7 More Lines and Fast Five Friday

Thank you guys for your encouragement Wednesday as well as your interest Monday! It really made me feel better. I was asked to post more from my WIP, so I thought, "I shall!" I decided to show secondary character Andyrsn breaking up an argument between Cyan and Ghuli, who was disobediently not present in Monday's 7x7x7x7 snippet.

“You’re both stressed. Just calm down.” Cyan paced the floor as Ghuli folded her arms. “Ghuli, I’m sorry, but I have to side with Cyan here.” The look she gave him conveyed a slight betrayal, but he stood firm. “We’re watchmen. I know you want to find this scroll thing, but your safety is more important.”

Ghuli’s scowl melted away, but she drew her knees up and hugged them. “What if finding the Great Scroll is the key to my safety?”

“Have we not been enough so far?” Cyan asked, the strength in his voice making Andyrsn jump, but Ghuli yelled right back.

“You’re not invincible, Cyan. I could lose you, too!” Cyan’s jaw hardened, and a pained look came across his reddening face before he stormed toward the door. “I’m not having this fight with you anymore.”

This week, the Cover Girls would like us to list the 5 books that had us bawling or near tears. These I can put in order from hardest sobs to mistiness. lol

Stephen King's The Green Mile (bawling uncontrollably!)

S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders (bawling)

N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms (crying)

Terri Bruce's Thereafter (near tears/inconsolable)

Robert Olen Butler's The Deep Green Sea (near tears)

Any books have you dying of the feels?

7x7x7x7

Hello!

Another Monday post? What?

This is the other of the two things that I mentioned in my last post that is happening today. I was tagged for the 7x7x7x7 blog post by Adriana Arrington. The basics are that you post 7 lines from your manuscript beginning with the 7th line from your 7th page. Here are more details on her page.

My 7th line starts in the middle of a sentence, soooo...but there's another sentence there, too...bah.

Their rustling was all that carried on the air. Cyan clenched his teeth and sighed.

“I don’t hear her anymore.”

Laris joined him and listened. “She may have wandered off.”

“She was supposed to stay on the road.”

“You know the Princess, my brother.”

“All too well.”

Cyan walked into the forest, leaving the road for the western trees.  

So there you go! :)  See you Wednesday for IWSG.

Express Yourself, Pitch Wars, and a New Ending

Happy Tuesday!

I'm still reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, so pray for me. I've less than 100 pages left, and I might not pick up another Gaiman for a while. Anansi Boys was the best for me so far. I could've dealt without the rest. To supplement my Random-reading share, I'm bring you all last week's Express Yourself question!

This bloghop was created by the Cover Girls, Dani @ Entertaining Interests and Jackie at Bouquet of Books. Not unlike Fast Five but more in depth, the ladies ask us a question each week so we can all get to know each other better. And speaking of mentors, last week, the ladies asked us to:

Name 3 people you want to learn something from.

Stevie Wonder - a musical prodigy! I would love to be able to play more instruments.

Stephen King - I need to know why so dark? lol

Joss Whedon - Because Browncoat.

Pitch Wars is now less than a week away, and I culled the mentor list last week, whittled my list down to those who wanted YA-Fantasy, then those who I felt gelled well, and then basically nit-picked until I had 5 mentors I'm ready to introduce to my baby.

Speaking of Writing, an amazing thing happened after I added this new scene that became a whole new chapter for my manuscript...A new ending! I'll admit, I had a lackluster "And they all lived happily ever after" going and didn't like it but wasn't sure what to do with it. But when I added the new opener, it was like a chain reaction happened, and I knew exactly how to end my story! Totally crazy thing to do when I'm talking about submitting to a contest in a week, but the beginning and the end tie in and compliment each other perfectly. They're like bookends in their parallelism, and I'm more than glad they're there now.

What 3 people would you like to learn something from? Are you entering Pitch Wars? Let me know!

Friday Freeday: Revision update

Good morning!

So, I'm on revision 1,049.2 (lol), and this time around, I'm focusing on giving Ghuli a little more personality (she fell a little flat according to my last beta partner, and she was right) and making her a little more active in her own destiny before she actually needs to. Doing the latter actually helped the former because one of the issues that comes up later but that has always been there, according to supporting charry Cyan, is that Ghuli hardly listens to him. So, there are more moments of them bumping heads, and actually just more of them interacting altogether.

Even adding these moments, I've lost about 1,500 words, so I'd like to see if I can lose a few more. It's pretty nice. :)

That is where I am. I hope you all have a good weekend! I'll see you just before Turkey Day. ;)

Friday Freeday

Happy Friday!

It's Payday, and almost half of my check is gone already. Yaaaay. lol

Anyway, I had gone back into my WIP yesterday and wondered if I'd gotten into the right rhythm before the page I was on (60-something), so I went back to the first page. My last Beta said I had an issue with stage direction, and yes, my story so far was riddled with it! It made it very robotic, so going back to the first page was the right thing.

Joan Rivers died yesterday, and it's crazy to think the comedians and actors you grew up watching are now passing away. I watched Robin Williams more and really was hurt by his death. I'd seen Joan a few times on Fashion Police, and she was very funny. E! put out a 3-minute video for her, and it made me like her even more, especially her love for Melissa. I hope both families will cope well.

I also hope they give Joan the funeral she wanted. Did you all read it?? <--- Read it, then come back. lol (Ironically, yesterday was also Beyonce's birthday! lol)

I've always said if I die before 80, sure, go ahead and cry. But if I made it to 80, THROW A PARTY! No one has time for tears if I saw 4 decades! That's an accomplishment! I could've been hit by a train at 7 or flipped many a car forgetting to look in my blind spot. Heck, I went to school in Philly. If I make it to 80, cry at home. At the funeral, though, play my favorite songs, and that Sean Paul song with that terrible singer whine-singing, "I'm still in love with you, boy...So yes, also at my funeral, you need to be doing Jamaican gyrations around the casket...so it can't be at church. lol

This post went left-field.

Y'all have a great weekend, and hug your loved ones!

My WIP: Fantasy Betas

I'm bored, so I thought I'd pop in. :)

Tomorrow I go in for my second interview for a real position (last interview was my first in YEARS), and while I'm claiming 2014 will be Deborah's year financially, spiritually, and romantically (hey now), I need it to also be DEBRA'S year. I spent the last couple of years revising my fantasy WIP Save the Queen, and the last revision even came with a name change: The Crystal Bearer. My sister doesn't like it, but she also didn't finish reading it for me, so *sticks my tongue out at her*.

Even though I've decided to try to query my tribute sequel first (which entails, you know, working on the query), I don't want to all out give up on Ghuli's story, so I want to find betas for it. Hopefully, some of you who are reading this came from the tweet I will be attaching to this. Below is my latest query, with which I'm feeling more comfortable than I have with my prevoius query drafts. And if you're interested in being a beta reader, please comment or e-mail me: debramckellan (at) ymail (dot) com.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

All that remains of the most powerful people on T’orre is Ghuli, and with a metal army destroying everything in its path to get to her, she feels powerless.

Ghuli’s parents sent her away from their land before the army destroyed it. With the ever-present threat in the back of her mind, she grows up trying to live life, mainly by swinging from willow trees and aggravating her watchmen. She reads fairytales of safer lands to occupy her dreams, but the closer danger comes, the more those dreams turn to dark, abandoned castles, to ghosts and faces Ghuli’s never seen. At least, she doesn’t remember seeing them.

Once separated by shipwreck and alone in the world she has come to fear, Ghuli discovers her dreams are more real than she desires. They are glimpses of a time that she has reversed. The price: her consciousness, the part of her that contains her memory and the control of her erratic powers, has separated from her body. Ghuli’s consciousness guides her body towards a rune called the Great Scroll, the key to piecing her back together and becoming more than just the protected. She can help stop the metal army, but another price comes with regaining her full potential. She must discover whether or not she is the reason her people were destroyed.

THE CRYSTAL BEARER is a YA fantasy complete at 98,000 words. It balances the line between dark and light tones and has a slight horror element.

Friday Freeday: WIP It!

Happy Friday!!

I am combusting spontaneously as I type (just ate a hot sausage/egg/cheese biscuit, so my body temperature shot up), but it's Friday, so I am obligated to bother y'all before I burst into flames.

This week on the WIP circuit, I decided to tackle revamping my first writing project which focused on the lives of young mutant students. As this has been done before (especially since as a 7-year-old writing it, I was copying X-men), I had to figure out new reasons as to why these people are mutated, and what kind of story I was going to tell here. SO, I decided for this go-round to tell the story of how the main students I plan to focus on came to the shelter where they live or how they overcame an obstacle in the past while already at the shelter. Again, having had written the original story well over 15 years ago now, I don't remember half of the first cast. But, the good thing about writing is that you can start from scratch and not mess up the final product.

Another thing I decided to do was to absorb two projects I had started based on dreams I'd had because the characters pretty much lived in the same world as this major WIP, so I have "new" characters to mesh with the "old" ones, and I'm excited to see how they will interact. I've even decided to tell the story of the owner of the shelter, which in all the incarnations of this story I'd never done before, so I'm really excited to make her an organic character with her own past.

So that is what I'm doing. I hope everyone has a good weekend, and happy writing! I'm cold now. Time for coffee.

Express Yourself: Crafty (And my final sketches)

Welcome back! Express Yourself is a weekly meme by Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests to get to know their followers better! This week's question is about the handy/crafty things we wish we did.

I not only wish I drew better, but had a more consistent will to draw like I used to when I was a kid. I wanted to be a writer/illustrator. That fell away by the time I graduated college, but this past week, as you've seen, I had a drawing streak on which I didn't expect to follow through. As it turned out, I finished my secondary characters today at work, so here they are!

This is Ghuli's 2nd Lt. Watchman Laris, a quiet and cheery baysprite. When I first drew these characters years ago, I never got to him, even though he was the first character whose face I knew clearly in my mind (he looks like a red-headed Anderson Dornelles). I did get lazy and didn't draw his crossbow or swords, but his quivers are on his back.

Then, I did Avalegna, a werebeast who appears later in the story. I initially had her eyes open, but I didn't like that. She's another cheery character, and she likes to climb things.

And since I had finally finished the group, I decided to put them in paint and adjust them to relative heights to see what they look like beside each other, and I'm very happy with the result!

Have a good week, and stop by Jackie & Dani's pages for the other participants. :)

More character sketches!?

Happy Saturday!

So I actually did draw two of my three male characters. I took care to get them as close to how I picture them in Save the Queen as possible. Then, I actually used Paint to place the characters together for the first time!

First, I did Andyrsn, the Junior-Grade Lieutenant whom Ghuli meets. He lives on Viveno Island, popular for  its baobab trees (really cool looking trees that are actually from Africa) & fruit. He's a really nice guy, so whenever I draw him, I make him wave. 

Then, I took on Cyan, Ghuli's surrogate brother and 1st Lt. watchman. His face constantly changes in my head, and I think this is as close as I'll get to how I would like him to look. The tattoo along his arm and neck is from a Trollic Marking ritual after a Trollic watchman suffers his first injury protecting his watch.

When I say Trollic, I speak of a race of giants in my WIP. Cyan is from the shorter breed, hulktrolls. That being said...

...he's 7'5, and he was Ghuli's full-grown height (5'3) probably around 8 years old. I decided to see what they would look like standing beside each other, and I keep looking at it in awe. This is the first time I've had a chance to draw them in dimensions that I could actually manipulate to do this.

Okay, let me stop staring at it. After putting these two together, I decided to stand Andyrsn (5'11-1/2) beside Brodie (5'9). They're my gunslingers and grew up together. I didn't mean for them both to wear plaid, but that's my story speaking to me: it's the local in-style.

So now, I have two characters and one sheet of this work paper left, so we'll see how that pans out.

Friday Freeday: More sketches

So I actually did TWO people yesterday, and I'm surprised. I guess I'm in the mood to draw this season.

This is Princess Ghuli the Crystal Bearer, my MC, standing in front of a weeping willow. She's more ornery than she looks, but she means well. This is what she's wearing (and where she is actually, the Willow Forest on the Island Continent, which is more wintry than its name (like Greenland)) when the story opens, undyed wool and boots to keep her feet warm when she doesn't take them off to swing on the willow switches. Her hands are also wrapped with linen to hide the crystals in her hands.

This is 1st Lt. Brodie (not the second person we see in the story, but the easiest to draw, so...), the Scholar. Ghuli learns she needs to find her through a dream, and they're more connected than she knows initially. She's a hot-head and really smart, which is sometimes a bad combination, but she and Ghuli become close friends. I have to make a choice as to who I will draw next. I tend to have trouble drawing boys, and the last girl is going to be tricky, so it might take another week.

Why I'm Glad Computers Became Accessible to Mere Mortals

Drawing for 2 hours really flares up the carpel tunnel. Or is it tarsal tunnel when it's your knuckles? Or just arthritis? =\

Anyway, I was one of those kids who did nothing by type the moment a computer entered my house in like 1996, so the giant pillowy callus I developed on my ring finger from the weird way I hold my pencil diminished greatly once I was able to save stories onto a computer.

Yesterday, if you follow me on Twitter, you saw that somewhere around 2pm, I decided to sketch (yes, I do that sometimes lol) some of the essential characters in my fantasy WIP Save the Queen, this time the beasts of the Contagion, the metal army hunting my MC. I finished a little before work got out, so here they are. Each machine has a trait modeled after Boccioni's "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space", a piece I fell in love with my Freshman year of college. Also, the loops on each around the arms and back are tubes. They are magic-infused and water-powered machines.

The Helichimera, who I knew as I drew it that I described them as having 4 heads in my story, but I realized I didn't know what a 4th head would do, so I nixed it thanks to brainstorming this sketch. This is also the first time I took on drawing a ram and a lion. I'm almost sure I've drawn snakes before but can't remember.

The first one I set out to draw and the first seen in my story, the Iron Giant with an armless profile to show the back detail. It's cuter than I meant it to be, but in all-black cast iron and at 12 feet high, I imagine it would be scarier in person. I eliminated the description of the faceless shield somewhere between drafts, but the giants have no hands.

And the one that took 2 takes, lol, the Mythril Eagle. It kind of looks more like a hawk, but I don't draw birds. They're 3x bigger than vultures, and the wings pretend to flap. All of the machines run on jet engines. The detail on the talons are also plates so the talons can bend for grabbing people.

If I take on drawing the actual people again (I did years ago), it will be a slow, slow process. Like 1 a month. lol

Express Yourself: Your Soundtrack

I always tweak the title. lol I was having such a sucky day that I almost forgot one of the joys of Tuesday: Express Yourself! Thank you, Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests for this weekly bloghop.

Today is an easy one for me! What bands/singers would be the most used in the soundtrack to your WIP or your life?

Music has helped define who I am or express a certain point in my life. Instead of me explaining every single artist (as I was really about to do lol), here's the soundtrack that pretty much sums up my life from teen years to now.

1. Super Girl by Krystal Harris
2. Overprotected by Britney Spears
3. I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman by Britney Spears
4. Remember My Name by Yuna
5. I Was Here by Beyoncé

Now, oddly enough (or maybe not for writers), I also have a lot of my soundtrack planned for my fantasy WIP. As I one day hope for it to be a movie and am writing the book as an homage to the Final Fantasy series, I envisioned the music sounding like a Final Fantasy soundtrack. If I'm lucky, maybe Nobuo Uematsu can even oversee musical production! Aside from an original score I need to actually compose, I have a few pop tracks that I want to Finalize (giggle) for important scenes. They are:

1. Let the Flames Begin by Paramore (which I already know will come out sounding slightly like Jenova's Theme, but I also have a whole new arrangement I want to write)
2.Breathe Again by Sara Bareilles (I hear a harp and battle drums)
3. Smash into You by Beyoncé (maybe I can get her to sing it more softly lol)

Looking at my 1st 300 on my 100th Post!

This is my 100th post! How do I have so much to talk about?! I owe many of my posts to Alex J. Cavanaugh-sensei, Jackie at Bouquet of Books, and Dani at Entertaining Interests. Otherwise, I'd probably just be doing this at random and probably forget about it after some time.

I wanted to celebrate by reflecting on my February 20th post about my first 300 words for my WIP.
http://debramckellan.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-first-300.html

Why am I reflecting? Because hardly 4 months later, I revised it! It's crazy what a difference a pair of eyes makes. I had picked up a crit partner and forced my sister to beta read. I have neither at this point (well I have my sister, but she doesn't like fantasy, so I told her she could stop after the Book One), but the insight they gave me was really helpful, and I've been inputting so much more into this story that I feel it is slowing it appropriately and rounding it out significantly.

I've even rearranged the opening to provide a little more voice and the thought process of the princess. My hooker, everyone (haha):

If things went how the Crystalline Princess desired, she would be swinging through the air in the next few minutes. Otherwise, she would have to explain to her watchmen why breaking her arms and legs was a good use of her time.

In my next 100 posts, I hope to be able to say I've written a successful query, at least to an agent who has expressed their love for it, and in the next 100, I hope to say I'm published. It can be done!

Thinking

So I've started revising my fantasy WIP Save the Queen again, which feels as taxing as it is adventurous. At this point, I feel I should be able to do it in my sleep, but I also know I need to dig up my query and work on it, too.

I think I posted one here and don't remember how good (or bad) it is. I don't even want to go looking for it. I want a fresh start on this (evil device of Satan) thing. For some reason, I want to try out writing it from the antagonist's perspective...? I'm not sure why, but it's just floating in my head. Another idea I'm thinking on, and it's really more of a point than an idea, is showing some of the cards. I wanted to keep a little of the mystery to myself, but it's ultimately the agent who needs to see it, so I can show them a few a-ha's, right? I know it will at least give the hook a punch, and the agent something to look forward to in regards to see how things got to "that point."

I'm talking very cryptically, but that's what's on my mind at the moment. What say you?

Falling for Fiction hosts The Matchelor!

Are you one of those writers who has trouble finding CPs and Betas, and/or sees the Mixers but gets scared to join? Click the link below for a helpful push in the right direction!

Falling for Fiction proudly hosting THE MATCHELOR! All you have to do is fill out a questionnaire, and they will do the rest. :-D

The Matchelor: March 25-29. Spread the Word!

The First 300!

I know it's not the end of the week and that I may come up with something brilliant to post between now and 11:59pm Saturday, but just in case I don't, I've decided to post the first 300 (332 really) words of my fantasy WIP: Save the Queen. This is part of the new opening to the story that I recently decided to do, so whether or not it's worth anything to anyone besides me is up to the universe. At any rate, I hope it paints a good, albeit brief, picture of my main character, Ghuli, and that you enjoy it.

Book One

The northern winds always felt warmest at dusk in the Forest of Weeping Willows. With the Island Continent so far west, the Crystalline Princess liked to imagine the sun glanced longingly at the Isle on its way back towards the eastern skies, a last goodbye before nightfall. Ghuli sat on a high, steady branch of a blue willow deep in the forest, tying the ends of some of its switches as the sun heated her skin. She only had a few minutes left before Cyan found her, so she clutched the ridged bark as she stood, pressed her long, brown feet down against the ties along the branch to keep her balance, and stretched her arms to hold the switches at a comfortable point. She held her breath within her. If things went how she desired, she would be swinging through the air in the next few seconds. Otherwise, she would have to explain to her watchmen why breaking her arms and legs was a good use of her time.

Ghuli closed her eyes and let her feet slip away from the branch. For two seconds, she was falling through the air, and then the switches jerked tight beneath her feet. She screamed and laughed as the blue leaves of the other switches brushed her. She flew upwards until she stared up at the wraps bound around her feet, the hem of her un-dyed woolen skirt sucked against her shins. Then, she was falling backwards through the same switches, grasping her makeshift swing as it took her back the other way. Her black curls covered her eyes and mouth as her body lay suspended in the air for another long second before she was swinging forward again.

She was able to do this a few more times before she locked eyes with her First Lieutenant Watchman in the brief moment she lay in the air. “You said you would stay on the Eastern Road,” he said as she passed him.

Birthing a Darling??

This week has passed me by, but since it started, I have started (once again) editing my fantasy WIP Save the Queen. The big change this time: adding an opening scene.

I'm almost sure I've talked about this already, and if not, whoa deja vu. Anyway, I was so scared to do it. When it came to editing my original opening sequence, back-to-back chase scenes, I had: 1) changed the beginning by not starting on a literary long-shot of the scenery before zooming in on the impending danger and focusing right on the main character's reaction to the danger; 2) decided that the MC's supporting characters wouldn't leave her hanging through BOTH chase scenes but only one; 3) decided that since it is the job of these particular supporting characters to keep the MC alive, that they should never leave her side in EITHER scene; 4) described these characters in quick bursts and not even show the interior of their home, since it would be (not a spoiler) demolished between these scenes anyway, and elaborate on who they are as people later.

So, almost needless to say, when I received critiques, the question of the year was, "Who are these people we're supposed to care about?"

Since I joined Agent Query's Spec Fic Unit (lol), I've heard the phrase "Kill your darlings" more times than I can count, but I never thought of having to BIRTH one. I'm a very stubborn writer, which I know is bad, and I was set on this vision from when I was 18 years old. No writer wants to move off that first vision. It's their baby. So even though I went through 1-4 up there, the idea of NOT starting with the action kind of made me anxious.

Which is silly. Because if I don't take the time to establish who my charries are and where they live, who will care that their home just got torn to pieces? So I thought about it for a couple of days, posted my thoughts about it on AQC, thought about it for another couple of days, chatted on AQC to procrastinate, and then, I did it! I wrote 500+ words painting a snapshot of the characters I want people to like for the next 100k.

So, I'm proud of myself. (These posts always sound so vain. lol)

In other news, the high school drummer who lives behind us is giving me cause to commit homicide. This will be premeditated. I will plead guilty by way of gradual deterioration of sanity.

The Color Line

Now, I've actually had this thought in the back of my head for years, but not until recently has it started creeping closer and closer into my frontal lobes.

Do I want to change the color of my main character??

At the moment, and as I've always envisioned it, Ghuli has mirrored the likes of Rinoa in FF8 and Dagger in FF9. Can I add pictures? (edit July 24: NOPE. lol Just read a blog about a woman who got sued.)

Here are some links. Rinoa. Dagger.

That pale, large-eyed, black-haired damsel. I've had the Crystal Bearers described in the same manner. Fair, dark hair, dark eyes.

For the movie adaptation (you know, for the book I haven't even published yet), I have SERIOUSLY been monitoring Jodelle Ferland to make sure she doesn't grow into some awkward looking child as most adorable child actors do. She's succeeding, thank God.

I also want Kristin Kreuk to play her mother, but anyway, that's part of the point. This face is the thing right now, as seen on those Fallen novels and Twilight, and TV's version of Vampire Diaries, Snow White every 10 years. That innocent, pale-faced, dark-haired damsel.

I used to just wonder, "What would happen if I made Ghuli brown?" out of curiosity. My first thought has always been, "What would the jewels in her hands look like then??" That's the big thing that stops me from changing her color. The jewels are white because they look good against just-as-white skin. White jewels embedded in a brown hand? I think of pus. Gross, I know, but my mother's a nurse, so that's what I think of. I thought of changing them to red to compensate, but then, I thought of blood. I'll come back to this in a moment.

Now I'm thinking, since we're inundated with this stock face, while beautiful, I'm now wondering if I should change Ghuli's color to propose a new type of heroine? I don't ever really jump into the conversations about race portrayal in movies and such, but if anyone else read all the racist comments that happened after The Hunger Games came out, it's clear that people have their ideas of who's innocent and who doesn't matter. Would the population accept a brown-skinned (and when I say brown, I mean like the crayon color, since many people label tan people brown and brown people black) damsel/heroine, and will my story get the same attention, or would it be shelved under "African American" literature? Not that it couldn't be as popular, but would it?

One simple question birthed SO many other ones! Well, I guess then it's not so simple.

I just asked my sister, and she said, "It would definitely get people's attention."

It also goes deeper, as a symbol of me embracing MY color, as a black girl who grew up in Southeastern PA just north of Philly where everyone's Italian or Jewish, so my identity was shot to Hell by the time I hit the first grade.

I think it could work. Perhaps a Kerry Washington type face? She could be the face of the Crystal Bearers. It's blowing my mind right now. And it's not like I'll lose the Jodelle Ferland face. In fact, the Crystal Bearers, like the Humans, can be black AND white! Epiphany #2.

So, I think I can do this (and I know it means going through another read-through to change any instance of describing Ghuli and identifying the Bearers as exclusively pale, white, fair, etc.). I think I will.

So back to the jewels, I think an amber stone would work, even a diamond...Let's do this.

Save the Queen: The Characters

I fell asleep at my desk, so...this should be a better use of my time in case someone walks by. Below are the main and supporting characters in the order they appear in the story.

Ghulien, also known as Ghuli. 17. Race: Crystal Bearer. 5'3. Slim. Long, thick, curly black hair, hazel eyes. Brown skin. Round crystal in each hand and foot, the source of her power. Timid, but impulsive and spoiled. Her powers are awakened when she meets others with the same powers or when she is in critical danger.

Cyan. 22. Race: Trollic, sub-class Hulk. 7'5. Solid but short by Trollic standards. Blonde hair cropped short, light blue eyes. Fair complexion. Weapon: Cudgel. Ghuli's 1st Lt. Watchman. Hot-tempered, constantly alert and worried. Cyan raised Ghuli from an infant and took charge of her when his commanding officer died.

Laris. 26. Race: Sprite, sub-class Bay. 5'8. Lithe. Mid-length red hair, green eyes and pointed ears (both racially exclusive). Tan complexion. Weapon: Crossbow and lightweight swords. Can heal himself and others. Ghuli's 2nd Lt. Watchman and Cyan's mentor. Quiet, sincere, likes to tell stories. Joined Cyan's mission after the death of Cyan's commanding officer.

Andyrsn. 22. Race: Human. 5'111/2. Cruiserweight. Mid-length, curly brown hair, dark brown eyes. Tan complexion. Weapon: Pistols and dagger. Becomes Ghuli's Junior Grade Lt. Watchman after meeting her. Soft-spoken, sarcastic, but light-hearted. Helps care for his nieces.

Brodie. 19. Race: Human. 5'9. Long and slim. Long, dark brown hair, dark brown eyes. Brown skin. Weapon: Rifle. A scholar who has also earned the rank of 2nd Lt. Watchman. and joins Ghuli. Quick-witted, judgmental, intelligent. Her watchman status conflicts with her family's traditional Scholarship role.

Avalegna, later nicknamed Lenne. 16. Race: Werebeast. 5'0. Petite but wiry. Long, unruly blonde hair, golden eyes and pointed ears (both racially exclusive). Olive skin. A friend of Ghuli's. Fast-speaking, hyper, fierce. Her race is needed to find and activate a Crystalline relic Ghuli learns she must find.

Current Manuscript: Save the Queen

My big fantasy novel that comes complete with a screenplay and soundtrack if you can create one of those image projectors that wire directly from the brain.

While I have sent what I feel is a good synopsis (Thanks again, Revo!) the query can...bite me to say the least. Shall we all rally together, hunt down the guy who decided they were a good idea, and beat him mercilessly? *Pitchfork*

So anyway, Save the Queen is a high fantasy paying homage to a series of video games called Final Fantasy. The title itself is the name of a weapon used in a couple of my favorite games from the series. And yet, it fits.

In a nutshell, the premise:
Ghuli, the Princess of a dead race called Crystal Bearers, has been safely hidden away for most of her life from the iron army that destroyed her home and continues to terrorize the continents. This army, the Contagion, has finally hunted Ghuli down. Its finding her initiates a series of events that in turn awakens in Ghuli the dormant powers of the Crystal Bearers. As she journeys to discover the origins and history of her people, she encounters someone who not only seeks revenge against her for past (or is it future?) wrongs, but who also controls the Contagion. Ghuli's journey becomes a struggle between what she knows and what is real; life and death; her protection and protecting the world.

Insert dramatic music.

It's a moderately dark novel...maybe mildly. I've always balanced on that line. One of those closet goth kids who likes to write about death and blood. Anyhow, that up there is the gist. I suppose my next blog can outline the main and supporting characters of the novel. I might even do it today. Work is slowing down.