Gillian Bronte Adams

YA Epic Fantasy Author

May Characters in Costume Reveal

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This month, for our Characters in Costume, we did a “Meet the Character” challenge. This is our last challenge before we take a hiatus over the summer months and pick up again in the fall. So for this challenge, I decided to go back to the very beginning … (a very good place to start, or so I’ve been told) … and introduce you to the character who began it all.

It being my decision to become a writer, obsession with costumes, and propensity to reenact my characters and scenes (always a bit awkward when someone happens in on you in the middle of a highly dramatic chapter.)

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Marya, from Out of Darkness Rising.

Out of Darkness Rising, Marya
[These pictures were taken while filming the book trailer. Film/photo credit goes to Adam Terrell of Next Generation Video Productions.]
Marya is a young villager who lives on the Island, a barren rock shrouded in mist. All the villagers spend their days in terror of the Serpent, crushed beneath the oppression of his priests, the Tribunal. When Marya’s parents are slain by the Serpent for their belief in a legendary king, Marya becomes an outcast.
Out of Darkness Rising, Marya

As an outcast, Marya is utterly forsaken and alone. She feels abandoned by the parents who chose a legend over their own daughter. She is cut off from her people and forced to survive in the wild.
Out of Darkness Rising, Marya
[Photo credit: Holly Hamlin]
As a peasant, Marya’s clothes are rough and ragged. They’ve suffered a lot of wear and tear over the years. Most precious to her is her mother’s shawl (not pictured here). It’s little more than a ragged piece of material that Marya found on the stone where her parents met their doom, but Marya treasures it. And when she wraps it around her shoulders at night, it feels as if it is her mother’s arms wrapped around her.
Filming the book trailer was a lot of fun, but I found the prep work just as enjoyable. Characters and costumes that I had only vaguely envisioned before suddenly became concrete in my mind. I had to figure out just what sort of shirt, what color, and what style such-and-such character would wear, because if I didn’t, he was going to be immortalized on screen in a t-shirt and jeans. Lots of good incentive there. :)
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Be sure to stop by the other participating sites and meet their characters as well!
Victoria Grace Howell
Hannah
Mary Ruth Pursselley
Molly
highpattern
Amor et Bellum
The Pink Cave
Kendra E. Ardnek
Realm of Hearts
Zara Hoffman

April Antagonists – Characters in Costume Reveal

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It’s time to reveal those dastardly villains of yours! Drag them out of the dark. Boot them out of their evil lairs. Grant them the spotlight for one moment.

For the longest time, I couldn’t decide which antagonist to highlight for this challenge. Eventually, I settled on the antagonist from my fantasy Song of Leira.

Carhartan from Song of Leira
This is Carhartan, second marshal of the Khelari and a servant of the Takhran. He is a deadly warrior and wields his red-stained sword left-handed with horrifying effectiveness.

Note for the Novel Police: If we were going to be completely accurate, Carhartan should be wearing black plate mail and a silver cape. Unfortunately, all I had on hand was silver chainmail and a black cape. But I suppose you get the general idea! ;)
 Antagonist from Song of Leira
As you’ve no doubt gathered from the pictures, Carhartan is a secretive man. (No amount of cajolery, bribery, or threatening induced him to allow me to take a face shot.) Likewise, Carhartan’s past is somewhat mysterious. His history is hidden, and he likes to keep it that way.
On the outside, Carhartan appears the ever confident, carelessly brutal, efficient warrior and leader of the Khelari. But deep within, he is haunted by his failures. He relishes the sweet taste of victory, all the while knowing the wine will turn to bitter ashes in his mouth at the thought of his defeats.
Oh and as a side note, I do beg you to keep the above in the strictest confidence. I have no doubt that my life would be in grave peril if Carhartan ever discovered that I had revealed such sensitive information. But there are no requisite privacy laws in the author/character relationship as there are in that between doctor and patient.
Though I don’t suppose that excuse would have any effect on Carhartan.
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Be sure to stop by the other participating sites and see their antagonists, villains, and sundry other characters of the nefarious variety. ;)

Next challenge will take place on May 10th.

Villainy 101: How to Trap a Hero

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Editor’s Note: At long last, we have received word from our spy at the Academy of Ultimate Villainy! This recording showed up in my mailbox this morning. Unfortunately, I’m afraid it’s not exactly the good news we’ve all been waiting to hear…

TRANSCRIPT:

DR. SYLVIA SINESTRA: Today, we are discussing the most important thing you will learn while attending this Academy: How to Trap a Hero. There are many differing schools of thought upon this subject, but there is one rule upon which all the experts agree: The number one rule of hero trapping is to offer the hero something he cannot resist.

Villainy 101 - Hero Trapping

Every hero has a weak spot. Once you find out what that weak spot is, you can prey upon it, offer him the thing he most desires, and then snatch it from his grasp at the last moment and leave him in utter despair.

Obviously, depending upon the hero, this may take different forms. But there are three main types of heroes, and three tried and true methods of luring each sort of hero into a trap.

The Romantic Hero

This hero is dashing, passionate about whatever he has set his mind upon. To trap this hero, a Super-Villain cannot do better than to kidnap the hero’s girlfriend. Admittedly, this method has been employed so often as to become somewhat of a cliché, but if it works (and it assuredly does!) then why not use it?

The Idealistic Hero

This hero is the worst sort of hero there is. The hero who simply won’t give up, but will fight until the death, driven by belief in his/her mission. There are ways to exploit this hero’s weakness, however. Such a hero is inherently principled and self-sacrificial, and the capture of a score of hostages often proves sufficient to ensure this hero’s downfall. Grab copious amounts of innocent bystanders and force the hero into an exchange. Without fail, this sort of hero will offer his/her life for the release of the hostages.

The Clever Hero

And at last, we come to the intellectual, so-called brilliant hero driven by a need to display his or her cleverness to the world. With this hero, bait your trap with the promise of information. The number one rule when trapping the clever hero, is to make the hero believe they are trapping you or tricking you into giving something away. Make them comfortable, lull them into complacency, into thinking they control the situation. Then . . . you pounce …

Editor’s Note: I find this whole affair disturbing. How our spy could have been so careless as to have fallen into such an obvious trap escapes my comprehension! Given the recent lapse in communication, there is no way to know when this recording took place, how long the spy has been trapped in the dungeons, or even if the spy is still alive. I shall continue to work with my contacts in the hopes of discovering further information.

April Antagonists and the Academy of Ultimate Villainy

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Quick reminder: This month’s Characters in Costume Challenge: April Antagonists is due next Friday, April 19th!

We’re focusing on those vile (and perhaps not so vile) villains who populate the pages of your storyworld. So break out those black capes and curly mustaches and prepare your evil chuckles for next Friday.

To find out more about this dastardly challenge, read this post: April Characters in Costume Challenge.

Need some nefarious inspiration? Check out these audio dramas about the supervillain outbreak and a British reporter named Jeffrey Floyd over at Supervillain of the Day.

Speaking of villains, I just realized that it’s been a long time since we’ve received a report from our spy at the Academy of Ultimate Villainy. I do hope nothing terrible has nothing. Last time the spy promised to send us a recording of the single most important lesson taught at the Academy. I don’t know about you, but I’m quite interested to find out what that is . . .

Suppose I’ll have to get in touch with my contacts and see if we can’t figure out what’s become of our spy.

Stay tuned for more information. ;)

The Sea-Longing

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And  now Legolas feel silent, while the others talked, and he looked out against the sun, and as he gazed he saw white sea-birds beating up the River. “Look!” he cried. “Gulls! They are flying far inland. A wonder they are to me and a trouble to my heart. Never in all my life had I met them, until we came to Pelargir, and there I heard them crying in the air as we rode to the battle of the ships. Then I stood still, forgetting war in Middle-earth; for their wailing voices spoke to me of the Sea. The Sea! Alas! I have not yet beheld it. But deep in the hearts of all my kindred lies the sea-longing, which it is perilous to stir. Alas! for the gulls. No peace shall I have again under beech or under elm.

~ J.R.R Tolkien, The Return of the King  

The sea-longing.

I have felt it.

Have you? The indescribable feeling that stirs in your heart as you stand upon the sandy shore overlooking miles upon miles of rolling waves. Water stretching in all directions. Deep. Unfathomable. Seemingly endless.

And the cry of the gulls. Can you hear them?

And yet there are other things that inspire this same feeling.

A lightning storm. Flickering strands of light crawling across a midnight sky. The rhythmic drumming of hooves galloping across a green field. Soaring melodies that summon emotion and stir the soul. A book that resonates deep within. That creates this longing, this desire for something more.

According to Tolkien’s essay On Fairy Stories, this longing is the purpose of all true fairy-stories, for they are “not primarily concerned with possibility, but with desirability. If they awakened desire, satisfying it while often whetting it unbearably, they succeeded.”

C.S. Lewis also speaks of this desire in The Weight of Glory. 

In speaking of this desire for our own far-off
country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness . . . We
cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually
appeared in our experience . . . The book or the music in which we thought the
beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them
was longing . . .

Longing . . . but a longing for what? What is this desire that great beauty awakens?

The desire for something more. For a world beyond our own. For a purpose in our lives. For true love, true pleasure, true joy, true glory, true beauty.

The longing for our Creator.

These things–the beauty, the memory of our own past–are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the things itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers  For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory 
This deepest of longings cannot be satisfied by anything in this world. For this desire is for something deeper than anything in this world. All other things are but shadows and dust that will fade with the rising of the sun.

The book of Hebrews houses the “Hall of Faith” in chapter eleven. After mentioning Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and others, it goes on to say:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own . . . Instead, they were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

~ Hebrews 11:13-16 

We are longing for a better country. A heavenly one.

I believe the longing that fills our hearts when we see the ocean, or the glory of a sunrise, or explore the depths of a truly great book, is a longing for our true home.

A longing for the far country.

Villainy 101 – Minions and Expendable Crewmen

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Editor’s Note: Once again, I returned from lunch to find a tape from the Academy of Ultimate Villainy on my desk. I can’t imagine how the Spy gets it here, unless he delivers it by hand, for it obviously does not come through the mail. I’m half tempted to set watch next time and see if I can discover the identity of our mysterious “friend.”

Click on the video to hear Dr. Sylvia Sinestra discuss Minions and Expendable Crewmen, or scroll down to read the transcript.
Previous Villainy 101 Posts:

Transcript:
Spy: Howdy. Did y’all miss me? Come on, you know you did.
Sorry I’m a few days late, but things are really heating up here, and I wasn’t
able to send this message until now. Anyway, I snuck back into Dr. Sinestra’s
class (I’ve attended a few of the other classes here and there—nearly got blown
up in the Mad Science Lab—but overall, I’ve found Dr. Sinestra offers the most
useful information.)

So, grab your pencils and paper, and settle down like good
little students for the lecture.
Dr. Sinestra: We are in the middle of our series
on the sub-villain world, the underlings that we utilize as pawns in our great
chess game against our ancient adversaries–the heroes.
Last week, we discussed the proper method for hiring evil
henchmen. Today, we shall turn our attention from the brutes, to the brains and
bodies of our operations—minions and expendable crewmen.
Minions fall under the “brains” class. Obviously, we as Super-Villains
are the Master Minds, but it can be supremely helpful to have other lesser minds
around to accomplish the more menial mental tasks.
Minions provide us with information. And in a battle of
wits, such as we wage against the heroes, the opponent with the most
information wins.
There are many types of minions, including, but not limited
to: 

  • Spies and double agents—those who actively seek information
    about our enemies, and believe me, we have plenty of those.
  • Artificial intelligence—robotic minions who analyze,
    process, and store information.
  • Specialists who provide expert information upon a certain
    subject. This includes our weapons masters, scientists, doctors, etc.
Minions are our eyes and ears throughout the world.
The third and final sub-villain class is that of the expendable crewmen. These are the bodies of the
operation.
They’re the cheapest sort of underlings you can hire because
they have no skills to market. They are average, somewhat lacking in the brains
department, too greedy for their own good, and often, possessing the combat skills
of a patch of wet mud. You get my meaning, I’m sure—if a hero happens to run
into one, he might just slip and break his ankle, but the expendable crewman is
far more likely to be smeared across the kitchen floor.
So why hire them?
Because in every great undertaking, there are bound to be
casualties. It’s unavoidable. And rather than wasting expensive evil henchmen
or valuable minions, we hire expendable crewmen to fill this position, because
they are just that—expendable. And though they are expendable individually, as
a class they are indispensable to our operations.
In review, the three classes of underlings are evil
henchmen, minions, and expendable crewmen. 
Now at this point, a question usually arises: Which class is
the most useful to a Super-Villain who is just starting out with limited
resources?
This question is difficult to answer. Each class plays a
necessary and distinct role. It comes down to the sort of operation that you
are planning and the specific needs of the expedition.
For example, if a Super-Villain is planning a daring heist,
it’s more profitable to invest in hiring larger numbers of minions and evil
henchmen, and fewer expendable crewmen, since such an expedition requires more
knowledge and muscle than casualties.
Whereas if a Super-Villain is raising an army, he would
hire an overabundance of expendable crewmen and reserve a smaller portion of
evil henchmen and minions to act as personal aids, body guards, and officers.
So as you attempt to hire underlings, keep in mind the sorts
of operations you are planning and hire the proper sub-villains to enable you
to accomplish your dastardly mission.
Our next lesson, little villains, will be the most important
lesson you will attend at this Academy. It will provide you with the necessary tools to capture and defeat those pesky little heroes once and for all. Because of its
sensitive nature and the fact that the Spy remains uncaught, we shall move our
class to an as of yet undisclosed location. We’ll let you know where to go when the time comes.
Class dismissed.
Spy: Well, well, well . . . looks like we might be about to
hear something useful, folks. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure we get into that class.
These villains are fools if they think I won’t find out where it is. So, tune
in next time to hear the most important villainous lesson of all! This is your
spy at the Academy of Ultimate Villainy, signing off.


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Any ideas as to what this “most important lesson” might be? Or any thoughts upon evil henchmen, minions, and expendable crewmen in general, and how you might utilize this information in writing and combating the world of Super-Villainy?

Note: Sound effects found through Freesound.org. Many thanks to redjim, cmusounddesign, dobroide, J. Zazvurek, and RHumphries for the use of their sound effects.

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