Story Ideas

I will try to list the ideas I have for stories in the order I have put the most work into them, so keep that in mind when deciding for the poll what you would like to see me work on. I will list them by the main character's name, if I have it yet.

1. Gyrfalke
I've probably put more work into this story than any other. Gyrfalke lives at the tail end of the Hundred Years War, in France. She works for an estate that specializes in creating custom embroidered works, like tapestries and such. She is very good at what she does, and dreams of one day starting her own guild in Paris. However, she's hindered by the fact she bore a child out of wedlock and has rather a temper on her. To begin the story, the estate is hosting a tournament in honor of Henry V of England, who has just won a major battle and looks to be taking the throne of France. A mysterious knight catches her eye, and she begins a pursuit of him, and be damned to what anyone thinks of it. War, interfering females, jealous rivals, and stubbornness on both sides inevitably get in the way of the romance, but of course, everything should come out happy in the end.

2. Salome/Kestrel
Salome lives around the time of the War of 1812. She's American, but she has come to London to beseech her aunt to host a Season for her, all because she has to capture a husband before her 21st birthday or she loses the family plantation. Salome leads a double life as a shipping magnate named Kestrel Sinclair, whom had bought out her brother's shipping business when he went mysteriously missing in the Caribbean. Salome researches all the eligible bachelors in town and settles on one in particular, but now she has to win him before time runs out, but suddenly word arrives that her brother might have been found, and she needs to rescue him. So what should she do, rescue her brother, save her plantation, or hope for love with a man she barely knows yet is inevitably drawn to?

3. Anne and Kate
Anne and Kate are twins living at the end of the Civil War, in Natchez, Mississippi. They are as different in looks and personality as two people can get: Anne is short, petite, blonde, and as polite and well mannered as could be, Kate is tall, voluptous, red-headed and hot-tempered, who loves to curse, gamble, and carouse with the roughest crowd imaginable. All the same, Anne and Kate are as close as twins should be. Their father is a merchant who has been ostracized for selling to the Yankees, and their brother Theodore fought for the South, but hasn't come home yet. However, when he does, he brings two Yankee soldiers with him, who claim to be his friends. Anne falls for one handsome devil, who rapes her and leaves her for dead as they skip town on new orders to move out West. Anne and Kate derive a plan of revenge and follow, ending up on the plains of the midwest and living with an Indian tribe. Kate falls in love with an Indian warrior who is brutally slain along with the rest of the village, under orders of the OTHER Yankee soldier that visited their home! Determined yet again to get their revenge, Anne and Kate track down their quarry, and meet another pair of travelers, determined to get the beautiful twins to get past their horrid history and find love again. Can it possibly work?

4. Empress
She doesn't have a name yet, but she lives in a fantasy land, where she will soon become Empress of a great nation. But in order to claim her inheritance, she has to undergo an antiquated ceremony where she loses her virginity to one of the common people, who is promptly castrated and honored for the rest of his life. Well, she doesn't like that idea one bit, but there's no way around it or one of her hated cousins will get control of the country, and she'll never be able to end the barbaric custom. Arriving in town a little later than he planned, thinking the ceremony had already happened, an explorer comes home to help his family and is caught up in the roundup of potential candidates for the "honor" of deflowering the young empress. Upon meeting her though, the two hatch a plan to fake it and help the explorer escape. Sounds great, and he goes along with it, but at the last second, the empress decides she wants to go too because she needs to see firsthand what it is like in her country to be a better ruler. It's either take her or lose his manhood, and to hell with that, so the pair go off on a jaunt across the countryside while the empress is searched for by her father. She falls in love with the explorer in the process, but he can't stand what she stands for. After one blissful night together, she leaves him alone and heads home, but along the way finds out she's pregnant. She has to hide the pregnancy and the child before she can return home. When she does, she is forced into marriage because of yet ANOTHER stupid custom. The explorer returns for her, but can they make a happy ending?

5. Elf - idea suspended


6. Australia
Wrongfully sentenced to the new penal colony in Australia, a young girl thought to be a murderous whore is propositioned by a drunk lieutenant. Thinking she's committed murder for real this time, she takes off into the unknown Outback and befriends the local Aboriginal population. Humiliated and determined to track her down, the lieutenant pursues her. Could she ever prove her innocence, and could he ever overcome his prejudices and open his heart to love and become a changed man?

7. Lottery
A more modern tale. Widowed with two children to support, Zoe Benedict keeps her childrens hopes up with a single lottery ticket purchased each week, until one week, she hits the jackpot, literally! She packs up her former life and moves her children to a run-down plantation, which she dreams of returning to its former glory. On the other hand, the only reason she got the plantation in the first place is because the last son of the original family owners gambled it away on a bad hand of cards. Shamed by his family, he aims to worm his way in with the beautiful widow and get back his family's property. Inadvertently, he stirs up emotions Zoe has long since buried. Can he handle her now?