Character Spotlight: Kredoc Bloodhelm

 Kredoc Bloodhelm, father of Tarkil, was supposed to be a background character who just popped in every once in a while to make Tarkil's life complicated, but I found myself giving him a background, (even if not really in the stories), and beginning to like this clearly Lawful Neutral character (if you like to put it in roleplaying terms).

Kredoc is the head of House Bloodhelm's spies and assassins, making sure the House is informed and can take out any issues that may be incurred by the House. He is the second son of House Bloodhelm, Ikaris Bloodhelm being his older brother and the Leader of House Bloodhelm.  He never wanted to be the Knight in shining armor, he wanted to be the man behind the scenes, but he was pleased his two elder sons did want to become Knights.  He was also secretly pleased when Tarkil wanted to be a spy.

In his younger years Kredoc was a rogue. He and his butler, Jarvis, adventured across the country side, getting themselves in all sorts of trouble, making friends and enemies as they went.  When it became time to settle down and become the House spy, he became the serious gentleman he is today, though he and Jarvis always share secret smiles over remembered times. It is hard to see Kredoc smiling about anything with his incarnation in the stories.

He is hard on all his children, wanting the House to have the best protectors possible, but he sees too much of himself in Tarkil and worries his youngest will chaff against the path House Bloodhelm is going down.

Kredoc is a follower of Sircarius, though he keeps his worship more to himself then out in the open, since House members are supposed to follow the Gods of the Light or Neutrality. He doesn't love his wife, per say, but he does not wish her ill will, since a prearranged marriage was neither of their choices.  But as a House scion, it was expected.  They work well together and have raised three fine sons together, so Kredoc feels it was a good arrangement.

In the future, I hope that he becomes a more prominent part in short stories or even further plots for other novels.

Origin of Stories

 Everything has a beginning, from the birth of child to the birth of a story.  My story is no different.

My story started from a few of us getting together for some much needed D&D and me wanting to showcase the world I had so loving labored on for almost a decade and a half.  Here was this world flushed out with enough information to make a roleplaying supplement, (or several), and a bunch of us who needed an outlet since we were all stuck all over the country and kinda on our own.

We used the internet, before Discord or like applications where we could have done our roleplaying in real time, so I had to cobble together emails to make one coherent game "session".  It was difficult, to say the least, but as the months progressed I had reams of notes for a story idea.  I had to change some things, because you can't make 4 people follow a coherent story line to the "T", and add my own twists and turns that could not be used in a roleplaying session.  (If you have ever been a DM you know it's hard enough to get your players to go even close to what you want them to do!)

The more I worked on a story idea, the more I wanted to write the story, (which ended up being 4 novels).  Luckily my  husband, (my inspiration for Krom and Duncan), was all for such an endeavor.  We both knew it wasn't going to happen over night, since we had two kiddos and I was very involved in their activities, but he made sure I got the time to write, which I am eternally grateful for.

So how did your story start?  Was it a long hike? A drive in an unfamiliar place?  Something that happened in your life or in the city you live in/near?  Write that down, too!  Later, if you do get your story published and you have a following, your readers will want to know!

Happy Writing!

Write, Write, Write

 As the fair season winds down and the kiddos are ready to go to school, you might be thinking I need to get back to writing.  I agree!  Even if you never publish, the act of writing is not only relaxing but may help you maintain your brain function as you get older. (I'm a biologist, I worry about these things.)

So here are some ideas to do so, (which I may have mentioned before, so bare with me.):

1) Set aside a certain time a day just for you to write.  Make it like an appointment and put it on your calendar.  I live and die by our family calendar, so I make the 15 minutes after I check emails to be "writing time".  I wish I could say I get to it every day, but life is life.  Just try to make it work and it will keep you writing for the long haul.

2) Don't make yourself write on one story or story idea.  Bouncing might be a good idea.  If you hit a brick wall, (not that any of us have done this), banging your head won't help.  Walk away to another project and get the creative juices going again.  Who knows, you may find a better story idea that way.

3) Shut out the world.  I love my kiddos, but my college students are very talkative.  I have to tell them it's mom's writing time and tune out the world.  It may not be much time, but it's mine.

4) To go along with this, shut off your phone.  I swear my mother knows it's my writing time and calls.  So I just turn the phone off for 15 minutes and then call her back later.

The take away is just keep writing!  Something good may come of it!