#beatriss

Rereading the Lumatere Chronicles and damn so many of the couples in this series had horrible first impressions like???? Finnikin was so pissed when Isaboe joined him and Topher and then even more pissed when he realized she was just as smart as him, Trevanion yelled at Beatriss for being incompetent and then she slapped him in the face when HE was incompetent, Froi called Quintana a whore when he was like 5 feet from her room, pretty sure Perri and Tesadora tried to kill each other at some point?? even more minor couples like August and Abian ("pity the man who shares her bed" sir that would be YOU) and Harker and Jorja ("he hated me for the first five years of our marriage!") And don't even get me started on Lucian and Phaedra

The hardest characters to write are those like Phaedra and Beatriss and Narnie Schroeder and Justine Kalinsky. Because they are so kind and gentle and good. In real life you want those people in your world, but in a novel you have to make sure they don’t disappear on the page. So I do that cruel thing of thrusting change on them and watch how they react to it all and they end up being my favourite characters.

This particular story [the Lumatere Chronicles] will end with Quintana. There are no cliffhangers and nothing is really left up in the air. I can’t imagine not writing about another kingdom of the land down the track and I can’t imagine keeping the Lumaterans and Charynites out of it because they are such good characters to have in my head. But I don’t think they’ll ever be the main characters again. I’ve written a 15,000-word short story featuring Lady Celie in Belegonia, so perhaps more of her. But there are so many characters to choose. Perhaps one day I’ll write a short story about what happened inside Lumatere during the curse from Beatriss and Tesadora’s point of view.

Most nights she is restless. There are too many people to worry about, and she wonders how she will be able to make things right. How can she be someone other than Beatriss the Beautiful or Beatriss the Beloved? But then, just when she's about to lose hope, she remembers what you would whisper to her, Captain Trevanion. That she was Beatriss the Bold. Beatriss the Brave. To all others she was a fragile flower, but you would not let her be. She remembers the nights you lay with her when she worried about something happening to you. 'What would I do without you?' she would cry. Do you remember your response, Captain Trevanion? 'What needs to be done, Beatriss.'