HERE I AM, with a glorious meme/tag thing you’ve seen me do before.

(Note: it’s also via Sky @ Further Up and Further In, but I know it from Cait… for obvious reasons – I believe I’ve mentioned her before… 😉 )

Basically this is where they ask a bunch of questions that you answer on your own blog about your characters/story, and it helps you get to know them better and good stuff. You can join/link-up here, if you like.

Now you get to hear all my answers for my latest writing project, Born to Die. (You can read the summary and even the story as it’s posted chapter by chapter, in it’s very raw form, here)

  1. What’s their favourite book/movie/play/etc.? Okay, so we’re in a fantasy world here… but the heroine, Sajia, is a HUGE bookworm (#relatable), and one of her favorite books is probably One Ring. And yes, that is a disguised Lord of the Rings (one ring to rule them all, etc.).
  2. Is there anything they regret doing? HA. HA. HAHAHAHA. I’m just lol-ing so much right now, this is hilarious. Ahem. Anyway. So the principle is that she is one of a group of people, Eternals, who are cursed to come back to life each time they’re killed. They’re trained and forced to become these super-soldiers and go on missions they couldn’t care less about and stuff. So yes, she’s killed people she’s had no quarrel with (she didn’t even want to be cursed in the first place), she let a friend die in her place (she’s the sort who will sacrifice anything for the people she cares about but isn’t so good at accepting other people’s sacrifices for her). Probably most specifically, there was one time she was messed up after one particularly horrific death (she was beheaded), and wasn’t thinking straight, and she kind of… tried to get drunk. Not her finest moment and a decision she majorly regrets.
  3. If they were sick or wounded, who would take care of them and how? This actually happens in the story. The wounded part. She has two really close friends who are like family: Paathke (who’s like a sister to her) and Borri (who’s like a father/uncle to her and Paathke both). They all three take care of each other. Among the Eternals, it’s kind of an every-person-for-themselves, except for these three, who stick together.
  4. Is there an object they can’t bear to part with and why? For Sajia, it’s her hair. She has like nothing else to her name (eventually a special sword and stuff), and its gloriously long and coppery, and isn’t like human hair (she’s half-elf… also elves are like mortal enemies with humans, so lots of hate and stuff flying around about race and heritage. Which is part of why she treasures her hair; it’s a part of who she is. It’s symbol and mark of her heritage that makes her who she is).
  5. What are 5 ways to win their heart (or friendship)? 1) Taking care of your own/being highly dedicated/loyal/protective of your family and/or friends. This is something enormously important to her, so when she’s sees others doing it, it melts her like butter. 2) Seeing her as more than “an elf” or “a warrior” or any of the outward things that mark her that people judge her based off of a lot. 3) Caring about her (or people in her inner circle, too) enough to ask about their story, what’s wrong, etc. but also being able to give her/them space when they need it. 4) Letting her in, not pushing her away with the “I’m too tough to need help, I got this all my by self” thing. She is naturally a compulsively-taking-care-of-others-particularly-those-important-to-her type, so if you don’t let her in, don’t let her help take care of you at least some of the time… you ain’t got her, mate. 5) If you give her a book, reference something from a book, are cool with doing nothing but read and chill on your vacation days, or, you know, all those things that make a bookworm’s heart patter… THAT’S the ticket, mate.
  6. Describe a typical outfit for them from top to bottom. Well I’m still lol-ing here since so many of these questions could have been geared for Sajia/Born to Die. For nearly the entire story, she wears the same armor (different sets, same style): Braided hair (no helmet because too ninja to need one), leather cuirass with attachable metal plates for the body and shoulders (slightly green-tinted silvery metal, a sort of shingled, dragon-scale style plating), sword strapped across her back (massive two-handed sword, same silvery/green metal), fingerless leather gloves, leather pants (also with attachable metal plates for calves and thighs), and leather boots with tiny metal studs (mostly decorative) on them and grippy soles.
  7. What’s their favorite type of weather? SUN. Not too hot, low humidity, but LOTS OF SUN. (She’s been stuck underground for eight years for training with almost no outside time, so…) A few fluffy white clouds and a lot of blue sky.
  8. What’s the worst fight they’ve ever been in? Oh great. WHICH ONE?!?!? There’s just SO MANY OPTIONS YOU’VE GOT TO BE JOKING MATE. Okay. Hmm… Probably her first “training session” with her instructor, Leander. Though the climax battles for book 2 & 3 (Born to Hunt & Born to Lose) easily top that. He basically walks up to her (before she even knows she can come back from the dead), tosses a sword at her (which she’s never held in her life), and attacks. He’s relentless, cruel, and brutal. He also believes that pain is an excellent teacher, and so even when she can’t even stand anymore, he doesn’t back off… it ends with her…dying…painfully. Yeah. It didn’t go so well. So probably worst fight she’s been in.
  9. What names or nicknames have they been called throughout their life? She goes by Sajia Tiet’fa, an elvish name, even though her father’s surname was Callaghan (Tiet’fa basically means “of the elves”), because her aunt and uncle, who raised her, wanted NO CONNECTION with her. Most people, when they don’t call her Sajia, call her “elf”. Sometimes teasingly, sometimes spitefully. There is one character that invents the nickname “Saj” for her, and they’re the only character that gets to use it lol. 😛
  10. What makes their heart feel alive? Being with her favorite favourite people in the world. Especially if a book is involved somewhere. And no swords, armor, fights, or killing going on.

So there you are (and there I am). I love how these questions help drive me deeper into my characters! I hope you aren’t scared off by how SUPER DUPER DARK AND STABBY this latest novel is turning out to be. Like, I never write stories like this?? It’s strangely and uncharacteristically violent and bloody?? BUT I’M MAJORLY PUMPED FOR IT ANYWAY.

Thanks for reading/bearing with me!

~ Kat

(also note that I have hereby made “Paper Fury” a tag. I AM KAT. I HAVE SPOKEN. So shall it be)