.