This is only the beginning…
The Second Nature of Indigo
Fourteen-year-old Indigo Taylor dreams of becoming a detective, which as a young child is what she thought her solicitor father was. A local murder that seems too quickly solved inspires Indigo to do some investigating of her own. The thread she finds leads to a dangerous chain of events.
Meanwhile, Indigo is befriended by a group of circus artists who live a refreshingly different way of life than the stifling society in which she finds herself.
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England, 1888.
A murder has recently been solved.
For fans of Sherlock Holmes, Flavia de Luce, and The Mysterious Benedict Society.
A coming of age murder mystery.
One of my lovely editors described my book as being between genres. I wasn’t surprised to hear this, in fact I’d been expecting it. When I began writing I had no plan. Consequently, I wrote the entire first draft without the ‘plot beats’ expected of the Young Adult Mystery or Thriller genre. I would later regret writing without some form of plan, but the lack of the a template gave me the freedom to write a story led only by imagination and characters. In this creative space, I’ve begun to forge a voice of my own.
FAQ About The Second Nature of Indigo
These FAQ’s are specifically about the book content, if you’re looking for more general answers about the writing process or me specifically go here or to the FAQs page at the top.
Question No. 1
Why are some spellings in UK standard? (e.g. colour instead of color, theatre instead of theater.)
Answer No. 1
The story is set in England, so to preserve the authenticity of the character, so you’ll see quite a few different spellings (and maybe a different grammar or two) throughout the book.
Question No. 2
Was circus really something people did in the 1800’s?
Answer No. 2
Well… kinda. Many circus disciplines were alive in Asia before the 1800’s, flyng trapeze was invented in 1859 by Jules Léotard, and P. T. Barnum’s three ring circus was touring by the mid 1880’s. However, presenting circus almost as a play wasn’t used in 1888. Currently, on-stage acrobatics with a loose storyline are favored by Cirque du Soleil. Personally, I’m a fan of Soleil, and find them inspiring. Cirque du la Reine (Circus of the Queen) is a fictional company that I made up to explore what ‘modern circus’ could have been like, had anyone thought of such a method. It wasn’t impossible, it’s just that no one tried it.
I would highly suggest researching the history of Circus on your own, I find it fascinating.
Question No. 4
Who is The Second Nature of Indigo appropriate for?
Answer No. 4
I began writing Indigo when I was 14, just like the main characters, so there’s not that much to worry about. It is a murder mystery (kinda) so there is death in it, though it’s never described. There is peril. At one point in the book there is a scene that may be considered creepy, but it’s brief. I would say that Indigo is good for ages 11+. I hope that many people, of all ages, will enjoy the book.
About the writing style: One of my editors told me the writing was more like that of books for older audiences (sentence structure, vocabulary, etc.), but I see no reason why this can’t be read from a younger age.
Question No. 3
Why does Indigo use feet and inches?
Answer No. 3
Great question! I’m pretty sure that, at this point, the English were using the Imperial system (feet, inches, pounds, ounces, etc.). Websites say different years when the country switched, but the most reliable date I’ve found is by the New York Times saying that the UK switched to metric in 1965. My English editor also agreed that this was the system in use at the time.
Good thing, too. This is a lot easier for me to write because I’m American and I’ve always used Imperial.
The Second Nature of Indigo is my debut novel. I completed the first draft when I was fourteen. I spent the next two years rewriting and revising it.