Day 5! Two more days and we’ve done our week’s worth of a release party-bloggy-thingy. After that … I’ll get back to business as usual. (Or as “usual” as I can be.)
Now then … lemme see … I’ve told you where the “Eldur” sprouted from. I explained a little about Blood Magic. I gave you the origins of our main characters Trenna and Nelek. And I told you about the struggle for world-building and what have you that I had with creating Dyngannon. What to tell you today, I wonder ….
I’ve got it! Secondary characters!
Brenson Andreas Mustanen Dyngannon (Nelek’s little brother) was a hard character to tackle. He’s so very … proper. And sensible. And scandalous all at once. I always envisioned the Scarlet Pimpernel when I thought of him (the Anthony Andrews version, I’m sorry but that one was my favorite) and tried to play around that. Honestly, in the original manuscript, I had a hard time picking who the main character actually was. Brenson came awful close and the story nearly revolved around Brenson and Brigetta and all that yummy courtly intrigue. But … yeah … Trenna stole the book.
Brockley Croften, Trenna’s adopted brother, was actually very easy to write. He was just sort of … there. Constant and warm and steady, a great counterpart to Trenna’s brash behaviour. I love their relationship throughout the books.
Saboteur introduces a new secondary character — Tibitus Mavon. This Human Lord was so fun to play with. I never dove into his point of view, but I had fun with him just the same. I especially love the way he and Trenna get along through the book. There’s a sort of underlying tension between them, like neither of them can forget the battles they fought against each other, but it’s a tension that amplifies the theme of overcoming prejudice and hate. I knew that if I could make those two work, then the rest of the book would make sense.
…. In fact, I’m going to nab my snippet for today from Saboteur ….
***
And then she saw him. Standing just at the front of the little herbal garden, General Mavon watched them emerge from the tower. His hair caught the evening light, gleaming scarlet against the masonry. Even from the distance Trenna saw that he would stand a good five heads taller than her. He looked every bit the giant, redheaded demon the Eldur people had made him out to be. More so, she could see him clearly in her memory: clad in tarnished armor, screaming in berserker fury as he led his men into the charge. Trenna was struck with the impossibility of their task as they began to close the distance to Mavon.
“How does one ask the enemy to set aside well-earned animosity for peace?” she asked, quietly so only Nelek could hear.
Nelek looked at her, rueful humor in his eyes. “With a great deal of humility, I think.”
“And if humility doesn’t work?”
“Well, you could always try it your way and get him drunk.”
***
That’s it for today! Only two more days to go, I promise. Then I’ll stop throwing confetti at everyone.
AJMaguire 