Beautiful People: August
18:54
It’s that time again, time to discover more about the
characters in my books in the August edition of the Beautiful People link-up. This is an amazing link-up aimed at
helping writers get to know their characters better, and share them with other
people. It’s run by the amazing people, Cait@Paper Fury and Sky@Further Up andFurther In, and if you haven’t joined in before, you should definitely give it
a go. As per usual, I’m only going to be answering five out of the ten
questions, but you can view the rest of them on Sky and Cait’s blogs.
I’m about to jump back in for yet another round of editing
on my YA fantasy, The Crystal Tree,
so I only think it’s fair to answer the questions for the people in that book. Generally,
I answer these questions for my main character, Briar, but on this occasion, I
think I’ll be speaking for my male lead, Kade, instead. This month, the
questions are all about best friends, and when it comes to friends, Kade
definitely has two of the best, the brother-sister duo, Lara and Rowen.
How long have they known each other, and how close are
they? Kade has known Lara and Rowen ever since they were all
children together. As the prince, growing up at court meant that he was always
on his own, until Lara and Rowen, the children of a local lord, came to court
with their parents. They were thrown together as the only children in the whole
place, and quickly became an inseparable trio, which held together even after
Lara was supposed to become a young lady and stop tramping around the
countryside with the menfolk.
Apart from his mother, Lara and Rowen are the two people Kade is closest to, and, since his
exile, they have been the only people in his life he has been able to trust.
For their part, they gave up a comfy life in their lordly home, to help Kade
clear his name. They’re as close now as any group of friends could possibly be,
and would literally die for each other if it was necessary.
Are their personalities similar or do they complement
each other? Their personalities definitely complement each other, as
they’re all very different people indeed.
Kade is the solemn one of the group,
though he was definitely more light-hearted before he was accused of treason
and ran for his life. He’s always been the level-headed one of the group,
bringing the voice of reason into some of their more harebrained schemes.
Lara
is the feisty one. She might be a lady, but she can sword fight with the best,
and isn’t afraid of traipsing round the countryside in search of bandits and
treachery. Don’t be fooled though, she’s a lady to her core, and is just as
much at home in the battlefield of the court as she is in the wilds.
Rowen is
the light-hearted one, not really worried about most things, and definitely the
most ready with a joke to lighten up the situation, he prefers to avoid
confrontation, and gets a bit embarrassed when Lara picks a fight.
Who is the leader of their friendship (if anyone)? At the moment, their friendship definitely
revolves around Kade, and he’s in charge of what happens in their friendship,
but normally, Lara would be top dog, bossing the other two around to her hearts
content. The boys are happy to let her lead the group until it becomes
necessary for Kade to rein in some of the wilder plans. Rowen is definitely not
a leader. He’s happy just to stand back and let the others fight it out for the
leadership.
What kind of things do they like to do together? The short answer: Everything. As children, they played
around the castle, playing games such as hide-and-seek, and pranking the
servants and the other nobles. They’d also sneak out of lessons and meet up in
the gardens to hide out for the rest of the day, which used to get them into
terrible trouble, but they didn’t really care.
As they got older, they used to travel and have adventures
away from the court, until Kade had to step into his role as the heir to the
throne. Then their travels became much shorter, though Rowen and Lara would
generally accompany him on journeys such as diplomatic They also like to hunt,
and to spend time just hanging out sometimes, to get away from the court and
all the official business for a while.
How would their lives be different without each other? Their lives would be totally different if they weren’t
friends. If they hadn’t met as children, Kade would have been a lonely little prince
and would have grown up as a solemn little prince with no sense of humour to
speak of, no escape from court life, and no real friends who liked him for
himself and not just because he was the prince. For Lara, she’d probably have
ended up being an ordinary lady in long skirts and with impeccable manners
instead of running around the country having the time of her life. And as for
Rowen, he’d definitely have had to take a far more serious view on being a lord
and possibly become sensible. Thankfully for all of them, they met up, became
best friends, and the rest is history.
Are you joining Beautiful
People this month? Link me to your posts!
And tell me, what is your favourite set of literary friends?
4 comments
I don't think we've "met" before during BP, so as soon as I saw you're working on a fantasy story and that you also love tea, I knew I needed to respond. :) Nice to meet you, Imogen!
ReplyDeleteKade, Lara, and Rowen definitely sound like they're inseparable. When kids are thrown together like that and surrounded by adults, they tend to stick together; and it's great to see that friendships has continued as they've gotten older. And when I read that Lara sometimes bosses the boys around, it reminded me of Hermoine from the Harry Potter series. *lol* This sounds like a fun bunch of complex characters, and I look forward to reading more about them and others from The Crystal Tree!
My post just went up today, btw. Here's the link, if you're interested: http://saraletourneauwriter.com/2015/08/17/beautiful-people-vol-7/
It's lovely to meet you too Sara, and I'm ever so sorry it took me this long to reply to your comment. I do love the dynamics of this group. There's something special about friends thrown together by circumstances and growing into a strong, united friendship that makes me love these three even more.
DeleteI love their names. ^ ^ The last question always gives me the feels in this BP. XD Just curious, why do you only do half of the questions? You're the only participator I've seen in BP that does that. And I did BP this month as well. ^ ^ http://storitorigrace.blogspot.com/2015/08/beautiful-people-friendship-edition.html
ReplyDeleteGood question. Usually I like to give a substantial answer to each of the questions, so sometimes I don't answer all the questions because the post would be well over a thousand words, and these get long enough as it is. And sometimes not all the questions suit the characters or the book, so I just pick out the best ones. Basically, I like to adapt the questions to suit my personal needs. But I always love seeing what everyone else shares in their posts, even if I don't answer all the questions myself. Thanks for commenting Victoria!
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