Wednesday, 28 February 2018

Estelle "Tell" Clancy

Estelle "Tell" Clancy from Trinity Street (1997) Character Post 11

Tell Clancy was the only child of David and Maureen. They were divorced, and Tell spent most of her time with her mother. At fifteen, she was tall, brown-haired and had slightly crooked front teeth. She felt herself to be awkward, but as a champion swimmer, found her own grace in the water. At  school, Tell's best friend was Camena De Courcey, an actual genius. Camena was brilliant but socially reserved. She had frequent migraines and, her adoptive parents being dead, lived with her older adopted sister Lindall and her husband Justin. Tell was both admiring and protective of Camena and tended to underestimate her own skills and intelligence because she contrasted her achievements with her friend's. When an enigmatic teenaged boy named Gerhardt Watchman arrived on the scene and took a peculiar interest in Camena, all Tell's protective instincts came to the fore. She refused to back off, and ended up in a horrifying situation when  she finally learned the truth about Gerhardt and what he wanted with Camena.
Stranded unimaginably far from home, Tell had to accept the unacceptable, including a talent she didn't know she had. She also had to come to terms with Gerhardt whom she blamed for the whole situation. Angry, terrified and wanting her life back there were still more blows to come. 
Tell is once of my favourite characters; a person with more strengths and more talents than she suspects. She is stuck in a situation where someone is going to be devastated, and she has to try to work out the best way to go when there is no obvious solution. I always rather wanted to write a second book about Tell, Gerhardt and Camena, but for one reason or another it never happened. Therefore, her only appearance is in the book Trinity Street.


ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Tuesday, 27 February 2018

The Reverend Rory Inkersoll

The Reverend Rory Inkersoll from the Fairy in the Bed series. (2016-) Character Post 10


Rory Inkersoll was born Over There somewhere in the pixie forest in around 1934. He grew up in a tolerant community and had a wide range of friends of different persuasions. At some point in his childhood he learned he was a mutable fay; a fay who looked more or less human but who had the ability to manifest as a different person. It this case, his other side was a ginger kitten. His parents weren't muties, but there would have been some in the family somewhere. 
At twenty, Rory fell in love with a braeside lassie named Emer; the woman he called his 'queen'. Their marriage was a long and happy one and since her death a few years ago, Rory has been single. The couple had a son and a daughter, and adult grandchildren including hob twins Niamh and Helena and Duffy, the only other one of the family with the cat manifestation. Because of this, Rory spent a lot of time with his grandson. 
In his twenties, he took holy orders. He is nominally Christian, but his faith and philosophy lean heavily to John 14: 2,3. Now in his eighties, Rory is a strong-looking man, still upright and active. He has dark red hair going grey and amber eyes. His cat-self is an equally hale but elderly red tom. Rory uses crystals for meditation and focus, and his cat-self, known only as the red cat, is able to read people. This is something Rory insists on doing before agreeing to marry, baptise or otherwise minister to couples he doesn't know. He is a fond father, grandfather and great-grandfather, and, although largely retired, he still takes the occasional service in St Boniface church; a border church on the human side of the gates. Specifically, he often agrees to marry mixed couples. His flock includes fay and human, and he doesn't really differentiate. He expects the same courtesy from them.  
He is quite powerful, and will use his influence to cut through red tape or vacillation, but not to press people he regards as friends or flock. He has some human qualifications and records, but has never learned to drive a car, though he can and sometimes does, drive a pony cart. He dislikes cities, and prefers to spend most of his time at his cottage in the forest. He has taken over the domestic role Emer used to fill, and still mourns her, although he is certain of seeing her again in the afterlife. Quite what that afterlife might be he has never revealed. He sometimes plays the pipes, which he learned to please Emer when they were courting. 
Rory may look austere and sometimes severe, but his love and tolerance are broad. Maybe having two selves has given him a unique perspective.


ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Monday, 26 February 2018

Sari Roberts

Sari Roberts from Translations in Celadon (1998) Character Post 9


Sari Roberts is the queen of St Boniface College. She is beautiful and entitled, and she holds an aura of power. Sari has no trouble attracting her fellow students, and no problem with using them in various ways for her social advancement. Quick-witted and pragmatic, Sari knows she is wasted in a small Catholic college. She should be noble, royal, a high-end model, or a rich heiress. Since none of these possibilities falls into her lap, she concocts a scheme to take what she thinks is owed to her.
Cleverly, she convinces a reserved schoolmate that she has a wonderful mental-magical power that will take her, and selected friends, to a land where she can fulfil her destiny. Her method of choosing her courtiers is simple; she examines the names of her fellow students for clues to their suitability. Her own name, as she explains to quiet Rosanna, is a clear clue to her superiority. Her first name, Sari, is a form of Sara or Sarah, meaning Princess. Her surname, Roberts, is made up of the elements fame and bright. Thus her real name, her true name, is clearly Princess Fame-Bright. Sari manipulates Rosanna into supporting her as she works the mental magic to translate them, and three other chosen ones, to the world of Celadon. She conceals her true power from Rosanna and the others. She does have one, but it isn't what she pretends. Her true power lies in harnessing the talents of others.
Once in the land of Celadon, described by Sari but realised by Rosanna, Sari is delighted to find herself truly a princess; an older, more beautiful fantasy version of her everyday self. Her chosen companions are similarly changed in form, especially Rosanna, who has become a dun mare. This seems appropriate to Sari, since Rosanna's name translates to horse. 
The only disappointment is that the world of Celadon seems empty of the admiring subjects she expected. With her usual determination, Sari sets off with her entourage for the capital city of Cerulean, dreaming of power and adulation. Unfortunately for Sari, she finds Cerulean deserted and destroyed, and every time she tries to recapture her goals they seem to recede. She blames Rosanna, but getting the dun mare to attend to her tirades is difficult and getting things to realign with her desires seems impossible. Her game-playing comes to a head when she pits the two young men of the party against one another, making them fight for her favour. Things can only get worse as her lust for power and manipulation grows. Having gone too far to retreat, Sari comes to a bad end, and her fate is entirely down to her behaviour. She is an amoral sociopath. She understands very well what makes people tick, but with such a huge ego there isn't any room for empathy. 
Sari Roberts is one of only a few thoroughly bad characters I have ever created. She doesn't rejoice in being evil, and from her point of view she is merely getting what she believes she is owed. She's motivated by her sense of entitlement and her fate is probably one of the most appropriate I've ever dealt out. Not sure what that says about MY personality!

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Sunday, 25 February 2018

Pirimba Raven

Perimba Raven from Shadowdancers (1994) Character Post 8


Pirimba Raven is the elder daughter of Rob and Suzy. She has a younger sister named Eden. She's sixteen or so in 1994, so she would have been born in the late 1970s. Her first name would have been unusual in any era, so evidently at least one of her conventionally 1950s-named parents has unusual taste. The family had cats named Figgypaws and Kedge. Kedge might have been named after a poem of the same name, and Figgypaws was probably a Christmas kitten as her name points to familiarity with the carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". 
Pirimba is one of those people who seems to have everything. She is pretty in an exotic kind of way with long dark hair and good features. She doesn't suffer from any of the teenaged woes such as spots or puppy fat. She is intelligent, talented, athletic and somewhat wilful. She's fond of her sister, but impatient with her because Eden is utterly unlike her and Pirimba is one of those people who mistake luck for good management. She's popular at school, although some people are a bit wary, and her teachers see her as sometimes difficult. When crossed or thwarted she can be very difficult.
Pirimba's life comes to disaster when she cuts school to dive off the cliff with some friends. She survives this dangerous pastime unscathed (Pirimba would) but she barely survives the aftermath when her furious mother crashes the car while driving Pirimba home. The accident tears the Raven family apart. Suzy is so remorseful she takes on full-time Pirimba-care, refusing help from the rest of the family. Rob leaves, Eden falls into misery... and Pirimba, now a quadriplegic, finds life unbearable. She struggles to make some sense of continuing to exist, but is unable to take active steps to change anything. She hears music, a dancing tune that no one else can hear, and sometimes seems to find herself out of her body. Listening to late-night radio, she learns about astral travel, and gets Eden to help her with some research. This is pretty-much early-Internet, and pre-smartphone, so there's no chance of using a voice-operated computer program from her bed.
   Eventually, Pirimba gets pneumonia (as a result of Suzy's refusal to stay away from her when she has a cold) and falls into a coma. This seems to be the end to her distraught family, but Pirimba doesn't die. Instead, she finds herself astral-travelling to a new reality where she finds a chance at a new and fully-mobile life as a Valourn, an acrobatic dancer. The way Pirimba faces the challenge of stepping (literally) into someone else's shoes is again typical of her. She is angry, but determined to grasp whatever is on offer. At the end of the day, though, she comes to a choice. Can she continue to live as somebody else or should she make a push to regain her own life in her own world and make the best of that?  
The detail from the cover shows Pirimba is her secondary life as a Valourn.


ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Saturday, 24 February 2018

Cordelia Petros

Cordelia Petros from The Peacock's Pearl (2016) Character Post 7


Dr Cordelia Petros is the only daughter of Steven Petros, a flamboyant Greek-born man who was raised in Scotland and his wife Olivia. Both her parents are practising witches, though Olivia generally confines herself to kitchen-magic with the help of her familiar Tabbita. Cordelia is fond of her parents, but as a teenager she found them embarrassing, and so when she went to university, she elected to attend one two states away from her childhood home. Away from their influence, she built her own life, studying environmental science and botany and purposely losing touch with her witch heritage. 
During her time at university, she met a mysterious man and fell pregnant. She gave birth to her daughter Catharina "Cat" and, typically, left the university hostel without telling her parents. By the time they discovered her whereabouts, Cat was already six or seven weeks old. Apart from bestowing the surname "Mahal" on Cat, Cordelia has always refused to talk about her brief love affair. Having qualified as a Doctor of Ecology, she works happily in the education system. She has a friendly if rather distant relationship with Olivia and Steven, and a cool but cordial one with her 4X great grandmother Elizabeth. Elizabeth still looks twenty-five, but although Cordelia knows her history she never acknowledges it. She tolerates Tish-Tash, her daughter's familiar.
If Cordelia has a passion for anything but botany, it's in her fascination with vintage and antique jewellery, something she shares with Elizabeth. Single for the past sixteen years, she's recently become friendly with Dominic Beckingham, who teaches art history. Dominic is her very distant cousin, but Cordelia is unaware of this. With Cat growing into witchhood, Cordelia goes on stubbornly keeping her secrets. As Cat puts it, "Mum knows, but she doesn't..." Nevertheless, Cat is very important to Cordelia, who has given her an old flip-phone with the instruction to keep in with her, to keep it on, and to "call any time if you need me".
Cordelia appears in the book The Peacock's Pearl.


ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Friday, 23 February 2018

Simpkins Smigeon

Simpkins Smigeon from The Way of the Dragon (2013) Character Post 6


Simpkins Smigeon is the neglected afterthought who came along at the end of a long line of brothers. The rest of the boys are grown up, visiting taverns, flirting with damsels, brawling, bawling and generally making themselves felt. Their parents are dead, so the men are sort-of raising Simpkins with the lackadaisical assistance of passing damsels... when any of them remembers. They're not cruel to him, but most of them have forgotten he exists.
Simpkins is desperate for attention, so he hatches a plan to fight a doughty dragon. As a dragon-killer (or even dragon-annoyer) he's bound to be visible to his brothers. His ambition doesn't go to plan, but he teams up with a similarly neglected and dejected boy who happens to be a dragon. With no moral compass and chips on their shoulders the size of house bricks, Simpkins and Denzil get into all sorts of hot water before falling into the care of someone who has the time and the will to straighten them out.
Simpkins has a lot of good qualities. He's brave, and determined and... well, that's enough to be going on with. He might be lacking in education, but he has native intelligence and a good deal of cunning. Teaming him up with a dumped dragon could have sent him right to the bad, but instead it gave him someone to love. As for the brothers, they have beards, tankards, big boots and assorted damsels, but they probably have more growing up to do than Simpkins.


ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Thursday, 22 February 2018

Marianne Arcadia

Marianne Arcadia from Elydian Dawn (2018-or-19). Character Post 5


Marianne is someone I've known a long time- since 1999. At that time, her surname was Ackerman, and she was a heroic figure from a long time in the past. Her inspiring story was something that motivated a young man to undertake a perilous adventure. For a long time, that was Marianne; a legend. Years later, I took up the young man's story again, and realised that before I could tell it properly I had to deal with Marianne. Who was this seventeen-year-old heroine of disaster? What was she like?
Marianne was born in 2254; the first child of Anya and Marcus Arcadia. Arcadia wasn't their true family name, but one they'd assumed since breaking all ties with their old home on Terra. (That's why I changed the surname... Arcadia seemed a good choice in the circumstances.) Marianne was conceived either on Earth or maybe in space on the great colony ship Elysian Dawn. This was an accident, as no one knew the effect of the FeTtl drive on a developing foetus. She was born apparently normal, and grew up in the ship along with her two younger brothers. Knowing very little of Terra, and understanding she wouldn't live long enough to land on the Elysians' future homeworld, Marianne was a happy and practical girl, whose thirst for knowledge and the history her parents wouldn't tell her was satisfied, in part, by the books of myths and legends she found in the storage. At seventeen, she was engaged to Jeremiah Rain, a young man in his twenties. She felt herself ready for marriage, but her mother ruled she must first be mature and to Marianne's chagrin she was still growing a little taller. Jeremiah called her his practical nymph and that just about summed her up. Loner Edsen Balm was devoted to her, though he knew that by the time he was of marriageable age Marianne would be married already.
That was the situation when disaster overtook Elysian Dawn. Within a few days, Marianne's bright future was gone, along with almost everything else. Once she was resigned to her survival, she found herself in a position she'd never wanted and felt she couldn't manage. How do you go on when life has slammed you to the wall? In Marianne's opinion, you don't. Only... there were others to consider, and decisions to make. Worse, there were the consequences of those decisions.
Marianne, I discovered, was indeed a heroine. She was a long way from the remote take-charge young woman I first envisaged, but she felt real and I grew very fond of her.
I'm hoping others who read her story will feel the same way when Elydian Dawn is published. If you'd like to know more, go to THIS LINK. There is no cover yet, so the girl in the picture is just a representation of the way she might have looked.


ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Wednesday, 21 February 2018

Thomas Tambourine Merriweather

Thomas Tambourine Merriweather from The Kissing Ring (2018), and a fistful of other books in the same series. Character Post 4

Tom Merriweather was just a name for a while; the laid-back husband of Ryl and father of four sons and, in a retrospective title set in the 1980s, the best friend and flatmate of pre-med student Si Bakewell. That is, until I spotted a cover my publisher had going spare. As soon as I saw the picture I thought, That's Tom and Ryl when they were young! so of course, I had to write their story, working backwards from the Tom I knew to the Tom he must have been in the 1980s. 
Tom was born in the mid 1960s; the only child of a music teacher and an architect. An easygoing young man, Tom left home at eighteen to share a flat with Si while doing part time university and working in a junior capacity at his dad's firm. The only unusual thing about Tom was his second name; Tambourine, bestowed by his mother who had always wanted a big family of children with musical names. Talked out of naming her son Tom-Tom, she made do with Tambourine. At twenty-one, Tom had a girlfriend named Mish, and a comfortable future. The only glitch was Mish's mother Annabel, a Mrs Robinson who wanted to add Tom to her collection of trophies. Trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea of acquiescing and facing a possible backlash if he refused, Tom made a decision that had long-range consequences. Unable to face Mish, Si or indeed, anyone else, he took up his dad's invitation to spend a couple of weeks checking out a large job on the mainland. 
It soon became apparent there was nothing ordinary about these clients. In fact, they weren't even human. Even that would have been acceptable if their granddaughter hadn't taken one look at Tom and decided he was hers. Poor Tom went from feeling like Benjamin Braddock to playing a waiting game like the biblical Jacob. Having made it through the minefield of courting a fairy girl, he settled happily enough. 

In 2018 he's the proud if slightly bewildered father of four teenagers whose typical antics are complicated by a tendency to affect their surroundings and companions if things get fraught. As the eldest,
Tom and Ryl in the 1980s.
Tab, tells a friend, it can't be easy being the only human in a volatile fay family, but Tom reckons he must be doing all right. His wife loves him, his kids are still speaking to him and his irascible grandfather-in-law hasn't yet threatened to knock him down.   


To find out more about Tom and his family, check out THIS LINK (but only if you're over eighteen.)


ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

Tuesday, 20 February 2018

Elizabeth Frith Larssen

Elizabeth Frith Larssen aka "Kind-of-dead Elizabeth" from The Peacock's Pearl (2016) Character Post 3



Elizabeth was born in the late 1790s; the seventh daughter in a family of nine. In 1815, she was engaged to James Beckingham, in a marriage arranged to unite two strong witch bloodlines. On the eve of her wedding, she was handed the Beckingham Bride Chest, a treasure held by successive brides until such time as their eldest sons were married. James's premature death and Elizabeth's distrust of her almost-mother-in-law intervened. Elizabeth married Thomas Larssen to give James' posthumous daughter a name, but she never gave up the bride chest, and eventually James' parents conspired to murder her. Death proved to be anything but final, and Elizabeth was soon back to reclaim her daughter. All was well until she realised she wasn't getting any older. Being perpetually twenty-five and watching her daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter grow old has made its mark on Elizabeth. She keeps in loose touch with her family which currently consists of her great-great-great granddaughter Olivia, Olivia's daughter Cordelia and Cordelia's daughter Catharina.  With the digital age, she's had to give up her licence, and avoids being photographed, simply reinventing herself as a cousin from out of town every twenty or so years. She's fond of Cat, her 5X great granddaughter, but with her awareness of time speeding past her without effect she flies under the radar as much as she can, running her jewellery business online (Elizabeth likes shiny things), and remembering to breathe when she's out in public. 
Her current project is to recover the bride chest and the seven jewels with which it was set. To do this she needs the cooperation of Cat, and of a gazing ball named Lucy who is even older than Elizabeth. She also needs to remember the long-dead past, and that's not something Elizabeth likes to do.  
Elizabeth looks like a young Helen Mirren. She's a major character in The Peacock's Pearl, Book 1 of the Cat Mahal is Magic series.  Check it out HERE.


ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change.

Monday, 19 February 2018

Anna Bailey Kelly from Anna's Own

Anna Bailey Kelly from Anna's Own (1995 - 2017) Character Post 2



2017 cover
Anna Bailey is a fourteen-year-old maid servant when we meet her at the beginning of the book, Anna's Own. The daughter of a barmaid and a schoolmaster, Anna is well-spoken and biddable. She is thrilled when Miss Verity, the daughter of the house where she is in service, chooses her as her lady's maid. Subsequently, Anna attracts the attention of Verity's dissolute brother and also gets embroiled with Verity's intrigues and elopement. As a result of both misfortunes, she finds herself sent off to Van Diemens Land on a convict ship for attempted murder. 

Anna is a survivor. She has inherited intelligence and a love of learning from her father, and a good business head from her mother, and she puts these to use in her new life. One of her enduring characteristics is a capacity for devotion; first for the undeserving Verity, then for a kindly passenger aboard ship, for her sensible mistress in Van Diemens Land, for her feckless but charming Irish husband, and for her children and, eventually, for the man who has loved her for years. 
Anna is not a flashy heroine. She's not drop-dead beautiful, and she's not always sweet-tempered, but she is quietly tenacious and cuts her cloak according to her cloth. As a teenager and a young woman she has very little chance of making her own decisions, but later, left alone while her husband is off prospecting, and later when he dies, she quietly arranges things the best way she can.
Original Cover
She is a woman of her time in more ways than one. By the end of the story, Anna is a widow in her forties. She has rejected a proposal of marriage from her longtime admirer, but made him an alternative offer which he is happy to accept.  As for what happened to her later, she was to have appeared in the second book in the series; Shepherd's Rest, but somehow that's never been written-- so far! 


ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change.

Sunday, 18 February 2018

Jack Russell from the Jack Russell Dog Detective series

Jack Russell from the Jack Russell Dog Detective Series (2005 - 2010) Character Post 1

 Jack Russell is a Jack Russell Terrier, the star of twelve books in the Jack Russell series. Jack is two years old when we first encounter him, a young dog belonging to Sergeant Russell, a bachelor police officer. Sarge talks to Jack quite a lot, so Jack has absorbed a lot of information about policing and mystery solving. He uses this, along with his own observations and deductions, to investigate and to solve crimes and situations that mightn't necessarily attract the attention of human police. 

Jack is a typical terrier; bold, brave, tenacious, inquisitive, observant and intelligent. He is devoted to Sarge whom he considers his landlord and friend. His other great human love is Auntie Tidge, Sarge's aunt. Once the action moves from the city to the country town of Doggeroo, Jack starts pawtrolling the neighbourhood, and making himself at home. He soon acquires a band of canine friends and acquaintances, many of whom are pressed into service in his investigations. Jack trots cheerfully through his series, working things out, giving his facts and his version of events. He employs  all the tricks and talents of a terrier who understands human language although he doesn't speak it. By the end of the series, Jack is six years old, just into young middle age. His bond with Sarge is every bit as strong, but he has had to learn to share him with Sarge's new wife Caterina and her dog Lord Red as well as with his own son, Preacher. He's also learned to share Auntie Tidge with Foxie, former street dog and now Jack's loyal, if grumpy, sidekick.

My co-writer and I invented Jack, but much of his personality and many of his methods and mannerisms come from Jack Russells we have known and loved. Jack's twelve books all feature photographic covers in Australia and the US and Canada and cartoon covers in the UK. The interior illustrations, by Janine Dawson, pick up Jack and his friends to perfection. You can read more about Jack and co in their books... or trot along to the website at http://www.jackrusselldogdetective.com/

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change.