Alyce is one of the heroines that people probably remember the best, because she appeared in two of my stories at one time. One of those stories, called (guess what?) “Alyce,” eventually blended with a historical story called Victoria and—as an individual entity—disappeared. But the other Alyce story is still very much around. I just haven’t posted on this heroine before. Earlier this year I mentioned a couple of Facets heroines like Violet Vail but neglected to discuss Alyce.

Millhaven Castle is similar to the now-vanished “Alyce” story in showing a period-historical type of fantasy world called Milland. Milland is divided into the majority, who belong to the mainstream culture under the rule of the Falknor house, and a small minority, mostly rural, called Sherbans. These people are dwindling and remember the old days before the Falknors came to power. When Alyce and other Sherbans are invited to a dance by the Falknor king, she finds he’s extremely rude to her and his castle and guests are absurd. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t very important to them.

Alyce tends to get into a lot of ridiculous situations and is given a lot of lemons, so to speak, so she’s very good at making lemonade. She has a calmness in the face of whatever’s thrown at her that isn’t passivity—it’s dismissing these situations as not going to have any effect on her. Although quiet, Alyce has a firm personality and you can’t change her. That actually bothers a lot of people she knows, such as Mistress Dickson, her mother’s friend. If Alyce has her own plans for the future, she’s never let on about them. Instead, she drifts with the people that she’s stuck among, seemingly without minding it. But in reality she is always on her own path. And Lord Timson finds this to be quite true when he tries—very ineffectively—to set her up.
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And there will be more updates. 

Slogans—sluglines—little crystalline bits of the story. Whatever you’d like to call them, I have some of them ready for you! So I won’t keep you waiting, if you haven’t checked out the website’s cool new content yet. I’ve been working on these for a while and I’m finally letting out bits of the story’s framework—I guess that’s what it is. It’s like holding up a photograph of the story’s ideas.

• Beneath the shade of the pecan tree, the Harrison’s home is welcoming. But you might find there's more to them than meets the eye --A Year with the Harrisons​
• Jenny must fight for what she believes in--and to protect herself from her father's mistakes--The Test of Devotion
• Is Consuela really to be trusted? There are a lot of scoundrels in Belaria and she might know about some of them—Consuela
• For generations Victoria's family has lived in the shadow of the monarchy. A monarchy that has far too much interest in them--Victoria: A Tale of Spain
• Outside Jurant's imposing military school stands a forest and a garden. A garden with a power beyond imagination—Jurant
• Boating, playing tennis, and navigating wild swamps. Unlikely friendships can lead to unwelcome surprises--Bellevere House
• The beautiful city of Niferna. The medieval mansion of Vailsgabel. The pristine court of Millhaven Castle--Facets of Fantasy
• In dying mansions and towers filled with flowers and magic, two girls must make the decision to leave--Everwood and Renari combo
• A planet humans have seen before. 7 jeweled castles that hold their doom--Ryan and Essie
• Amethyst will get tangled up in more than she expected--Temmark Osteraith

See anything you like? :D
And there will be more updates. 

Now that my active phase with all the books I’ve published is over, they’re a thing of the past and I look at them mostly to see if there’s still something that isn’t explained. Why did I write it that way? What does this character mean? Things I didn’t think about when I was actually writing.

For Facets of Fantasy Collector’s Edition, there were a lot of character dynamics that are noticeable.  Brynea and Ferdinand’s relationship and why it’s in the story; why Violet is unusually solitary and doesn’t mind having almost no friends, which is strange for a teenage girl; and the whole odd social setup of Milland, its outdated, shady politics and a charmless king with unexplainedly poor manners. 

The truth is that Brynea is trying to alert Karl to something, but she's not a very good communicator and she can't get anyone to understand her. She's also a scaredy-cat about revealing things that might jeopardize her job at the court and so she often reverts to talking about her boyfriend instead. 

Violet isn't a typical girl. That's the reason for her behavior. She likes to drift into places with an intention of supervising them, especially if people are up to mischief. Probably a useful person to have as a daughter if you own a huge old house with huge gardens that are hard to watch over. Of course she won't admit she's that bossy and prefers to describe herself as shy and having little social ability. 

And Alyce . . . well, I still don't have an explanation for Milland. A lot of it is very fishy, you know. :)

​And there will be more updates.