The biggest challenge in writing The Assassin’s Redemption was to take a villain from an earlier book and turn him into a likable hero. Though Joseph carried the story, Aislinn became a heroine and an essential point-of-view character in her own right. The oldest of my series’ female leads, Aislinn is the only one to have a love-interest younger than she is. Aislinn Rede “I choose my own friends.” Birthdate: 1558 Age at the time of this story: 29 Physical Characteristics: 5’4” tall, 110 lbs, strawberry blond hair, blue eyes The daughter of a shipyard laborer, Aislinn Rede had a happy childhood in Ampleforth until her father passed away when she was twelve. Left to the care of her Aunt Riona, a scullery maid at Caledon Castle, Aislinn joined the lowest class of royal servants in 1570. She spent long, hard days toiling in the kitchen and cleaning the stone behemoth that became her new home. Five years later, Aislinn was promoted to become a lady-in-waiting to Queen Marguerite (Meg), and the two formed a close bond of friendship. Aislinn was Meg’s confidante and companion on every occasion and served as nursemaid to the prince and princess when they were born. Though intelligent and quick-witted, Aislinn came to the castle with little education—a situation Meg set about to remedy. Over the years, under Meg’s influence, Aislinn gained knowledge of music, botany, astronomy, mathematics, history, and art through reading and conversing with her mistress. “A scullery maid seldom becomes a queen’s lady-in-waiting, but the gods favored me. You’ll never find a kinder mistress than Meg, for she’s as tenderhearted as she is beautiful, yet as strong as an iron spear. My tasks now are light compared to what they were. Instead of turning spits over blazing fires or scrubbing filthy floors, I spend my days caring for my lady and reading books, riding horses, or playing cards or chess. Amusements and pleasures abound. My place is usually reserved for titled women of breeding; I have the comforts of royalty, pleasant work, and no royal responsibilities. Why would any commoner give that up? One condition of my employment is that I cannot marry, for the cares of a husband and children of my own would supersede the needs of my mistress. However, I’ve met no one for whom I’d consider leaving the queen. My time serving Marguerite has made me too fussy. I have met many excellent gentlemen, but my place as a servant sentences me to partner with a commoner of the lowest means. I’m not interested in a grabby, uncouth laborer who thinks he’s doing me a favor by noticing me. Give me a gentleman in commoner’s garb. Someone with a skill that sets him above the others of his station. Then I might turn my eyes from Meg and her castle to consider a humble home of my own.” Marguerite Grenleigh “After all, what do ten days matter?” Birthdate: 1552 Age at the time of this story: 35 Physical Characteristics: 5’7”, blue eyes, light brown hair Marguerite is a French princess who comes to Caledon in 1575 for an arranged marriage to Prince Edward Grenleigh. Marguerite arrives with the promise of a yearly stipend to Caledon from her family in France for as long as she lives. This makes her an essential source of income for the Grenleighs and a valuable asset in the war against Langdon. But Marguerite barely has time for an exchange of pleasantries with her future husband before they marry. Marguerite is intelligent and capable, fascinated by the sciences and mathematics, well-read and well-educated—characteristics Edward finds threatening. She has little in common with her husband and avoids him as much as she can. Marguerite becomes the mother of Prince James and Princess Katherine, and she does her best to steer their education and upbringing and to shield them from their father’s narcissism. Marguerite has few attendants at the castle, since Edward sent her entourage home to France after the wedding. Her best friend and confidante is a former scullery maid six years her junior. “Father arranged my marriage to Prince Edward of Caledon, but he never mentioned it to me until the details were settled. Father assured me that Prince Edward is handsome, but there’s far more to a husband than his looks. I was livid that Father would send me to a foreign land to wed a stranger. In self-defense, I sought any information I could find about Caledon before I boarded the vessel that would carry me to her unknown shores. Not much exists in writing beyond myths: tales of gods and goddesses, dragons, kings, and a legendary stone, the Dragon’s Fire. To think I should become a princess of Caledon! And one day, its queen. I’ve lost track of the line of succession for the French throne, but I’m a long way down it, and had resigned myself that I would never wear a crown. As my ship approached the forbidding, mist-draped coastline, Caledon appeared everything I had read about in the legends. I could almost see the winged dragons soaring over the cliffs. But now, facing the imperious castle carved into the rock high above the water, my courage fails me. What do I know of Caledon? Stories. Nothing more. Yet I shall be bound to love, honor, and obey the prince of this country whose customs I do not know and whose people I do not understand. My entourage of ladies-in-waiting know how to cheer me when despondency pursues me. Knowing my little quirks and preferences, they seek ways to make me comfortable. So long as Edward proves a kind husband, with my friends at my side, I shall try to be of service here, and eventually, I shall be happy.”
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Joseph Callahan “What sort of fiend would you make of me?” Birthdate: February 12, 1561 Date of Death: July 11, 1603 Age at the time of this story: 26 Physical Characteristics: 6’2” tall, 190 lbs, black hair, dark brown eyes The son of loyal Zandorian citizens, Joseph apprentices in blacksmithing under his father from the age of seven. Joseph’s mother passes away when Joseph is seventeen, and two years after that, Joseph’s father follows, leaving the house and the forge to his introverted son. Joseph runs an efficient business, making a name for himself in Grymwalde and the surrounding countryside for having a solid mind, a skilled hand, and a gift for handling horses. His excellent reputation and his devotion to the Crown make him a fine catch for any young lady, but Joseph despises Zandor’s strict rules of courtship and maintains a state of contented bachelorhood. Joseph enjoys his humble home and prefers the company of horses to people. As the war between Caledon and Langdon intensifies and Zandor awaits an opening to strike, Joseph shows his dedication to the Crown by signing up for army service. Far handier with a hammer than with a sword, his tasks are to shoe horses and repair weapons. Trusting that Zandor will soon win the war and claim the throne at Caledon Castle in Ampleforth, Joseph intends to return to his routine at home when the excitement ends. “A more loyal servant of the Crown than I, you shall seldom see. I have known the Children’s Creed by heart since my lisping tongue could recite it. Rarely have I succumbed to the Failings; never have I broken the Moral Laws. I work hard, earn my bread, pay my taxes, and support the Crown in every endeavor. And now I’m going to serve in the Imperial Army. A strange sadness filled me as I hid the key to my forge in the roots of the oak tree in the garden, and I scolded myself that I should dare to feel about something so trivial as home. The Crown would be ashamed. The army may prove busier than I prefer, with long hours and lots of people. But I should aid the Crown in its path to the throne in Ampleforth, and the army has no shortage of horses needing shoes. One more night at home, then away to join the army near the border. With any luck, the war will end soon. I have not yet departed, and already, I want to come home.” Edward Grenleigh “Be grateful I’m letting you leave with your head.” Birthdate: November 3, 1550 Date of Death: May 5, 1603 Age at the time of this story: 37 Physical Characteristics: 6’0”, blue eyes, blond hair Edward is the only son of King Sulwyn Grenleigh, who reigned from 1560 to 1580. Sulwyn is a strict father who gives Edward a rigorous education and drills into him the nation’s expectations of a king. Between the demands put upon him and the adulation afforded him as the crown prince, Edward becomes spoiled, resentful, and self-centered. In his mid-twenties, Edward falls in love with a seamstress and carries on a secret affair with her until Sulwyn catches wind of his son’s indiscretions. Sulwyn arranges a more suitable match with a French princess—one who comes with a yearly stipend from her family to help fund Caledon’s wars. Edward’s outrage knows no bounds, but schooled as he is in duty and protocol, he marries Princess Marguerite. During the first years of their marriage, he meets with the seamstress occasionally, but stops when Prince James is born, in 1578. When Edward takes the throne upon the death of Sulwyn in 1580, he presents to his subjects as a faithful, if disinterested, husband and father. Edward and Marguerite never mesh, and in 1582, when Marguerite is pregnant with Princess Katherine, their marriage dissolves into one of complete political expediency. Marguerite moves into her own suite of rooms, and Edward becomes a recluse from his family within the castle. His interest in Marguerite had only ever been the financial boon she provided to Caledon. At the helm of an extended battle with Langdon, his resources depleted and his forces dwindling, Edward is never far from defeat. His desperate desire to hang onto his throne becomes his focus and the driving force behind most of his actions for the rest of his life. “Read. Study. Memorize. Ride. Fence. Sail. Then back to more reading and studying. That’s my life under my father, Sulwyn—a stern and imperious man. He dictates that I must be constantly improving myself for the sake of the nation, and he insists on knowing my whereabouts and my activities at all times. If only he would send me off to fight Langdon! He feeds every other son of Caledon to this blasted war. But I must stay safe within the castle’s confines, learning to rule the nation—assuming there’s any nation left when I take the throne. My father doesn’t love me. He cares nothing about my happiness or my interests. I’m a commodity to be mined for the benefit of himself and Caledon. Like one of his horses, I am trained to a purpose and expected to perform without fault or opinion. I am the crown prince. Certain comforts and privileges come along with that, I suppose. You’d think that the freedom to make some of my own decisions would be part of the package, but no. Father wants me to learn the theory of decision-making while leaving the decisions to him. One day, when I have children, I will do better for them than my father has done for me. I will not be what my father is, I swear.” Most writers suffer from Imposter Syndrome, and it attacks when sending query letters to agents.
Did I say enough? Did I say too much? Am I bragging? Are they going to roll their eyes and trash my submission? Why would anyone want to read my book? That last question is the one your query must answer if you stand any chance of an agent requesting your full manuscript. So pull up your socks and Sell Your Book! Polish your pitch until it makes YOU want to read the book. Send it to friends to see if it makes THEM want to read. Craft your bio to show yourself in the best light possible. Stay positive—even if you feel like you're wasting your time and should find a new hobby. The worst thing the agent can do is say "no." Every debut author had their share of rejections during the querying process. Think about that. You are in the company of the greats! So invest the time into crafting a confident query that screams, "You want to read my book!" Querying would be so much easier if we could actually say that. And while you’re querying, keep meticulous records of your process. List which agencies you have queried, and which specific agent you addressed your query to. Note whether you emailed or filled out an online form. Include the date you sent the query, and the estimated time you should allow for the agent to respond (or ignore you.) Track your rejections. This way, you will avoid the embarrassing mistake of sending to the same place/person twice. You will know how many queries you have out at one time, and who you need to inform if you get an acceptance. You will also know when to cross an agent off your list and move on. Don't trust your memory. After you've sent a dozen queries, and you're preparing more, and a couple are rejected, they'll become a blur. Keep it manageable. Your book doesn't need to be on submissions at 100 places at once. I have my manuscript out at six to eight places. However many agencies you choose to query simultaneously, make sure you stay organized. Know where your queries are and when you can consider them rejected. And finally, persevere. All it takes is one “yes.” Most agents expect to see a brief biography in your query letter. “Brief” is the key—a few sentences are all you need. Don’t share your life details unless they relate to the story—e.g. you’re a brain surgeon and you’ve written a medical drama. Keep your bio relevant to the manuscript you’re querying and keep the focus on your writing achievements. Include your traditionally published works, if you’ve got any. Mention writing awards you’ve won if they’re notable and recent. If you don’t have literary accolades to share, say something positive about your writing experience and move on. Self-publishing is writing experience, but it’s not an accomplishment that traditional publishing views as proof you’re a talented writer. So unless your self-published book sold a million copies within a year, don’t include details about your self-publishing endeavors, beyond perhaps mentioning that you’ve done it. Provide your website or links to your work only if the agent requests them. Keep the focus on the unpublished manuscript you're querying. Be confident in your query. Don’t denigrate yourself or your manuscript. Keep everything positive. However, a fine line exists between confident and arrogant. Don’t stray into, “You’ve never read anything like my work,” or “You’re going to love my book.” Just present the story. Let agents make their own judgments. Agents who reject your query seldom give feedback. You’re lucky if you get a form response telling you your work doesn’t fit their list. Usually, if they’re not interested in your project, you won’t hear from them. If they bother to provide comments, consider yourself blessed and pay attention! Feedback can hurt, but don’t get upset. Agents know what sells. Take their advice. Do you have to change your manuscript based on an agent’s remarks? No. But you’d be wise to consider applicable rewrites. They might make the difference between a hard no or a request for the full manuscript on your next query. Three keys for querying: keep it Short, Relevant, and Positive! When I was in my teens and early twenties, I queried many publishing houses about several manuscripts. Traditional publishers no longer accept queries from authors. To pursue traditional publication, writers need an agent.
So, I’m querying agents for a manuscript that isn’t part of the Dragon’s Fire Series. And I’m learning stuff along the way. Disclaimer: nothing in my posts is a guarantee that you will land an agent. The quintessential idea I’ve discovered is to keep your query short. Most sites I’ve read recommend one page or less. I say less. Much less. Three or four paragraphs, at most. Agents are busy. You're part of a massive slush pile. They won't spend five minutes reading your query looking for the good parts. So make each paragraph count. Pitch your book. Offer a SHORT and relevant bio of yourself. Include anything else they've asked for. Close. Write your query so they can read it in about 30 seconds. Don't waste space with excessive niceties. "Thank you for taking the time to read my query today..." "I'm sending you my manuscript because I'm looking for an agent..." Agents know you're looking for an agent. Your query on their desk is their first clue. Cut straight to the key points and convince them they want to read your book. Be polite, but don't waste words. Your query is a business proposal. Keep it professional. Agents aren't interested in the book's backstory or how dear the story is to your heart. They're looking for material they can sell. Don't kill your chances with a "why I love my book" paragraph unless they’ve asked for one. If they ask, focus on how what you love about your book will make readers love your book, too. Query one book at a time. Don’t offer the agent a smorgasbord of the sixteen manuscripts on your hard drive and expect them to pick. Query one specific title. Don't expect to send off 100 queries a day. Each one will take time, energy, and careful attention to detail. It's best not to have your book in the slush pile at dozens of agencies, anyway. If one signs you, you'll have too many people to contact saying, "Never mind about my query..." Maintain a steady querying pace, focusing on quality over quantity. Preparing the first query is the hardest part. I needed several hours to fine-tune my pitch and my bio, choose an agency and an agent, and assemble my submission package. The next queries went much faster. Each agent wants something slightly different, but the bulk of your material can be pasted and tweaked. Follow submission guidelines and send each agent what they ask to see. Wondering how to sum up your amazing story in a few short sentences? Start by identifying your protagonist. Share the inciting incident—what starts your story? Tell the main character’s goal and reveal what the conflict is. For example, a short pitch for Dragon’s Fire might read: Princess Ciara of Caledon is named the Guardian of the Dragon’s Fire by the mysterious Mystic Order, but she has no clue what the Dragon’s Fire is or how to find it. Ciara’s search for the Dragon’s Fire brings unexpected powers into play, and she discovers that her most dangerous enemies are those she thought were her friends. That’s an abbreviated version of what appears on the back cover of the book. Your pitch should equate to a back cover copy that entices readers to open your novel. Start with those four key points—main character, inciting incident, goal, conflict—and then polish your pitch. Next time: what to include in your biography and how to handle feedback. I enjoy working on two writing projects at once. This allows me to indulge in editing a book while drafting one, and the change of pace between the manuscripts is welcome. Editing can be intense and exhausting, though I enjoy it. Creating is fun and relaxing (usually). At first, I started the next book while I was waiting on Beta reader or editor feedback on my current project. But last year, I got into the habit of writing a young adult fantasy that isn’t part of the Dragon’s Fire Series on Sundays. I called that weekly change of pace “Book Adultery,” and the manuscript, Small, is now seeking an agent. After completing Small, I started Book Nine while editing Eight, and I’ve finished the first draft. I’ll be well into the second or third draft by the time Eight publishes. In the past, I’ve only written a few chapters of a first draft before launching the previous book, because I didn’t take Sundays as “creator” days. Having a draft finished is an unusual accomplishment. What does that mean for readers? A faster turnout for Book Nine! If Nine is ready for editing when Eight launches, I might release it within six months of Eight’s publication. AND I’ll be starting the first draft of Ten while editing Nine. I can't wait to write Ten. I promised to take the series out with a bang, and I can deliver. Sooner rather than later! Self-publishing the Dragon’s Fire Series is a huge undertaking. Independent publishers tackle every aspect of producing a book, unlike in traditional publishing, where a team handles the project. Between myself, my Beta readers, and my husband, I have a team, but it’s a small one.
The first step is writing the story. The idea in my head progresses to a fleshed-out novel in stages. First, I write a plot. Usually. Myrhiadh’s War never had a plot—it just spilled out over 33 days, and I finished it before I realized I had put little planning into it. The Rose of Caledon also didn’t have a written plot, because I’d been thinking about it for seven months before I started typing. The other titles have plots to guide the general direction of the narrative. (Characters invariably take over and change the storyline—Book Nine is currently not even pretending to follow the plot.) The first draft is just me telling myself a story. Grammar and syntax are irrelevant—I want to get the ideas onto the page. Later drafts focus on plot development and character arcs. Some books only require two drafts before they’re ready for editing. Others need more. The Assassin’s Redemption had four drafts; The Mystic’s Mandate had seven. Beta readers help me during the drafting stage, looking for plot holes and character inconsistencies and making suggestions to improve the story. However many drafts I write, the final one is a blend of drafting and editing, where I give the text a quick read-through for continuity and clean-up any glaring errors. Editing begins once I’m satisfied that the story and characters are solid. The first editing pass is huge. Here I focus on style, wordiness, repetition, clichés, grammar, overuse of words and phrases, sentence length, diction, dialogue and tags, sensory development, and passivity. I pore over each paragraph and analyze every word. It can take four or five hours to work through one chapter. The next editing passes are easier, but I keep working on the text until I can read it and find few things I want to change. This can involve any number of passes, but never fewer than four. During the editing stages, Beta readers help by reading for continuity and enjoyment, and pointing out details I’ve missed. Next, the manuscript goes to my editor, who happens to be my husband. He’s a computer guy—very logical, and he does technical writing and editing at work. He never gets lost in the story, and he makes me account for every word I’ve left in the text. Medieval technology in a scene? I’d better be able to satisfy him that what I’ve described would work, or I rewrite until he is. Lapsing into too much retrospection and characterization (he thinks it’s boring)? I’ll have to fix the pacing. Missing information? He’ll catch it. Flaky characters, implausible situations, poor syntax or confusing sentences? If any have survived my scalpel, he’ll find them. Sometimes, he gets a hearty laugh out of my inadvertent mistakes. After that exercise in humility, the manuscript gets a final check for continuity and to ensure that we introduced no new errors. And then we format it. Formatting for publication is a tedious task. My husband excels at it. He sets margins, analyzes pages line-by-line, decides where to insert hyphens to perfect the justified words, and designs my covers to Amazon’s exacting specifications. I could not do this without him. (We buy the cover art and credit the artists in the books—we are not artists.) After one more quick proofread, the manuscript and cover get uploaded to Amazon so you can read the book! By this time, I’m sick of it, but proud of it—and I’m always glad to hear how readers love it! Readers buy it and read it in a few hours and demand the next one. Which is fantastic. If only I could write them as fast as people devour them! I’m working on the fourth draft of Book Eight in the Dragon’s Fire Series, The Assassin’s Redemption. Readers are familiar with the protagonist, and they don’t like him. The key to creating a main character readers will root for is to make him or her relatable, compelling, and preferably likable, but any character who played the villain in an earlier title has several immediate strikes against him when he steps into the role of the hero. The Assassin’s Redemption takes place in 1587, sixteen years before Myrhiadh’s War (in which my hero was an antagonist.) Joseph Callahan held a dark role in War, and readers know how it ended. Redemption shows Joseph’s history, which I hinted at in War. My problem was how to make him a relatable/likable hero without compromising his character and turning him into someone readers won’t recognize. He can’t present as a helpless victim of his circumstances, and he must remain true to his character in War, at least enough that readers won’t say, “Now I don’t believe he is the person he was in Book Three.” I put a lot of thought into how to move Joseph from villain to hero. First, I’m giving him a believable motivation for his actions—one that will make readers say, “Yeah, I might do that, too, under those circumstances.” Second, I’m giving him relatable feelings, flaws, and limitations—he’s a human yearning to succeed in a trying situation. He faces hard choices, and his responses and actions show that inside, he isn’t a monster. Third, I’m showing how the aftermath of 1587 turned him into the person he was in 1603. Contrary to my usual practice, I rewrote the first 100 pages of Redemption three times before I had finished the first draft of the story. At first, I couldn’t figure out why I was doing that, but the reason finally clicked. I didn’t like Joseph. After all, he was the villain who confronted my favorite heroine! I needed to forgive him, and those three rewrites enabled me to empathize with him. We became friends in a way we never could while writing War. And knowing what happens in The Assassin’s Redemption will make Joseph’s role in Myrhiadh’s War that much richer for readers. Get caught up on the series before Book Eight launches! I’m a happy landlubber. I grew up in Alberta, a landlocked province on the north-west edge of a vast continental prairie. My family weren’t boaters, nor were they into water sports like swimming or fishing. My boating experience includes a handful of paddleboats, a couple of canoes, one outboard motorboat (all on lakes), a few ferries, and a gigantic cruise ship. I was in charge of none of them, though I helped pedal and row in the smallest of them. But I gave Caledon a centuries-long passion for the ocean and made them a race of master ship-builders living on a remote island in the middle of the North Sea. While writing the Dragon’s Fire Series, I learned a lot about boats, and although I have creative license under the genre “fantasy,” I like to stay close to reality where I can. Caledon’s formidable navy is the reason that Langdon and Zandor both founded their capital cities inland. The seagoing history of the Caledonian people gets its first in-depth details in Guardians of Caledon with the rumors about the Neach Gwynt, and Finnian’s building of the Lann Sciath. Both ships are speedy, with the latter sporting a double mast, a feature which did not become common in reality until the late middle ages. The former’s spectacular speed came from engineering; she lifted her bow out of the water when the wind hit her sails, scudding along with an upturned nose. Fast and maneuverable, Caledon’s warships struck fear into the hearts of her foes, and she ruled the seas around the island from the early 360s until the modern day. Each ship of significance in the stories has a name. Most of those names are Caledonian words specific to the ship’s role or the quirk that makes it stand out from the rest. In Book Eight, I have created a small rowboat and named it, too. Eahlu means “escape.” In Dragon’s Fire, the Suainydd patrolled the coasts for pirates. Her name means “tranquility.” In The Mystic’s Mandate, the Bwaydh, or “victory,” carried passengers east toward Zandor. And mentioned in Guardians of Caledon, one of three ships that landed on Caledon’s remote shores after fleeing a Roman invasion was the Saorsa, whose name means “freedom.” About a year after publishing Dragon’s Fire and a few months before releasing The Curse of Caledon, StoryShopUSA employed me to edit their book, A Most Excellent Pirate Adventure. This story is an updated re-release of a 1922 novel titled Blackbeard Buccaneer by Ralph Delahaye Paine. Paine knew his ships, and his naval vocabulary was beyond me, so I kept the dictionary to hand as I worked. Most people don’t read for pleasure with a dictionary alongside them, so I suggested to StoryShop’s executives that we include a handy glossary in the story. Writing it fell to me, partly because of the research I had already completed for the Dragon’s Fire Series. I won’t take up glossary composition as a steady part of my career. The assignment was less-than-thrilling, but I learned a lot while I was doing it! I now have a copy on my computer and in the novel by StoryShopUSA. Blame the glossary project if you find too many ship terms in my books for which you need a dictionary. I love watching Caledonian ships sail in my imagination, and I admire vessels in real life. Mostly, though, I’ll keep my feet on solid ground; I’m content to write about grand boats and the brave people who sailed them. Meet two more characters from The Mystic’s Mandate.
Captain Colin Grenleigh “I rarely eavesdrop on people’s prayers, but if you have a direct line to Morrigan, lad, say a good word for all of us, won’t you?” Birthdate: 1260 Age at the time of this story: 27-28 Physical Characteristics: 6’1”; 173 lbs; blond hair, blue eyes Colin is the grandson of Queen Ciara, the second-born of her youngest son. Raised in a wealthy home with every comfort and advantage, Colin visits Caledon Castle often throughout his childhood and youth. Aware of how distant his claim on Ampleforth’s throne is behind uncles, cousins, and nephews, Colin seeks to influence history through outstanding service in Caledon’s army. As a young man, he abandons his royal title for a military one. Life in the army tents is far different from the prince’s pampered upbringing, but despite his reputation as a scatterbrain, Colin adapts and moves up the ranks, earning promotions and honors with speed and bravery. Defending Ampleforth and the Black Cliffs from Langdon’s attacks is a never-ending and dissatisfying task as men and weapons dwindle, and the line never makes lasting gains in ground. Colin holds to his assigned position until the day his cousin, King Benedict, tells him to handpick a small team for a special mission. Though Colin views his assignment as hopeless, he seeks to fulfill the king’s orders without wasting time or manpower. An experienced commander should have little trouble checking items off a list and finding information, but daunting challenges face him, and unexpected surprises lurk within his unit. “I am tasked with the almost impossible: drive Langdon back from Ampleforth and reclaim the salt mines, lost to Langdon seventy years ago. The mission itself is not insurmountable, but Caledon has no forces to replace those I lose. No men. No horses. No weapons. No boots. Seven decades of war have decimated our resources. So we take them off the dead. Anything we can use. But the dead, while I can commandeer their clothes and weapons, cannot fight for me. And therein lies the worst of my dilemma. Our ranks are dwindling. Two weeks ago, I added a fifteen-year-old boy to my foot soldiers. A mere child! I am ashamed to rob cradles, but what else can I do? I need every man, or boy, I can get. The fear in the lad’s eyes when I told the men we would meet Langdon tomorrow smote me to the core. He will probably die. Like so many others. War. The glory and futility. When will it end?” Background Information: Caledonian Titles All the king’s children inherit the title of prince or princess. The spouse of the prince who will inherit the throne gains an equal title with full powers, so long as the blood royal lives. Courtesy titles are given to spouses of princes and princesses who will not ascend the throne—these hold little power but bestow a level of prestige upon the bearer. The hereditary title of the father will pass to his offspring, but courtesy titles are never handed down. When a noble marries a person who already possesses a title, the couple can claim the higher of the titles if they wish. If a lord marries a duchess, he can assume the courtesy title of duke. However, he might choose to keep his hereditary rank so that his title will pass to their children. The king or queen might bestow an honorary title on anyone who has engaged in outstanding acts of service. Men’s honorary titles get handed down to their children, an ongoing legacy worth striving for. The title of knight or lord is the most common honorary title for men, and a woman will receive the title of lady. The spouse of a person who earns an honorary title will receive a matching courtesy title. Titles, including hereditary titles, can be revoked for a variety of offences. If a person loses his or her title, any living or future spouses or descendants of his lose theirs as well. Langdon and Zandor observe the Caledonian customs regarding titles within their respective royal families and nobility. When the Republic of Caledon formed in 1876, titles became a badge of dishonor—a relic of bygone times and the tyranny of the monarchy. Those who held them ceased to flaunt them or to pass them on to their children. In the 1930s, a new law abolished any remaining titles, making every Caledonian equal. In the 21st century, some families still carried the royal surnames of Grenleigh, Bramston, and Zandor. Many of these could trace their lineage to a royal family, but bragging about one’s ancestry marked one as a snob. People who knew of royal roots and past titles in their families kept their knowledge to themselves. Caledonian titles in order of descending rank: King/Queen; Prince/Princess; Duke/Duchess; Earl/Countess; Baron/Baroness; Lord/Lady; Knighthood. Brigid Kerry “What is truth? Truth is perception. Who will you believe?” Birthdate: 1271 Age at the time of this story: 6-16 Physical Characteristics: 5’8”; 135 lbs; light brown hair, brown eyes The daughter of a Zandorian baron, Brigid knows the rules. She knows how to behave when her father takes her with him to the palace, though she can’t fathom why he does it. Grymwalde’s palace is the most boring place Brigid has ever had the misfortune to be, but when she’s there, she knows what to say to whom. And she only speaks when spoken to. But Brigid often wishes she could say and do what she wants, instead of following the prescriptions of her strict culture. When Brigid is eight years old, her mother dies, leaving her to the tender mercies of a procession of governesses hired to tend to the girl’s education and upbringing. Brigid’s best friend after her mother passes is her maid, Adine, whom she treats as more of a confidante than a servant. Brigid enjoys drawing with charcoal and painting landscapes. She would love to travel to Langdon’s mountains or Caledon’s cliffs to see more exciting scenery than Grymwalde offers, but while the nations are at war, she’s stuck at home. “Sit still. Be quiet. Mind your manners. Rules. Life is a bunch of rules. And the rules for girls don't allow for half so much fun as the rules for boys. See Prince Laurence over there, peeking through the door with that mischievous smirk? No one's making him sit still. He even winked and stuck his tongue out at me! But I have to sit here, silent. I'm cold, but I daren't move closer to the fire, for Father told me to sit here, not there. The room is full of men. How many? I can't tell. The torches cast strange shadows. There might be thirty men, or perhaps only five and twenty-five ghosts. Regardless, they all speak to each other, and never to me, as though I don't exist. I want to get up and run around the room, and shout, and dance, and laugh, but I sit, because I am expected to sit, and I don't get a say. I wonder if there's any way to make anyone hear me? Zandor is not a good place to be a girl.” |
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