Elijah David

Beautiful People is a blog link-up hosted by Paper Fury and Further Up and Further In . This is the last edition (for now), and it's all about favorites! 1. Favorite genre to write in? Fantasy for sure. I occasionally write something sci-fi-ish or horror, but fantasy is where I belong. 2. What book (a real actual published book!) do you think your character would benefit from reading? Mortimer should probably read Uprooted . Merlin would benefit from Narnia. Bryn should probably read The Book Thief . 3. Favorite piece of dialogue you’ve written? You mean I have to choose? Robin's conversation with Vivienne from Albion Academy is probably at the top of the list. It's one of the earliest snippets from that book and really helped me define their characters. 4. What did your character want to be when they grew up, and what did they actually become? Merlin wanted to be anything but a wizard. I don't think that's working out for him so far. Br...

It's time for another Beautiful People link-up! This time, we're talking about the writing process, which will either prove very entertaining or very frightening. How do you decide which project to work on? Usually this is determined by one of two things: deadlines and what's occupied my creative attention lately. This often leads to lots of diversionary writing wherein I novel-hop before finishing a book. How long does it usually take you to finish a project? Define "project". Drama team sketches take me less than a week usually. Short stories take anywhere from a week to a month. Novels are more complicated. My first novel took 4 or 5 years. The second took 3 months (and currently stands as my only completed NaNo novel). And the third novel I finished was Albion Academy , a project that took 7 years from inception to final draft. I'm not a fast writer on long works, something I'm trying to improve. Do you have any routines to put you...

Cait at Paper Fury and Sky at Further Up and Further In have put together a fun set of questions for this month's Beautiful People link-up in honor of Mother's Day. It's been a long while since I sat down and filled out one of these posts, but this one was too good to let slip away! Today we're digging into Merlin Pendragon's relationships with his parents. Be warned! Major spoilers are ahead for Albion Academy ! Continue at your own risk if you haven't read the book yet. (If you have, proceed with delicious glee.) 1. Overall, how good is their relationship with their parents? Merlin's relationship with his mother is strained at the start of Albion Academy because of her relationship with his sister, Kaya. As the story progresses, it becomes even more strained to the point of breaking when he learns that she's a sorceress who tried to seal his Second Sight. By the end of Albion Academy , Merlin is completely estranged from his mother ...

It's time once again for Beautiful People, the character interview-ish blog linkup hosted by Paper Fury and Further Up and Further In. This month I decided to look at Bryn, the Valkyrie narrator in my Albion Quartet. (I guess this means next month will be Merlin's turn since he's the only one left on the POV characters.) 1. How often do they smile? Would they smile at a stranger? Bryn isn't much of a smiler, but she will smile every so often. She would only smile at a stranger if she wanted to scare them (or encourage them if they're particularly helpless). 2. What is the cruelest thing they’ve ever been told? And what was their reaction? Merlin once accused her of abandoning him and Mortimer in a time of need. She ignored him and focused on the more pressing issue of her Valkyrie duties. 3. What is the kindest thing they’ve ever been told? And what was their reaction? Once, she saved Thor's life and Odin thanked her by offering her three favor...

It's time for another Beautiful People. This month I'm going to focus on Mortimer, one of the three narrators of my Albion/Merlin Quartet (or baker;s trilogy as my writing group calls it), because his prequel story is giving me grief and refusing to be written and I need to finish some edits on the first book. 1. What first inspired this character? Is there a person/actor you based them off? I needed a Djinni in the book, and I liked the name Mortimer (which comes in this case from the movie Arsenic and Old Lace ). There wasn't a particular person or actor in my mind when I created him. 2. Describe their daily routine. Mortimer's not much of a routine person, but his typical day involves school and hanging out with his friends and working on whatever new puzzle has been presented to them. 3. If they joined your local high school, what clique would they fit into? As a Djinni, Mortimer would be a candidate for class clown; based on his physique, he'd...

For this edition of Beautiful People, I'm going to focus on Radley and Clarice, two characters from my unfinished novel Shadowmen . They're the couple that I think of when I think of couples in my books, and they have been clamoring for the book to be written very loudly lately, so this might satisfy them (a bit). 1. How did they first meet? Radley met Clarice when she joined the school (which still needs a snazzy name). 2. What were their first impressions of each other? He thought she was going to be trouble since he's Catholic and she's the daughter of a Protestant preacher. She thought he would try to ask her out within a week because he had this "bad boy" vibe that she interpreted as overconfidence in the romance department. It took him a month. 3. How long have they been a couple? By the time of the novel, a year or two. 4. How committed/loyal are they to each other? Would they break up over a secret or a disagreement? Could s...