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Readers have high praise for Hindsight. A recent commenter said, "Awesome! ...an epic adventure that you wrapped up perfectly." This post wraps up the (belated) character sketch posts for Hindsight, too. Enjoy! Tadhg “Shall we darken tomorrow with yesterday’s sorrow? Life is short. It’s brutal. But I’d prefer not to spend mine in misery.” Birthdate: 331 Age at the time of this story: 27 Physical Characteristics: 6’2”; 186 lbs; blond hair; blue eyes Titles: None Tadhg is desperate to control his outcomes and protect himself from further hurt. As an indentured servant to Lord Zandor, he must bite his tongue and do as he’s told, harnessing his strong-willed nature to bend to the will of his master. He appears taciturn and fierce, but beneath his stern exterior beats a loyal heart, and he extends deep devotion to those few he learns to trust. Staunchly independent and determined to avoid close connections with anyone, Tadhg’s primary goal is to be left alone. A fisherman by trade, Tadhg is a skilled navigator and sailor, with an abiding love of the sea. After facing personal tragedy in his birthplace of Daghain, he is eager to abandon his dark history and seek a new start. “The storm that hit our ships was the worst I’d ever encountered, and I’ve faced many terrible storms. We herded everyone into the holds, leaving only experienced sailors on deck, and every soul on board feared we would sink. I lashed myself to the mast, lest the massive waves swamping the vessel should sweep me overboard, and I was attempting to furl the sail—a hopeless task. That’s when I saw her. “Now, she’d have you believe she had exited the hold, but no passenger would leave safety below to face Manannan’s wrath. No, she came out of thin air. From the Otherworld? A manifestation of the gods? She’s most likely a Cailleach, as the Mystics say. “Whatever she was, she was in grave danger of washing overboard, and she would have, had I not grabbed her and held on. And now, I wish I had let the cursed beauty drown. Perhaps the Cailleach has cast a spell on me, but the enchantment is thorough, and I’m ensnared. Damn her.” Logan McGuire “History takes its course, and opportunities to change its direction occur at pivotal moments, like a train when the switch machine moves the rails.” Birthdate: 1981 Age at the time of this story: 39 Physical Characteristics: 6’0”; 190 lbs; dark brown hair; blue eyes Titles: Archmystic Logan is principled, self-disciplined, and has an intense personality. He worked hard to attain his position of Archmystic, and he enjoys commanding others. Schooled in history, magic, religion, and holistic medicine, he holds a day job as a licensed naturopath in a private clinic—a contemporary extension of his ancient training. Logan has seen more than his share of supernatural occurrences in Caledon. His few experiences with the Saorsa Mask convinced him that the magic was growing dangerous, and the artifact should be retired. Logan ordered it concealed in the caverns in 2017 and allowed it to be sealed in the secured area with the Dragon’s Fire after the disaster of 2018. Though the Mystics have long fallen from prominence in Caledonian society, Logan believes that the Order must scrutinize cultural and political events and intervene with the gods when necessary. Although most Caledonians have forgotten the influence the Mystics once wielded, Logan knows the power is still his, just muted in a modern time. When he discovers that someone has found the hidden mask, his dismay knows no bounds. “When Bronwyn sent me the photographs, I knew they weren’t a hoax. That insidious face I had hoped never to lay eyes on again set my stomach quivering and froze my heart. Had Lauryn possessed it, fine; but to have it in the clutches of a commoner… unthinkable! Lauryn couldn’t see the danger; I heard the flippancy in her voice. How could she know? She had no reason to care. “But it won’t take much for the mask to wreak irreparable harm on Caledon. It is overcoming the spell we put on it to bind its powers; cursed thing! Its power is immeasurable; its destruction, impossible. We would incur the wrath of the gods. “But we, the ones who understand and respect its magic, must possess it. Outside Mystic circles, the Saorsa Mask is dangerous. Lethal. If history tears and time collides with itself, the world will end…”
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Eleven months ago, I published Hindsight, and now I've finally got some character sketches ready to share. So if you loved the story, or if you're just discovering the Dragon's Fire Series and want to know more, pull up a chair and learn some new things about four major characters from the final book in the series. We're starting with the main character, Holly, and a supporting character, Laoise, this month.
Holly O’Hannon “Sometimes, thinking about what will be is even more painful than remembering what was…” Birthdate: 1996 Age at the time of this story: 24 Physical Characteristics: 5’6”; 127 lbs; chestnut hair; blue eyes Titles: None Holly craves creative expression. Dramatic and musical arts influence her throughout her youth and give her much to enjoy as she participates in theater, dance, and gymnastics. She hones her gifts in college, becoming a skilled actress with tremendous potential for playing leading roles. But just as she prepares to spread her wings, her mother receives a terminal diagnosis. Holly’s sunshiny world turns dark, and she takes what she views as a dead-end job to stay near her mother. Friendships cool when palliative care fills every spare moment. A relationship sours and fails, and Holly’s outlook on life chills and grows cynical. Her mother’s death leaves Holly alone with few friends, no romantic partner, and no promising career prospects. She struggles with feelings of inadequacy: inadequate to keep her mother alive, inadequate to maintain her boyfriend’s interest, inadequate to win the stage roles for which she yearns. Everything she knew has crashed; nothing will ever be the same. Now trapped in a never-ending cycle of historical reenactments at the castle, grieving both her mother and her lover, Holly seeks a way off the monotonous treadmill her life has become. When a strange mask offers a bizarre view into other worlds, Holly’s curiosity outweighs sense. Ensnared in a foreign but familiar environment, she must navigate her destiny, masking her weaknesses to fit into a world where she doesn’t belong. “Playing skits and leading tours of a history museum in character as former royalty got old fast. I’ve spent four years performing recycled, never-ending historical reenactments opposite actors of varying skill levels. I trained for better than this. “Just when my mother passed, Caledon closed its borders because of Covid. Finally free to pursue my ambitions, I was trapped at the castle again, along with the grief and the memories—how I longed to escape! “Then I found the mask. Creepy stuff started happening: sea monsters, dead bodies, ghosts, voices, visions. I’m convinced I’m going mad. Something is very weird about all this…” Laoise (LEE sha) “The gods sent me to the darkest night. There was a bonfire, and Cythraul…” Birthdate: 334 Age at the time of this story: 24 Physical Characteristics: 5’4”; 120 lbs; blond hair; blue eyes Titles: None Laoise thrives on the comforts of home, even when poverty makes home less than comfortable. Stepping onto a ship to flee her homeland is so out of her comfort zone, she’d have refused to do it if staying had not guaranteed a worse fate. Defying the wishes of her closest relatives, Laoise becomes indebted to the nobleman who financed the journey and to another older, wealthier passenger. Despite their protection, she battles loneliness and vulnerability as a vast sea separates her from the world she knew. She finds her niche on board by seeing needs and filling them; always eager to help, always kind, always putting others first. Laoise’s constant people-pleasing masks her discomfort with her circumstances and her feelings of inadequacy and fear as she faces an unknown future on an untamed shore. “I’ve never had such an odd friend as the pretty stranger I met in the flooded holds. From her immodest dress to her bare feet on the rough boards, she doesn’t fit. But I like her, despite that. She needs a friend; no one else here wants anything to do with her. “She needed my help; she lacked basic personal items she should have brought from home, and she doesn’t understand how to complete simple tasks my mother taught me when I was a child. I suspect she’s a pauper and has never had the things I’ve given her. I had to teach her how to fasten her shoes! How she scraped up three coppers for passage on this vessel, I’ll never fathom. “She is a constant source of interest and amusement for me. She suggested I talk to Lord Zandor when I mentioned I thought him handsome. He might throw me overboard for taking such a liberty! I know my station, and I know better than to speak to him before I am spoken to. Even then, he prefers a curtsey and obedience to words. “I intend to marry soon. I came to this Caledon for a future brighter than the one I left behind. A land cannot be settled without families, and Brody would not have paid my passage had he not intended to exact the sum from me in the only way I can afford. My new friend scoffs at the very idea of marriage, yet why should she feel as vulnerable as I? She summoned the Cythraul to guard her. If I could command dragons, what need would I have of a man?” What need, indeed? Next month, I'll share Tadhg's and Logan's perspectives. Finishing a series mingles satisfaction and pride with a severe sense of “what now?” For nine years, I’ve dwelt within the borders of Caledon, developing a world where I’m very comfortable, thank you. But with Book Ten’s publication, I find myself abruptly deported—cast adrift on an unnamed ship in a thick fog, banned from those shores where I’ve lived for so long. I don’t know where I’m going, and I’m not sure I want to leave. Part of me wants to go flying back to Caledon and write Book Eleven. There’s a lot of fodder for stories in 17 centuries. But it’s time for something new. New can be scary.
So I grasp the rudder and inhale the damp air, forging a path through uncharted seas, listening for voices to guide me to a new world and a new story. And I procrastinate. I need to research literary agencies so I have places to query another manuscript for which I’m seeking traditional publication. I need to write queries and send them. Social media posts? I’m so far behind. My author website needs cosmetic improvements. And my blog! I haven’t posted a blog in forever, and my Play On Words website needs fresh content. Got to figure out something interesting to put in next month’s newsletter. I should develop that new idea I’ve been mulling over… Oh. That’s the one I’m avoiding. Psychologists could tell us many reasons we avoid striking out for unfamiliar territory. I like comfort zones, and characters who’ve become old friends, and settings as familiar as my house. But a new story—that’s fresh places, unknown characters, new everything. Nine years ago, when I started The Rose of Caledon, I had no expectations for it. I just couldn’t get the story out of my head, so I wrote it to tame it. To extinguish it. And it took over my life. Do I fear being devoured again by a force beyond my control? Or am I hoping to be swallowed whole, and this post-publication downtime has made me dread that I can’t replicate the joy of the past nine years? This new idea is taking time, effort, and thought—maybe it sucks. Or it might be amazing. Time to focus on developing the story playing at the edges of my brain. Onward! Writers cannot produce quality books alone; they need a set of honest advance readers to help improve the story and a qualified editor to hone and polish the manuscript.
Advance readers are divided into two groups. Alpha readers see the manuscript in the early drafting stages. These readers overlook mechanical errors of spelling, grammar, and punctuation and read a messy story to address structural issues and assess the plot and character arcs. Beta readers get the manuscript much later—after the author has completed several drafts and a few self-editing passes. Beta readers will look for fine detail errors, pointing out jarring language, mechanical mistakes, and spots where slight improvements will tighten the story. Paid editors often get the manuscript last, but ideally, a professional editor should be employed at every stage of the manuscript’s development. Alphas, betas, and editors are an author’s essential team to produce a quality story. Fresh eyes, outside perspectives, and unique opinions are important. How writers handle the criticism offered by these three groups varies. Having someone point out the less-than-stellar elements in your work-in-progress can feel like an attack. Insecure writers get defensive and argue that the commenter knows nothing about quality writing and doesn’t understand the deeper themes of the novel. They then ignore everything the reader said—a dangerous attitude that produces badly written books. A smart writer will consider the readers’ remarks and apply the suggestions to improve the manuscript. I’m an editor and a writer: I dish out the critiques, and I have to endure them, too. Editing someone else’s work is WAY more fun than receiving criticism of my own. Taking correction is hard. First, acknowledge that even kind comments and suggestions can hurt. It’s okay to feel the sting of a critique. Then, recall these important elements I tell my Play On Words clients.
People often ask me how I get ideas for and develop stories.
Each book is different. Story ideas can come from an experience, a picture, a song, a person, a news clip, or a conversation. But an idea isn’t a story. An idea might be “A princess discovers she’s the guardian of a Mystic treasure she didn’t know existed.” That idea requires hard work and a lot more substance to turn into an 80k-word novel. My ideas develop in a variety of ways. Some stories grow like Jack’s beanstalk, from a spark to a plot in a matter of minutes. Others take longer. The idea will stew for a few days or weeks. It swirls, bubbles, and swells until I have enough mental images to string together a barebones plot and add to the concepts in a structured way on paper. My favorite stories are those that leap to life with little effort. But everything I bother to flesh out eventually breathes on its own. If I’m not excited about it, it’s not worth the sweat and trouble to write it down. I despise writing stories that I don’t feel a passion for, and forced words don’t make for pleasant reading. The Rose of Caledon lived in my head for seven months before I started writing it. Myrhiadh’s War sprang to life like nothing before or since and 75k words hit the page in 33 days. The Mystic’s Mandate was the most hair-tearing writing experience I’ve ever had, while The Curse of Caledon and Guardians of Caledon were easy and fun. Now that I’ve almost finished Hindsight, the last book in the Dragon’s Fire Series, I’m looking at what to write next. I have a stand-alone manuscript on agent submissions, and it’s time to figure out a fresh project. One of my documents contains no less than 26 new story ideas. Choosing which to focus my mental energies on was challenging. I narrowed the list to four, then played with them until one surfaced as the most intriguing. This concept was born within the manuscript that I’m sending to agents. As I’ve mulled over it, it’s changing shape and coming to life in ways I didn’t expect. It no longer shares many of its original descriptions from the existing story. I’m not even sure what genre it fits into. I don’t know who the characters are yet, but we’re chatting—I call the process “talking to shadows.” The document is a mess of notes and tentative research. The next step will be to organize those into a coherent plot. If that works, and a story bursts into flame amid the sparks, I’ll begin the first draft. No commitments. But I returned the other three concepts to the “ideas” file for now. Every writer has piles of unfinished manuscripts, and not every idea turns into a Myrhiadh’s War experience. Not every story is publishable. For now, I’ll let my imagination run wild and see where it leads. Writing back cover blurbs isn’t on my list of favorite things to do; I’d rather write a 100k-word novel than a 150-word teaser. Why? Let me count the reasons…
The purpose of a back cover copy is to snag a reader’s attention and make them want to read your book. For an author, that’s an immediate powder keg of pressure, right there. The text must grab readers with powerful, captivating words, avoid spoilers, introduce the story in roughly 150 words, and finish on a cliffhanger that leaves readers salivating for more. Sounds easy? It’s not. I wrote about 80 versions of the blurb for Guardians of Caledon. The teaser for Hindsight, recently released to mailing list subscribers, was readable in only nine drafts (practice makes better, perhaps?), but that doesn’t mean it’s done. It will undergo multitudinous rewrites and tweaks between now and when it ends up on the book, and I’ll still be wondering whether I could have improved it after publication. (As I’m typing this blog, I’ve added another paragraph to Hindsight’s blurb—a potential replacement for the third paragraph, but I can’t decide which version is best. I will agonize over it for weeks.) Questions constantly plague a writer. Am I telling a great story well? Will anyone want to read this? Am I just pretending to know what I’m doing? Now tell the writer to compose a back cover blurb, and a hundred different questions add to the uncertainty in her head. Am I telling enough? Am I telling too much? Where should I stop? Why does this teaser sound so dull? A lot of authors clam up and/or stutter when asked to summarize their plot. Writing summaries is no easier, except that the pressure expands over weeks of drafting, rather than having to answer within 20 seconds and feel like an idiot for years. Any writer seeking an agent must master the art of summarizing, because agents, too, demand summaries. Often in one sentence. Then there’s the synopsis, where the author gets to sum up her entire plot in one page and spoil the ending. Those are challenging, too. What to include? What not to include? The entire story is important—right? But I can’t include everything, or it won’t fit on the page! Summarizing the book in any form is way more difficult than writing the book. Like any other writing project, the first step is to write something. Anything. Even if it’s stupid. You can’t fix a blank page, so put some sort of gibberish on it so you can rework it. For Hindsight's teaser, I wrote a list of key story elements, and then summarized them in a few sentences that would accomplish the aforementioned herculean requirements. Once those sentences are in place, you tweak and scrap and rewrite until you produce something you think might work. You slap it on the back cover. And then you hope it will entice readers to open your book!  This new year will see the publication of the final title in the historical fantasy Dragon’s Fire Series. I never guessed The Rose of Caledon would turn into an epic saga when I started writing it in 2016. By Book Five, originally the series’ conclusion, I was having too much fun to stop. Books Six through Ten present a new story running parallel to the first.
A photo of a dragon mask inspired the concept for Book Six back in 2017, and the plot fell into place within two hours. But the idea of how to use that dragon mask to complete the series bloomed as I wrote Book Five in 2018. One Saturday morning, for two hours, I talked my husband’s ear off about Book Ten’s plot. I explained how the mask would tie Caledon’s story together over centuries, and culminate with an epic adventure that would cement the entire series. I was excited. He’s patient with me. To carry Ten’s story, I planned to create a new character, but a minor player in Book Five tapped me on the shoulder that morning and said, “This one’s mine.” Her name was Aerona: an actress at the living history museum in Book Five, where she had about five lines of dialogue and no surname. She was unimportant. But the more I considered her plea, the more she fit into the role I needed to fill. Well-versed in Caledon’s history because of her employment at the museum, she wanted much more than the “nobody” role I had given her in Five. She was perfect. But I didn’t relish working with a main character named Aerona. Since I hadn’t published Five yet, she got a name change and became Holly. Her surname materialized when I started writing Ten, and she needed one. Holly O’Hannon opens the tale discontented with her lot at the museum, trapped in Caledon because of a global pandemic, grieving the loss of her mother and a breakup with a boyfriend, and desperate for a new perspective on life. Enter the Saorsa Mask. Hindsight is 20/20. Coming later this year!  Meet two more characters from The Apothecary’s Daughter!
Pháidín Keelan “You’re a smart young lady, Miss Sara, but you’re not smarter than me, and don’t you forget it.” Birthdate: 1550 Age at the time of this story: 53 Physical Characteristics: 6’0”, 174 lbs, gray hair, brown eyes Pháidín is the best apothecary in Grymwalde. His business serves the palace and the Crown. Pháidín prides himself on his skills, his elite clientele, and his location in the Royal District, four doors from the palace. Pháidín is a perfectionist, who will accept nothing less than the best from himself and others. He is a loyal Zandorian and a dutiful keeper of the Moral Laws—unless they interfere with the successful operation of his business. Pháidín will stop at nothing to see the Crown enthroned in Ampleforth. After losing his wife and two sons to scarlet fever, Pháidín took his five-year-old daughter, Sara, to his side to learn his trade. He never remarried, preferring to keep to himself and focus on his profession. Instead, he hired a housekeeper to manage his home and immersed himself in the apothecary. While ensuring that his daughter could run the business, he neglected her learning to run a household—a severe case of misplaced priorities by Zandorian standards. Pháidín suffers from chronic joint pain and uses opium to treat it. He believes himself in full control of his dosage and his reactions, and is unaware of how frequently he falls into a stupor after indulging in his favorite vice. “I have poured my lifeblood into the Paragon Apothecary. Trained as an apothecary from a youngster, I never doubted my skills. I thought myself invincible, with the power to cheat death, until scarlet fever took my beloved wife, Lydia, from me. As her life slipped like sand through my fingers, I never closed the business or paused my work to sit by her side. When she passed away that September afternoon, I was busy mixing yet another concoction that should have healed her. She died alone because I longed to be her savior and forgot to be her friend. “My sons, Aron and Paul, followed her within a week. I couldn’t save them either. I only saved little Sara by sending her away to relatives in the country. She came home to a house wreathed in sadness, with no companionship, and no mother’s touch to guide her to womanhood. “I had counted on handing the apothecary to the boys. Now, I only had Sara left, so I took her on as my apprentice and trained her in my profession. None of my acquaintances were in favor of Sara taking over the Paragon. I lost friends over the matter, and certain of our relatives refuse to speak to me. But why should I hand my thriving business to a stranger, leaving Sara dependent upon a decent marriage to secure her future? I taught her everything I know. She is an intelligent creature—innovative, quick to grasp new concepts, and bold in experimentation. “However, in my desperation to turn her into a competent apothecary, I have made her what Zandor despises: a headstrong, independent woman who thinks for herself. And recently, Sara has questioned everything the Crown says. I’ve known for years that we will lose the Crown’s business once Sara takes over the Paragon, unless I can find her a husband to serve as a figurehead first. But now, I fear her political leanings more than her sex. Sara’s stubborn refusal to accept the Crown’s explanation of what happened in Whitereach may be the fatal blow that drives the Paragon Apothecary into the ground long before my demise.” Gregory Ellis “Zandor is changing. If we don’t move with it, we’ll be trampled and left behind.” Birthdate: 1581 Age at the time of this story: 22 Physical Characteristics: 5’11”, 168 lbs, brown hair, brown eyes Gregory is the oldest of five children and a skilled archer—the son of a fletcher from a poor neighborhood in Grymwalde. Gregory is trained in his father’s trade, and his income is essential to support his impoverished family. But arrow-making is becoming an unreliable career as Zandor embraces modern weaponry and archers become an outdated commodity. A loyal Zandorian, Gregory recognizes the changes coming to Zandor as a positive step and is prepared to do whatever is necessary to meet the resulting challenges. He is an intelligent young man who will let evidence change his mind, even when it challenges his core beliefs. “I’m proud of my station. My family works hard, and what little we have, we’ve earned. I’ve always expected to run my father’s business and marry someone from a similar financial situation, who won’t ask for more than I can give. “Then I fell for Sara Keelan. My father despises the mere mention of her name, though he’s never met her. The Keelans are wealthy: big house, thriving business in the Royal District, titled customers, and direct access to the Crown and the Praeceptor. They want for nothing, and although Sara works hard, she’s accustomed to the finer things in life. “Things I can never afford. “I know my place; I’d be content to step back and admire her from afar, but she loves me, too. She assures me we’ll be all right; she’s the heiress to the Paragon Apothecary, after all. But I know nothing about medicines, potions, and herbs. I can’t help her run the business, and I won’t live off her charity. I need to support her myself, and I can’t ask her to stoop to my family’s level. She’d be miserable. “Her father doesn’t know about us. How much longer can we keep our relationship a secret? If I eloped with her, I’d spend my entire life feeling like I stole her, but Pháidín Keelan will run me off once he learns who and what I am. “I’m torn in too many directions: Sara, my family, the war. If only life were simple…” The plot of The Apothecary’s Daughter runs parallel to that of my favorite book in the series, Myrhiadh’s War. The two titles share several prominent characters, but I found a few new ones I haven’t profiled before to showcase here, starting, of course, with Sara Keelan. She occupied a scant seven pages in Myrhiadh’s War, but she carries the story in Book Nine. Sara Keelan “The Paragon contains plenty of poisons. And Father taught me how to use every one of them.” Birthdate: 1583 Age at the time of this story: 20 Physical Characteristics: 5’7”, 135 lbs, chestnut hair, brown eyes Sara is the third child and only daughter of a prominent and wealthy Zandorian apothecary who provides regular service to the Crown. When Sara’s mother and two older brothers die of scarlet fever in 1588, Sara’s father resolves to leave his business to her, and takes her on as his apprentice. By the time Sara reaches adulthood, she is a knowledgeable apothecary in her own right, with extensive experience in preparing and prescribing herbs and medicines. Besides her education as an apothecary, Sara is well-schooled in the tenets of Zandorian thought: loyalty to the Crown, abhorrence of the Failings, and observation of the Moral Laws. Sara’s father expects her to make an excellent match to better the apothecary’s fortunes, as certain of Zandor’s citizenry won’t do business with a woman. The plans for Sara’s future are logical and straightforward. But when a war changes course, Zandor finds itself on the losing end of the battle. Sara discovers just how shaky her world’s foundations are, and learns that the Crown she has trusted is not what she believed. With her future and her fortune at stake, Sara faces the unthinkable: a takeover of Zandor by her enemies, and the potential loss of everything she has ever treasured. “All I wanted was to avoid conflict and trouble. I was a dutiful Zandorian: faithful to the Crown, conscientious about the Failings, exemplary in following the Moral Laws… “Oh, never mind. I can’t even finish that statement with a straight face. A dutiful Zandorian and faithful to the Crown, perhaps, but the Moral Laws are extreme, and despite succumbing to the Failings occasionally, I’m here to tell the tale. The Failings themselves are not the danger—the Crown’s punishments are. “Zandorian laws are strict for women, but I have to break the rules. I couldn’t do my job if I didn’t instruct men in using the medicines I prescribe, walk the streets of Grymwalde without an escort, and occasionally ride a horse. Fate decreed I should work full time in a man’s occupation, and my workload will only become greater as my father grows older and eventually hands the apothecary to me. “My education equals or exceeds that of most men: Latin, literature, mathematics, and chemistry. I am well versed in using the hundreds of herbs and medicines on the apothecary’s shelves. I have zero patience for hiding, mouselike, behind a veil of hair around the stronger sex. “And now I’ve added to my Failings by meeting secretly with a man of whom Father would wholeheartedly disapprove. He’s of a station far below ours, and with the turn in the war, and Caledon and Langdon on Zandor’s doorstep, what skills he possesses will soon be obsolete. “Then, there’s Whitereach. “Nothing is predictable or reliable anymore. “Including the Crown.” Mawde “...” Birthdate: 1565 Age at the time of this story: 38 Physical Characteristics: 5’5”, 120 lbs, dark brown hair, brown eyes Mawde, the Keelans’ housekeeper, has worked in their employ for 15 years, since the death of Sara’s mother. Mawde is mute and communicates through gestures and grunts, and though capable of writing, she seldom uses this medium. Mawde’s days are long and demanding, starting well before sunrise. Most of the general household tasks fall to her, since Sara has trained in the apothecary with her father from the age of five. Mawde has mastered the adage, “Mind your place.” To be unobtrusive and useful is her primary aspiration. She retires to bed early, after ensuring everything is organized for her employer and his daughter for the evening. Little irritates Mawde more than having her routine disrupted. Mawde has few friends, but many acquaintances. She gathers information, domestic and political, from the other housekeepers at the community well. People make assumptions about you when you’re mute. Most folks assume that, because I don’t speak, my brain doesn’t work. I assure you, I’m perfectly capable of reasoned thought, and more intelligent than most. I am grateful for my place with the Keelans. Sara is a sweet girl, and her father is a fair employer, who leaves me to run the house as I see fit with few restrictions. If the rooms are clean, the fires are tended, and tasty meals are served on time, Mr. Keelan doesn’t interfere with me. I pass much of my time alone. The hired man is busy with his tasks, and Mr. Keelan and Sara spend their days in the dispensary. Some might find it lonely, but I cherish the solitude. Mr. Keelan serves the palace a few times each month with his medicinal skills, and deals directly with the Crown and the Praeceptor. He seldom speaks of anything he sees or hears within the palace walls, but he considers his position a high honor. One of his worst fears is that the Crown will shun his daughter’s services once he can no longer work, simply because she is a woman. Mr. Keelan is a devout servant of the Crown. He will permit no violations of the Moral Laws or weakness to the Failings in his household. Not a word against the Crown or the Praeceptor ever crosses his lips, and he demands the same level of devotion from every member of his household. Sometimes, it’s well that I don’t speak… I am a plot-driven reader and writer. I enjoy a story where exciting things happen. A strong plot makes readers turn pages, but describing a series of events without relating them to the human experience soon becomes boring. For a novel to hold a reader’s attention for 75k+ words, the story must come alive in the reader’s mind.
Well-developed characters are the key to bringing a story to life. When readers connect with a character, they keep turning pages. To achieve reader connection, characters must be believable: likable yet flawed, consistent yet changeable. Readers must understand why the main character acts as she does, and even feel they might respond similarly in the same circumstances. Books and writing courses suggest many intricate systems for developing rounded, relatable characters, but every writer will have a different approach. I dislike systems; I create characters organically. For me, the plot comes first. The “what” of the story becomes entrenched in my head, and I create characters to fill roles as I need them. The plot of Dragon’s Fire, for example, was established before I started considering “who” should carry the story, and the villain and the dragons developed next. Ciara and I spent three days experimenting with various scenes and situations before she filled out and took her place in the cast and the story. The other supporting characters came to life as I needed them. Each main character begins with a goal (often external) and a flaw or physical challenge that prevents her from reaching that goal. Each protagonist develops around her story problem. Ciara wanted to learn what the Dragon’s Fire was and was tasked with guarding it, but her difficulty with decision-making hindered her—not to mention caves full of dragons! The characters grow throughout the drafting process, and they become close friends to me during that time. Most of the main characters share some traits with me or with someone I’m close to. They live in my head, though I often project them into the room so I can see them. (The powers of hyperphantasia!) We hold conversations, and in that way, they take on dimension and form, unfolding their dreams, desires, and histories. I often rewrite scenes in later drafts when I’ve learned more about a character or her backstory, and I need to change or deepen her character arc. I weave introspection and description into the action—I dislike dwelling too long on anything that slows the story’s progression. Experts recommend getting to know characters thoroughly before beginning to write. I prefer to insert my characters into a story and see what they do. Planning everything about them ahead of time feels contrived and cardboard. Therefore, characters often surprise me with unexpected information about themselves mid-story, but that makes the drafting process more fun. I enjoy learning about them as I go. Despite me starting my stories with a plot, my characters take over by the middle, introducing new ideas and sending the action skewering off in whatever direction they choose. This mutiny has sometimes occurred as early as page ten. Book Ten’s middle looks nothing like what I plotted. But when the unexpected happens, the story and the characters grow like two vines intertwining as they climb a trellis, becoming one inseparable unit. I’ve been studying fiction writing over the past couple of years, and what I’m learning is improving my work. However, I don’t foresee myself changing my character development techniques. I love getting to know new friends as their story grows. To summarize, I don’t have a formula that guarantees a character will resonate with readers. A character that one reader loves, another might hate. But I’ve had a lot of feedback from readers who have bonded with my characters, with descriptions including “unforgettable,” “endearing,” “enchanting,” and “amazing,” so I must be doing something right. I love them all. |