Knightess

Author's Note

Thank you so much for reading Knightess! You have no idea how much it means to me for reading this! I truly hope you enjoyed it and are ready for the sequel.

I want to explain my ideas for the book, the secret meanings, and the diversity for my Author's Note.

First, I want to explain my ideas. At first, this was going to be a story set from Jackin's point of view. However, I realized that this is not his story. I was confused about whose story it was until I got the idea to give him a twin sister. So, after looking at baby name websites after website I found her name: Althea. Soon, what started as a simple story about a boy realizing he was a god turned into a story about feminism, sibling love, and action.

In the first early versions of Knightess I had planned for Althea to be a sixteen year old girl who had lost her memories and awoke in a magical forest. Her brother, who already was a god, had been captured by the water goddess, Azura. Yes, I had originally planned for Azura to be the villain of the story and for Azar to be one of the good guys. And no, I didn't plan for them to be related.

Anyway, the goddess of snow—who will, sadly, not be featured in the sequel to Knightess—approaches Althea and tells her she is the protector to her captured brother. Suddenly I realized that this was not the story I wanted to tell. And one thing led to another, and soon you got Knightess. Also I wanted Althea to be a brunette instead of a blonde, but I realized that most people portray blonde girls as weak and stupid so I decided to make her blonde to help destroy that stereotype.

Now it's time for the secret meanings in my book. The first thing I suppose I should mention is the color maroon hat keeps popping up throughout the story. Every time a person dies in my story the color maroon will come up only moments before their death. I got this idea from a horror movie I had heard about, only they use the color orange. (I think)

I might decide not to use the color before someone's death in the sequel, mostly because it's exhausting to go back and make sure I placed the color maroon somewhere before a character's death.

Another secret meaning in my book are the names. Now, some of the names I used—such as Salava, Mina, Tala, etc.—are made up names. However, some names have secret meanings to them. Take Delja, for example. Her name means "daughter of the ocean". Also Jackin's name was a common name during the middle times. If you want to see more names than look them up, but just keep in mind that some might be fake.

Finally, we have the diversity in Knightess. This is probably my favorite part. Of course, the main character is a white woman, but there are other races in my book as well. There are African-Americans (Keva, Kianna, Mina, and Tala), Chinese (Queen Delilah), Indian (Mattia), and Latino (Captain Delja and Salava). Of course, there are many more but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Also Cosette is an albino, a person who have little pigment in their skin, causing them to be extremely pale. I've always been amazed by albino people and decided to give one of my characters this beautiful trait.

Another example of a character with unique skin is the First Knightess. The First Knightess has vitiligo, a disease where pigment-inducing cells stop functioning. Vitiligo is most common in African Americans and I thought to bring more awareness to this skin type. Every skin, no matter what color, texture, appearance, is beautiful. Like albinism, I've been amazed with Vitiligo. After all, this is a book of diversity.

As you know, Wattpad is a very stereotypical place where every character is model-worthy and is born looking like they've had hundreds of plastic surgeries done to them. I'm hoping to at least bring the different traits in people into the light. I hope you have realized after reading Knightess that everyone is beautiful in their own way.

Once again, thank you so, so much for giving this book an opportunity. I don't know what I would have done without you readers. I hope you're ready for the sequel: The Last Knightess. Once again, thank you and I hope you'll read the sequel.

P.S., here's a sneak peek of the sequel's book cover: