I am beginning to suspect my Muse is a quite exceptionable: a tease, not just something fickle. The last idea was close. I believe I am in the right world now, but just not the right story. There is something still off with that one. So I unearthed an older story, one that was a glimmer of an idea (Vrance or Vampiric Regency + Floriography or Floriomancy), but not anything concrete.
I have a more concrete idea.
Premise for A Study in Lilac.
When Mr. Stace Rockery takes over his sister's matchmaking business, he thought nothing but success lay before him. After all, he shared his sister's supernatural gift at taking readings from flowers, and he didn't have to build the business from scratch. But he didn't expect his first client to be a vampire. Nor did he expect trouble to dog his client's steps.
The vampire is the Duke of Pace--that is, if he will be if he meets the terms of his inheritance: "producing" his own successor before the Season ends within a month. So the noted rake descends upon the Flower Shop, seeking the famous matchmaker, but ends up with her brother instead, whom he doubts could compare.
That is not the only thing the vampire doubts. For when Stace follows his flowers to the first potential match, he finds instead a powerful magician who desires the Duke of Pace for less than honorable reasons: he needs the vampire for his experiments with immortality. When Stace informs the duke of this attempt on his life, the vampire laughs and suspects extortion and fraud.
But as infuriating as the vampire is, a client is a client, and no Rockery has failed one yet, and Stace isn't about to be the cause of the ruin of the Rockery name. So not only will he see the duke secure in his inheritance, but he'll keep him safe from the magician's clutches as well.
One thing is for sure, though: the life of a flower reader is no bed of roses, not for this Rockery anyway.
Also, to distract my disloyal muse, I am pulling out a non-nano work to work on, too: Masquerade. Set in the same world, it is a novelette written by pantsing. It is a quirky one, but it also informs or shapes the world-building of the nano and series in general. There are a couple others too that do this, too, but this is the most complete and shortest of the three. Anyway, I want to edit the written material and fill in the missing chapters. I suspect it will be under 20,000 words, probably under 15,000.
The nano one will probably be longer, but no 50,000 words. So I hope maybe to make it a series featuring this florist character. We'll see.
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