Tag: Ashes and Stars Series

Setting Preview – Penelope’s Apartment

Posted on by Amber Marie in Setting, The Bluebird Chronicles, Writing

Hello all! How’s your Friday? So far so good over here. Today’s setting is Penelope Sawyer’s apartment. Since she is the main character in the Ashes & Stars series, I thought it important over the next couple of weeks to show you exactly where my characters live and what their spaces look like. Maybe tell you why certain things are there. You can tell quite a bit about someone by the things they surround themselves with. So, without further ado, let’s explore Penelope’s apartment.

Penelope lives in a two bedroom apartment that she used to share with her brother. Cohen wasn’t there often, but it was his home of residence when he came home on leave. He got the bigger room because Penelope liked the access to the outdoor patio from the smaller room. After her brother died, it took months before she was able to convert his room into a guest room, a feat that was only accomplished with the help of both her Mom and her best friend Bailey. Now the room lacks a lot of personality, which is the way Penelope likes it. It was easier. After which it has unofficially become Bailey’s room at her house, since they live in different states, it’s important to both of them to have a room that feels like their own.

While she isn’t very fond of living in an apartment, she’s made a home for herself there and doesn’t see herself moving. Though she’s thought about it, she hasn’t seriously made plans to do so. She is comfortable with her small kitchen, since it’s always just her.

All of the rooms in her house, besides the guest room, have a common theme that connects them. Specifically the use of the colors of gray and dusty rose. It’s comforting to her as the dusty rose is her favorite color. She loves it and it shows. (I certainly can’t blame her, I use that color with Navy blue in my office and absolutely love it!) While her apartment does appear feminine, and why shouldn’t it, it’s not overly so.

Penelope tends to spend a lot of time in the warmer months out on the patio or on the balcony. She likes to curl up with a good book, or bring her tablet out to relax in the sun with a movie. Some of the important conversations she ends up having take place in these two spots. Despite it’s smaller size, she enjoys that she can turn music on in the living room and anywhere on the first floor she is, she can hear it without the volume being so loud that it disturbs her neighbors.

Since she lives by herself, the separate dining room didn’t make sense to her, so she added bookshelves and a smaller table to the room to make it into a library/game room. When she has company they can sit in there and play cards or board games and have a good time. She eats either on her couch or at the island so there isn’t really a good place to play cards in the living room. Unless there are a bunch of people, like when her and her friends play poker at the coffee table for her birthday. There isn’t room at the table for that so they congregate elsewhere.

Normally, however, there aren’t that many people in her apartment at any given time. Since it’s been just her, she doesn’t have company too often and often ends up feeling isolated. Her parents live a couple of hours north of her and her best friends both live in different states. It’s one of the reasons she keeps coming back to the decision to move elsewhere, though she can’t seem to commit. It would mean leaving behind the last piece of her brother that she has.

I hope you enjoyed this brief look into Penelope’s apartment. A lot of the plot happens here, so I hope you got to look around and get familiar with it. Stay tuned next Friday for the next setting. What do you guys want to see? Do you have a preference? Reid’s house? The cabin? Bailey’s house? These are other important settings. Quite a bit of the series actually takes place in and around Vampire House (Reid and Asher’s house). Let me know what you think.

I’ve been thinking

Posted on by Amber Marie in Blood Song, Midnight Shadows, No Ordinary Love, Writing

If you’re on my personal facebook, or even follow the Amber Marie Writes facebook, you may have seen this already, but I felt it worth repeating here. I had a bit of a rough year last year, as did everyone. It hasn’t gotten much better this year but I’m pushing through and I’m determined to make something good this year. This post kind of came to me after I saw a graphic in my memories and I thought it was important enough to share here with maybe a little more detail than I’d put on my facebook. Some of it is a little difficult to talk about but the overall idea is about making art out of the difficult stuff that happens.

As most of you know, if you’ve paid any attention at all over the last year, I lost my Dad March 13th of last year. What only my brother knows, is that the night before Dad died, Damien and I were at the hospital until two in the morning. We were emotional and trying to distract ourselves. I had been gearing up for Camp NaNo which happens every year in April. I had written out an outline that I had spent the last couple of months creating from a random thought into an actual story. It wasn’t easy but dealing with everything those last couple of months with Dad gave us, it gave me something else to focus on while working nights. So, my brother and I sat there, three foot from my dad, talking about this outline, talking about my ideas, to distract us from what was happening in the bed right next to us. Dad died the next afternoon. And despite everything that happened in the years leading up to that moment, and no matter how many time we told ourselves we were, we weren’t ready. I wasn’t ready.

Then the world shut down in almost the same breath as we lost Dad. We were trapped at home. People were scared. I was grieving. Hard. I had no idea what to do and my brain desperately was searching for something to do. So a couple of weeks later, when April started, I did what I had planned to do. I did Camp Nano. I set goals, and I smashed them. Quickly.

It had been a very long time since I had finished anything besides a short story. I’d get almost to the end of something and then I just couldn’t finish it. It was frustrating. I started to feel like that with this but I pushed on. I made myself write every second I wasn’t working, or helping the kids with school, or cleaning the house. I did my best. I distracted myself to escape the pain. And this amazing thing happened. On April 25th, 2020, I finished Hold On. Sure, it was just a first draft. Sure, it wasn’t anything spectacular. It was just a piece of fanfiction that I may or may not publish anywhere. It was for me. I wrote my emotions out. I took that grief and turned it into something beautiful.

My goals, as you can see, were simple, 10k words minimum. That was my goal. just something on paper. Anything. Create Art, which I created a lot of art. I really did. And to finish it. Which I did. 25 days and I finished it. Ending with 18 chapters and a total of roughly 63, 457 words. I have never won a full NaNoWriMo before since I started competing in 2013. And the goal there is only 50k in 30 days. I wrote 63k in 25 days. It was huge.

That feeling allowed me to keep going. It allowed me to keep writing and to write everyday. When it’s not a NaNo month (April and November are when I participate), the timeline I give myself is somewhat more relaxed. And by the time October of last year rolled around, I had finished 3 stories, one was primed to go to my editor, and I was working on three more, as the ideas struck. I was making art, so much art, I had perfected my writing process. I was doing so well and I knew, without a doubt that I was going to kick NaNo’s ass in November. If I could do it in April, I could do it in November.

Then my Mom died. And it was, ugh. I shut down. Immediately. It was like my brain had a moment where it went “We’ve already done this, we are NOT doing this again!” I tried to do what I’d done earlier in the year, but I’d stare at the screen and couldn’t make the words come. I just couldn’t. They were gone. The words, the ideas, they were still there, I could feel them but they were silent. For once in my writing life, the voices that guide me were silent. And it was deafening.

I didn’t do NaNo last year. I barely made it through November. Dad’s funeral, finally, then Mom’s the next day. It was, a lot. Then the kids started acting out. Jay almost missed Thanksgiving. Emily hated her 16th birthday, even though I tried. Emily has been acting out since. Sneaking out, and taking off for weeks at a time. This has been constant since November. It hasn’t made the words come, if anything they feel farther away.

I’ve started editing again, because despite everything, life goes on. As much as I’d love to sit and never have to process the things I put off at the end of last year so that I wouldn’t have to deal with it, life doesn’t work that way. So, while I still can barely write, I’ve been editing. I’ve been plotting. I will make it through whatever I have to, and not lose my identity as a writer. I have to, because who am I if I’m not?

My 2k20 Camp NaNo Goals graphic was in my memories recently, and I saw it before I’d even had my first cup of coffee and when I saw it, I immediately remembered that sense of pride I felt when I was done. I felt my chest swelling with it again. I felt my shoulders squaring and my head lifting just a bit. It may be just a simple fanfiction that got me through a large portion of my grief. 63k words that I wasn’t sure I’d ever show to anyone. But I’m so glad that I did. It was officially published on August 31st of last year. Since then I’ve gotten 22 comments telling me what a great story it is. 22 comments telling me I was good at this. 22 comments that helped me get through the hardest year of my life, so far. As of yesterday, I’m up to 107 kudos, which if you read anything on AO3, you know that isn’t that great, but it’s not bad either. And the newest Kudos was just yesterday, according to my email.

I created something that will last. I created something. I took my grief and shaped it into a stepping stone for my goals. This stone may be a bit harder and I’m still working on it. I may be juggling more than one stone right now, but that’s all they are. Stepping stones to my dreams. Stepping stones to my goals. Each painted a different color of memory. I can take this, and I can use it. Art is emotion after all.

If you read all of this, thank you. It’s really just to remind myself that even when it hurts, even when it feels like you’re going to break, you never know what’s going to happen next and that next thing, may be everything you ever needed.

Currently Writing

Posted on by Amber Marie in Blood Song, Midnight Shadows, Uncategorized, Writing

As you have probably figured out by the last couple of posts, I am always working on Short Story Saturday, however, I am also writing something else as well.

Just before my world blew up, I started working on the sequel for Noctivagus, tentatively titled Paroxysm. So far, I’m about twenty chapters in and already I know it needs some structuring. I am really excited about it actually.

Then just before the holidays, I got the manuscript evaluation back from my editor Erika, over at The Werd Nerd. You guys should check her out, she’s amazing! She sent me such a detailed report, that the work that needs to be done doesn’t seem all that daunting really. I am actually excited about the changes that have to be made for Noctivagus.

So how do I keep writing the sequel if I’m still making changes on the first story? Good question. I just know I have a lot to make happen, and the worst thing I could do is to stop writing. I took the last couple of weeks off to spend time with my family that visited for the holidays. Well, they left yesterday, so I am excited to get together with Erika and talk over the list she sent.

I have plans to keep writing the sequel, as it stands, Reid is facing a couple of challenges at the moment, and some of them are personal while some of them are a bit bigger than that. He’s having a bit of trouble working through some of these challenges and it’s starting to show in his stress levels. In addition to all of that he’s continuing to work. He’s still on Penelope’s protection detail, but he has his work to do for Atlas still.

I’m excited to see how this year shapes up as a writing year. I wrote three novel length stories last year, and a couple of short stories. Due to personal setbacks, I have been negligent in writing as much as I wanted to, but this year, I’m going to work as hard as I can to keep not only my writing on track as well as my writing platform running as well.

Well, have a great day guys! See you later!

Character Profile – Rich Cunningham

Posted on by Amber Marie in Blood Song, Character profile, Writing

Rich is Ryan’s bodyguard and friend. He is introduced the same time as Ryan in the story. At first he’s quiet and let’s Ryan and Penelope talk, but eventually he opens up some. I can’t the balance between being someones best friend and also having to have their back all the time because it’s your job. How do you manage that? Well, Rich has found the delicate balance. He is necessary to this story and was originally named after a friend. The name stayed, but the character himself has morphed into someone else, someone I didn’t expect to get to know like I have. He’s given himself several story lines, and things that are happening. I know more about his extended family than some of the other characters because as every good secondary character knows, the book is really about them.

Richard Everett Cunningham worked security for awhile before applying for a slightly different type of security work. His brother and himself ended up as bodyguards for Ryan for a couple days of events about five years before we meet them in the book. It ended up being Aiden Cunningham doing security for his brother Rich and his new best friend Ryan Meade. Ryan and Rich are close in age and they got along like a house on fire. Within six months of that weekend, Rich had been hired as Ryan’s personal bodyguard and they never looked back.

While he takes his job very seriously, he takes more pride in being Ryan’s friend. When Ryan built his house, he added a room in the basement with it’s own entrance for Rich since he lives on the other side of London and a little out of town. It makes it easier sometimes and Rich appreciates that he can come and go as he pleases. He worked hard to find that line between work and friendship, and enjoys the delicate balance that it requires. According to the company, Rich is very good at his job. According to Ryan, he’s a sarcastic little shit and he isn’t sure why they’re friends, at least that’s the yearly review he gives Rich. The copy that goes to the company is always very professional and praiseworthy. It’s made very clear that Ryan won’t work with anyone else, except in an emergency.

Rich is the younger brother, and as such loves to play tricks on his brother. Ryan helps, as he is the eldest in his family and has no brothers of his own. At first everyone thought Rich was the bad influence, but it became clear after a short time that they were just two peas in a pod and Ryan had just as many bad ideas as Rich did. While it’s gotten them in professional trouble a couple of times, nothing too bad has ever happened and they are thankful for that.

When Rich meets Penelope, he likes that she keeps Ryan on his toes. She gives as good as she gets and is sarcastic as hell. The more they talk, the more Rich wants to get involved in the conversation and you notice the subtle shift from bodyguard to best friend in the amount of harassment and potentially embarrassing facts that he shares just to make her laugh. He has her phone number before Ryan does, and before she’s even through customs in London, Rich has found her Facebook and sent her a friend request. For a moment, Ryan actually offers to bow out so Rich and Penelope can have a shot with one another, but it’s made clear to him that they are just friends.

They do stay friends and still talk, both through his girlfriend Nora and on their own. When Ryan and Penelope reconnect, they talk more and it’s not quite as strained as it was before. Rich values his friendship with Penelope and is glad that Ryan never asks him to stop talking to her. Throughout the series their friendship becomes one of mutual appreciation and respect. Over time he even gets close to Asher and despite Ryan’s aversion to him, Reid.

I hope you all enjoyed this look at Rich. He’s a great guy and he deserves the good things in life. His friendship with Ryan is one built on respect and appreciation. It’s wonderful and even though his loyalty will always be with Ryan, he never feels like he’s cheating on a friend by befriending Penelope, or Reid even, and even better, Ryan never makes him feel that way either. Rich is one of the unsung characters in this story, and at times his role gets downplayed, but he is a big part of their group dynamic. He provides a comedic lightness to Reid and Ryan’s controversial relationship, but keeps everyone grounded and safe. He is logical and never presumptuous. Hope you liked him.

As always, be awesome to each other and yourself!

Character Profile – Asher Jameson

Posted on by Amber Marie in Blood Song, Writing

Hello again! I’d like to introduce you to our second Vampire character, Asher. Asher is the friend everyone wants. He is the gentlemanly boyfriend we all wish we had. He is amazing and I’m so glad you get to meet him today. You’ve already met Bailey, and even though I created them, it is hard to think of one without the other. I briefly debated on just doing one long blog post with the two of them in it because I have a hard time with it. Then I decided against it because I wanted to do justice to Asher’s story. So, without further ado, please meet Asher.

Asher Dean Jameson was born in September, 1931. He was poor and grew up with strong morals thanks to his parents. When he was turned into a Vampire in 1952, it was with full knowledge of what that would mean for him, but after losing his entire family, he didn’t care about living without them anymore. At least this way he could be of service. Unlike Reid, he is actively trying to do the things he needs to to climb the ranks of Vampire and Elentori hierarchy. He wants to be the best he can be, and he’s good at his job.

Asher met Reid shortly after he was turned. Reid was one of the people sent to kill Asher’s maker for crimes unspecified. He hit it off with Asher and took the young vampire back to Paris with him for a few years. After which Asher made his way back to the US. When Reid left Akina, he sought out Asher to help him hide out. Asher is one of the few people on the planet that Reid considers family and as such, would do anything to protect him. The feeling is mutual. Asher would do anything for his family at Vampire House, but Reid especially. He’s the one that introduced Reid to Atlas and got him the job with them once Emma was grown. They’ve spent most of the last decade acting like typical twenty-somethings, and enjoying themselves.

Asher has a fascination with cars. He tends to spend his free time fixing them up and then donating them for charity auctions. He’s going back to college for a couple of reasons, it helps maintain the blending in, and he is learning something new about cars that he doesn’t know. With the advances in technology and the computers that now run almost every part of a car, he wants to know how to do that. It wasn’t a class when he was last in school. That’s where he meets Bailey.

Bailey was like no one Asher had ever met before. His attraction to her was unmistakable and more than a little overwhelming. After explaining it to his brother Eli, he learned about the concept of Twin Flames. It was then he learned that Bailey was his. Even so, he wanted to do things the right way. He woos her, romances her, respects her parents and more than that respects Bailey and everything she wants to achieve.

He meets Penelope and Ryan and forms and instant connection with Ryan. They become unlikely friends and despite the drama surrounding their mutual friends, they never lose touch. Asher goes to visit Ryan quite a bit and they stay quite close. He gets along with Penelope as well, and because of how important she is to Bailey, he feels the immediate need to protect her from anything that may harm her. He supports her like he would his sister Becks and Penelope, in turn, doesn’t give him too much trouble about dating her best friend.

Asher is one of my favorite people to write. His relationship with Bailey is my favorite thing about this story, in all honesty. I want what they have. I can’t wait for the next book so that you guys get to see what is next for them.

That’s all for today. As always guys, Be Awesome!

Character Profile – Bailey Stills-Parker

Posted on by Amber Marie in Blood Song, Writing

Bailey is probably the most important secondary character. She is Penelope’s best friend in the entire world. They trust each other implicitly, and would do anything for each other. Having been raised together the way Mike and Cohen were, they are more like sisters who would love to do anything together. Penelope even has her own room at Bailey’s house! Bailey is the one that keeps Penelope from being too down on herself and sits with her when the grief gets to be too much.

Bailey Ann Stills-Parker was four when her parents were killed in a car accident. She was 4 when she moved states to live with an aunt, uncle, and cousin she only saw on holidays. It was Penelope who drew her out of her shell and made her feel welcome. It was Mike and Cohen who proved they would protect her from anything, even the monsters in her nightmares. She was five when she was officially adopted and became a Parker.

Bailey is a strong woman who knows exactly what she wants and while she is willing to compromise on certain aspects of her life, she will never compromise being treated with the respect she deserves. She finished college and started working at her Dad’s law firm. Once there she decided to go back to school to be a paralegal, and with the support of her family, she went back to school. She met Asher Jameson in one of her classes and was swept up in a fairy tale romance that she goes into with eyes open. She is fiercely protective of her friends and would do anything to make them happy. She is kind and sweet, but with an edge of steel. It’s usually Penelope who will get defensive and up in your face, but it’s Bailey’s wrath you should fear. Her’s is silent, and decisive. She hates injustice in all forms, and tries to actively fight it with every tool she has in her arsenal.

Her relationship with Asher is something that she is protective of, and will do anything to make that relationship work. She falls hard for him, and even after he tells her that he’s a vampire, there is nothing she wouldn’t do for him. He makes her want to be the best version of herself, but knows that even if she is a mess and at her worst, he will be there. She loves his family, because he does and that is enough for her. She accepts them for the sometimes violent and crazy mess they are. She hates when Asher is away on a mission or job, but trusts that he will do what he has to do to come home to her. Which he always does, with presents.

Bailey has goals and dreams independent of those around her, and while she prides herself in being a good sister, friend, girlfriend, and daughter, she will never compromise those dreams for anyone else. She cares not for other people’s drama or feelings about each other. She is supportive of Ryan when Penelope tells her about him. She adores Penelope no matter what but she is that friend that will call her on her bull. She tells it like it is, and it isn’t always what you want to hear. She’s going to tell you the truth, just like her brother will, but also like him, she is going to have your back as well. No matter what, she will always be in the corner for those that are in hers.

Bailey is one of my favorite characters, and her and Asher’s story line is the constant in the series. Even though a couple of the books change perspective, Asher and Bailey are constant and help to serve to keep everyone around them grounded. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

As always, be awesome.

Character Profile – Micah Parker

Posted on by Amber Marie in Blood Song, Writing

Hey guys! So we’ve talked about all three of the main characters, but now I want to talk about some of the important secondary characters, starting with Mike. My favorite secondary characters are Bailey and Asher, but you’ll learn about them tomorrow and I can’t wait for you to meet them. Today, however, we are going to talk about Mike Parker. Mike is Bailey’s older brother, and by extension, Penelope’s as well. He is important to the story, and I’m so happy to introduce him (and his faceclaim) to you.

Micah Griffith Parker is the older brother of Penelope’s best friend Bailey. Mike, as he’s usually called, was best friends with Penelope’s older brother Cohen practically since birth. With their parents being friends, there wasn’t much time that they weren’t together growing up, at least until the Sawyer’s moved to Michigan when Cohen and Mike were in high school.

Mike has a few defining moments in his life that he is aware have shaped his current outlook on life. The first being Penelope’s birth. He got to share in the magic of being a big brother along with Cohen and even at the age of four, he knew what a big responsibility it was. He and Cohen would spend hours wanting to hold her, and feed her and play with her. When Penelope got more mobile, they got less interested. The second defining moment was the day his Aunt and Uncle died in a car accident. He was eight when his cousin Bailey came to live with them. She was four, and the same age as Penelope. For a couple of years, the four of them became inseparable. Mike was happy to finally have a little sister of his own. The next few defining moments all involved Cohen in some way as they grew up and went through school. Even after they moved away, they would regularly make the six hour drive to visit. Once Cohen and Mike were able to drive, the four of them would meet halfway and hang out almost once a month.

Mike and Cohen joined the Marine Corp together straight out of high school. They’d made the plan their senior year and when the time came, Cohen drove down so they could enlist together. They were lucky enough to be stationed together almost their whole careers. He got to watch his best friend fall in love. Helped him pick out an engagement ring. Then held him in his arms as he bled to death in a place too far from home.

Losing Cohen was extremely difficult on Mike and he didn’t re-enlist afterward. He did go back home and for a little bit of time he could barely get out of bed, let alone attempt to fulfill the dreams that he and Mike had once held. Eventually, thanks to support from his family and the VA, Mike got back up and started working again. He started working with a local construction company and learned as much as he could while he saved his money and made plans for he and Cohen’s dream of starting their own company.

After Cohen’s funeral, he can’t bring himself to look Penelope in the eye so the two of them lose contact. He even goes so far as to not attend the Thanksgiving party the two families regularly held. When Penelope comes to town, he leaves for any assorted reasons, anything he can do to avoid her. When Ryan brings Penelope to town as a surprise, Bailey convinces him to come to the party and surprises him with Penelope. The two reconnect and things get a little better between them.

After reconnecting with Penelope, and a conversation where he gets a lot of things off his chest, Mike feels like he can finally move forward with starting his own construction company. He’s bought a house and is doing well mentally. Things are starting to look up.

Mike is a wonderful guy, he is loyal to his inner circle, but cautious about his friends as well. Cohen was more like a brother and while he knows he’ll never have that kind of relationship with anyone again, but does like the camaraderie of the people he works with. He is a typical big brother to Bailey (and Penelope after they’ve reconnected) and generally likes Asher. There was a long conversation between the two of them early in Bailey and Asher’s relationship that no one knows the specifics of, but afterward Mike was generally accepting of Asher. While Mike doesn’t try to be the overbearing type, sometimes he can come across that way. Especially if he thinks something is wrong with one of his sisters.

Mike is one of my favorite characters. Not for the same reasons as Reid or Penelope, or Ryan, but because he’s the guy who is always in your corner. He’s quick to tell you that you’re in the wrong, but he isn’t going to abandon you over it either. He is awesome and the kind of brother anyone would want. I am lucky enough to have this kind of brother, which is the only reason that I know how to portray a brother worth having.

I hope you guys like this little peak into Mike, and the other views into the characters. I’m thinking of making this a semi-regular thing. Not with this kind of frequency, but once a month or so introducing a new character from a story or something. I’m still thinking about it. These are fun to write so I might do it just for me.

Anyway, have a great day guys! Don’t forget to be generally awesome today!

Character Profile – Reid Walker

Posted on by Amber Marie in Blood Song, Writing

Reid is a special case. Reid has been around since the beginning of the ideas of this story, only he didn’t always belong to me. He’s had countless name changes but I keep coming back to this. Several characters have had name changes since the inception of this story, Ryan being the only exception. Reid’s name has changed, but it also hasn’t. I’m pretty sure originally he had the last name of King, but his name was Christian. That part never left, no matter what’s happened, his name will always be Christian, and I can’t imagine calling him anything else.

In the beginning, he actually was a character from another book by another writer friend of mine, we were attempting to collaborate, but our stories were going in two different directions, so we split our characters, took our own back and I lost him. I had every intention of creating someone to fill that void in my story, but before I could, my friend called and basically told me “You keep him, he won’t work with me anymore.” So with a laugh Christian became my character and she created someone new. We even made it legal when I moved away by putting it down on paper and framed it. It was my favorite going away present. He isn’t quite the same now as he was then, but there are characteristics that have carried over.

Christian Reid Walker, when we meet him, is nothing short of an asshole. At least that’s how he’s described by the people that know him. Penelope has a slightly different opinion of him and everyone thinks he’s being weird whenever she’s around because he doesn’t treat her like he does everyone else. Asher goes so far as to call him out on it in front of everyone. Reid gets understandably upset and walks away. When Penelope goes to check on him, he explains to her that he usually is what everyone claims he is, but goes on to explain why, sort of. The condensed version at least.

Reid has been a Vampire for 120 years. He should have long achieved the rank of Master, making himself available for a position of power within the Arkane society. Reid has no interest in those things like he once did. He likes living quietly and doing the tasks and jobs that Atlas assigns him. Atlas Rivers is the Sage in charge of their area, and his second in command is Eli Holden. The position of Second in Command should be Reid’s but he doesn’t want it.

His maker, Akina Rue, is the resident Sage in Paris, France and that was where he spent most of the first century after she turned him. He was being groomed to take over as the other Sage in her area, but he shunned everything twenty years before the story started and went on the run. He doesn’t speak to Akina any longer and has renounced anything that had to do with her, except his title and his sister Echo. Echo is the older child of Akina, and her and Reid are the only two of Akina’s children still living. They both feel the same about their Maker, so they get along well.

Reid’s soft spot and change of heart happened on a cold New Years Day when Akina asked him to do a job that he didn’t have the stomach for, something so terrible no one would want to complete it. Instead of killing the newborn Dhamphir, he took her and ran. Emma Walker is his daughter, as far as he is concerned. Even though he hadn’t met her before that night. He spent years on the run, only communicating with Asher and occasionally one or two of his other friends, just letting them know he was okay.

Now that Emma is fully grown and living on her own, he’s settled into an easy life working for Atlas. He spends his time doing work, and actively shunning most responsibility; he likes being a grunt. He doesn’t know how drastically meeting Penelope will change all of that. In the beginning he’s not really thrilled that her and Ryan are coming to the party at his house anyway.

He ends up alone with Penelope pretty early on and they get along well enough to argue about Football before they party starts. He can’t help but feel drawn to her, and as such has a deep dislike for Ryan. When Atlas assigns him to guard Penelope once she goes home, to keep her safe from the potential threat her and Ryan have walked into, he thinks it will be an easy job. Stay hidden, don’t let Penelope know he’s there, and keep her safe, what could go wrong?

Apparently a lot.

He gets further involved in Penelope’s life when they start hanging out and the Reid she gets to know, is playful and fun. He’s the one that only his closest friends know. She also gets to know the side of him that his daughter knows, the caring side, the part he doesn’t tell anyone else about. The last pieces of his humanity are in this part of him that he hides away. This is the Reid Penelope gets to know and trust.

When things go fully off the rails, he tries to revert back to the way he had been, but Penelope can see straight through his tough exterior and even though he tries, she calls him on it. Eventually they find a balance of sorts and things settle down. Her relationship with Ryan is an ever increasing thorn in his side however, and he doesn’t want to be that guy, but at the same time he kind of does.

Reid’s character development happens mostly through commentary from his friends, as they can see the shift Penelope doesn’t see. Penelope only sees him close himself off and knows something is wrong. She earns herself a protector and permanent bodyguard because of this as it hasn’t gone unnoticed that she is important to Ried. There are only a handful of people on the planet that are, and all but Penelope can handle themselves, so he makes it his mission to keep her safe.

Reid is one of my favorite characters to write for because he is so dynamic. He carries the pressure of his bloodline, because of who his maker is, and who her maker is. They’re the closest thing to royalty as the Vampire’s can get. It carries a lot of weight in the entirety of the Arkane community, something Penelope and her friends learn about first hand at one point. Right now, two of the books in the series are going to be from his perspective so that we get a real look at what is actually going on with him. There are snippets sprinkled through Noctivagus, but I can’t wait to work on the next book to really explore all of the things that make Reid the complex character that he is.

I hope you all enjoyed this little sneak peak into who Reid is. There is so much more I want to share about him, but they would be spoilers and I don’t want to do that. Instead, I will leave you with one of my favorite vision boards that I’ve ever made. And it has to do with Reid, so enjoy.

So that’s it. Remember to be awesome! See you later!

Character Profile – Ryan Meade

Posted on by Amber Marie in Blood Song, Writing

Hello again! We are going to talk about Ryan this time. While Penelope is the main character, Ryan would be classified as a secondary main character. Throughout the series, Ryan plays a very important role in Penelope’s life. It’s through him that her life changes to begin with, and he is instrumental to those changes. So, without further ado, let’s meet Ryan.

Ryan James Meade is the oldest child in a family of five, and stays as down to earth as possible given his current career, thanks to his Dad. He tries to stay very family oriented and not give in to the traps and pitfalls of his fame. When we meet him, he’s recently gotten out of a relationship with his ex girlfriend, and co-star Charlotte Townley. When he meets Penelope, she’s like a breath of fresh air for him. He is instantly attracted to her appearance but after talking to her, he finds he’s enamored with her personality as well. He thinks nothing of their differences in class or the fact that they come from very different worlds, just that she is someone he wants to continue to know.

His life makes it difficult to meet people who want to see the real him, so it’s nice that upon meeting Penelope, and subsequently her friends, that there is a large group of people that genuinely like him. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with Asher Jameson, and despite his initial hesitance due to him being a Vampire, finds that he becomes a good friend rather quickly and someone he wants to keep in his inner circle despite the relationship twists and turns that he and Penelope experience.

Despite knowing a lot of people, he finds he most cherishes his friendships with Rich Cunningham, and Asher most of all. They see him as a person and don’t care what his position in society or his money can do for them. They are more comfortable just hanging out, drinking beer, and playing video games in Rich’s small apartment than going out on the town and for that he is grateful.

Even though he and Penelope have trouble seeing eye to eye and go through a period where they don’t even speak, he never loses touch with some of their mutual friends and when he and Penelope start talking to one another again, it helps to ease the tension.

He becomes a confidant to Penelope and eventually the have the friendship they should have started with instead of jumping into a relationship. So when Penelope hits a low point and needs a friend, he’s glad that their relationship has grown enough for him to be able to keep her secrets and offer a reassuring shoulder to cry on with no expectations attached to it.

Ryan himself continues to grow in fame and as such, holds the people who keep him grounded closer. They help when everything else seems to be too big. He’s a genuinely nice guy and just wants to help people, so he does a lot of charity work in addition to everything else. He’s a good friend and a good brother to his younger two sisters, Lorelei and Ariella.

I hope you guys enjoyed learning a little more about Ryan today. He’s a great character and honestly, there is a lot throughout the series that happens for him. He does get a happy ending, just like almost everyone, but not always in the ways they expect. Ryan is a good friend and values the friendships he has because of what they contribute to enrich his life. For someone that can buy anything they want, it’s nice to have people that could care less if he worked at the grocery store down the street, and are more concerned with his sarcastic wit, and trivia about weird things. He’s ever the English gentleman and most of his friends love that.

Have a great day everyone! Again, if you haven’t already, head over to insta to get the latest on the giveaway! See you guys tomorrow with another Character Profile. Until then, be awesome!