Before National Novel Writing Month began, I like others, was doing some research and preparation for my project-- a new look at the myths around the Trojan War, and a reinterpretation of Helen and her early life. In an excess of excitement, and the compulsion to purge some of the research I had done and turn it into creative energy, I started writing letters. I'm a far cry from Ovid and his Heroides, but at least there was a precedent.

The letters helped me to get my head into Helen's and feel out the other characters that I would be playing with in this new book, before the adrenaline rush of NaNoWriMo. The exercise was so much fun that I didn't really want to stop, and I expect I'll be doing quite a few of them before the month is out. They won't appear in the manuscript itself, but I thought they would be a fun sneak peak behind the scenes of the story for you GeekaChicas readers!

This first letter is from Helen (age 12) to her brother, Pollux. Helen and Pollux are both children of Zeus resulting from his rape of Leda as a swan. (Really.) For more information on the sources and the mythology of the Trojan War, feel free to take a look at my blog. I have a lot of helpful links to primary sources in the sidebar, and discussions of most of them in my recent posts. 

Pollux:

Our mother, Leda, has always told me you are favored by the gods. That you of all of us have been given their gifts and their love. She tells me that the gifts I was given will be my curse, and when she cries, I don't know how to comfort her.

What reassurance I can give her is full of lies, and this is why I write to you now, to warn you, and through you our father, Tyndareus. He will not listen to me because I am only a girl, still a child, and so he reasons I do not know the truths of the world. But you know me, brother. How many times have I given you my help? Pointed you in battle toward the weakness of your foe? Though I will never claim to be a seer, and you know I do not hear the gods intentions in the birds that flock through our sky, I can feel that something wrong, something terrible, is coming.

I can't sleep for the dreams that haunt me at night. War without  glory, and death to the armies in numbers which make all triumph meaningless. I see a man coming for me, stealing me away, and because of him, we will all be bathed and burned in fire. So many will be lost. So much destroyed. Pollux, please, I beg you, protect us all. Protect me. Don't let me be taken, and don't let my father ignore this threat. Please, don't let me be the reason that everything we've known, everything we've built, is lost.

I don't know when it will happen, or how. I don't know how to tell you to stop it. But promise me this: if I can not be recovered without war, then just let me go. Pride comes before the fall. In this, in everything. Don't forget. Please.

Your Loving Sister,
Helen

Stay tuned (or keep a sharp eye) for a response from Pollux...

And while I've got you here, feel free to laugh, cry, or shake your fists at the sky about your experiences with National Novel Writing Month in the comments! Are you keeping up with your daily word count goals? Have you vanquished 5K and charged on without breaking a sweat? How's it going?