Interview from the Writer’s Desk: Haven Agnelli

Haven Agnelli is a character I’ve been working on for a new five book series I’ve started working on. I found this really helpful for learning about her. And Bri is technically me with a name change. Hope you enjoy! 🙂

———-

I sigh, crumple up another sheet of paper, and toss it on the ever growing stack. I grab another sheet, and a sting of pain grabs my finger. Paper cut. I hear a knock at my door. “Yes? Come in.”

My secretary pokes his head into my office. “Haven Agnelli is here, Bri.”

I smile. Finally. “Let her in, Benedict.” He nods and steps out. I prepare a sheet of paper and a pencil and put a small bandage on my finger. Maybe this interview will be helpful. I need to get the juices flowing.

A fairly tall teenage girl steps hesitantly into my office. Her smooth brown hair falls below her shoulders; it’s loose, no ponytail or anything. She has short bangs, just on the right, and her hair is parted to the right. She looks sweet and shy with her golden-brown eyes and soft face. Something about her face makes her look young, around fourteen, rather than her actual age of seventeen. She looks nervous, so I offer her an encouraging smile and motion her to the chair in front of my desk before scribbling down notes on her appearance.

I finish the notes with a flourish and turn to her. “I’m glad you could make it,” I tell her. “I think this interview will help me out a lot.”

She nods a little nervously. “No problem. I love helping others out.” Her voice is soft and somewhat musical.

I smile. “So I’ve heard,” I say, jotting down another note on my paper. I look up. “Well, let’s get started. Can you tell me about your family?”

Her face reddens slightly. “Not very much to tell, I’m afraid,” she says quietly. “My dad left when I was five, and my mom died when I was eight. I never had any siblings,” she adds. I nod as I start on another sheet of paper. “My aunt and uncle took care of me while their son was at boarding school, but after he came back, I took the back seat. I felt lonely, rejected, and alone. I was also often bored, so I started working on developing my Gift. When I turned thirteen, I left them to get my own job and so I could work on my Gift more. I still keep in touch with them, though.”

“What did you do after you left?” I ask, writing furiously.

Haven smiles. “I found a job at a bakery in a small town. The owner let me have a room at his house to live in, staying with him and his wife, and I was allowed to keep any leftover baked goods that didn’t sell. I gave those to the poor people that I served with my Gift. The poor people were my closest friends.”

“And what is your Gift?” I ask as I finish writing down her back story.

“I have the Gift of healing,” she replies. “I can’t bring people back from the dead, but I can heal injuries, wounds, sickness – even little things like headaches or nausea.”

“Remind me to call you next time I stub my toe.” I grin. She laughs, a soft, sweet sound, and I make a note of that before checking my question list. “All right, now we’re going to get to some of the harder questions. How would you honestly describe your personality?”

Haven frowns, thinking. “Well, I would say I’m definitely an introvert. I don’t do much voluntary socializing, and I don’t talk very much. I’m the kind of person who finds a quiet spot in a social setting to watch all the action from. So, basically, I’m shy and quiet, although friendly, kind people who take the time to talk to me can pull me out of my shell. But I must admit that I’m still quiet after that; it just becomes more of a, uh, thoughtful quiet, rather than a shy quiet, I guess.” Her brow wrinkles as she thinks. “Most people treat me like I’m fragile, and they worry about me, but I’m really fairly strong, emotionally and mentally, at least.”

“Are you a hard worker?” I ask.

She nods. “If someone sets me at a task, or if I see something that needs to be done, I’ll work hard at it. I’m not much of a leader, so I’d rather be following someone else’s instructions about what to do than telling others what to do.”

I smile. “I understand. Okay, now, here’s a pretty hard one. What are some of your faults, or bad habits?”

Haven makes a face. “Well, how many faults do you want? For one thing, I struggle with seeing myself as I really am. I’m getting better at it, but I still have trouble with focusing on my good characteristics instead of my bad ones. Sometimes, well, a lot of the time, I struggle with speaking up and sharing my thoughts or opinions with others. I feel unwanted and useless sometimes. And I have a fear of people disliking me or making fun of me. I’ve been working on taking my focus off of what others think of me, but it’s hard. Most of my faults are insecurities.”

I nod. “I think we all struggle with that. Anything else?”

“I’m sure there’s plenty more, but I can’t think of any right now,” Haven says.

I smile and add a note on my sheet. Humble. “Okay, what are some of your strengths and good points?”

She thinks for a minute. “Well,” she begins slowly, “I’ve learned a lot about human nature and motives and things like that. There’s not really that many,” she admits.

I laugh. “It’s okay, tell me all.” I underline the word humble.

Haven sighs. “Well, people sometimes say I’m generous and kind and compassionate. I have a heart for serving others, and I always try to be loyal and not hurt anyone’s feelings.”

I check the next question on my list. “Okay, last one. What is your Name, the one the King assigned to you?”

She smiles. “The Healer.”

I nod and write it down. “Thank you so much for the interview, Haven. It’s been very helpful, and it was so nice to get to know you.”

Haven smiles her shy smile. “You’re welcome. I’m so glad I could help you.” She reaches over and touches the bandage on my finger where I got the paper cut earlier, and then she leaves. I pull off the bandage and smile at my healed finger.

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Vote on the Interviews!

I’ve been having a lot of fun lately working on a set of stories. They’re really fun to write, and I’m not sure if anyone would like to read them, but I was thinking of posting them here, as a series.

Basically, it’s me (with a different name 😉 ) interviewing characters from my stories. I was thinking that it also might be fun to interview other people’s characters, too, most likely famous ones, like Sherlock Holmes or Narnian characters. My only problem is finding a name for the series. If you have a suggestion, please comment or suggest it in the poll. Thanks! 😀

A Big Stick

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

-Theodore Roosevelt

Loki and his “Glow Stick of Destiny”; he’s got part of this down!

Book Review: I Was There by Chris Martin

I’ve finally gotten around to typing up this book review for the latest book from fellow blogger and writer Chris Martin. I hope you’ll buy his book and check out his blog after you finish reading this! 🙂

This was a great book. It told those same stories from the Bible in a new and interesting way. The first-person viewpoint is definitely a great asset in this book, helping the stories provoke emotion. The way Chris Martin develops the characters and draws us near to them makes you want to know them even better. I love how he uses the characters’ back stories to help us identify with them. It’s difficult to develop characters in the small amount of space available in short stories, and Chris does this wonderfully. His descriptions of the actions and emotions of the characters are also done very well. He tells the stories in such an emotional and thought-provoking way that you can’t help but feel for the characters. I love the way that Chris brings a new perspective to the stories he retells. I believe that these stories would even be interesting for non-believers. The only negative point of the book are a few small grammatical errors, which could easily be fixed with some extra proofreading and editing. Chris Martin certainly has a talent for writing that makes the stories and characters seem even more relatable. This book is definitely worth the read.

Help! Again!!!!

Dear fellow writers and readers, and other random people. I must say this again.

HELP!

Yep. That’s right. I’m stuck. Again.

I’m not much of an inventor.

I’m needing some help from some creative, technologically-inclined people right now. I need you to comment and share…

Ideas for technology in the future.

And I’ll need to put them in my new novel.

Thanks to your help with character names, all of my characters have names that are either (a) made up, (b) are altered to fit the time period, or (c) sound like futuristic names. Now I need inventions for the future world. The only things that I’ve figured out so far are really, really, really tall buildings, hover cars, super-fast transporters, and lights that simply float and aren’t connected to anything. And I’d love to have you help me come up with more futuristic inventions.

Please comment and share your ideas! I need all the inventions I can get! 🙂

Is He Dead Or Not?

Caution: There may be a few spoilers in this post, or, if you’re like Sherlock Holmes, you could deduce spoilers from things I say in this post. Just sayin’.

Have you ever noticed that it’s impossible to believe that people are actually dead in superhero movies?

I’ll admit that the same problem occurs in other movies, too, and in books fairly often. Or is that just my imagination? It’s not.

Sherlock Holmes, for example. He “died” in the books, and he “died” on the BBC Sherlock show (Which I have not watched, but I know quite a bit about thanks to a few friends. *wink* And a past post I reblogged.)

And then, of course, there’s all those minor characters in the superhero movies that supposedly die but don’t. Sometimes main characters, too, like Captain America, although we know that something’s up from the beginning of the movie. You can almost never believe that people are actually dead in those movies.

But you know what’s cool? That’s happened in real life before, too! All those people that are raised from the dead, like Lazarus. (We don’t know the names of most of them.) But the best coming-back-to-life episode? Jesus.

Unlike in superhero movies, Jesus really died. And then he came back to life. He conquered our sin by suffering the worst death the Romans could invent, and then he rose again, conquering death itself. He love us that much.

 

Bible Trivia: 5-17-14

The word “Satan” has fifteen references in the Old Testament, eleven of which are in ___.

1. 1 Chronicles
2. Job
3. Psalms
4. Zechariah

As Some biblical characters were known by more than one name, what was John’s other name?

1. Absalom
2. Mark
3. Benaiah
4. Arioch

The river that watered the Garden of Eden divided into how many heads?

1. 2
2. 4
3. Dozens
4. Hundreds

Brought to you by our Bible Trivia Challenge calender. Answers will be revealed tomorrow.

I Need Your Help!

Help!

I need some second opinions, suggestions, and advice, and I’m coming to you, dear readers, for assistance!

First: I’m working on a new story that will (hopefully) be my first full-length novel. I have a name for my antagonist (Raltan Menger! Isn’t that an awesome bad guy name??) and I have a some of the plot worked out, but I’m struggling with a name for my protagonist. I’ll give you some background info:

1. He was a captain in Menger’s army, until Menger became dictator. He feels responsible, and therefore guilty, for Menger being on the throne. He will probably still be going by Captain ___ sometimes.
2. He’s smart and a very good fighter. He may be able to turn invisible, but I’m not sure about that yet.

That’s about as much as I have so far. I definitely still have a ways to go. 😉 So, basically, I’m looking for a name as awesome as Raltan Menger, but still one that matches him and his personality. Unfortunately, as you can see, there’s not much to go on, but please, please, please comment with your suggestions! A made up name would be awesome, too. I made up Raltan by mixing up the letters in the word tarantula. 😉

Second: I need to know if I should still do the Story Starters. If you could vote on the poll below to let me know what you think that would be great!

Thanks so much for all of your comments and likes. I would definitely enjoy some feedback on this post! Please feel free to comment with any name ideas you have, no matter how outlandish they may seem. 😀 Thanks again!

Bible Character Poll

Vote for your favorite Bible character! The female Bible character poll is coming soon, too! Don’t forget to comment either on this post or on the poll to tell why you chose that character, and remember that you can choose up to three Bible characters at one time. 🙂

Weekly Writing Helper: Pictures

Weekly Writing Helpers are here to help you when you get stuck or are fresh out of ideas. I’d love to read what you come up with! If you post your story, you can link back to this post or tag your post with Weekly Writing Helper.

Planning Stages Idea:

Make your character search for a missing picture

Plot Twist Idea:

Have your character find a picture that changes the outcome of the story or brings back bad memories

Writer’s Block Idea:

Picture the scenes in your mind and create different “mental videos” to help you find the way to advance the plot