Fantastic is a (pun intended!) reference to the title of Facets of Fantasy and the nature of this work’s space opera and mythological settings. I’ve picked three characters to highlight from the book today, one from each of the novellas in the collection. They’re not heroes or heroines—or villains. But they are all exciting pieces of the story.

Mr. Parchem is a middle-aged diplomat who befriends brooding, weird cousins Karl and Cassie in Halogen Crossing. He comes from a land called Raocas and speaks with a strongly colloquial, regional style. But make no mistake! Mr. Parchem, as he said himself, “did not rise to be President of my great land by cutting in front of people in line.” A savvy politician, he immediately singles Karl out and pays him a lot of attention. He’s a good friend too, in his way, and points out things Karl should be noticing—like the Queen of Metallgia, who knew Karl’s father.

Charis d’Jinla is a female student at the Jurant military academy under the control of Don Tachimant’s grandfather in the story Jurant. She’s roughly high-school age and very pretty, with a jaunty, aggressive manner and thick tails of curly blonde hair. Charis easily comes across as a bad girl and she pretty much is one. She doesn’t play nice, she’s rough around the edges, mixes that with being flirtatious, and wouldn’t hesitate to get in a fight with you. Or shoot you, except getting in a fight with surprisingly violent Don Tachimant probably won’t end up that way. But without Charis, there wouldn’t even BE a story in Jurant.

Prince Juranai comes from a strange long-lived people who dominate the plot of The Amulet of Renari. He is partly wolf and might seem simple and aggressive, but Juranai, like the rest of his people, is very intelligent and should command a lot of respect. When Juranai decides to befriend Violet, the daughter of someone his family has a long-standing grudge against, it changes a world that has been locked in a feud for thousands of years. Although Violet can be hard to work with, he’s a good protector to her and his friendship is crucial.

And there will be more updates.

Writing The Test of Devotion has been a one-of-a-kind experience for me. The book gestated as a western romance but failed when marketed in that direction. Something about the character relationships wasn’t working and the main flaw was the dynamic between Jenny and Viajero. Of course, for a western romance the missionary’s daughter should end up with the much-better-than-he-looks outlaw. And this wasn’t working at all.

For a long time, I abandoned the book, assuming it was a miss. (You can’t hit them all, you know.) But then, as I was carefully examining all of my work, I decided to look at Devotion again. Suddenly, the ages of the characters shot down, Arabella became a touch more likable, and Jenny was much more sympathetic towards her. And I realized why Jenny and Viajero’s romance wasn’t working. They are opposed to each other fundamentally, so a romance would be stupid. I even wrote the story in a switching POV style, one half for her and one for him, which I never do. But here it was a woven fabric of the story and not for the reason I thought at first.

Making it a YA adventure story emphasized Jenny and Viajero’s hostility to each other as a strength that adds to the story, an undercurrent barely expressed but always running through it. Will they be able to work together? It’s a great question. As a romance they were no good, but as a rescue team for irritating, but hapless Arabella. . . they just might be the reason I wrote this novel.

And there will be more updates.