About a year ago I did a post on Victoria, but it needs to be replaced because she's changed a lot. At the time "Victoria" was a separate story from "Alyce," but since the merge Victoria became a new heroine, a blend of both girls. Alyce was a quietly independent person who got stuck in a situation she inherited (and had no interest in) and Victoria was a wealthy and complacent duke's daughter who had great interest in situations, but didn't understand them. When the stories were rewritten, Victoria's age shot down, she took on some of Alyce's adventures, and the new person who emerged is a proof of just how different the finished result really is.

Victoria is now about 14, a timid teenager who looks up to her secretive big sister Bella and lives in a large family run by a blustering, but goodhearted father and almost invisible mother. She's pulled out of this reasonably peaceful existence by a sinister man who shows up around her sister and haunts the castle. But it turns out this man is actually looking out for Victoria. It's not clear what his motive is because Victoria is clueless. However, she follows his lead and eventually learns the king is planning a trap for their whole family, one by one, because of something old Victoria's never heard about.

Victoria lets the plot pull her along more than either of the two girls who blended to form her personality. She doesn't have as many opinions as they do. But because she doesn't express herself, we actually see more of the world around her. Sometimes just quietly letting things fall into place around you provides a better solution than engaging with a situation--and that's exactly what the new Victoria does.

And there will be more updates.

After the merge of Victoria and the old “Alyce” story, The Hirado became an overriding theme that linked the stories and Webster’s comedy about bothering Victoria (and everyone in the castle) now mirrored Diego and Bruno’s funny antics in what had once been “Alyce.”

But the secondary girl remained only in the “Victoria,” part of the story. Actually, secondary GIRLS, since the whole idea of Lucy’s inclusion is that she helps Victoria understand more about Bella. This is because such a secondary girl didn’t appear in “Alyce,” at all and Victoria was written to add some needed characters and clarify the kind of situations that appeared in “Alyce.” The secondary girl who is a hidden character is incredibly important to a story’s balance and without this character the “Alyce” story was incomplete and unclear.

Bella/Lucy help explain a lot of Victoria’s relationships. The Hirado points out that she doesn’t really know Bella well at all. The Hirado leads her to travel with some English tourists, who include a girl named Lucy that he thinks is similar to Bella in many ways. But Victoria doesn’t know her and might be more objective about a stranger. Victoria is shocked to find that people view Lucy’s family negatively and pick on her. Afterwards, Victoria becomes a lot more careful.
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The Hirado seems to know an awful lot about both Lucy and Bella and to be unusually interested in them. Sounds rather creepy. Victoria doesn’t think about how either girl might feel about that—she’s just shocked to realize she has been seeing Bella in a very fake way. And once the stories were tied together, the point of Bella and Lucy’s characters, even if we still don’t know much about them, became more clear.

And there will be more updates.

Since three of my sci-fi adventure books are hitting virtual bookshelves, I’ll switch gears and do another “Not Quite the Hero” post. This time the focus is the vintage-era drama Bellevere House and Horace Carter. Anyone familiar with Jane Austen at all knows this character is based on Henry Crawford from Mansfield Park. (After all, the first letters of their names are the same!)

Everyone loves the drive Henry brings to the plot and I really enjoyed turning him into Horace Carter. Horace was just a great person to write about, because he’s so entertaining. Like Henry, he’s the sort of type you love to see in a book—debonair, a little bad-boy, perhaps quite flawed, but ultimately has a good heart. I’m not sure that person is quite realistic, but he’s what makes novels so great. I wanted to give him and Maria a happy ending because I just couldn’t stand for him to be sad at the end—but of course he shouldn’t end up with Fanny/Faye.

Besides, Horace deserves some gratitude for all that he offers the story. He’s a perfect side character and almost embodies the guy who just missed being the hero. But without him the book would almost fall apart and would be a good deal less fun. Sometimes if we look at someone’s flaws too much—even if those flaws are real—we can overlook their good qualities and we shouldn’t. There’s more to almost everyone than meets the eye.

And there will be more updates.