The Village, Ceristen Series #2

Fun Facts and Other Extras

12/7/19: reposting this for the fun of it for all you readers (and non-readers!) who want to visit it again.

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Fact #1: The Village was intended to be mainly a romance. The extra plot of Mordred and the black house did not exist.

Fact #2: Mordred's scenes are the easiest to write.

Fact #3: Scenes with Marcus and Fiona are the hardest to get started on. I procrastinate on them more than anything, but once I start them they usually flow pretty well.

Fact #4: The most revised chapter in this book is Chapter 3. Eventually, the section that was giving me so much grief I cut out altogether. It was the scene alluded to in Chapter 5, where Marianne Earle came to visit the Kenhelms. In the earlier versions Kenneth (still her fiancé) accompanied her. It accomplished quite a few things: provided valuable insight into both their characters, displayed the tension between the Kenhelms and other villagers, and hinted at Fenris' difficulties in adjusting to the scar. However, I could never write it to my satisfaction, and finally I trashed it because the rest of the book was doing a good job showing all of those things.

Fact #5: The hardest and yet the most important part of this book was introducing all the characters and manifesting them in a memorable and relatable way. Every character was showcased for a reason; they will come up again. The book is called The Village for a reason. In a sense, it lays the ground for the fourth and fifth books, where appearances of certain characters will be far more important if you already have acquaintance with them.

Two people have said things that made me very happy, and convinced me that I have met my goal.

From Dante_Greywolf : "I really understand why you named this story 'The Village'. It's a perfect fit. We really get to know the people who live here and the different relations between them. Simple, yet there wouldn't be a better title."

And from Illeandir : "The characters make it so interesting! Believe me, if it weren't for your amazing and wonderful characters, it would be not half as fun."

Fact #6: We decided a long time ago that Mordred has a tenor voice in singing. My father has a beautiful tenor voice, and that's just another fact that makes me love Mordred so much, lol. Fenris has a somewhat lower voice than Mordred's, in the region of upper baritone. Laufeia is an ordinary mezzo-soprano.

Fact #7: I have the teensiest, tiniest, ultra-platonic, mostly-joke crush on Mordred. I don't know why exactly, except that he is so incredibly developed that he may surpass any of my other characters, and I've spent so much time writing and delving into his dear character. And, I mean, in my opinion you can hardly love Mordred too much.

Fact #8: The foreman originally never played such a recurring role in the story. The only reference to him was in Mordred recounting a day at work to Laufeia, and he was not intended to show up again.

Fact #9: Braegon used to have two sisters. The other one was named Parthenia(which name probably would have been changed if she had stayed), but she didn't do anything useful at all, although I did like her sisterly relationship with Mirda. Also, I didn't like that there were two families in Ceristen who had two girls and two boys. *shrugs* Hey, I don't know why it was such a big deal to me, but it was...

Fact #10: Kenneth and Marianne at first didn't get married until a year after Book 4. I changed this for plot purposes that have to do with things I'm not going to tell you yet.