First Draft of "The Chosen" Finished!

I am very excited because today I finished my first draft of my second novel! Just to make it clear, this is not a sequel to my first novel, and is in fact not at all related to my first novel. They are both very different. This book, tentatively called "The Chosen," is essentially a young adult science fiction thriller. It is non-stop action from page one until the end with quite a few twists and turns. The first draft ended up being 85,981 words long, which is just a bit over what my goal was. In the next paragraph I'm going to give a very brief description of the book (basically a blurb like what you would read on the back of the book). If you don't want any spoilers on the book because you want to read it and figure it out for yourself, don't read the next paragraph.

The story follows Anthony Taylor, a young teen who is about as average as they come. His parents have recently divorced and he lives in New York with his mom. Out of the blue, his father calls and wants Tony to come visit him at his new apartment in Los Angeles. So, Tony takes the train from New York to Los Angeles, and finds himself the sole survivor of a mysterious train accident. What follows is a non-stop thrill ride where Anthony discovers that the train crashing was no accident and he is actually being tested by some mysterious group called 'The Chosen.' Who is this mysterious group? What is the purpose of the tests they are putting Tony through? These are questions Tony tries to answer as he ends up in the middle of several terrifying disasters. Through sheer determination and the help of three unlikely friends, can Tony survive long enough to figure out who 'The Chosen' are and what they want with him?

The thing I am most proud of with this book are the four main characters, whom I believe are fairly complex. I am excited to flesh out these characters even more as I revise the novel several times. I'm also considering changing the name of the group the book centers around (and therefore the books title). I am considering changing it to "The Elite" or "The Elect." At the moment I am leaning towards "The Elect." I hope to revise the book over the next few weeks and allow some of my closest friends and family to read it and give me feedback on how I can improve it. Hopefully by the end of the summer or so I will feel confident enough in it that I might try to get it published. If anybody who reads this blog is interested in reading a very rough, early draft of my book, please comment or e-mail me. It'll probably be a few weeks, though, since I'd like to go through and revise it at least once before I let people read it.

But, I am very excited, and can't wait to continue working on it, and perhaps even start thinking of ideas for a potential sequel...