Since I covered a review topic yesterday (and don't have any new reviews to post), how about I swap days and do my not-at-all-random-Thursday promo for Mother of Souls today? Just as a reminder, you can pre-order the paperback or e-book from Bella Books, or order the paperback through Amazon. (E-books are released to the other outlets on a delay, so Kindle will be available in time.) Release date is...um...either November 14 or November 17 depending on which version of the story you're going by.
* * *
Any time I fear I’m losing the thread of a writing project, or need to go to the heart of what one of my books is “about”, I come back to the question: What does this character want? What motivates her at some deep level in everything she does? What measure will she use to determine which choice to make. What desires will turn out to be her weakness, that will tempt her beyond what is sensible? Thinking about those questions has never yet led me wrong. So what do some of these women want?
Luzie Valorin wants to keep her promise to her late husband and see their sons well launched into the world. To give them their best chance of a good place in society…even if that means their place is often far away from her side. Luzie wants to make her parents proud—not simply to assure them that she has made a comfortable life on her own, but to send what she can, now and then, to make their lives more comfortable. Beyond that, Luzie longs for something of her own, something beyond simply fulfilling her duties, something to warm her heart and fill an empty place in her life.
Margerit Sovitre wants to change the world. Oh, nothing earth-shattering; she isn’t interested in politics or the affairs of court. She remembers how sharply and desperately she wanted a chance to study and learn, back when she was a poor relation. Back before her surprise inheritance opened doors she hadn’t imagined. Now she wants to open those doors to others, and if she needs to, she’ll build the doorways and even the whole building around them to do so. Thaumaturgy has given her a taste of a different sort of power, and Margerit is certain that it could move mountains…if only the entrenched forces of Alpennian society were willing to listen to a young woman. And Margerit wants to know everything there is about the mystical powers she can invoke—ones that she is just beginning to learn aren’t the only sort that the world holds.
Serafina Talarico is quite blunt about what she wants: “I want to belong! I want to be comfortable.” But the comforts she remembers from her childhood have been stripped away, layer by layer as she grows up and confronts the reality that she will be a stranger everywhere she goes, even in the city of her birth. Now she would be content to master her own mystical talents—to feel something more than useless and dull-witted. And if she dared to admit it, Serafina wants to be cherished—to find someone who will look into her eyes and truly see her, and want what they see.
Above anything else in the world, Jeanne de Cherdillac wants Antuniet Chazillen, and now that she has achieved that desire, she wants to sort out what is left of her place in society in the aftermath. Jeanne always had a talent for organizing other people’s lives. Now she want to turn that talent from organizing balls and parties to helping others achieve their place in life, whether that place is on stage in the Grande Salle or at the center of a salon among a crowd of witty and talented intellectuals. In her youth, Jeanne learned a hard lesson about not wanting the impossible. But the possible includes many things. Sometimes they only need someone like Jeanne to give them a push.
Barbara Lumbeirt wants to protect and support all the people whose lives are bound to hers. Some might have thought it was a reflex left over from her years serving as Baron Saveze’s armin and duelist. Saveze was part of the cause, but as an old-fashioned model of what a lord owed to the land and people. But these are new times and the people Barbara wants to protect may have other ideas. Barbara wants an outlet for her restless energy and few things offer the challenge she needs like the rumors of international conflict that are reaching across Alpennia’s borders to strike at those she loves.
Antuniet Chazillen wants to restore the lost honor of her family and leave a legacy that will reach across the ages. The first step of that quest was achieved when she was named Royal Alchemist to the court of Alpennia. But her single-minded focus on legacy may risk everything she has already gained.
Iulien Fulpi wants what every provincial upper middle class girl wants: a glittering coming-out ball surrounded by those she loves, and the heady whirl of a dancing season before the need to make decisions that will fix the direction of the rest of her life. But she wanted her cousin Margerit to be there—her beloved and idolized cousin who sometimes seemed to be the only person who understood there might be more to want in addition to those things.
Anna Monterrez wants to repay the trust everyone has rested on her: her father’s trust that her alchemical studies will provide her with a respected trade, in case her scarred face fails to secure her a husband; the trust of her teacher, Antuniet Chazillen, who is granting her ever more responsibility in the alchemical laboratory; the trust of the Vicomtesse de Cherdillac who has promised to turn her from a shy schoolgirl into a sophisticated salonnière. But will Anna’s most secret, most hidden desire betray all those trusts?