My Characters in Quarantine

Greeting, friends!

I know most of us are practicing social distancing right now, or are in full-blown quarantine. (And I applaud you! Props for flattening the curve, and all that.) So I thought it would be fun to ask my characters what they would be doing if they were stuck in quarantine.

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Willow, from A Book Without Dragons
“Getting caught up on reading! Reading some new books if I could get them, but if not then rereading the old ones is great, too.”

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Ellsie from The World That Forgot How to Dance
“There’s actually a lot of exercises you can do from a small space that’ll make you a better dancer. Having a huge stage is fun, but spending some time really focusing on the basics never hurts.”

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Snowiks from A Book Without Dragons
“I wouldn’t be at home. I’m an essential employee.”
[Hannah] – “Yeah, I know, but that’s not the point of the blog post. If you weren’t an essential employee—”
“But I am.”
[Hannah] *getting annoyed* “Riiiight, but if you had to be in quarantine…”
“…”
[Hannah] – …
“Essential employees don’t have to stay at home.”
[Hannah] – *sighs* “Never mind.”

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Kaeya from The Bard’s Choice
“I’m sure I’d still have customers even if we were in quarantine. I deal mostly in stolen items, so my clientele isn’t overly concerned with breaking rules. I might have to meet with them outside of my normal shop. And I’d tell them to keep six feel away, of course.”

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Denise from The World That Forgot How to Dance
“Well, classes are all online, right? So I’d just keep going to school. I’d miss having the library, but for the most part things would be okay.”

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Teera from Sisters, a Sorceress, Curses, and Songs
“I’ve always wanted to give gardening a try. And if the quarantine goes longer than expected, we’d have a lot of vegetables.”

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Emilin from Sisters, a Sorceress, Curses, and Songs
“Pft. Practicing, obviously. We could get a lot of new songs written.” *pause* “What do you mean Teera said gardening?”

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I hope you are all staying safe and finding ways to keep yourselves entertained and in high spirits! (Also – I don’t condone Kaeya’s response. She’s a bit of a workaholic. Juuuuust take a break.)

Character Analysis: Jasper

This post features Jasper
from A Book Without Dragons
No Spoilers

Jasper has always been part of the plot, even when A Book Without Dragons was still a short story. While his functionality within the story went through a bunch of rewrites, his personality was pretty solid from the beginning.

From a plot standpoint, having him there allowed a good amount of the exposition to come out in dialog between him and Willow. Also, since the five main characters are all in unsteady places in their lives, Jasper served as a good offset to that. He loves his life, he’s happy with his job, he feels confidant in who he is. That kind of energy helps to bring awareness to what the others seem to be missing.

“I don’t think you’re the kind of guy to do anything rash. Let’s sort this out.”
“What are you, some kind of shrink?”
“I’m a crisis negotiator for the FBI,” Jasper said, and then shrugged. “It seems like you’re having a crisis.”

But from a more internal standpoint, it just made sense to me that Willow would need to be with a friend during the Unitime crisis. Willow’s always been the kind of person who really thrived on close relationships, even though he tends not to have many of them. Willow would probably claim that he prefers solitude so other people wouldn’t be endangered, but beneath all that, I know he’s profoundly grateful to have Jasper there with him.

I did struggle a bit with Jasper’s personal story arc and what sort of agency I wanted him to have within the story. In some of the earlier drafts he served an exclusively emotional purpose, and I knew pretty early on that I wanted more for him than that.

As I was outlining, I first started to feel like Jasper’s arc was working when I introduced the dynamic between him and Snowiks. Yes, he was still functioning in a primarily emotional context, but I just loved how much more dynamic Snowiks’s personal arc became once Jasper was involved.

Jasper dropped into a chair and looked around the room with a fond nostalgia that I almost couldn’t comprehend. If I’d actually gotten out of Chagrin Heights, as was always the plan, I would hate any reminders of where I started.

The way Jasper could come into a scene and guide it in the right direction was always fun for me to watch. It was effortless, really. And maybe that has something to do with how open and connected his is with other people. I always loved that about him.

So, once we’d established this extra connection with Snowiks, it became a lot easier to find other plot-positive things for Jasper to do. I was able to tap more into his skills as an FBI agent, and have him work either with or against Snowiks.

I particularly enjoyed playing with his training as a crisis negotiator. The scenes where we really get to see Jasper in his element were so much fun to write.

 

If you’re curious
about Jasper, you can
find the full book here.

Weekend Coffee Share – A quiet little reunion

If we were having coffee this weekend, you’d probably be really surprised to see me. I would grin sheepishly over my tea mug and admit that, yes, it’s certainly been a while. I would apologize for all of the coffee dates I’d canceled, always saying that I was busy.

Although, I really have been busy, I would tell you, growing so excited I’d have to put my tea down so I wouldn’t spill it. So busy! Busy doing exciting things that I can’t wait to share with you.

Blogs I love

I’m following some pretty awesome blogs these days. Just wanted to take a minute to gush on them. Do check them out if you haven’t found them yet!

 

Valourborn: “A hero is nothing if not first born from valor.” This is the blog I go to when I really want to believe in magic, legends, honor, strength, peace… yeah, all of those things. Alex’s writing style is honest and beautiful, and I feel a little better about the world when I see it through her eyes.

The Liebster Blog Award!

Hey, guess what, friends? The awesome-beyond-awesome Hayley Knighten nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award! Thank you so much, Hayley ❤

I’ve seen this award bouncing around the blog-verse for a while, and I honestly think it’s a truly neat idea. It has helped me discover tons of excellent new blogs, and I’m excited to be able to nominate 11 others and spread the word about their blogging adventures.

So, before I get to that, apparently I get to chatter about myself 🙂 Here are eleven facts about me:

1. Occasionally I have lucid dreams in which I can fly.
2. My favorite holidays are Halloween and New Year’s Eve