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!

Back To Orphna

Hannah here.
This is really a difficult post for me. Trinity recommended that I write about, as she put it, "The land of the giant possums."
That's Orphna.
I'll explain the giant possums in a minute.

Orphna is both a fictional land and a nickname for my first book. My first book, which was actually, interestingly, inspired by a series of tape recordings I ad-libbed with two of my sisters. It had no plot, which is common with my earlier stories. The basic idea was that the main character, Arsha (no last name), had a secret that some bad guys wanted. The bad guys were just bad guys, for no reason, and they were chasing her constantly to get the secret. That was the recording "plot". The recording is lost now. But as I started writing, the story evolved a bit, into something a little bit better.

To begin with, I never finished Orphna. I didn't get farther than ten pages into it when I stopped. My family was really encouraging, and I loved writing it, but now that I'm going back over it... as Trinity said in her previous post, about the eye-clawing... I can relate. It was so clichéd. It was... very not good.

For example (and a little piece of me is dying as I post this):

Arsha ran down the slightly worn path, her soft shoes hitting the dirt.
“Just give up, Arsha! You have no choice!” A voice called out behind her.
Arsha sighed, “No way, Jorph, I’m not going to tell you! Find out on your own!”
“Charge!” Jorph shouted. She glanced behind herself and gulped when she realized a large group of trained soldiers were now being commanded by Jorph. “That’s not...what I meant.”

So here was the basic slap-together story-line: There is a queen in "an island far in the Indian Ocean, in the large empty space between Madagascar and Australia, though not really empty." I somehow felt a need to put Orphna in the real world, so I just went to the map on the wall and picked a blank section of ocean.

So anyway, Queen Losila did something that the people of Orphna didn't like. In this case, she took their... bees away. The majority of the population were beekeepers, and she, for unknown reasons, outlawed bees. Naturally, one would assume, the people were not happy with that. So they revolted.
Secondly, the main characters. They were the advisors to the queen. So when the people went after the queen, the advisors were next. So Losila sent them into hiding for their own safety. A fine story on it's own... but not the way I wrote it. Anyways, the main characters are these: Arsha, Kiake, Denna, Mylenda, Jenza, and Xren.
Arsha is the lead character. Kiake and Xren are her best friends. Xren is the only man in the group. Denna, a mother whose husband was killed by the yezben (giant possums). She has a 4-year-old daughter, Jenza. And Mylenda was an advisor who had already been caught and assumedly killed by the Cerchin (that's what the core of the revolters call themselves).
The advisers, also known as the Vinzine, have been hiding in a forest hut for a few years, all five of the remaining members. But they still have to get food, so every week or so one of the members will travel in disguise to the nearest market and get supplies before heading back to the woods. In this case, Arsha had gone to the market and was discovered by Jorph, the active leader of the Cerchin. The Cerchin are trying to find the Vinzine's hideout, so they chase Arsha, hoping she'll lead them to the fort, which she does. She thinks she outruns them and heads to the fort, but they follow, so the story starts with the entire team being chased out of their hideout.

While reading through this again, I can actually tell that I was basing it, perhaps subconsciously, on the Inheritance Cycle books. For example, the Vinzine, a classic good-guy band with a title, like Varden, both starting with V. If it worked for Christopher Paolini...
I've also worked out the time I was writing it - back in 2008, so when I was 10. The dates are messed up on my computer since we have wiped the system twice since I started writing, so I had to take a guess. One telling point was the big bad guy's name: Barama, which, in the little pronunciation guide (also inspired by the Inheritance books), I note that it rhymes with Obama. Our family is ultra-Conservative, so at age 10, basically all I knew about the elections was that McCain and Palin were good and Obama was bad. My naming skills needed work.
After writing this, I'm considering starting on the story again. But I'll have to change a lot of things. Like the bee-farm-banning thing.

Feedback is welcome and appreciated. We're going to start scheduling posts, so, Lord willing, we'll be able to get a post up on a regular basis, probably every other day, except on weekends.