Dramatis Personae - The Soldier's Cross

Having done this for both my recently-completed novel and my work-in-progress, I thought I would do it for my published novel as well. I do believe this was even harder than Wordcrafter's; I didn't have any possibilities when I started, but here is what I dug up. (Also, please forgive the severe lack of period-correct clothing. You try to find actors wearing fifteenth century clothing on their IMDb pages.)

Note: Mild spoilers ahead. Nothing very major, though, I trust.

Fiona

Fiona is the daughter of a lesser English nobleman, and has lived all her life in a secluded manor just on the English side of Wales. She is little more than a child still, but her simple life is turned on its head when her brother, Giovanni, leaves England with Henry V's army. Before his departure he speaks to Fiona, not for the first time, of her need for something more than being part of the Church and attending Mass; showing her his cross pendant, he tells her that it will bring her peace. But she is quite comfortable in her worldly sort of peace, and laughs him off.

Then Giovanni is killed at the Battle of Agincourt and his body brought back home to England - without the cross. Mad with grief and believing she has had a sign from God, Fiona sets out across the Channel and a desolated France to find and regain her brother's silver cross.

Fiona is stubborn and naive, but also tenacious and, driven on by an emptiness inside herself that she must fill, capable of withstanding a great deal. She will stop at nothing to gain the peace her brother spoke of.

Giovanni

Giovanni is Fiona's older brother and only sibling. Since their father's mental and bodily failure several years ago, he has run the manor and provided for the family. Unlike most of Christendom at that time, he is a devoted follower of Christ and believes that salvation is something more than going through the motions; although Fiona does not know enough about the world beyond the manor to realize it, Giovanni is a Lollard. He does not believe in Henry V's campaign against France, but he joins the army in obedience to his sovereign.



Pierre [lord of gallandon]

Fiona stumbles onto Pierre's land accidentally, but "accidents" have no influence with the master of Gallandon, and Fiona finds herself a servant to his family. Pierre is the first-born son of the Duke of Alençon, but he is also illegitimate, which means he is not in line to inherit his father's wealthy estate; instead, the French crown granted him the marshy estate of Gallandon. Determined to improve his situation and make a name for himself, Pierre moves on to "plan B" - a good marriage. But he finds himself out of luck in that quarter as well, as the wife he gets has no titles and, in fact, is not even French.

Pierre looks older than he actually is, and maintains that appearance by his manner of speaking and dressing. His insecurities and his obsession with bettering himself make him harsh, but he is in fact little more than a boy. He fought in the Battle of Agincourt and, what is more, made it back alive to tell the tale.

Leah

Leah is of Germanic descent, without a drop of French blood in her veins, and is the daughter of a merchant. Pierre was tricked into marrying her, but when he discovered the fact, he was decent enough not to annul the marriage; however, their relationship is an uncomfortable one. Leah's muteness puts her at a distinct disadvantage, too, and one of Fiona's duties as Leah's personal maid is to translate for her. In serving her (a humiliating turn of fortune for a nobleman's daughter) Fiona gradually finds Leah to be something more than "the enemy"; she is beautiful with a beauty that comes from inside and shines out of her, and Fiona becomes devoted to her as a friend.

Christopher

Christopher, Leah's brother, was the force behind her alliance with Pierre. He is a fortune-hunter, like Pierre; but unlike Pierre, he has no scruples about it and has little interest in working to earn his bread. He has no interest in war, no interest in owning land; he lives by deceit, and does it well. He is allied with neither France nor England and has never fought in any of the battles. Fiona first crossed paths with him at a French inn and then meets him again at Gallandon, and she fears him as she fears the Devil - or more.


(Remember, The Soldier's Cross and Jenny's The Shadow Things are both on sale through April. Purchasing with the PayPal button on the sidebar will get you an autographed copy of each book.)

Moving On

A great deal is said, and a great deal deserves to be said, about the importance of perseverance in a writer's life. Some books need more than others (spoken with an extremely pointed glare at my work in progress), but it is a trait necessary at all times in the life of a writer, and, for that matter, in anyone's life; giving up at the first difficulty may be more common in our society, but it doesn't help in completing a novel.

At the same time, however, there is a place for moving on. I won't necessarily say that this point is ever reached because of difficulties alone, but there are other reasons for abandoning a work and continuing on to something else. One reason is stagnation. I spent about a year, and possible more, writing a mystery thingy (thingy is really the best description I can give it, looking back on it) that was very near to my heart, although my actual writing of it was somewhat sporadic and I didn't get far. Still, I toiled over it with great perseverance for a long while...and I believe I can safely say that my writing did not improve a jot throughout that time. It was not until I broke away from the Thing and began working on little bits of an incomplete story based around Stonehenge that my writing actually began to develop. Stonehenge was never a tight novel, per se, and likely never shall be, but it was a stepping stone, and after a while I deleted the Thing forever and moved on to write The Soldier's Cross.

Staying with a story is commendable, but there comes a time, especially if the novel is an early one or even a first, when starting something new is advisable. The comfort zone of the old has to be left for something different, and likely not as comfortable at first, if one's writing is going to progress. The same thing goes for such endeavors as fanfiction, which is another good experiment in writing to start off on, but which should give way to original works at some point.

Another time for moving on is when a novel is finished. In theory it doesn't sound as though this would be so hard - after all, the novel is finished - but it has its difficulties as well. Once a writer reaches the last page of a story he has been working on for months or perhaps years, there is a bond between him and the characters, and the novel has usually become comfortable for the author to work with. Thus it becomes quite easy to keep rewriting and editing and rewriting and editing, rather than starting work on another novel. (This is, of course, not to say that editing is bad; it is quite necessary, but can be taken to extremes.) Not being a fan of editing in general, I can't say that I would rather be editing Wordcrafter than working on anything else, but compared to the difficulties of The White Sail's Shaking, it doesn't sound like such a bad idea...

Attachment to a novel can also lead to series. Not the sort of series that are basically one storyline cut up into several books, but the Nancy Drew or Boxcar Children series that just. won't. die. This would be Disney, who makes one movie, sees its success, and promptly follows it with a sequel or two. This is a way of "moving on," since the writer is leaving one novel for another, but it can easily be as stagnating as staying with one story. The characters become so much a fixation that developing any others is more and more difficult - perhaps impossible - and the plots are often so familiar to the writer that they never bother to break out of the mold. Change, even for those of us who are not fond of it, is healthy.