Sunday 4 March 2018

Frances Eckman

Frances Eckman from Fairy on the Christmas Tree, Hot Summer Knight, Tied up in Tinsel and Christmas Eve  (2016-) Character Post 14

Frances Eckman is in her twenties. Her parents live in Brisbane, but she has a terrace house in a leafy suburb of Sydney, inherited from her maternal grandmother. She's a red head, with very long hair in ombre waves and a pale, freckled skin. Her best friend is her cousin, Kendra, with whom she has long Skype chats and with whom she shares the penchant for a disastrous love-life. When we first encounter her, she has the odd habit of almost never using her left hand for anything but brushing her hair. Hence she's inclined to be awkward, and when her current boyfriend (who claims to be separated but possibly isn't all that separated) plays her up, Frances breaks up with him over the phone and promptly drops said phone in boiling custard. It's Christmas Eve so, cast adrift, Frances sallies forth to buy herself a replacement Christmas Tree and comes back with something altogether more entertaining; a fairy doll which turns out to be less blonde bimbo and more fairy himbo. His name is Niall Le Fay.
Having found a chance of some fun, Frances grabs it (and the fairy) with both hands, and finally starts to use that left one for something more useful than brushing her hair.
The next time we encounter Frances is six months later. She's happily living with Niall and two cats, a tabby and a tux, named Cherry and Pie. She invites Kendra to cat sit while she and Niall are away. When Kendra has an intruder, Frances ends up giving knight-advice over the phone. By the next Christmas, she's still happy, even when a gorgeous girl turns up claiming to be her fairy's cousin. Fast-forward to yet another Christmas and Frances is about to have her next big adventure.
Frances is fun. She's eccentric, strong-minded and given to giggling at inappropriate moments. She has her own way of going about things, and attracts offbeat situations and peculiar people. As far as Frances knows, she's human... but I happen to know she's not- or not entirely. I'm very fond of her and she holds a special place because she was the first character I developed for the Fairy in the Bed series.


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!

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