February Novel Essential Information

Novel Title: Planted Seedling

Time Setting: 2017

Genre: Life

Minimum Word Goal: 90,000

Timespan: July 1–December 26

Locations: Rosemary and Duchess, Alberta

Main Characters: Brandt Remington, Lark Szekely

Background Information:

Brandt is one of a total of twelve children, having two older full sisters, three younger half-sisters on his mother's side, a younger half-brother and five younger half-sisters on his father's side, and as the eldest son is heir to one of the biggest farms in the area.

His grandfather began the farm with a quarter section when his father was just born, and when it was handed over to his father it had expanded to one full section owned and two rented with a good $100,000 in annual revenue; his father subsequently expanded the farm to own six full sections and rent a further twelve, along with making no less than $1 million in annual revenue.

Something considered by many to be especially impressive about the expansion and his father's income is that none of the farm's assets were lost and there wasn't even that much fighting about the money when Brandt's parents' marriage fell to pieces when he was three.

People had been expecting — especially since his father's participation in an affair precipitated the collapse — that his mother would take his father to the cleaners, but nothing of the kind took place; in fact, his father managed to maintain majority custody of Brandt and his sisters throughout the whole affair, and to this day Brandt, for one, has little connection with his mother.

Since then his father had his only other son with a short-lived girlfriend, and then married a woman twenty one years his junior — scandalising many including his parents — and has had five daughters with her.

Brandt quite enjoys the agricultural life and has just recently graduated agricultural college, where he took courses to help him in farm management — not that his father hasn't been teaching him — when he takes over what is already a multi-million dollar farm, a takeover which will likely happen in the next nine to fourteen years.

Until then, Brandt continues to work on the farm and live a life that seems in a lot of ways almost exactly like the sort of life which is portrayed in many a country song.

Lark also happens to be the youngest of three children, but her two older sisters — and one brother in law — are all she has for siblings, mostly because her mother was killed in a car accident when she was little more than a year old.

As a result, Lark and her sisters were raised in a good part by her grandparents, who happen to be the pastor of the local Baptist church and his wife while her father worked to provide for them.

Thus it seems unsurprising to most of the intimate family that Lark and her sisters have rather old-fashioned values, although of all of them Lark seems the most set in her ways, intent upon getting married, staying at home to raise her children, and living on a farm.

Her oldest sister, who is married, lives in a bit bigger of a town than Rosemary where her husband has an agriculturally-related job, but is not actually a farmer; not to mention they don't even live on an acreage, and even that is not what Lark has in mind, although many are trying to convince her that will more likely be what she's going to get.

And it's especially more likely because of the fact that, although there is a good number of handsome young farm boys in attendance at the church, Lark has showed no romantic interest in any of them — nor they in her — and being as she doesn't really travel all that much, there's not much likelihood she's going to meet anyone else.

Her family is concerned that she's set some unrealistic expectations and are trying to convince her to face realities she's not really willing to, while her best friend is trying to convince her to go to a Bible School, being as lots of Bible School attendees end up meeting someone, falling in love, and getting married, but Lark has no real interest in going there — especially being as she's learned a lot of Biblical knowledge already from her grandfather.

Despite the fact that she's unwilling to travel to Bible School and harbours no romantic feelings for any of the local farm boys, Lark is not entirely panicked, as she's only been out of high school for a year and is certain that everything will fall together in time. Not that she isn't impatient, though, and hoping that it all falls together so that she's married within the next two years or so.

Pronunciation:

Szekely: zehklee