I have now distributed 7 paper copies (with one more to deliver this week) and 2.5 digital manuscripts for review.

This morning I got a phone call from my lone 16-year-old beta, and it was *everything* a hungrily waiting author could want to hear.

She adored the story, “couldn’t put it down.” She could tell me the exact page where she fell in love with my hero. And a couple things that confused her.

So, as I continue to wait for thoughts from my other readers, I have some decisions to make. Primarily, how clear do I want to make certain people.

Tanith and Rickard (for those of you who’ve already read the story) are morally ambiguous characters. They do some really bad stuff. And they do stuff that’s the opposite.  Because most of their character-revealing stuff happens in the part of the story I’m saving for later, I have to decide whether this story is still solid with such confusing characters so close to the center.

Lord-willing I’ll have a complete manuscript by the end of the week.

Any applicants for a 87,000-word folktale-based fantasy?

I will expect to know you before I release it, but I’m keen for input on this version, as this is the one I expect to query before the end of summer.

If you’re new to this project, here’s my best-effort to fill you in:

The story is about a teenage mother who decides a dragon would be easier to live with than her stepmother, and ends up disenchanting a prince only his parents knew was missing.

Unlike most YA novels the main characters are married (part of the disenchantment).

I’m still working on a coherent “blurb” (a challenge for most writers), but here’s what I have so far:

When Linnea faces the grey-skinned man unearthing her father’s coffin, she has no idea it is about a knife. When Tykone uses that knife to attack a dragon-like snake, the lindorm, he has no idea he’s wounding a missing prince. And the perfect Prince Torbjorn, who believes he is to inherit the throne, has no idea when he dutifully goes off to wed his arranged bride that she might have to train Linnea to be queen in her place. The grey-skinned stranger guesses, only he has come North to leave behind the world of magic in the hot lands.

But evil magic has followed him—and under the unsetting sun of summer it will seek new entertainment.

If you have any questions feel free to ask them here, or e-mail me. I’m especially interested in readers 14-17 years old, since that (in theory) is my target audience.  If you can share this info with friends that will be a help. Thanks!

Had a very effective talk with Becky last night.

It is such a relief to be able to talk about a story and have someone else have more than a clue what you’re talking about!

Several useful things were clarified. Among them, Lindorm is a *folktale* (duh.) not the next fantasy epic; so I can relax a bit about the ax (mallet) in the ceiling. My concerns about things “missing” are a bit misplaced.  Having a new category for fantasy work (basically, beyond *epic*) is very helpful.

Two of my favorite fantasies: The Seer and the Sword, along with its companion novel, The Healer’s Keep, are more what I need to keep in mind than, say, Eragon or Lord of the Rings. For that I’m on-track.

“We’ve” also decided it’s a character novel, which has solidified the structure as well.

I spent last night rebuilding the Table of Contents to cut and rearrange, before taking my two current versions of Despoiled (Chapter One) and melding them into a single opening chapter.

The “compromise” referenced in the title is this: Since we’re still trying to move (You know, get the house packed and on the market… long-term goals and all that ;) ) I’ll limit myself to one chapter a night for the next several weeks.

I have 20 chapters that have two versions before I reach new (untouched this revision) material.  Those need to be gone through as I did the first chapter, keeping details of a particular timeline while incorporating the improved writing where possible.

I’m quite content with this arrangement, and thankful to keep pecking at the novel.  I know how to move slowly; I just want to keep moving.

I’ve been studying personality theory (Especially the Myers-Briggs expression) for several months. Tonight I applied the four perimeters to the eight most prominent characters in my Lindorm novel, and this is what I came up with:
Linnea          ESFJ
Kennett       INTP
Tykone        INFP
Runa            INTJ
Ivan             ISTP
Torbjorn      ESTJ
Cecillia        ISFJ
Irene           ESTP

I determined/identified the types by going through each parameter for every character (Does Linnea gather more energy from being alone with her thoughts or being with other people? What about Kennett? Tykone?).

Comparing them one parameter at a time helped me focus on what they were, rather than what I wanted them to be. I tried to base my judgment on the characters’ behavior as much as possible, but the exercise was especially useful for the characters I had too deep in my head.

I have been concerned that Runa is more interesting than Linnea, who’s supposed to be the main character.  *Surprise* (or not) Runa has my personality type so I “get” the way her brain works. Being able to look as clearly at Linnea– her similarities and differences compared to my type– is very helpful.

The main reason this discovery is so exciting to me is that reading the profiles for each character did two things for me.

• It affirmed how consistently I’ve written (most of) these characters, both in action and motivation, even before having this clarity.
  • Makes me feel like I have some aptitude toward this thing I love to do.
• It was a delight to imagine my created characters were *known*.  That’s exactly him! or, So this is why that response always felt right happened over and over as I read through the profiles.

Kennett, the elder of the twin princes, has no interest in being king, and one descriptor of his “type” is the loner element, that this type “isn’t interested in leading or being led.” The coldness of his type makes the device of the mind/emotion-reading-by-touch (it’s okay, I don’t expect you to know what I’m talking about if you haven’t read the story) especially delicious. It facilitates a closer relationship than would have been possible without the magical connection.

Linnea’s personality type explains why she’s so shaken by her stepmother’s emotional abuse and and almost equally by her stepsister’s indifference. It shows how she could be cowed by her stepmother’s words not even a day after standing up to the stranger unearthing her father’s coffin.

It makes me almost ready to keep my original scene order (that is, the one from October). I’ll have to look at it seriously before I’ll know for sure.

I could never say before why I felt Linnea’s behavior wasn’t inconsistent (it sure looked that way– that’s why I started shuffling scene order). Now that I understand the why, I hope to more clearly show that. It should make a number of things a lot easier to juggle.

Nailing Linnea’s type also showed me where to build her flaws– namely in manipulation. Not sure yet how that’s gonna look.

Maybe I’ve found a new formula:

Four parameters = Instant depth. ;)

I visited an “agent chat” at a local coffee house this morning, asked and listened to a bunch of questions and answers and at the end had the nervous thrill of hearing a “First Page” critique of my WIP from the agent and the other writers around the table.

What got read aloud (not by me– which was part of my education) in front of the agent & 7 other writers:

1— Despoiled

Garm’s low growl made Linnea pause before entering the clearing around her family’s homestead.

For a moment she gripped the nearest tree, feeling the papery bark under her fingertips as she balanced on her good foot.

Nothing could be seen to be out of order, except-she felt a shiver slide down her neck. There were footprints in the newly fallen snow. The dusting didn’t allow enough of a print to be certain, but Linnea felt uncomfortably that the prints were of bare feet. Larger feet than any she’d seen before.

She’d just rested her forehead against the tree when she started at a rhythmic sound behind the small house.

The slow, shnick–THUB… shnick–THUB… sounded almost familiar, if only the pain behind her eyes would let her think.

Releasing the tree, Linnea looked down to the shaggy white form of her sheeping hound. Her stomach tightened when she saw him, tensed to launch at her word of release.

A shovel in the earth.

That’s what the interminable repetition was. And the only thing behind the house was her father’s grave.

Understanding seemed to snap her windpipe.

Regripping her staff, Linnea started across the clearing as quickly as her twisted foot would allow. Garm raced ahead, reading her intent and barking a challenge.

The agent began by asking the listeners what they knew from the first page. Continue reading »