Character Post - Arsha Garyn

It's Hannah again. It has taken a long, long time to get this up. At one point I had to leave and just take an afternoon nap so that my brain could rest.
Thank you Trinity and Darby for helping me get this all sorted out.
Introducing Arsha Garyn (formerly Arsha Beacon).

Arsha Garyn
Queen's Council

Ah, yes, Arsha. She just got a last name... um, today. But still, she's one of my oldest characters. Likely the oldest.

Arsha Garyn is a council-woman of Queen Losila's court. She isn't the oldest, but has been there the longest. Queen Losila trusts her completely.

When she has to escape from the mob trying to impeach and probably hang the Queen, she does so calmly and in control of the situation. She's a fair hand with a saber, and usually has a knife concealed in the folds of her skirt.
Once Arsha and her fellow council members have to survive in the forest outside of Orphna's borders, however, she has to trade in her noblewoman gowns for a more functional tunic and leggings.

Arsha's closest friends, apart from the Queen herself, are Xren Chauncey and Kiake Sennett. Xren, a seasoned though young soldier, and Kiake, a bright and bubbly young lady who unsurprisingly specializes in public relations. When trying to escape the enraged civilians of Orphna, the three of them have to depend on each others' skills to survive.

[After this point in writing, I got stuck. Trinity suggested I do a Beautiful People Questionnaire as developed by Sky and Georgie Penn. The first edition.]

1. What is their full name?

Arsha Rainnania Garyn. Often she keeps her middle name a secret. There are only six living people who know what it is, the Queen, Xren and Kiake included.

2. Does his or her name have a special meaning?
Yes, it does. The initials represent the trouble we had picking a name. ARG! Also, Darby picked out the name Rainnania.

3. Does your character have a methodical or disorganized personality?
Methodical. One of her most valuable attributes is that she can stay calm during crises.

4. Does he or she think inside themselves more than they talk out loud to their friends? (more importantly, does he or she actually have friends?)
She thinks in her own mind, most of the time. It wouldn’t do for the others to find out that she’s inwardly panicking or about to lose her cool. As for the friends, yes, she does have two, Xren and Kiake. Xren's experience and Kiake's playful spirit help balance her out.

5. Is there something he or she is afraid of?
Disappointing the Queen or her friends. She tries the hardest to stay in control of herself at all time.

6. Does he or she write, dream, dance, sing, or photograph?
She dreams, but she doesn't tell anyone her dreams, nighttime or future-related. Arsha prefers to be seen as a firm, down-to-earth person. She can dance quite gracefully, being a lady of the court. And she can sing, but does that rarely. In her opinion, there are more important things to be done.

7. What is his or her favorite book? (or genre of books)
Ironically, early romance novels.

8. Who is his or her favorite author and/or someone that inspires him or her?
Arsha has few role models. Her mother died when she was young, and she isn't very close to her father, sadly. The queen is like a mother or an older sister to her. Queen Losila's serious, calm, wise demeanor inspires Arsha to imitate her.

9. Favorite flavor of ice cream?
I'm sure Arsha's never tasted ice cream, but if she had, her favorite flavor would be mint.

10. Favorite season of the year?
Fall. It’s calm and cool, and relaxing. She doesn’t mind the nippy breeze, because she enjoys the cool and revels in the gorgeous colors of the fallen leaves.


That's about it. Thank you, Darby and Trinity, for helping me get the ball rolling, so I can finally get this post up, despite it being late. About nine hours late.
Feedback is very helpful. In my case, mostly for making a final decision. Trinity is often annoyed at my indecisiveness, so if you have something that you would like to read about, it would make the process of getting a post up faster and easier. Toodle-pip!

Various Musings by the Second Blogger

Hannah here!

Trinity wants me to put something on here, so I have obliged her. She will probably get a bit irritated, because I’m going to say that I have no idea what to write. Actually, no, she won’t get irritated now that I’ve predicted that she will (or maybe she will, now that I’ve predicted that she won’t). Never mind.

I have no idea what to write. I’m not a blog-y person like Trinity. In fact, I am notoriously bad at blogging. Once I got all excited and made a blog, but didn’t tell anyone about it. I put a half a post on it, then deleted the blog a month later. It’s about the same problem I have with writing and sending letters. I’m completely full of ideas and absolutely sure what I’ll write, right down until the moment that I’m staring at a blank document/sheet of paper. Then my brain goes AWOL. No idea why.

Inversely, I have a problem, in that, once I get in my mind that I have to do something, I will be mentally tortured until I do (sometimes it becomes virtually impossible to do that thing, and I don’t really ever get over it). So this blog has been nagging at my mind and I’ve finally decided to get it over with and write something.

Trinity suggested that I say something about the novel I’ve been writing, or my NaNo novel. The only idea I’ve had for my NaNo novel I didn’t like, and I subsequently trashed it (that’s another thing that’s been nagging at me). So my only other option is to talk about my other novel, which is also hard to do. I just don’t talk about it often. I have volumes of information in my head, but as I general rule, I only rent out a few books at a time. About three to four people knew the ending of the story (that, I think, was a mistake, but it’s okay, in a sense, because I’ve changed it). Now one person (besides myself) has an inkling, and she’s been sworn to secrecy. I don’t think she knows why. So I’ve usually kind of reserved when it comes to talking about my story, but I’ll try my best.

The first book that I wrote was bad. Very bad. It was 31 pages long, including the Table of Contents. I didn’t know how bad it was at first, but I had gotten really attached to the characters, so I jumped directly into book two.

The first book was written for my friend Darby, eleven at the time, for her birthday. I had bought her a gorgeous plastic dragon, and my mom suggested I write a book about Darby and her dragon to go along with the present. It took about a month to finish, and I was so proud of it. Family members all complemented me on it (in hindsight I’m not sure why; it was horrible). So when I started my second one, I wanted it to be done by Darby’s next birthday. I had much more time to work on it, and I was really intent on finishing it all the way, really well. About a quarter of the way through the book I realized how very horrible the first book was. There was mistakes and unexplained sections and confusing bits and bad action scenes and no real storyline. It also had many parts that were complete rip-offs of the first Inheritance book.

So this new one, I thought, would be the redemption. It will be much better. And so far, it is.

But Darby’s twelfth birthday has passed. And her thirteenth. And her fourteenth. Her fifteenth birthday is coming up sometime soon, and I am very not done. It’s a bit of a problem.

I don’t actually intend to publish these books. I may eventually, but no time soon (and not until I revise a few big things). So I’ll tell you a bit about them.


Basic storyline-wise, this is what the first two books are about. In the first book, Darby was out camping with her family when she found a small blue ring out in the woods. When she put it on, it shrunk to fit her finger, and a dragon suddenly appeared behind her. The dragon, who Darby named Aquamarine, claimed to be a “maiden’s dragon”: a dragon specifically bred and trained to protect the girl who finds the ring (in the case of a boy finding the ring, the dragon is a “knight’s dragon”). In the first book I put no conflict or story goal, but Darby did end up going to another dimension - which is something that a dragon ring can let you do - and met two elves, Armen and Lina (no last names at the time). She acquired a sword named Darby from Lina, who was an accomplished swordswoman and the original owner of the sword. Darby ended up changing the sword’s name to Gemstone, which was her nickname for Aquamarine. Aquamarine hitched a ride home with Darby’s family and lives with them now
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Book two, Darby’s Quest. Aquamarine the dragon disappears inexplicably and Darby’s ring is shattered. As Darby tries to track Aquamarine down, she falls into another dimension by accident: the same one she had once visited with Aquamarine. There she is reacquainted with a certain pair of elves, along with a whole host of others, who have been having their own dragon problems. Darby tries to find Aquamarine, and a way back home, while she and the elves are being plagued by strange occurrences: either odd coincidences, red herrings, or half-hearted assassination attempts. They don’t know who’s behind it, or why the dragons have disappeared, and meanwhile, war is brewing on the horizon.

Yes, that was a bit melodramatic. And probably corny. It’s hard to write synopses. Methinks I may need to work on that.

As for the NaNo novel, I need to get an idea of what I’m going to write. It’s going to be nagging at me for awhile, and it’s a bit disconcerting when your sister has a synopsis of her story, a notebook dedicated to apocalypse research, and a couple of book cover ideas. I’ve got a little more than a week to get on the ball.

I will probably look back on this post later and wonder what on earth I was thinking.