(Disclaimer: I’ve never read or watched Harry Potter. But I couldn’t resist the chance to parody a famous line for a title.)
It’s time for Beautiful People, a monthly link-up hosted by The Notebook Sisters and Further Up and Further In. (There is a button for this, but I don’t know how to get it into the post. I’ll figure it out, eventually.) (Update: I figured it out! Obviously. Thanks, Jessy Jones, for explaining how to!)
So, this link-up is basically a character interview so writers can get to know their characters better. I’m feeling pretty confident about my WIP. I’m not scared of losing it. So…
Yep. You guys get a blurb for Shifting Sands and you get to meet my MC, Claire!
Blurb first:
In a world that is plagued by frequent sandstorms, there are people with powers to save everyone from the sands. Claire has just become one of them, a Sand-Wizard. But Claire was born into an inescapable cult that hates the government and despises Sand-Wizards. And the cult leaders have just chosen Claire as their traditional sacrifice. This isn’t an honor, it’s a death sentence– at least in Claire’s mind. She begs for a way out and is offered the choice of assassinating a Sand-Wizard leader instead. She goes undercover to do it. But the man turns out to be someone she can’t bring herself to do in. He’s been nothing but kind to her and has helped her learn to master her sand powers. But if he doesn’t die, she will. And the cult is breathing down her neck as the day for the sacrifice draws closer.
And now for the questions. (Help me out here, Claire. I’ll let you answer these questions in first person, if you want.)
1) What’s their favourite food? (Bonus: favourite flavour of chocolate!) Does ice count? No? Alright, fine. Sherbet. It’s pretty close to ice, at least in temperature, and it gets really hot here in Kathos. And in the Edges. And pretty much anywhere you go in this desert. As for favorite flavor of chocolate, I’ve only had chocolate once in my whole life. It was in a cake. That was good.
2) What do they absolutely hate? The fact that I have not been allowed to see my parents since I was five. I’m sixteen, now. Such is the life of a novice priestess.
3) What do they enjoy learning about? I really enjoy learning about being a Sand-Wizard. They’ve always fascinated me and now, I’m one. The power to control sand is amazing.
4) Who is the most influential person in their life? Believe it or not, my parents. I lived with them for the first five years of my life and during that time, they taught me everything they could. They shaped my beliefs, not the Hingutti leaders.
5) What is their childhood fear? Being Chosen to be Intervention has always scared me. Now I’ve had the horrible luck of actually being Chosen. If you want a normal fear, I’ve never liked the idea of scorpions. Or sand-dragons.
6) What is something they have always secretly dreamed of doing, but thought impossible? A lot of this is turning out to be about my life in the cult, isn’t it? I’ve always dreamed of leaving the Hingutti. Me and my parents. But we can’t. The Hingutti would hunt us down and make us examples. The other impossible thing I’ve dreamed of is one day having a family. But Hingutti priestesses are single. That kind of messes everything up.
7) What is something he is impractically afraid of? Thunder. I guess it’s not so much the thunder that scares me as it is the rain. We don’t get much rain here, but when we do, there is always the danger of a flood. I’ve been told there’s never been a flood in Kathos, so I really have nothing to worry about, but when it thunders, I can’t help thinking of flooding. Maybe I’m actually scared of drowning. Drowning in a desert…
8) Are they a night owl or morning person? Morning person. You have to be a morning person when you’re supposed to get up before dawn and clean the Temple. It’s never actually dirty, oddly enough. Probably because we clean it every morning.
9) Do they say everything that pops into their head, or leave a lot unsaid? Ha! Ahem. Sorry. If I said everything that pops into my head, I would be dead. Literally. Though, maybe I am a bit outspoken… You know, I’m not sure. Robyn?
10) What are their nervous habits? I don’t think I have a nervous habit. I’m nervous a lot so who could actually tell if I had one? (Robyn here. Claire blushes at the mention of a certain someone she’s supposed to assassinate. She also starts playing with her hair when she gets really nervous. Just starts twirling it…) I do? (Yes, you do. All of it.)
And that’s Claire! Thank you, Claire, for agreeing to answer these questions. You’ve been most helpful.
I agreed to this?
Yes, you did.
Robyn, does everything work out in the end of my story?
Define “work out”…
Spiral-Bound 
Awwww! Poor Claire. Sounds like a wonderful story. 🙂 A few things remind me of a certain place where it rains all the time…hmmm. 😉 No assassinations required, however. Well, not exactly.
Anyhow. I especially like the blurb. Good job.
Thanks! 🙂
What a coincidence! 😉
Also, it’s quite awesome to make references to things one has never seen or read. The look of astonishment on people’s faces when one reveals this fact after quoting something correctly is quite amusing.
(Sorry, I’m working on using the third person…school’s fault.)
Yes. Though I must admit I’ve never noticed the astonishment.
(Good luck!)
Well, not necessarily astonishment. It could be confusion as well.
Indeed.
This is pretty cool! Claire seems like a lovely character.
Thank you! Claire is awesome. 🙂
Awesome. It’s always fun to have awesome characters.
And to sound redundant by using that word too many times. *slightly crazy grin*Oh, yes. It’s just awesome. Awesomely so, in fact.
Yes. Just awesome. *very crazy laughter*It’s awesomely awesome to have awesome characters. And to be awesome, but that’s a given.
Yes. *laughs herself into hysterics*Absolutely awesome. And of course, being awesomely awesome is a given.
*laughs maniacally as only an evil overlord can*Of course. And it’s an awesome given, too.
*laughs in the way only Shim can do*Haha, I overuse “awesome,” a lot. I’ve gotten a bit more creative of late, but my default is still “awesome.” Which is awesome, of course 😉
And yes, I would definitely agree that it’s fun to have awesome characters. Obviously! 🙂
Awesome. Indeed.
Indeed!
Me too. I don’t use it a lot a lot, but I do use it a pretty decent amount. *nods*
Haha. I say, this is a pretty crazy awesome thread! Awesomeness.
Awesomely awesome indeed.
btw… how are you guys formatting your comments?
You mean the strikethrough? It’s HTML code.
(without the spaces) to start it, and(again, without the spaces) to end it. Italics is and bold is . Same format.…or did you mean something other than that?
That’s what I meant. I guess maybe it works since it’s WordPress and not Blogger But what letters are the strikethrough?
The letters are “strike”. 🙂
This is italics this is bold
this is strikethrough*nods*Man, I messed something up there… *laughs*
Nope. You did it perfectly, Shim. 😛
Did I? It looks like something’s off… Eh.
Hello! Wandering in from the linkup. I believe you were reading my linkup at the same time I was reading yours…I finished reading, then left to do something before commenting here, and when I came back, you’d commented on mine! (And then my sister needed her iPad back so I had to wait a minute to finish.) Anyway, how coincidental is that?
I enjoyed getting to know Claire! She and the story sound quite interesting. And I loved the answers first person… perhaps ill do that next time. Her picture is absolutely stunning and while reading her answers, I was picturing her talking to me. Very awesome.
By the way… I don’t have WordPress, but I assume it’s similar to Blogger. To get the button in the post, you’ll go to “Edit HTML” or something like that (where you normal type in your post). Copy the HTML Cait and Skye have posted and paste it into your post (on the “Edit HTML” part). I believe it’s already linked, so that’s all you have to do. Then you can go back to the “rich form” (the normal post box) and move the picture wherever you want it. Hope that helps somewhat 🙂
http://www.barefootinthesnowjack.blogspot.com
Wow! That is a cool coincidence.
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it. (I found the pic on Pinterest some time ago.)
Okay, thank you! I’ll see if I can do that.
But you wouldn’t be MEAN to your poor little charries would you? Noooo. I’m sure you wouldn’t. I’m sure you’re 100% a good hearted author. ^-^ But it was nice to meet Claire! And the 1st person version was awesome to read. I get to see a little sneak peek at Claire’s voice too. I’m a morning person. *hi fives* Buuut, I don’t have to do any insane cleaning, thank goodness.
Thanks for linking up with us Robyn!! Sorry you had trouble with the button. 😐 Suppose I should actually explain how to use it, eh?
Thanks, Cait! This was lots of fun.
Of course I’m 100% good hearted! Why else would I take Claire away from her parents, put her into a cult she can’t escape, and then threaten her with death if she doesn’t go kill this guy? Actually, that was the High Priest behind all that. I’m 97% sure that he might be a psychopath or something. I however am a perfect saintly author. *choir vocalizes* xD
I am most certainly not a morning person. And there are mornings I thoroughly regret it…
Maybe, but my troubles were mostly the fact that I’m a new blogger. 🙂
And at last we learn more about
my sister’s secret identityClaire the reluctant assassin! Sounds like a fun story, with a cool world and magic system.Ooh, is that Going Postal I see on your currently reading widget? Sweet!
Indeed we do. Fun to write about.Thanks! I’m enjoying it.Yes, that’s Going Postal! I’m loving it, so far.
You’re welcome! No problem 🙂
By the way, love your avatar picture. 🙂
Thanks! Captain Hook is awesome, no?
Oh, I have a question. I just noticed you have your currently reading Goodreads shelf down below as a gadget. How do you do that? I simply couldn’t figure it out.
Yes. Killian is indeed awesome (and not just because he’s hot and Irish).
Well, WordPress gave me the option of the Goodreads widget. I went to it and I had to fill in my Goodreads ID number. If you go to your profile, it’s up in the website address of that page and it’s just the number part they wanted. Then I selected my currently reading list and boom! Did that make sense?
If this doesn’t work, I have a friend who uses blogger and she has a Goodreads widget. We can ask her. 🙂
On Killian: My thoughts exactly! I’m glad to know I’m not the only sane human female when it comes to celebrity men.
Yes, that seems to be the problem… I can’t find the option of a Goodreads widget! I just checked again to be sure I didn’t miss it and it’s still not showing up. So I’d be quite grateful if your friend would help me out 🙂 Thank you!
Yes, though I must admit I’m not always sane about it. 😛 But Hook is a good character.
I’ll ask her and let you know. 🙂
hahaha
Awesome! 🙂
Here’s what she said:
Go to Goodreads, find the blog widget page, and copy the given HTML code for the widget you want.
On the Layout page in Blogger, there should be an “add a gadget” button (or maybe it’s “add a widget.”) Click on that, and it should pull up a list of possible gadgets. Scroll down and select “HTML/Java Script gadget”. That will pop up a blank text box. Paste the HTML code into said box. Save the gadget, place it where you want it, save the layout, and voila! One Goodreads widget.
Let me know if it doesn’t work. 🙂
Hmm, I’ll give that a try. I’ll let you know!
Found it! Thanks so much, both of you 😀
You’re welcome! 🙂
You’re welcome! (I am said Blogger-using friend.) (And yes I totally went through the comments on this blog to see if I could find this conversation.)
haha, kudos to you! That’s a lot of random comment to fish through. Thanks again!
Eh, this was only the second post I looked at, so it wasn’t that hard. 🙂
Fascinating! 😀
Thanks!
I love innovation. It’s so… hard to put into words, but fun 😀
Yep.
🙂