| Karalyn: medium height, starts as a slim teen, but develops a more curvy figure later. Black hair, curly, vivid green eyes, fair skin (doesn’t freckle, tans lightly), firm jaw, large eyes. Rowan: tall, broad shoulders, black hair, dark hazel eyes, medium skin but tans darkly, shy in the beginning. The Plot: Kara’s father arranges her marriage to Prince Rowan. She is very much against this idea, and on the day Rowan is brought by his father to meet her (he’s not crazy about it either, but doesn’t say much) Kara runs away. She goes to the capitol city CarCaraith to find Khan, a weapons-smith who once worked for her father. She talks him into making her a sword and teaching her to use it. Then she becomes a squire and is assigned to...Prince Rowan. There’s some mucking about, predictable relationship character development stuff etc. etc. etc. Then through some event Kara (who has been knighted and hailed as one of the greatest fighters in Rohher) is found out and revealed as a woman. Her father and the king begin insisting she marry Rowan (who is a good deal more mature now), but both of them refuse (no way to make an almost-adult hie off more quickly than tell them they have to do something). But, an exploring expedition is taking of in a nor' eastern direction, and Kara and Rowan are sent along: on the same ship, of course. They have some lovely adventures on the Skyth Islands (on a straight line between Rohher and Tithia, they’re in the middle), and eventually wind up in (duh da duh duh duh da!) Tithia, where High Queen Elyzabet is fighting that nasty Evyljur. Naturally, they are caught up in the fight, and naturally, Kara does lots of heroic things, kills a Black Knight, and almost dies. You know how I hate killing off my characters, they’re flesh and blood to me. Kara lives (I wrote a mushy scene for this, but may not use it. It drips sap), but I may kill off Rowan. So now we have a plot split: Ending #1: Happy. Kara recovers, and is named Mistress of Blades by Queen Elyzabet. She marries Rowan, they sail back to Rohher, and everything is just peachy. Ending #2: Sad and depressing. Kara recovers, and is named Mistress of Blades by Queen Elyzabet. Rowan (also wounded) is most definitely dying: she marries him anyway, and he dies shortly after. Kara returns to Rohher, and when the king dies is queen. Naturally there’s character emotional blather involved. I am against this plot for the reason that I hate I hate I hate being mean to my characters. I like melodramatic mushy endings where the only not-happy person is the villain. Now to the next serious plot-line: this is my baby, and it has caused me a lot of pain. It has refused to be written, and I am quite disappointed with it. It has evolved remarkably, here is the original plot: The adventures of Marian, Martha, Flora, Jesse, Tiamet, and Angela. Starting with ‘Young Warriors’, which tells of how the girls must solve a mystery. In the end an academy for boys is established and six boys (Jonathan, Mark, Brian, Ryan, Aaron, and Daniel) become regular characters. It covers the events of two years (10-11) and going up, each book ending with the combined birthdays of the girls until we come to the year when they turn 19 and graduate from the Academy. They leave and go on a journey upon which they meet Aurora (who bears the mark of Princess Brianna) and Chrisalyne. Aurora ran away from home because her father tried to force her to marry. She met up with Chrys, who graduated with the girls but never really knew them (there were almost 70 girls who graduated). The eight of them uncover the plots of Serryanora, who is planning to take over Tithia. The boys come back into the story (we haven’t heard from them since graduation) and agree to come with the girls on their mission. Eletria, queen of the elusive elves of Silver Night who accompany Kaylar, the country on the east border of Tithia, tells them that to destroy Serryanora they must enter the Bleak Lands, where Serryanora’s power is the strongest, and crush the black crystal. But, she warns them; if they kill Serryanora her power will become stronger because she will no longer be held in mortal form. When they arrive, though, Serryanora reveals that it was she who murdered Marian’s father and brothers in an attempt to force her to kill her. When rage envelops Marian her friends must bring her back to sense (I won’t tell you how they do it). They destroy the black crystal and Serryanora’s power is destroyed. She becomes a simple peasant woman and re-learns how to love. The Black Knights imprisoned in her power are finally allowed to die and are buried. Marian is made High Queen and marries Jonathan. The other girls also marry and are made princesses who govern under Marian. Chrys is raised princess, but she stays in Caer Tithia and overlooks palace matters and makes sure the army is being handled. Aurora is made First Lady of the Ladies of the Lioness. Nota bene on the Ladies of the Lioness: yes it’s a dumb showy name, but I don’t have anything better at the moment. Now, the palace guards are the Queen’s Own. Their uniforms are blue w/ gold lioness sejant (heraldry term for sitting: crest of the Tithia) on the breast, and they are made up of both men and women. The queen’s personal body guard, made up entirely of women, are the aforementioned Ladies of the Lioness. They dress in woods clothes (brown, gray, green, tunic, breeches, boots, cloak) , except that their cloaks are pinned with a broach depicting the queen’s personal crest (in this case for Marian, a gray wolf’s head). Horrible, isn’t it? Please recall I was 11 or 12. The evolved plot is: Marian (named after the original. Yes, I do have an obsession with this name), Jessika, and Chrys (names subject to change), are sent on a courier mission to Lord Thoman by Shataine Shyn (shataine is the title of the women who runs Pryncess Academy). Since the evolved plot is incredibly sketchy, the basic idea is that Marian and Lord Thoman’s son (I am obsessed with the name Jonathan as well, and keep thinking of him as this. Would it be horrible to have main characters of different generations named the same thing? Maybe with spelling differences...) get into some kind out trouble, get out, and a friendship is started, along with a boys academy (that’s what the message was about. Nota bene, these would be a younger girls series, not on the same scale as my other plots). Book two: A new female character, Tiamet, is introduced. They have another adventure, which begins leading up to the BIG plot, which wouldn’t start until Book three: Evyljur, the nasty witch who controls the Black Knights, dark creatures etc. is introduced. She has been responsible for all the dark attacks on Tithia, from Princess Brianna down. Her powers are centered in a black crystal, which she uses as a focus for them. The girls are directed (either by elves, if they exist, or some other thing) to find the crystal in the Bleak Lands, and ‘Jonathan’, and his friends Ryen and Makre, decide to come with them (Marian is willing to let Jon come, but think the other two look useless, and puts up a fight. They come anyway. The rest is predictable, they find the crystal, there’s a horrible battle, Jon almost dies (I can’t allow him to, though, because he marries Marian and becomes Warlord), Tiamet does die, Marian smashes the crystal in a dramatic climatic scene, and then they all traipse back to Tithia, Marian is crowned (the queen’s being killed started the whole thing), marries Jon (I have lovely rituals worked out in my head for these, complete scenes), some predictable romantic things happen, and in the epilogue I talk about who had how many children. Marian: dark brown hair, very thick, to just above the waist, bright blue eyes, slim figure, average skin tone, high cheekbones, fine features, etc. Jessika: black hair to just above waist, very straight and fine, dusky brown skin, black or dark brown eyes, fine boned, long limbed, high cheekbones, and a firm jaw. Tiamet: light brown hair just below the shoulders, medium skin, hazel eyes with a strange tilt, athletic build. ‘Jonathan’: dark brown eyes and hair, tan skin, one dimple (gives his grin a lopsided look), not muscular, but good build. |