Melissa, Julia, Annemarie, and Brandon. Plus Callista, Brenna, Max, Sol, Luna, Rupert- there are so many people in the Lost Isle that I get to develop and I love it so much. It’s been a while since my last character post, so I thought I might just get some random thoughts out there about them.

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Melissa

 

Melissa is my baby. She is my precious cinnamon roll and I love her so much. She’s also an INFP/J, so I really identify with her and that’s pretty cool! She really ends up hiding a lot of herself with the whole Brandon thing, so that going on so long she really doesn’t know who she is anymore- until something happens, and her layers are slowly peeled back, one by one. She ends up maturing so much over the course of the trilogy, circumstances forcing her to, and perhaps she’ll get a happy ending after all. (She also is half Venezuelan, and her dad travels back and forth- #majortravelbug.)

Julia

Julia’s a riot- she gets into so much trouble. She definitely knows her clubs, despite being several years from legally being able to go there, and she gets around. Julia is bisexual, and she’s got a girlfriend, although it’s a bit of an… ah, open relationship. While in Iona, Julia remembers that- for a little while. After a bit, she finds someone else- someone who pulls her out of a tragic situation and stays with her so that the two might heal together.

Annemarie

Annemarie loves so deeply and so strongly that when she learns her place and her role in the fate of Iona, she completely flips out. She’s so terrified that she’s going to hurt someone, and most of the time just tries to ignore that destiny. Anne wants nothing more to settle down and start a family with Brandon, but just because they have that doesn’t mean she can avoid her power. She’s forced to grow up very quickly, making decisions not only for her new family but for the world as well.

Brandon

Brandon literally just wants to be alone with Annemarie and play piano. He’s really not keen on killing anything but weeds, but if anything- anything– threatens his friends, he will destroy it. But he’d rather nothing did. When with Annemarie, they tend to forget about everything except for each other, and so when the unexpected (k fine, definitely expected) occurs, no one is all that surprised. Now, though, they get to deal with the consequences. Just because you make a mistake doesn’t mean that the world stops for you.

Callista

Callista has had a pretty rough life- she witnessed her family being murdered in front of her because of her, she’s been hunted since she was born, she’s got crazy power that could potentially save or destroy Iona. But without her alandar– other half- she can’t do much. If only she could avenge her family, maybe using her magic wouldn’t hurt so much

Brenna

Orphaned at a young age, Brenna was raised in a school within the mountain city of Levitia. She is an elf, albeit one of the saner ones, but her naivety threatens to destroy her when she takes it into her mind to search for adventure. Falling right into a trap, her mind is nearly destroyed and she ends up travelling to the Mainland- to our world. Her attempts to return home are what bring my main four to Iona.

Elvadriendel

Elvadrie is a queen. She’s been crowned only recently, but soon after she was taken from her home in Iolan and brought to the elves of Nilathyr- elves so unlike her own kind that she is lost in the crowd. Having only her childhood friend- her bodyguard, Auric- as friendly company, she busies herself in trying to escape the female that has made her a puppet, and she reaches out to Lolinglas and Kiernen in hopes that someone might recognize that the elves have been infiltrated- and that she is not an enemy.

Max

Max honestly doesn’t know what he’s doing with his life. Having fled Stronghaven with his family, he can finally paint more- not the most revered hobby for a lord’s heir, but perfectly fine when it can put food on the table. When he’s conscripted into the army with his father, his sister does everything she can to rescue him- but their return to Sagecliff takes a bit longer than they expect. When they do arrive, it is to find their parents dead and their new home sacked.

Sol

Sol is scary. He’s a spymaster, co-leader of the world’s largest information network, half-nymph, and very well adept with a blade. Raised from birth to trust no one, he’s suspicious of all and takes every advantage he can. He doesn’t run too many missions himself anymore, but he organizes hundreds of them every year. Loyal only to the good of the world, he is willing to do anything- kill anyone- to get what he wants. What the world needs.

Luna

Despite being legitimately crazy, Luna does her job well. The other half of Solis (the info network)’s leadership, she gets out a lot more and gathers intel from all over. She loves her poisons- too much- and has built up a resistance to most of them. As Sol’s older sister, she has similar nymph-marks (think tattoos, but they’re born with them), although she has one entirely different design across her hand- one that no one is sure the meaning of.

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Man, that was fun. I love being able to just think about my characters in short bursts like this, summing them up as best as I can. It’s so much fun to see what sort of backstories they have, what quirks there are- not all of these are major characters, and a lot of this is stuff that I only just figured out.

So tell me- how do you get to know your characters? Do you do quizzes for them, do you just write them, do you have mental conversations with them? I tend to do the latter too much, people probably think I’m insane… but I’m a writer. Insane is in the job description.