The Characters, They Are A Changin'!

Howdy Strangers!

So, admittedly, when Lauren and I start in on a story or a roleplay, there is a bit of a method to it. We usually have an idea first -- a pair of characters we'd like to write, a setting we would like to explore, etc. Then, we usually go and find pictures roughly representing the two main characters we propose to use. So, for your amusement, I present the two images we originally based Barrett and Kyran -- the main characters of our novel FROSTFIRE.

First up is Barrett. 

His image in the novel is virtually unchanged. This is pretty much what Barrett looks like -- in our imaginations -- in FROSTFIRE. He has a few odd scars, and some thicker facial hair, but our hunter hobo looks pretty much the same as he began.

Next is Kyran.

Now, if you have seen the special post on our author page on Facebook, or been one of the lucky few to be our beta readers (at the time of making this blog post, FROSTFIRE was not yet accepted for publishing), you know very well that Kyran does not look almost anything like this. Not only is he younger, but is incapable of growing body hair, has much more delicate features, has green eyes, paler skin, has copper instead of red hair, and might be possessed if he ever made an expression like this. The only surviving feature is really the hairstyle in this image. But this was where he started once upon a roleplay sometime in the very early 2000's.

But their appearances are not the only things that have changed. Kyran and Barrett's personalities have gone through some changes as well before their final drafts. Barrett used to be much meaner than he is now. He used to bully Kyran -- they even got into a fistfight in one of the very early drafts of the story! Kyran was originally a little older, but his personality was about the same except he used to look down on Barrett. He considered him dull-witted and rude. Lauren and I always wanted to write a slow-burn romance between the two of them, but initially, it seemed like it would be impossible for the two of them to reconcile their differences, they were so volatile towards one another. Several drafts later, though, and...well, you'll just have to read the book to see the changes.

I do promise to continue to reveal little inside tidbits about the process of making this book become a reality -- the inside jokes that made it into the final draft that make me and Lauren peer over the tops of our laptops at one another and giggle. So stay tuned!

Until next time
--Anna