Character Profile: French Fry

Part of me can’t believe I’m about to write a character profile blog post for a trash griffon that can’t even speak, but here we are! Important: character profile posts do contain spoilers! If you haven’t read the Gate of Myth and Power trilogy, I suggest you wait to read all character profiles until you finish!

French Fry

Okay, it’s time to confess…I created French Fry because I wanted Chloe to at least have a friend in Magiford besides Ms. Booker and her unnamed co-workers, but when I was plotting the books out I was already DEEP in the clouds of confusion my severe anemia created, so I didn’t want a talking character I’d have to keep track of since that would further tax my brain. So…French Fry plopped into existence!

I’d already known I wanted to do more with the trash griffins–I hadn’t given them as much time and attention as I wanted to in Leila’s trilogy (Court of Midnight and Deception). So I’d been actively looking for a way to fit trash griffins into another story, and when I further planned out Chloe’s powers and abilities, I realized that a trash griffin would be an ideal companion for her as he’s the only supernatural who could actively keep up with her and be just as inconspicuous when she’s swapping forms.

French Fry is the perfect example of his species as he is able to showcase both their surprising intelligence and their frequent bouts of having zero thoughts floating through their tiny brains. Besides Noctus and Chloe’s family, he’s the only one who can track Chloe through her shifts, and can find her anywhere in Magiford.

He shares a similar ability for honing in on French fries, which he likes to throw at the people he loves most. (Sharing is caring in French Fry’s uncluttered mind.) But despite his seemingly simple mind–or maybe because of it–French Fry is able to lull nearly every supernatural into the thought that he’s just a pesky varmint and should be ignored. Noctus and the others don’t question his presence until he pops in on Calor Villa, even though he’s dive-bombed them multiple times in the streets of Magiford.

French Fry does share his love of fast food/sweets with his fellow trash griffins, and he’s the perfect representative of the other Night Court creatures, as he shows they have a will of their own and will choose to make their homes elsewhere even if they do still pop in on Night Queen and her unusual kingdom from time to time. (French Fry is not the only creature to do this, as the night mare living with the Northern Lakes Pack can attest.)

But I think what I love best about French Fry is how deep he does love. He’s the one who tips the scale and helps Chloe grown a spine in the final battle. He checks Noctus to help him with his emotions. And above all, he wants hugs and to share his secret treats with those he loves. He is chaos incarnate, but he loves hard, and he’s going to follow Chloe for the rest of his crazy little life.

Thanks for reading, Champions! I hope you enjoyed this look at French Fry!

Character Profile: Ms Booker

King’s Queen has been out for a week, now, so I’m going to continue the Magiford fun today with a character profile for Ms. Booker!

Ms. Booker is definitely the most mysterious bookstore owner in all of Magiford, and today I’m going to let you in on all her secrets (ok only a few of them, but I think you’ll still find this interesting).  Important: character profile posts do contain spoilers! If you haven’t read the Gate of Myth and Power trilogy, I suggest you wait to read all character profiles until you finish!

Ms. Booker

In a rare twist, I came up with the idea for Ms. Booker after I mapped out what I wanted Book Nookery to be/act like. I knew I needed a night job for Chloe for various timeline problems to work out, and there was something so cozy about the idea of a 24 hour book store. (Probably because I know a 24 hour brick and mortar book store wouldn’t be able to survive without the patronage of night clientele like vampires!)

I wasn’t originally planning for the bookstore to have a hidden sort of magic of it’s own, but my inner book lover got the best of me, and I decided I needed to make Book Nookery a place of power. But after realizing that, I knew the owner of the store would also need to have a certain kind of confidence to be able to survive–independently–in a supernatural hot spot like Magiford. Thus, Ms. Booker’s character stepped into being, her every gesture and action covered with elegance and underlining the deep power that comes with owning a place like Book Nookery.

Outwardly, Ms. Booker might appear to be stiff and stern given her firm requirement that Chloe and the other Book Nookery staff members use their best manners. In reality, she’s very generous as most of her staff members are like Chloe and are outsiders in one way or another, making Book Nookery a safe place for them.

I also designed Ms. Booker to be a Hecate-like character as an ode to the original Hades and Persephone myth, making her role a cross of mentor/companion. She’s a great foil for Pat and Joy as she never pushes Chloe into anything. Rather, she helps only when Chloe asks, and while she’s invested in her employees she doesn’t pry into Chloe’s life. (As a character, she believes heavily in self-responsibility. While she will protect Chloe and even endanger herself, she expects Chloe to make decisions for herself.)

As the caretaker of Book Nookery–a mysterious but wonderful place–it’s only fair that Ms. Booker is equally as mysterious and wonderful. We know she has a more extensive knowledge of elves than the average supernatural–including owning several books that are probably among the last of their kind. We also know that she founded Book Nookery, which has some magic even though it isn’t a Wizard House, and that she is a wizard. She also has a good sense of business–as testified by Chloe’s correct assumption that Ms. Booker would make a special elf display to maximize profits when the elves were revealed to humans–and we can see from her interaction with Lord Linus that she’s aware of things like fae trickery and has a better understanding of supernatural politics than the average wizard.

I’m hoping to further explore Ms. Booker’s character, and the magic of Book Nookery in a future Magiford trilogy, so this isn’t the last we’ve seen of her or the 24 hour bookstore!

Until next time, Champions, thanks for reading!

Short Story: The Elven Ambassador

It’s party time, Champions! I’ve been saving this donut image just for this post because I have a special treat for you!

The King’s Queen is now available which means the whole trilogy for The Gate of Myth and Power series is released! I know you really want to read the short story (the link is down below) but I first want to thank you Champions–for the reviews, yes, but also for your support and for whole heartedly embracing this trilogy. Just being blunt, it’s a weird premise. (I mean, really: elf king forcefully adopts a cat he doesn’t know is actually a human??) I actually assumed this would be my least popular Magiford trilogy, but instead you Champions took the questionable premise in stride, and last night The King’s Queen hit # 5…in the entire amazon store! That’s the highest rank any of my books have ever had!! I am still wandering around my house in shock!

So thank you for rallying around this odd little trilogy, thank you for all of your support through probably the worst year in my entire life, and thank you for being a part of our uplifting, bookish community.

I’d keep going, except, THE SHORT STORY! To celebrate this amazing launch–and, yes, as my thank you for The King’s Queen getting over 100 reviews across the various Amazon stores and Goodreads–I’m releasing the free short story: The Elven Ambassador. (Click here for the short story!) This short story is best read after King’s Queen as it does have some mild spoilers, but–as you can probably guess from the title–it also has a lot of cameos! I hope it makes you laugh!

In conclusion….Champions, thank you so much for your kindness and patience with all of through all of this. This year didn’t start the way I wanted it to, but I’m so thankful for your support and patience since there was a bigger gap between King’s Shadow and King’s Queen than I normally have for the Magiford books.

Also, many thanks to everyone who sent me ideas for salty treats since my tooth surgery means I can’t eat chips right now. It’s given me plenty of ideas for me and future Magiford books! And it warms the cockles of my heart that so many of you have been craving donuts after reading Chloe’s books. I was actually intending to go out and get donuts and maybe a milk steamer this morning to celebrate Chloe’s trilogy, but we’re getting slammed by a snow storm right now, so I’ll just drink some tea and close my eyes and pretend  my bagel is a donut.

Thanks again, Champions! Happy reading!