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Monday, December 23, 2024

Writing - part xxx906 Scene Outline, Novel Outline, Rose: Enchantment and the Flower

 23 December 2024, Writing - part xxx906 Scene Outline, Novel Outline, Rose: Enchantment and the Flower

Announcement: I still need a new publisher.  However, I’ve taken the step to republish my previously published novels.  I’m starting with Centurion, and we’ll see from there.  Since previously published novels have little chance of publication in the market (unless they are huge best sellers), I might as well get those older novels back out.  I’m going through Amazon Publishing, and I’ll pass the information on to you.

Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.

I’m using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I’ll keep you informed along the way.

Today’s Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my writing websites http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

The four plus two basic rules I employ when writing:

1. Don’t confuse your readers.

2. Entertain your readers.

3. Ground your readers in the writing.

4. Don’t show (or tell) everything.

     4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage of the novel.

5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

6. The initial scene is the most important scene.

 

These are the steps I use to write a novel including the five discrete parts of a novel:

                     1.     Design the initial scene

2.     Develop a theme statement (initial setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, action statement)

a.      Research as required

b.     Develop the initial setting

c.      Develop the characters

d.     Identify the telic flaw (internal and external)

3.     Write the initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action movement)

4.     Write the next scene(s) to the climax (rising action)

5.     Write the climax scene

6.     Write the falling action scene(s)

7.     Write the dénouement scene

I finished writing my 31st novel, working title, Cassandra, potential title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors.  The theme statement is: Deirdre and Sorcha are redirected to French finishing school where they discover difficult mysteries, people, and events.

I finished writing my 34th novel (actually my 32nd completed novel), Seoirse, potential title Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.  The theme statement is: Seoirse is assigned to be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.     

Here is the cover proposal for the third edition of Centurion:




Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29th novel, working title Detective.  I finished writing number 31, working title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warrior.  I just finished my 32nd novel and 33rd novel: Rose: Enchantment and the Flower, and Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.

How to begin a novel.  Number one thought, we need an entertaining idea.  I usually encapsulate such an idea with a theme statement.  Since I’m writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement.  Here is an initial cut.

For novel 30:  Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns about freedom, and is redeemed.

For Novel 32:  Shiggy Tash finds a lost girl in the isolated Scottish safe house her organization gives her for her latest assignment: Rose Craigie has nothing, is alone, and needs someone or something to rescue and acknowledge her as a human being.

For novel 33, Book girl:  Siobhàn Shaw is Morven McLean’s savior—they are both attending Kilgraston School in Scotland when Morven loses everything, her wealth, position, and friends, and Siobhàn Shaw is the only one left to befriend and help her discover the one thing that might save Morven’s family and existence.

For novel 34:  Seoirse is assigned to be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.

For novel 35: Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

Here is the scene development outline:

1. Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)

2. Write the scene setting (place, time, stuff, and characters)

3. Imagine the output, creative elements, plot, telic flaw resolution (climax) and develop the tension and release.

4. Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.

5. Write the release

6. Write the kicker

Today:  Let me tell you a little about writing.  Writing isn’t so much a hobby, a career, or a pastime.  Writing is a habit and an obsession.  We who love to write love to write. 

If you love to write, the problem is gaining the skills to write well.  We want to write well enough to have others enjoy our writing.  This is important.  No one writes just for themselves the idea is absolutely irrational and silly.  I can prove why.

In the first place, the purpose of writing is communication—that’s the only purpose.  Writing is the abstract communication of the mind through symbols.  As time goes by, we as writers gain more and better tools and our readers gain more and better appreciation for those tools and skills—even if they have no idea what they are. 

We are in the modern era.  In this time, the action and dialog style along with the push of technology forced novels into the form of third person, past tense, action and dialog style, implying the future.  This is the modern style of the novel.  I also showed how the end of literature created the reflected worldview.  We have three possible worldviews for a novel: the real, the reflected, and the created.  I choose to work in the reflected worldview.

Why don’t we go back to the basics and just writing a novel?  I can tell you what I do, and show you how I go about putting a novel together.  We can start with developing an idea then move into the details of the writing. 

Ideas.  We need ideas.  Ideas allow us to figure out the protagonist and the telic flaw.  Ideas don’t come fully armed from the mind of Zeus.  We need to cultivate ideas. 

1.     Read novels. 

2.     Fill your mind with good stuff—basically the stuff you want to write about. 

3.     Figure out what will build ideas in your mind and what will kill ideas in your mind.

4.     Study.

5.     Teach. 

6.     Make the catharsis. 

7.     Write.

The development of ideas is based on study and research, but it is also based on creativity.  Creativity is the extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form.  It is a reflection of something new created with ties to the history, science, and logic (the intellect).  Creativity requires consuming, thinking, and producing.

If we have filled our mind with all kinds of information and ideas, we are ready to become creative.  Creativity means the extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form.  Literally, we are seeing the world in a new way, or actually, we are seeing some part of the world in a new way. 

The beginning of creativity is study and effort.  We can use this to extrapolate to creativity.  In addition, we need to look at recording ideas and working with ideas.

With that said, where should we go?  Should I delve into ideas and creativity again, or should we just move into the novel again?  Should I develop a new protagonist, which, we know, will result in a new novel.  I’ve got an idea, but it went stale.  Let’s look at the outline for a novel again:

1.      The initial scene

2.     The rising action scenes

3.     The climax scene

4.     The falling action scene(s)

5.     The dénouement scene(s)

   

I went through the scene outline to show you how to approach writing a scene.  I think it is relatively simple—that doesn’t mean it is easy, but once you know the basics of writing a scene, with the right elements, you can write a great scene.  If you can write a great scene, you can potentially write an initial scene, the rising action scenes, the climax scene, a falling action scene, and a dénouement.  That means, if you can write a scene, you can write a novel. 

Now, to get to a novel, and to a great scene, you need a great protagonist.  I recommended a Romantic protagonist.  The reason is the Romantic protagonist is my favorite type and generally, the favorite of most readers.  In fact, I don’t know of a single reader who doesn’t love a great Romantic protagonist, or even a close to Romantic protagonist.  I point out Harry Potty who has become one of the most popular protagonists in history and is very close to a Romantic protagonist.  I think he’d even be more popular if he was a full on Romantic protagonist.  Just a thought.

With a fully developed Romantic protagonist, writing a scene is pretty easy and writing a novel is relatively easy.  In my short form blog, I’m going over the telic flaw from the protagonist and how it pertains to the novel and how it comes from the development of the protagonist.  Perhaps this idea of the telic flaw belonging to the protagonist is the most important factor in novel development.  This is why I write that the first step in writing a novel is the Romantic protagonist development.  I’ll consider if I should give you the basics and telic flaw from the design of the protagonist, like I’m doing in my short form blog.  I’ll try to expand this idea to help bring out the concept of the initial scene.  I’ve done this before, but I’ll try to give you something new out of this, next.

As I wrote before, the telic flaw for the novel comes from the protagonist.  In addition, the protagonist defines all kinds of things issues and in time, the setting, the place, and all.  As I wrote, the protagonist defines all these things in the novel.  The novel and the telic flaw of the novel comes directly from the protagonist.

I could go through all my protagonists and define the telic flaw from that protagonist for you.  I think I did this before.  Perhaps I should do it again.  That might be a very worthwhile set of examples.  I’ll think about it.  You see the list of novels above.  I think I’ll use my list of novels from the first to the last I’ve finished.  That’s next.

A Season of Honor:  This was the first novel I wrote.  The very Romantic protagonist is Baron Shaun du Locke.  Shaun has a lengthy history that I developed for the novel and actually that I used to write the two other novels in the series, The End of Honor and The Fox’s Honor.  Shaun du Locke was a prince who was deposed because he fell in love with the wrong woman—a power his brother could not allow, and she was executed.  It’s not incorrect to say that Shaun was haunted by this action and the loss of the Lady Lyral Neuterra.  The problem is that Shaun was contracted to take Lyral’s cousin and near twin, Elaina Acier to her arranged marriage on the Imperial Capital planet Arienth.

There is the telic flaw of the novel.  Shaun must deliver Elina to Arienth, but the woman in question looks like his lost love, and of course, he is falling in love again.  It’s not just how Eliana looks but it is her personality and skill as a noblewoman. 

If you notice, the telic flaw for the novel comes directly out of the protagonist.  It isn’t really a flaw in the protagonist, but rather a flaw in the world of the protagonist, and a flaw he must rectify (resolve).  This is exactly what I mean by the protagonist beings the telic flaw of the novel with them.  I’ll look at The Fox’s Honor, next.  

The Fox’s Honor stars Devon Rathenberg as its Romantic protagonist.  Devon is in the succession but from another branch of the imperial family so considered outside it.  He is the Emperor’s chief of intelligence, the Fox.  In this capacity, Devon has devised a plan to save the Emperor, the Human Galactic Empire, and the people of the empire.  He must die to reveal the Emperor’s enemies and the nobles who have been conspiring against the power of the Emperor.

However, Devon has fallen in love with a lady, the Lady Tamar Falkeep.  Tamar happens to be on the planet where Devon must cause his own death through losing a duel, thus, Devon will state his love to the Lady and carry out his mission.  You see the telic flaw that comes with this character, right?

Devon’s telic flaw (the novel’s telic flaw) is that Devon must die to revel the Empire’s enemies and yet he is compelled to confess his love to Lady Tamar.  Tamar is enraged and follows the knight when he fights and loses the duel on purpose, but she can’t let him die.  She saves his life and forces him to live.  As you can see, the telic flaw for the novel, the loss of Devon’s honor comes directly out of the protagonist.  Tamar is the protagonist’s helper.  The end result is a massive clandestine operation and then a military operation for Devon and Tamar to get back their honor and their lands.  I’ll move on to The End of Honor, next.

The End of Honor is an unusual novel.  It starts with the death of the protagonist’s helper and the protagonist is nowhere to be seen.  The protagonist is Prince John-Mark who is Baron Shaun du Locke in A Season of Honor.  Prince John-Mark is the second son of the Emperor and falls in love with the Lady Lyral Neuterra.  He works long and hard to be able to win the hand of the lady, but the alliances and the match is seen as a threat to the power of the Emperor’s first son.  Do you see the telic flaw here?

The telic flaw that John-Mark brings to the table is that he is really in love with Lyral, but the entire Human Galactic Empire thinks John-Mark is seeking Imperial power.  In any case, his actions and love sparks a civil war in the Human Galactic Empire.  It’s a war his brother begins with the assassination of the Emperor and the execution of Lyral Neuterra.  There you go, the protagonist, John-Mark comes with his own telic flaw and that’s the telic flaw of the novel.  The telic flaw is a civil war in the Empire—the resolution is the end of this war.  I’ll move on to Antebellum, next.

Antebellum is about the south in 1965 and the 1860s.  The protagonist is Heather Roberts.  She is a hard-working and industrious girl who wants to go to college, but whose family is dirt poor and not interested in educating girls.  Heather is deeply involved and has many friends in her community.  The greatest mystery of that community is about the Robert’s plantation house, Belle Fleur.  The house disappeared near the end of the civil war and hasn’t been seen since.  In addition, Heather’s namesake Syble Heather Roberts disappeared with the house at the same time.  Then, in the initial scene, Heather finds and enters the house, but the house suddenly disappears and can’t be found. 

You can see the telic flaw for Heather and the novel is this house, Belle Fleur and the mystery of the house and Syble Heather Roberts.  This is indeed the problem Heather must resolve in the novel.  Pretty simple.  The protagonist defines the telic flaw, and comes with a telic flaw—that’s what makes the novel.  I should mention that this novel shows the plantation house bit by bit as Heather investigate the mystery.  I’ll look at Aegypt, next.

Aegypt is the first novel in my Ancient Light novel series.  That was the name the publisher and I came up with for the series.  The first novel was published, Aegypt, and the next two Sister of Light and Sister of Darkness were on contract with a trilogy of these three novels planned.  You can still see this information on the internet, but alas, my publisher went out of business, and I was left high and dry. 

In Aegypt, the protagonist is Paul Bolang.  Paul is a lieutenant in the French Foreign Legion and a man who loves warfare.  He was university trained in Egyptian Archeology and is a language expert and expert in Egyptian hieroglyphics.  You can see that Paul is a Romantic protagonist.  Paul discovers the foundation of an Egyptian temple in front of Fort Saint, a Foreign Legion outpost in Tunesia.  Paul calls for an archeological expedition, and one comes from England and Oxford.  The temple foundation hides a tomb and a great mystery and ancient secret. 

Do you see the telic flaw that Paul owns in the novel?  The telic flaw of Aegypt is the mystery of the tomb below the foundation.  The archologists explore the tomb and cause a host of problems and more mysteries as well as unusual deaths. 

The very Romantic protagonist, Paul Bolang comes along with a telic flaw, or you might write that he finds the telic flaw of the novel as part of his life and history.  That’s exactly how this works.  Even if the telic flaw doesn’t just tag along with the protagonist, it is discovered, found, or presented to the protagonist.  For example, in a detective or mystery novel, many times the protagonist is presented a problem to resolve: a crime, a mystery, a secret, and all.  This is another way the telic flaw tags along with the protagonist.  Next is Centurion.

Centurion is a regularly published novel, but my publisher went out of business.  In fact, all the novels I’ve written about in the list about the telic flaw have been regularly published.  I’m looking for a new publisher, but as my author friend pointed out to me—no one is looking to republish anything that isn’t already a bestseller.  Therefore, I’m having Centurion republished by Amazon.  That’s an entirely different problem and account.  I will share in the future.  Let’s get back to Centurion.

The protagonist and a Romantic protagonist in Centurion is Abenadar.  Abenadar is a half-Roman, half-Jew whose mother was the concubine of the Roman ambassador to King Herod Agrippa.  This is important because the moment Abenadar is acknowledged as a Roman citizen, he joins the legion and begins his training as a legionnaire.  The entire novel is about Abenadar’s life as a legionnaire and his advancement to Centurion.  Along the way, we do get to see the historical Jesus because Abenadar is the Centurion assigned the crucifixion of Jesus. 

The telic flaw of the novel is relatively simple—it is the advancement of Abenadar as a legionnaire and his life as a Centurion.  The main problem is that he is a half-Roman which is a real problem because Abenadar is a great leader and politician. 

In some ways this novel is just a classic revelation of the protagonist.  The climax just happens to reflect an important historical event.  This is a very common historical novel setup.  This is also my bestselling novel.  I hope people can continue to enjoy reading it in the third edition.  I’ll move to Athelstan Cying, next.

Athelstan Cying is another of my science fiction novels.  In this novel, we start with the spirit of a powerful psionic master who is miraculously still around after a millennia.  He is trapped on the ship, Athelstan Cying which was used by the rogue psionics to escape their prison by the Reps on the Imperial Capital of Arienth.  The Family Trader ship, Twilight Lamb discovers the Athelstan Cying and goes to explore and salvage it.  On the Twilight Lamb, we are introduced to Den Protania.  Den is a failure on the Twilight Lamb and in the Family Traders.  He is studying in Shuttle, but failed already in Astrogation and Command.  Den is the Captain’s son, but he is headed toward being left planet side.

When the Twilight Lamb’s salvage crew boards the Athelstan Cying, Den is part of the crew.  He disregards his orders and causes an accident where he is impaled on ship structure.  The spirit tries to save Den, but ends up stuck in Den’s body.  We now have the very Romantic protagonist—a new soul inside the body of a failing Family Trader.  You should be able to spot the telic flaw just from this short explanation.  I’ll make it clearer.

Den, as a member of the Twilight Lamb needs to change and change radically.  Bring into this the capitalistic nature of the Family Traders who expect their crew members to pay back to the ship their costs of life and training.  Den is in a deep hole made deeper by his rescue and fault during the salvage operation of the Athelstan Cying.  The goal of the new soul in Den is to succeed and become an active and prosperous member of the crew.  At the same time, he must keep his soul and new attributes as well as his new mind secret from the rest of the crew.  Who could imagine such a thing?

Unfortunately, or fortunately, Natana Kern who was Den’s chief rival on the Twilight Lamb is also a trained Journeyman in psionics and psychiatry.  She is assigned to “help” Den after the disaster and to recommend to the Ship’s Council what to do about Den.  She discovers his strange new soul and identity.  Instead of turning him in, she decides to help him because of the psionic information she can get from him as well as the fact Den has become a new man, and the type of man Natana always wanted him to be. 

The telic flaw of the novel, and the telic flaw brought by the protagonist is this resolve to succeed on the Twilight Lamb as well as to make things right for all the suffering and problems Den has caused in the Trader Family.

Yes, this is a complex problem and a complex science fiction novel.  It ends up being a fun novel full of entertainment, excitement, and a little romance.  As I wrote, the protagonist defines the telic flaw just by existing.  I’ll move on to the next Ghostship Chronicles novel, Twilight Lamb.

I’m not finished with Den and Natana.  This novel, Twilight Lamb takes the next step in their lives—together.  We still have Den with the soul of an ancient psionic master and Natana, a super genius astrogator, but by this time, Den has become a Journeyman in Command, Astrogation, and Shuttle.  Those were the three areas he studied before and three journeyman ranks is unheard of in the Trader Families.  Because of Den’s success, the ship grants him some boons.  He still has his debt, but they allow him and Natana to wed. 

At the end of the previous novel, Athelstan Cying, Den and Natana were attacked and imprisoned by the group called the Athenian Charter.  This is a political and criminal group using psionics for crime and to influence planetary governments.  Den and Natana want to investigate and identify this group.  Twilight Lamb is all about the intrigue and investigation that Den and Natana are accomplishing.  Do you see the telic flaw?

The telic flaw for Twilight Lamb is the investigation of the Athenian Charter as well as Den and Natana’s continued revealed life on the Family Trader ship.  You can see exactly how the telic flaw comes out of the protagonist and in this case, the protagonist’s helper.  They are both psionic experts who use their skills to work against the Athenian Charter.  I’ll look at Regia Anglorum, next.    

At the end of Twilight Lamb, Den and Natana save the ship (Twilight Lamb) from a hijacking from a civilian liner, the Regia Anglorum.  In the end, Den and Natana are allowed to take over the command of the Regia Anglorum.  In the novel, Regia Anglorum, Den and Natana are no longer the protagonist and the protagonist’s helper—I introduce a new character, Nikita.  Nikita is the child of a performer and a Family Trader member.  She was left by her father, and her mother dies—so Nikita was left alone on the streets of Carnival on the planet El Reshad. 

The first voyage of the Regia Anglorum includes El Reshad as a trading point.  Nikita is a psionic genius and has been using psionic powers since she was a child, for survival.  When Natana goes planetside to El Reshad, she notes Nikita and her power.  She is able to contact the child and eventually convinces her to join the Family Traders.  Sounds like the end of things—a happy solution.  Actually, this is a protagonist revelation novel.  We get acquainted with Nikita, but we know nothing about her.  She knows little about herself.  She has wonderful skills (Romantic protagonist) and especially psionic skills, but she is still a child who looks about eight but is really over eleven.  The novel is all about how Nikita integrates into the Family Traders and into the ship.  So, you can see exactly how the telic flaw follows the protagonist. 

Let me give you an aside.  This novel allows me to show my readers the world of The Ghostship Chronicles in a way the other novels couldn’t that is through the integration of Nikita, I show their education system, their finance system, their apprenticeship system, and their ship, especially the inside.  Plus, Nikita is a great character.  This is a great example of a revelation type novel and a self-discovery as well as a coming of age type novel.  It really isn’t a young adult novel, but that’s okay, I think adults and young adults will love it.  The point is that this is the type of novel where the mystery of the protagonist drives the telic flaw of the novel.  Unusual, not that unusual in science fiction, but not super common in the modern world of literature.  I’ll move on to The Second Mission, next.

The Second Mission is a partner published novel and still available for purchase.  The protagonist is a scientist for the United State’s Nuclear Studies, Alan FisherAlan happens to be standing at the wrong place when future people are sending an agent back into time on the second time travel mission.  Alan happens to be standing at exactly the same location the future time travel is occurring, but in the past, and that means Alan is pulled back into time with the legitimate time traveler, Sophia. 

Sophia’s job is to live in Athens 400 to 399 BC and record the words and world of Socrates to allow the future to evaluate how closely his words are to Plato’s recordings (writing) of them in the Socratic Dialogs.  The telic flaw should be obvious, and it comes directly from Alan.  Alan must first work to survive in the world of Athens Greece during 400 to 399 BC.  He must be an asset for Sophia.  Plus, he needs to figure out some way to return to his time. 

You can see how the telic flaw comes directly with and from Alan.  Sophia is the protagonist’s helper, and this isn’t the first novel I wrote with a protagonist’s helper from the beginning of the novel.  As an add, this novel includes my modern translations of the last five Socratic dialogs put into more modern speech and for more modern understanding—context to the dialog.  I also put the entire Greek culture and the death of Socrates into a context the reader can understand.  It’s a fun book.  I’ll move on to, Sister of Light.

Sister of Light is the second novel in the Ancient Light series and the novel following AegyptAegypt and Sister of Light were both regularly published, but Sister of Light didn’t make it to the marketplace.  My publisher went out of business.  The novels were on contract to be published individually and as a trilogy.  So is life.

Sister of Light follows Paul and Leora Bolang as they make a life in the 1920s and 1930s in France and the USA.  Leroa is the protagonist of this novel. She is also a goddess of light revived by a cabalistic spell devised by her sister, the goddess of darkness.  The goddess of light is a being who has limited powers in the world, but most of them have to do with light and life.  The goddess of darkness is all about death and darkness.  The problem is that from Aegypt, although the body of the goddess of darkness was destroyed, her Ka or soul still remains in the real world and still can negatively affect mankind.  Leora and Paul do some work to prevent her actions in the world, but Leora doesn’t really get involved until the goddess of darkness begins to directly attack them.  The goddess of darkness takes Paul prisoner because she is trying to get an offering formula back, the offering formula of the goddess of darkness and Osirus.

That’s really more information than you need to get to the telic flaw.  The telic flaw is that Leora and Paul simply want to live their lives in peace, but the goddess of darkness intends to make their lives hell on earth.  Leora must fight her sister and attempt to remove her from existence.  In that light, this is a pretty simple telic flaw, but developed over two novels, then three when we get to Sister of Darkness.  We’ll get there, but Hestia: Enchantment of the Hearth is next.     

Hestia: Enchantment of the Hearth is my first enchantment novels.  In this novel, I branched off from the previous series novels into a new idea—writing about those beings and creatures we presume can’t be redeemed.  I wanted to see if I could give them a path to redemption.  The first was Hestia.

Hestia is the most powerful goddess of the Greeks.  She is a titan and the virginal goddess of the hearth.  In Hestia: Enchantment of the Hearth, a young archeologist accidentally invokes Hestia into the real world.  The archeologists are mostly secular, so they can’t imagine an actual god or goddess could exist.  Angela, one of the archeologists, is the protagonist of this novel.  She is one of the senior archeologists on the dig.  She is trying to understand just who and what this Hestia person is.  And that’s basically the telic flaw.  However there is more to it.

To be very clear, the telic flaw of Hestia: Enchantment of the Hearth, is for Angela to understand about who and what Hestia is and what this means to Angela personally.  As a sideline, this novel turns into a really fun mystery about ancient gods and demigods in Greece.  There is a lot of comedy in the novel due to Hestia’s ability to control certain things, but not others.  In other words, her powers aren’t very obvious to the archeologists or anyone else.  I’ll move on to Sister of Darkness, next.

Sister of Darkness is the third Aegypt and Ancient Light novel.  It all started with Aegypt.  This novel was on contract in a trilogy and an individual publication when my publisher went out of business.  In Sister of Darkness, Leora is the protagonist again, and she and Paul are acting together during World War Two to stop her sister Leila, the Goddess of Darkness from destroying the world through the German Nazis. 

The Goddess of Darkness is still acting out of Germany and Berlin, and the real event that gets the entire plot going is the Goddess of Darkness’ search for her items of power.  The Germans are directly acting as her surrogates in this.  To aid in her search and actions, when the Goddess of Darkness regains the Osirus Offering Formula, she also kidnaps Lumiere, Paul and Leora’s oldest daughter who was intrigued and drawn to the Offering Formula.  We have a very complex novel that moves between Leora and Paul as well as Lumiere.  The telic flaw is the defeat of Liela, the Goddess of Darkness and the return of Lumiere.  This comes with Leora as Lumiere’s mother and Liela’s sister.  I’ll note again, the protagonist, Leora brings this telic flaw with them into the novel, and this telic flaw becomes that of the novel and the protagonist.

This novel was on contract, and slated to be published, but my publisher went out of business before it could be produced.  Oh well.  Such is life.  I’ll move on to Shadow of Darkness, next.

At the end of Sister of Darkness, Lumiere is not rescued from Leila.  Leila is defeated by Paul and Leora, but they assume their daughter was consumed and destroyed when they all defeated Leila.  Unfortunately, they were wrong.  Leila escaped to the east—she was not destroyed only weakened, and now Lumiere has the black tablet and controls Leila’s servants. 

At the beginning of Shadow of Darkness, Lumiere is heading to the east with Oba, Liela’s remaining servant, now Lumiere’s servant, to try to end Leila.  The only problem is the Russian fifth Shock Army, and the remaining German defenders of Berlin.  Lumiere is caught up in a firefight and is wounded nearly fatally.  She is rescued from the battlefield by two Russian Jews who happen to be a journalists for the Soviet.  They nurse her back to health, but Lumiere has lost many memories, her leg is permanently injured, as is her voice, and she is alone, unable to speak Russian.

We actually know a lot about Lumiere from Sister of Darkness, but the reader doesn’t need to know much about her.  That’s because Shadow of Darkness is a protagonist revelation and self-discovery novel.  We learn about Lumiere as she learns about herself.  Those who have read the series from the beginning know a lot about Lumiere, but this is a new Lumiere, a changed and damaged Lumiere.  There’s the telic flaw.

The protagonist, Lumiere comes with marvelous secrets and mysteries waiting to be discovered all over again.  She has really no idea who she really is.  As I noted, the series readers will have some idea, but there is much more to the story.  The revelation is worth the tale itself, and that is the point of the telic flaw.  This is one of those wonderful telic flaws that the protagonist brings to the table, but that becomes even more poignant when she is injured and suddenly dependent on others.  I’ll move on to Shadow of Light, next.

We aren’t done with Lumiere, yet.  At the end of Shadow of Darkness, Lumiere and her friend, Alexandre, escape into the West through East Berlin.  They are captured by the Americans and the State department takes over their case.  At the last moment, before they are deported back to the Soviet Union, Bruce Lyons has Churchill and the Queen assert their authority to the president and Lumiere and Alexandre are safe, so to speak.  The problem is then, again, Lumiere.

Lumiere hasn’t finished her quest to remove Liela, the Goddess of Darkness from the earth, and that is the telic flaw.  This telic flaw causes everything in the novel.  In the first place, Lumiere knows where Leila is, China.  She knows Leila is working through Mao.  She needs a place in the Foreign Office that allows her access to China, and she needs the blessing of the Organization in languages and especially in the Chinese languages. 

The point is that the telic flaw is the problem of Liela, this has been the problem from the beginning of the Ancient Light series and Aegypt.  This telic flaw comes into more and more focus as the series progresses.  Each novel has it’s own idea in the telic flaw and importance to the overall resolution.  The resolution of Shadow of Darkness sets up the series for the next novel, Children of Light and Darkness.

Children of Light and Darkness is the next book in the Ancient Light series and part of the novels that started with Aegypt.  In Shadow of Light, Leila, the Goddess of Darkness is finally defeated, but that isn’t the end of the problems affecting the world or the Bolang family.

In the beginning of Children of Light and Darkness, we find that Lumiere and Alexandre have gone missing in Burma and possibly China.  The new protagonist, Kathrin has been sent from the Organization to look for them.  What is unusual about this is Kathrin’s position, she’s an operative, not an agent, and the fact that James Calloway was assigned with her.  He’s an agent and an MI6 share.  They have an, uh, relationship. 

We also learn that Kathrin and James have discovered two ten year old girls who are revered as goddesses, and who appear to have supernatural powers.  They conclude that these girls are Lumiere’s and Alexandre’s children, but none of the reports say their children were with them or missing at all. 

The telic flaw of this novel should now be evident.  The protagonist, Kathrin must rescue Lumiere’s children and return with them to Britain.  There is more to this, of course.  For some reason the girls become enamored of Kathrin, and she must become their mother.  For very important security reasons, you don’t counter the wishes of two very potentially powerful and dangerous ten year old girls.  Kathrin becomes their mother, and all kinds of interesting revelations ensue. 

This is a revelation novel.  Kathrin has a great secret that isn’t revealed until deep in the novel.  There are hints everywhere, and that isn’t exactly the climax of the novel.  The point is that with this type of protagonist revelation novel, the telic flaw may be straightforward, but the overall plot can be very complex.  My overall point, in all of this is the telic flaw comes with the protagonist, and that is the telic flaw of the (world of the) novel.  I’ll move on to Warrior of Light.

The protagonist of Warrior of Light is a new character, Daniel Long.  Daniel Long has moved with his family from their old neighborhood to a new one.  His father Mr. Long was promoted in the Organization and the families of certain assets are hosed in an old neighborhood near Kensington Gardens.  In this new neighborhood, Danny hopes for peace and acceptance that he didn’t have in his previous place.  He meets the Calloway children who are led by Sveta and Klava.  Sveta and Klava are the two young goddesses from Children of Light and Darkness.  They are now fourteen and on the look for friends, allies, and potential warriors.  Danny is a very nice young man just entering the sixth form and an expert in languages.  He is a perfect candidate for a warrior, and he now lives close by.

Danny Long has stepped into a minefield, but he doesn’t know it yet.  Sveta and Klava are wonderous young women at the cusp of womanhood.  He is looking for the life his father gave up for his mother—the life of an agent in the MI structure or the military—at the beginning, he has no idea about the organization or what his father does for a living.  The telic flaw brought by Danny Long into this novel is that he desires to become a warrior, like his father, and his father’s friends.  He also wants to become a warrior to impress and win the hearts of Sveta or Klava, but he has no real idea what that means.  The girls certainly do, and they are grooming him to be a great warrior. 

Warrior of Light is a self-discovery and coming of age novel about the trials and tribulations of a young man who is suddenly beset by real life goddesses.  He slowly and surely gains this little, but important knowledge as part of his realization and the revelation that he goes through.  As I noted, the specific telic flaw is that Danny Long wants to be a warrior and moves to that purpose.  This is a very fun novel.  The next is Shadowed Vale.

As I’ve shown, the protagonist beings the telic flaw with them.  All we need to know is a little about the protagonist and suddenly, the telic flaw becomes obvious in the novel and for the novel.  In the case of Shadowed Vale, one of my Ghostship Chronicles novels, Nikita is again the protagonist.  This novel is not exactly a direct continuation of Regia Anglorum, but it does pick off directly from the end of that novel.  We see Nikita return home with her family, Den and Natana to take up her life again on the Trader Family ship.  Den and Natana continue their investigation of the Athenian Charter while Nikita continues her life as a member of the ship.  There are changes that embroil Nikita and her family.  The first problem for Nikita is Alex.

Alex became Nikita’s foil in Regia Anglorum.  He was a boy who couldn’t stand being bested by and girl of any stripe, but especially a sickly and small one like Nikita.  However, Alex’s heartfelt problem is that he is an expert in engineering design while his family is all Command.  Alex sees a future where he is trapped aft of cargo in engineering and he would do almost anything to not go there.  This is one of the side issues in the novel, but a key one that affects the protagonist, Nikita.  The other side issue is Nicole who is a musician and song writer.  She has almost no hope in the Trader Family because her industry and skills aren’t represented at all in on the ships.  Nikita on the other hand is a synthesist.  She can solve problems just by evaluating them and her solutions almost always work.  Do you see the telic flaw?

Nikita’s synthesist skills bring about the telic flaw immediately in the novel.  She must solve and resolve Alex’s problem, Nicols problem, and there is her problem.  Natana is pregnant and the child in the womb is obviously psionic and obviously touched by Mara, another psionic personality that Natana accidentally picked up from Den.  I’ll not get into these details, but Mara is a slight problem from the beginning of Den and Natana’s interactions.  Mara isn’t exactly the problem, but Nikita’s new sister is a real problem for her because of her psionic powers. 

So, the telic flaw of this novel is all about Nikita’s continued integration into the ship as well as her integration into her own family.  The details just happen to be very detailed and problematic.  The title, Shadowed Vale, is one of the first missing Family Trader ships, that we learn about at the end of Regia Anglorum and the beginning of Shadowed Vale.  The climax of the novel is the resolution of this problem which ties back into the entire Family Trader issues and problems.  Next, I’ll look at Warrier of Darkness.

The protagonist of Warrior of Darkness is Klava.  This is the last official novel in the Ancient Light Series, but not necessarily the end of the world or characters.  I use them through-out my other novels as characters and as settings.

Klava happens to be the current Goddess of Darkness in this age.  Her mother, Lumiere, was a Goddess of Darkness in her time, but she rejected the title and the authority, however, Klava picks up the mantle and is using her powers to defend Ireland from the PIRA during the 1980s.  This was a dark time for the people of Northern Ireland as well as the people of Britain.  Note, that Klava is using her powers for the good of the people and through the Organization, but Klava has issues.  First, she is blind.  Second, she lives a pretty terrible life because of certain personal propensities.  That is, to her drinks that are clear or light colored, look unappetizing to her mystical black and white perception—so she drinks Guinness beer, and she smokes.  She smokes as a nervous habit.  She has also taken up with a priestess—actually a young teen whom she found on the street and who takes care of her and her flat.  Klava is using her powers to fight against the PIRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army) and especially the PIRA’s use of magic to try to keep their bombs on target.  That’s the telic flaw.

Basically, Klava is a one-person army fighting very grave evil in the world.  She has the help of the Organization, but she is basically on her own.  I do need to mention that Klava has been granted a very specific power that causes the bombs to explode back on those who touched, made, and are in anyway connected to them.  Therefore, with her power, she can deflect the explosion back to those who set it and made them.  Since the Soviets provide most of the bombs to the PIRA, that means the Soviet munition’s workers and sometimes their families are harmed as well as the PIRA agents.  This causes great distress to Klava’s soul.  She knows every death and counts each death—in fact, she has a chain that measures each death and each life she saved.  The saved are way greater than the deaths, but it still bothers her.  There is much more to this, but that’s all I’ll get into at this moment.  The point is the telic flaw.

Klava comes with an excruciatingly wonderful telic flaw—she is driven to prevent the deaths of the innocent but repulsed by the deaths of even the guilty.  In fighting the PIRA, her life and existence is in a constant strain between these forces in her mind and heart.  Yeah, that’s not a lot to go on from a full on telic flaw standpoint.  The real issue of the telic flaw of the novel comes out of the fact that Klava is a goddess and she is raped by a magic user who rescues her from one of the bombings.  There is more to this issue, but the main problem is that a goddess accepts a warrior for life and is timed to that man as her helpmeet and protector.  Because a man took her sexually, she is in a terrible conundrum and the fact that she is pregnant make the problem worse.  This is a particularly dark novel, and a very interesting end to the series.  My point is simply, the telic flaw comes with the protagonist, and boy does Klava bring along a real telic flaw.  I’ll move on to the next novel, Dana-ana: Enchantment and the Maiden.

The protagonist for Dana-ana: Enchantment and the Maiden isn’t Dana-ana—it is Byron Macintyre.  Byron just happens to rescue and bring home Dana-ana.  You might ask, how does this fit into the telic flaw for a novel about Dana-ana?  The reason is that we discover that both historically and indirectly Dana-ana is connected to the Macintyre family.  Historically as high priests from the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic days, and indirectly because Byron’s father is a professor of ancient British languages and history.  

Byron brings the telic flaw in almost the same way he rescues Dana-ana at school and takes her home.  Then what is the telic flaw? 

Dana-ana: Enchantment and the Maiden is a revelation novel.  The revelation is about Dana-ana—just who is Dana-ana?  As the novel progresses, she becomes more and more important and more and more connected to the Macintyre family.  The fun in the novel is the revelation and the mystery of Dana-ana.  This is directly connected to Byron simply because he rescues and brings her home, but as I noted, the blood and history runs much deeper than this.  The novel is all about the revelation and mystery of Dana-ana, but is also all about the revelation and history of the Macintyre family in their associations with Dana-ana in the past.  This is a pretty complex novel filled with magic and very telling historical revelations—all of them true, but most of them barely remembered in common knowledge.  Again, the protagonist delivers the telic flaw, although this telic flaw is a little different than the others I’ve mentioned.  We’ll move on to Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon.

Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon is one of my favorite novels, and especially in the Enchantment SeriesWe see the nearly perfect idea of redemption for the unredeemable in a Faust-like character Aksinya.  Aksinya is the protagonist of Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon.  She is a young woman, eighteen, who calls a demon using sorcery and makes a contract with him.  She contracts with the demon to protect her family from the Bolsheviks but is too late.  Her family is dead, and she is bound to the demon Asmodeus who only wants her to sin and be filled with the desire for luxeria.  Luxeria is one of the seven deadly sins.  It is the desire for sex, food, drink, and entertainment—basically, lust of the flesh. 

The telic flaw should be obvious by now—Aksinya wants to be free from the demon and his temptations.  The real problem is that only she can see him, and he does tempt her to horrible evil and thoughts and actions.  You can directly see how the protagonist brings the telic flaw into the novel and the novel is all about that telic flaw. Again, I want to emphasize, the telic flaw isn’t necessarily a flaw in the protagonist, but rather in the world of the novel that includes the protagonist.  In the case of this novel, the telic flaw is indeed a flaw in the protagonist—both a flaw and a problem that is a literal demon.  The question is one of redemption.  Can Aksinya be released and saved from the demon she herself called by her own free will?  With that, I’ll move on to the next novel, Khione: Enchantment and the Fox.

Khione: Enchantment and the Fox is another of those interesting and odd novels I wrote to show how a character whom we might think could never be redeemed, indeed can be.  The focus of the novel is Khione, but the protagonist is a graduate student, Pearce.  Pearce is a very honest and earnest young man who, with his friend find a feral and naked girl killing cats and other animals around the campus of Boston University and eating them.  Their interference in her hunt ends in disaster when the girl is hit by an electric bus and knocked out in the middle of the street.  Pearce takes the girl back to his apartment where she attacks him.  In the scuffle, Pearce accidentally grasps an ancient coin on a leather cord around the girl’s neck, and she immediately stops resisting him.  Pearce discovers that Khione is a Greek demigoddess who is cursed to be loved (sexually) by men and hated by woman.  She is the offspring of the uncatchable fox and the Greek snow goddess Khione.  Khione has been a sexual slave for millennia.  There is the telic flaw.

Pearce must find a way to convince Khione that she is wrong in her thinking and that she can be redeemed from her situation.  This novel has a very powerful Romantic plot.  The ultimate one who cursed Khione was Hestia (the same Hestia of Hestia: Enchantment of the Hearth).  In addition, Khione was granted freedom when Angela of the same novel gave her earthstuff (the ancient coin) back to her.  She has all the elements of redemption available to her, but she has been rejecting it.  That becomes Pearce’s telic flaw and the telic flaw of the novel.  That’s the point, the telic flaw comes with the protagonist.  Next is Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire.

Yes, I know.  I advised you not to follow the trends and write a vampire book, then I went and wrote one.  I wasn’t following the trends, I was following my own Enchantment Series concepts—you know, taking a character who appeared to be unredeemable and finding them some type of redemption.  I did this with the vampire, Valeska.

Valeska is not the protagonist of this novel—she is the focus.  The protagonist is George who is a language expert in European and especially Eastern European languages and a member of the Organization.  He is also an MI6 share from the Organization.  George accidentally encounters Valeska on a night when she is hunting, and when he is making a contact for Polish intelligence, a contact that goes horribly wrong.  George has no backup and is shot during the contact.  He is dying when Valeska encounters him.  She wants blood to continue her lifeless vampire state.  He thinks he is dying.  Because George is a Christian, Valeska can’t just take his blood—she can only take the blood of non-Christians.  He is dying and doesn’t care, so he allows her to drink.  This exchange in some way heals George.  He doesn’t become a vampire, but his body is healed, and he wakes unexpectedly in a hospital.  This is only part of the telic flaw.  The second point is that because Valeska took the blood, though freely given, of a Christian, she can’t hunt anyone else.  She’s become dependent on Goerge for life.  That’s the telic flaw.

To be very specific, the telic flaw is that Valeska has become dependent on George for life.  The telic flaw itself is what is George going to do about Valeska.  His issues and strange healing has gotten the Stela branch of the Organization involved and interested.  There are other people looking closely at George’s life and associations.  Those are mostly Valeska, at the moment. 

The telic flaw of the novel is the life that George and Valeska weave together as a symbiotic couple.  They aren’t in love, but they love each other like family.  The Organization wants to know just who this person, Valeska, is, and George has other issues based on who he is and his eligibility as a bachelor.  As an aside, I described the basic telic flaw, but Valeska is a romance novel, but not necessarily about Valeska and George rather another special woman and George—the problem is that Valeska is the sticking point in any potential relationship—the redemption comes very close to many people, and the mystery is very deep.  I’ll move on to Lilly Enchantment and the Computer, next.

The protagonist of Lilly Enchantment and the Computer isn’t Lilly—she’s the focus.  The protagonist is Dane.  Dane befriends Lilly and she becomes enamored with him because she has never met a man/boy who has ever been kind and helpful to her.  Lilly is a computer genius and going to college on a math scholarship.  Dane is just a nice guy.  The nice guy happens to recognize the genius in Lilly and can really appreciate her capabilities.  He legitimately works to help her.  Then the real problem happens. 

Lilly has made friends with a ancient Japanese man who lives near the campus.  She shares her food with him and his cat.  The problem is that the man is a Japanese Kami (god) of metalwork who came to the USA to revitalize his followers, but who hasn’t had much success in the modern era.  He grants his powers and authority to Lilly, while he gives the authority of Lilly’s priest to Dane.  There is the telic flaw. 

I know this telic flaw is a little obscure, but the novel is a revelation and discovery novel.  It deals with Dane having to help guide and assist Lilly as she comes to understand her powers and the needs of her shrine in the modern world.  Lilly’s skills and her computer abilities allow her to bring great help to others through her powers and the shrine.  The problem is that this attracts the attention of some powerful Japanese Kamis in Japan, but that’s part of the resolution and not the telic flaw.  In any case, Dane becomes both the helper and the mediator for Lilly in the real world and in the supernatural world.  This is all attached to the telic flaw and comes out of Dane’s attachment to Lilly.  I’ll move to the next novel, Escape from Freedom.

Escape from Freedom is a science fiction novel outside of my normal science fiction worldview.  I had the idea while flying above the Mediterranean Sea and watching for places to land if I needed it.  I had an idea for a novel about the only socialist nation, an island nation, on a human colonized world.  My protagonist has an engine failure on his heavy lifting shuttle while illegally taking a shortcut over the island nation of Freedom.  He makes an emergency vertical landing right in front of Reb.  Reb is the focus of the novel, but not the protagonist. 

You can see that my pilot Scott brings his own telic flaw to the novel.  Scott, the pilot’s telic flaw is to escape from Freedom.  This is the telic flaw of the novel, but also his and Reb’s telic flaw.  Reb would do anything, literally anything to escape from the nation of Freedom.

I’ve explained the telic flaw, and that was my purpose, but as an aside, the reason they want to escape from Freedom is that it is a horrible place.  This is a socialist system taken to a completely future and entirely dystopian world.  There are three types of citizens: the citizens, the armed citizens, and the party members.  It is a place where everything is controlled and the people are given drugs to keep them under control and compliant.  I’ll move on to the next novel, Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si.

Essie in Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si is the protagonist.  She enters the picture when she is raiding the pantry of Mrs. Tilly Lyons.  Mrs. Lyons is an old lady and a character we first meet in Sister of Light.  She is a great friend to Leora from Aegypt and a continual and important character in the Ancient Light series.  Essie is a fae creature who happens to be the sovereign of the fae courts.  The current Ceridwen was tricked by the fae to allow them to capture and hold her captive.  The fae know they have done great wrong and place Essie under the control of the Morfans.  The Morfans have always done the dirty work for Ceridwen and the courts of the land. 

I guess I should mention that Ceridwen is the Gaelic goddess of the Gaelic people.  You can see the telic flaw.  The problem is one of a great misunderstanding and a great wrong.  This great misunderstanding and great wrong slowly becomes evident as Mrs. Lyons takes care of Essie and helps her learn about the modern world.  Essie is the opposite of confrontational.  She must and does take her place in the world as the ruler of the fae courts.  When she does, this sets up a great confrontation with Ceridwen who also happens to be a great friend of Mrs. Lyons, but as Kathrin Calloway.  I’m giving away some of the plot here.  The most important point and part is that Essie brings with her the telic flaw of the novel.  This is a discovery and revelation novel.  It builds on the revelation of who Essie really is.  I’ll move on to the next, Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse.

The protagonist of Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse isn’t Sorcha—it’s Shiggy.  Sorcha is the antagonist and the mentor to Shiggy, basically her boss.  Shiggy is the problem and the protagonist.  So what is the problem with Shiggy? 

Shiggy is a very smart but very privileged young woman.  She has been kicked out of every training opportunity and work she has ever tried, and boy has she caused problems for the British government.  Because of her very high intelligence and skills, Shiggy has been moved from office to office first at Oxford, then in the military, then in the MI (Military Intelligence) system.  She has been in every major office and section of MI6 and caused disasters in each.  The final place and only office that will accept her now is the office run by Sorcha.  Sorcha and her office aren’t constrained by the rules of the other sections of the MI structure.  Sorcha is part of a special office in the MI system under the Organization.  In fact, Sorcha is the head of the intelligence branch for Stela in the Organization.  Her usual work is with the supernatural, but she also works on standard covert operations for the British government.  Operations the usual MIs won’t and may not be able to handle.  Shiggy’s telic flaw should be obvious.

Shiggy’s telic flaw is indeed her problem as well as the problem in the novel.  The telic flaw of Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse is the problem of Shiggy.  She is a person who might be possible to train but who has little self-discipline, self-awareness, and does not acknowledge authority well.  To be candid, I designed Shiggy as the archetype millennial at the full end of the spectrum that many older workers and bosses typically complain about.  The solution for Shiggy is Sorcha who will apply the necessary discipline that will make Shiggy a new person.  You see, this is a redemption novel about the redemption of the problem of Shiggy.  There is more to this, which is the curse which affects Shiggy, but that’s something else and although related to her issues, just makes them more difficult to resolve (Romantic plot remember).  In any case, this is a fun novel about intelligence operations and training discipline as well as Shiggy’s and Sorcha’s issues.  I’ll move on to the next novel, Deirdre: Enchantment and the School.

One of my prepublication readers loves my boarding school and school based novels, so I’ve been attracted to those types of novels for many of my settings.  In the case of Deirdre: Enchantment and the School, Deirdre is indeed the protagonist.  She is also a person in need of redemption.  The focus of the novel and protagonist’s helper is named Sorcha.  This isn’t the same Sorcha from Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse.  Why I have similar names is perhaps a problem with my character development.  It’s definitely a problem with the fact I like the name to represent the character and the person, but in any case, the importance of Sorcha in the framework of this novel is very significant to the novel and the entire telic flaw. 

Sorcha is hiding in plain sight in the school.  She is illegally attending because she is half Fae and she escaped from a British prison for youth and is hiding in the school through the use of Fae glamour and meanwhile getting her education.  The means and the actions are very detailed for this, and I won’t get into them. 

Deirdre is perhaps the only person in the school who can tell what Sorcha is doing.  Although Sorcha needs some kind of redemption, so does Deirdre.  Deirdre is a child who has been kicked out of numerous schools for fighting.  She has great skills and is very accomplished, but she is a kind of rowdy diva, and she has been banished to this boarding school or else.  She also has an overseer, whose job is to fix her issues.  I could go into more details, but the telic flaw should be obvious by now.

The telic flaw is that Deirdre needs to change to become a person who is productive and capable.  At the same time, Sorcha needs someone to care for her.  In the initial scene, Deidre takes Sorcha under her wing—by fighting and beating her, ha ha.  Deirdre has never accepted this degree of responsibility before, but she can’t help herself.  Sorcha becomes the force that changes Deirdre and Deirdre becomes the power that helps Sorcha.  The two working together resolve their mutual telic flaws.  Yes, you should only have one telic flaw in a novel, but theirs are the same—they are both in need for a change, and they both need each other.  I’ll move on to the next novel, Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective.

Azure Rose (the Blue Rose) is the protagonist of Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective.  I wrote this novel to show how the telic flaw and the telic flaw resolution connects directly to the protagonist.  Azure Rose has real issues that bring the telic flaw into this novel.  We learn gradually in the novel about all her issues, but I’ll bring some of them into focus. 

First, she is impoverished.  Her father and she are both nobility and aristocracy, but her father was illegally embezzling money from the Crown and was caught at it and went to prison.  Because of that, Azure lost her estate and her inheritance.  She went into the foster care system.  She keeps a close hold on the knowledge that she is an aristocrat, but she has made great strides in her own life.  She is the head girl at her boarding school and highly respected.  However, she is a charity case and lives with some dubious roommates off campus.  The big deal about Azure is that she desires to be a supernatural detective, and she has been acting as one with New Scotland Yard for a while.  New Scotland Yard does not believe in the supernatural, but when they have some issue that appears supernatural, they look to Azure.  Part of the reason Azure wants to be a supernatural detective is that she wants to regain her estate.

There is the telic flaw of the novel.  Azure Rose wants to regain her estate and her inheritance.  She plans to do this using her skills as a detective.  The problem is there is no way she can make enough as a detective to regain her estate.  However, this is one of the main points of the novel and the basis for the telic flaw.  The telic flaw is the supernatural and the supernatural detective.  I’ll also point out that one of Azure Rose’s jobs is that she is the Keeper of the Book of the Fae.  She works for the Crown in the position her father once held, and she can’t make much money with that either.  This is the telic flaw and the source of the telic flaw.  I’ll move on to Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors.

In Deirdre: Enchantment and the School, Deirdre is the protagonist and Sorcha is the protagonist’s helper.  In Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors, Sorcha is the protagonist and Deirdre is the protagonist’s helper.  I couldn’t leave them alone after the end of Deirdre: Enchantment and the School.  That novel, although not a tragedy, ended badly for them.  So, in Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors, they get another chance at success. 

Sorcha and Deirdre were expecting to go to Cranwell, become officers, and then learn to be pilots in the British Air Force.  They have a couple of problems.  First, their mentor, General Bolang is being assigned to the Middle East, and second, they haven’t gained the proper height and physical maturity to become flying cadets.  Their mother has a solution, and they will definitely not like it.  Since their mentor is going away, they are being sent to Saint Malo to be finished.  This is a horror to them both, but that is their assignment—to be finished.

Can you see the telic flaw?  It is obvious and pretty simple.  Sorcha and Deirdre must be finished—they must meet a certain level of maturity and size before they can continue on.  That’s basically the telic flaw in a nutshell.  I do want to mention another point of the novel.

Part of the problems for Sorcha and Deirdre is a great mystery and secret attached to Saint Malo and to the school.  There is a certain student who has been attending the school since the 1600s.  That’s odd enough, but other events are transpiring around them.  Remember the telic flaw is their finishing and maturity.  There is much more to this in the novel, but that’s the telic flaw.  I’ll move on to the next, Rose: Enchantment and the Flower.

The protagonist of Rose: Enchantment and the Flower is indeed Rose.  Shiggy happens to be the protagonist’s helper, but Rose is the protagonist and the focus.  Let me write a little about Rose, and you should be able to quickly see the telic flaw. 

Rose is a half-fae child, well a girl of around fifteen who was abandoned by her mother and her father and grand parents died.  Her mother was a flower fae of the Seelie Court who happens to be poisonous.  Rose led a pretty miserable life before she became entirely alone, but she had her books and lived in the house that belonged to her father.  She thought when he died the house would belong to her, but he mortgaged it to the bank and when he died, the house went to the bank and was sold.  Rose has a very special background.  I already wrote that she was half-fae—that means she can control fae glamour.  She is a very powerful part fae creature.  She is also completely alone and potentially very dangerous, but her personality makes her a gentle soul. 

Shiggy, while on assignment to the Orkney Islands and Rousay Island specifically happens to take the house Rose is living in as a safe house for her operations.  There she finds and captures Rose.  Shiggy is concerned with her mission and her safety—with Rose around, she is now concerned about compromise and Rose.  There is the telic flaw.

Rose is a completely isolated and abandoned person.  She eats whatever she can catch, has really no idea about the modern world, and is an entirely untracked human in Scotland.  Shiggy sees a great opportunity in Rose, but that is ancillary to the telic flaw.  The telic flaw is the education and coming out of Rose.  This is a type of self-discovery and revelation novel.  It’s about taking a completely isolated and untrained person and bringing them into the modern world.  That’s the telic flaw and the basis for the novel.  I’ll move to the next novel, Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.

I want to write another book based on Rose and Seoirse, and the topic will be the raising of Ceridwen—at least that’s my plan.  Before I get to that, I want to write another novel about dependency as a theme.  We shall see.

More tomorrow.

For more information, you can visit my author site 
http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:

http://www.ancientlight.com/
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com  

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