Meet A Dragon by Helen Henderson

 

Fire and Amulet by Helen Henderson
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Inviting you to meet Trelleir, scholar, friend ... and dragon?

Physical Description : Human Male

He wears his dark hair with red highlights, short. Trelleir is slender and tall for a human. But still manages to present the image of a bookworm, someone who is not a threat. To the town bully, this opened Trelleir up to ridicule. To his credit, he never broke his oath to take revenge for the death of his friend.

Physical Description : Dragon

In his true form, Trelleir is rust-colored. When you peer into his dark red eyes, the irises can appear to have flames in them.

He is so striking he is pictured on the cover of Fire and Amulet.

Background:·  

Trellier didn’t know where the true home of his kind was. His earliest memory was of a sunlit chamber and a hard landing on sand. For an unknown amount of time he watched the waves crash against the beach and the water birds fly in the sky before diving beneath the surface to catch fish. Newly hatched, he couldn’t fly and could only flap his wings. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get enough lift to get off the ground. Hunger helped him adapt. Holding his wings above the waves, he waddled out into the water. Using his wings to keep him afloat, he waited for fish to come to him.

Eventually he left the area and wandered lost around the land until ending up in Darceth.

More About Him (Secrets or Public)

No one in the village of Darceth, especially its leader, have seen him fight. The only time he was seen to hold a sword was on the night Caldar took Deneas' mother and tried to claim the young Deneas as a sacrifice to the goddess of the volcano.

Trelleir built himself a special home in a mountain cave beyond the village walls. The narrow, steep path to his cave was trapped to keep the curious away. And the final layer of defense? Rock walls were rigged so that he could seal the cave entrance protecting his belongings and his books. But it was not a trap. Within his quarters was a secret entrance into the lava tubes that led deep into the mountain. And if one knew the way, the tunnels would leave  you to safety two valleys over.

His greatest fear was not just to have his secret uncovered, but that is is learned by Deneas. His best friend is a slayer and he is a dragon. There could only be one outcome. He would have to either kill her or be killed by her.

I hope you enjoyed this introduction to Trelleir. To learn more about Deneas, visit her interview.

To purchase the Fire and Amulet: BWL

 ~Until next month, stay safe and read.   Helen

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack. Find out more about her and her novels on her BWL author page.

Meet A Slayer by Helen Henderson

 

Fire and Amulet by Helen Henderson
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Although Deneas is not the central character in the sequel to Fire and Amulet, her part in a scene I'm working on has me thinking on her past and her present so this month's post features an interview with the slayer Deneas.

Here are some fun questions to help us know her.

It’s late, she’s bored. What does she do?

She takes her weapons into the garden behind the house. Slow twirls with the staff start her practice routine, which then changes to figure eights. Slowly, then building speed, she’ll go through an intricate series of moves. The physical and mental effort not only tones her muscles and builds strength, it also return body and soul to a calmer state.

Describe the kind of clothes she prefers to wear.

Her style could only be described as fighting ware. A tunic that fell below her hips starts her wardrobe.  Depending on what activity she contemplated, either short or long pants is also part of the ensemble. Adding a headcloth completes the usual desert garb for when she goes outside the village wall. Ankle-high leather boots provides protection against the heat of the sand or sharp stones. She made leather sandals to wear around town.

Does she know how to fix things?

Deneas first and best teacher was her mother, a skilled slayer in her own right. It was from her mother that Deneas learned not only how to travel the road, but to survive when doing so. Although to some, Trelleir's knowledge was more scholarly, he did share what he learned in his books and on the road with Deneas. Her association with the town blackmiths provided her with a different type of skill. Replacing a wagon wheel or repairing horse tack are among the things she can fix. While it is not in the true definition of fixing something, she is a master at creating fire.

How does she act around children she doesn’t know?

Even though she was an only child and had limited interactions with children, Deneas shows kindness and patience with an instinct to what a child needs. When she and Trelleir rescued a small child from kidnappers, Deneas worked to reassure the child with a soft tone and kneeling to be at the child’s level. Rest breaks unneeded by the adults were taken to allow the child to rest. In a show of friendship, Deneas made a staff appropriate to the child’s size to use as a walking stick – and as a weapon.

How does she act around people who don’t know what she is?

Fading into the background and not making herself the center of attention is Deneas’ preferred manner when in a crowd. However, when needed, she will reveal herself as a slayer and take charge of the situation.

How does she handle things when in a “proper” social situation?

Since Darceth was so far off the beaten path and not welcoming for the few traders who did brave Caldar's "bargaining" techniques, Deneas didn't have much opportunity for social events. She falls back onto habit and the rules and responses of obedience drilled into her during her slayer training. Even as she stood before the Council of Elders when they sent her out on an impossible quest that was in essence a death sentence, she latched onto her training. Despite the wall of ice around her soul, she uttered the formal response of parting sufficiently well that the elders didn’t criticize her.

Earrings/piercings/tattoos or unadorned skin?

Traders in the caravans that used to pass through Darceth had piercings and tattoos, but not the village residents. Jewelry is a rarity in Deneas’ village. The closest thing she owns is a pair of jeweled hair sticks Trelleir made for her. Little did she know that the red jewels in them were actually dragon tears.

Carriage or horseback?

Caldar, leader of the Council of Elders of Darceth, was so uncooperative that trader caravans refused to stop by the town. This resulted in there being only a few wagons in the village and no carriages. Only a handful of underfed horses constituted Darceth’s herd and Caldar wouldn’t let a mere slayer have one. Reality made the choice for Deneas. Her preferred transportation is on foot.

To purchase Fire and Amulet: BWL

~Until next month, stay safe and read.   Helen

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack. Find out more about her and her novels on her BWL author page.

Help! My Characters Lied. by Helen Henderson

Fire and Amulet
Helen Henderson
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As a writer who tends to be more plotter than pantser, the relationship with my characters usually develops in a certain way. We meet and the characters tell me a little of their background and hopefully their goals. The one thing they don't always tell me up front is their name. But that is the subject of an earlier post. Then after some preliminary plotting, the characters are comfortable enough to trust me and they take over the telling their story and I am related to the position of scribe.

However, even after I pried their names out of them, the characters of Fire and Amulet fought me every inch of the story. 

When Fire and Amulet was released, I thought the fighting was over. The first sections of the sequel's journey were set in my mind and I had a cast of characters so the plotting part was done and it was time to become an explorer, following the trail that had been laid until the path ends. At that point the characters were supposed to take over and all I had to do was follow as they blazed a trail through the twisted jungle.

Then Brial and Karst said, "Stop the wagons. We are important too. Tell our story." I agreed and started the 2024 release, Fire and Redemption.

As to the title of this post? While Karst's background and his kin were uncovered in the first book, Brial's extended clan was not. But they need to appear in the new work ... and so the fight begins again. 

Several characters in the first book are Brial's kin (a fact they failed to mention earlier.) Now they need to be meshed into the rest of the clan. Blending the positions on the family tree and relationships between the village and trader branches means a battle between what had already been said and the unsaid. 

Even after the family tree is charted, there still needs to be calculations to make sure the ages work. A grandmother at twenty does not fit the culture. And a seventy-five-year-old mage would not be as spry and active as the story requires.

The information the characters told me in Fire and Amulet and what I recorded in the series bible is not necessarily true. Surprise, surprise, my characters lied. I'm off to check out the past and see how old Betrys, Keyne, and Feldt really are. Then its drawing Brial's family tree.

To purchase Fire and Amulet

~Until next month, stay safe and read.   Helen

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack. Find out more about her and her novels on her BWL author page.