5 Facts About My Current WIP: As The Cliff Crumbles

5 FACTS ABOUT MY CURRENT WIP: AS THE CLIFF CRUMBLES

It's the time again, when I've got a couple of new projects and I want to tease you with some facts about them. I only recently started both of these, and next week I'll tell you about the other one, but for this week I wanna focus on my standalone, As The Cliff Crumbles. It's young adult sci-fi/mystery or even sci-fi/thriller. I've not fully decided on which it'll turn out to be and as always that's subject to change.

So what's it about? It's set in the twenty-second century, in a compound off the coast of Freathy, Cornwall, where soil erosion has destroyed cliff side villages and they now live on the beach in purposefully built compound as their own insular community. It's very much like a small town, and everyone there is very much aware of their place in the community and with the mainland. The main character is a girl called Sophia Kermack, who's sixteen and fed up of secrets.

FACT #1: SOPHIA HAS NO MEMORY OF HER CHILDHOOD
It's something that has always bothered her, but since her mum won't talk about what happened before the fire that almost killed her and did kill her father, she's kinda had to get used to the fact that she remembers nothing of her dad. She remembers nothing of life before the compound, and she knows it's strange, but she also doesn't really have any way to change that. It's not just her mother who stays silent but every resident she's ever brought it up with has given her a similar story and can't or won't give her details beyond that.

FACT #2: HER BEST FRIEND IS THE ONLY ONE SHE CAN TALK TO
Leyland is Sophia's best friend. Their dad was also killed in the fire, and while they have patchy memories of what happened then, they do have full recollection of their life before the compound became home. Leyland is willing to do whatever it takes to give Sophia what she needs, closure and her memories. The pair of them have been inseparable since childhood and while Leyland has always been more outgoing than her, the two of them get on very well.

FACT #3: SOPHIA IS DISABLED
The fire that she can't remember almost killed her. Since then, since her battle to survive, she has required supplemental oxygen, deliver by a little wireless band under her nose that recharges from solar energy and keeps her connected to a steady flow of pure oxygen. She also relies on an electric wheelchair which she steers with her torso and is solar powered. She's the only person in a compound of a thousand that is visibly disabled, and it's something more for her to worry about, especially when everyone just seems to want to protect her from the truth.

FACT #4: SOPHIA'S MUM IS VERY PROTECTIVE
Everyone, above the age of fourteen, is assigned a duty. Since Sophia came of age, her mother had her in a duty position that didn't use the best of her skills. Sophia has a good tech brain and knows how to work with the AI that controls the compound and keeps everyone safe. Sophia has asked to change duty more than once, but her mother claims she's too fragile to work elsewhere. It doesn't stop there either, her mum controls when she goes to school, and never lets her leave the compound. Sophia can watch the sea, the waves from the patio doors in her cabin, and this is allowed so she can charge her chair and oxygen band, but she hasn't, in her memory, ever been out there.

FACT #5: SOPHIA IS STARTING TO REMEMBER
It happened slowly at first, a dream that felt very real, and then a flashback in her classroom, and with everything else going on, she tries to ignore them, until those flashbacks start to clue her in to the fact that she, and Leyland, have been lied to their entire lives. All is not what it seems with the fire, with the way her mum has been. If one thing is certain, Sophia wants the truth, the whole truth, and she will stop at nothing to get it.

So there we go, those are five facts about As The Cliff Crumbles. It's very much a standalone, and I'm loving where it's going and how much it just seems to flow when I'm writing it. Remember to come back next week for five facts about my other project!

Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!

Follow Joey here on her blog, or on Facebook or Tumblr to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books.