Do You Take This Tag?

Amy Dashwood has issued a tag for her loyal writing followers to complete. It's actually for her half-nano thing she's doing, but she says that even if you're not doing half-nano, you can still do the tag. I decided not to do my NaNo project, as NaNo this year was book 3 ... (I've given up on NaNo. There is NO way I'm going to complete it and get Take published ... but anyways) and I'm not ready to disclose details about it yet. But I'll do Take for ya'll.

Soooooo .... without further ado ...

~What's the name of your project? When did you first come up with the idea? And how long have you been working on it?

Do You Take This Quest? 

The series was sparked some time in the spring of 2010. Mom and I hashed out the plot of this book in one night some time in the spring of 2011. I've been working on and off on it ever since.

~Sum up your novel in five words or less.

Find allies. Home for Wedding.

~Who is your favorite character?  Tell us about him or her.

In this book Madeleine was my favorite. She's an artist and the lost aunt that Robin and Robert were looking for in book 1.

As characters in whole, Robin outranks Madeleine in my favorites. But for this book, I had a hard time capturing Robin, and so Madeleine outshone her.

~Where does your novel take place?  What time period?

In Bookania, a medievally fantasy-y world. The main locations are Briton castle, Upontime Castle, Winthrop Castle ... and Skewwood.

~Do you have a theme song for your story?  What is it?

Unlike most of my books, this one actually does. It's Here comes the Bride!

~What's been the hardest part to write so far?

Getting it started and getting it ended. Oh, and the middle. That was tough. Yes. Sigh. This whole book has been a headache. There were scenes, even entire chapters, that were fun, and even got onto the computer screen relatively quickly .... but that wasn't the rule.

~Which chapter was your favorite so far?

I think I'll go with chapter 20. Unfortunately I can't share what it's about, as it's the climax of the book.

~Can you share one of your favorite snippets?  (One you haven't shared on your blog already)


  When they at last caught up with Robin, she had reached the castle gates. She had her sword out and was threatening the guards. “If you don’t let me in!” she shouted, “heads are gonna roll!”
  “That’s what we are we are afraid of,” replied the captain of the guard.
  Eric caught ahold of Robin’s arm. “Robin,” he said, “I don’t think making threats is the best way to get into the castle.”
  Robin froze, then turned to Eric. “Oh, that’s right,” she said, in a subdued voice. “There’s a magic word.” Then she turned back to the guards and said, in a desperate voice, “Please! Please open the gate!”

My brother runs around quoting this. It's funny listening to him trying to imitate Robin and Eric.

~Are any aspects of your story drawn directly from your own life?  Give us an example.  

I can't say it's very much inspired by my RL, but there is a scene towards the end drawn from an incident that happened on Thanksgiving of ... 2008? (9?). Anyways, it was the year that my all of my cousins were down. (they live waaaaaaay north of us, so when they visit, we say they come down.) In short, two of my cousins were arguing over whether or not he should eat the pie filling that he had on his plate. As I was plotting Take, I knew that this was an antic that Solomon would pull, so ... I shoved it in.

~Your main character gets dumped into a big city in the modern era (or if you're writing a contemporary work, he/she gets dumped in medieval London).  How does he/she respond?

I think Madeleine would take it in stride and marvel at all the strangeness of our modern marvels. (she wouldn't think them magic, though.)

~Who's the funniest character in your story? Tell us why! Give examples! Support your argument.  :D

In theory or in practice?

In theory, Solomon was supposed to be the funniest character. He has the "Mirth of Youth" afterall. But, while he does have some great jokes (and hilarious antics such as refusing to eat his pie filling ...) He didn't get enough screen time to really shine.

In practice ... I don't know. Possibly Samson and Madeleine when they get into a word war. Or maybe the old man. He can be pretty funny.

~If you were forced to eliminate a character from your story--just wash them clean off the slate--who would it be?

Probably Enna. She doesn't do much.

~Do you plan on writing a sequel to your novel?

I'm considering doing so ... *hastily shoves list of the first 20 titles of the series back into purse ...*