It’s time for another Language of Worlds! *happy dance* You know I jump at any chance to write a post about my story characters. It’s just way too fun!

If you have nooo clue what this is, it’s a writer’s linkup created by the fabulous Liv. K. Fisher, in which she gives us 10 questions every couple of months to answer for any one of our original characters. You can find this newest edition HERE.

So life has been, erm, something lately. Alllll of March was spent switching/redesigning my blog to a self-hosted site, as well as working on Fairy Tale Central things. Which was fabulous, and I had set out March to do those things. BUT with the intention of diving into Burning Thorns edits with full force starting in April. WELL. Life does what it does, and literally on April 1st I woke with a nasty case of what we think was the flu, and proceeded to be sick for a good week. Truthfully, I’m only just now starting to feel like myself again. So have tons of BT edits been happening? No, no they have not.

The goal is to have this last round of edits done before Realm Makers in July (and we’re not even going to talk about all the other things I need to prepare before Realm Makers) which means I GOTTA GET ON IT. But hey, there is time yet! Now that I’m fiiinally well, and have both websites up and going, I can at last (hopefully) give my main attention over to Burning Thorns once again. *confetti*

I’ve missed it, guys. LIKE A LOT. I’m beyond grateful here, after like 5 edits and just as many years working on this story, I’m still not sick of it. IT’S A MIRACLE. Also, after spending a month doing web design, I’m sooo ready to get back into story things. Website coding is not my idea of a good time. *collapses* I miss being creative and working on STORIES.

But all that useless rambling to say, I am 100% planning on gettin’ serious about editing THIS WEEK. And the weeks afterwards. UNTIL IT’S DONE. Which meeeans (and you can probably guess where this is headed)…I’m going to be featuring a character from BT today to help me slip back into that world.

(Man, I talk about BT so much, if it ever gets published you guys are going to be sick of it by then. Eheheheheh.)

At first I was gonna go with my main girl Rose because the questions would be pretty easy to answer for her. But I’ve done a lot of these types posts for her, and the point of these linkups is to challenge us to get to know our characters better. So I decided to choose someone who’d need a bit more thought for these questions. Thus I’m going with Rose’s eldest (and not-so-nice) sister, Anya!

Join the linkup HERE.

ANYA

1.) What’s your character’s favorite song?

Well, this is a medieval, fantasy world so…I have no idea. (Wow, I’m starting this off right.) Anya considers herself a very dignified lady and probably sticks to sophisticated music. If she lived in our world, I could see her listening to a lot of classic pianists. And maybe some violin solos. Things like that. Quiet, unassuming types of things.

2.) What makes their soul thrive?

Anya is all about order and reaching high goals. She loves nothing more than to take on a challenge and see it accomplished in an efficient way.

Showing affection isn’t her strong suit. Instead, she shows love by taking on the burdensome tasks off her loved ones, or offering straightforward advice on how to improve a situation. Fewer things makes her happier than seeing a task accomplished in just the way she had planned, or seeing people carry out her advice.

3.) Describe their typical outfit.

She’s all about fancy, heavy dresses and, in general, looking like a proper lady. She wears a lot of blue and gold, and almost always has her hair up in a fancy do with not a single a hair out of place.

“Regal” would be the best way to describe her appearance. And it’s purposeful. She wants people to respect her, and see her as someone in command.

4.) What do they look like? (Share a picture, if you want!)

I already have a pic up above, but here’s another.

Just put her hair up all the way in a tamer up-do, and you’ve got her.

5.) Who cares most about them?

Her father and sisters (Rose and Marigold) love her all equally. Though she’d probably deny it about some people due to circumstances and a bit of warped thinking. But we won’t get into that. *smile, smile*

6.) Have they been called names beyond their own? (i.e. nicknames, insults, etc.)

One time Lark called her “Your ladyship” in a very mocking tone, buuut yeah. No. She’d probably ship someone off in a crate to the middle of the ocean if they gave her some cutesy nickname, or used her name as an insult. Just…just call her Anya.

7.) What is their Hogwarts house and/or MBTI personality?

She’s definitely a Slytherin. Cunning, ambitious, persistent—yeah, basically all the Slytherin traits.

And her MBTI type is an ENTJ. The “Commander”. Heh. Yeah.

8.) Is there a psalm they identify with? What is it?

Hmmm… I can’t think of a particular one she personally identifies with, but I know one she could use.

“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” Psalm 37:5

Anya puts all her trust and confidence in only herself, takes on all the burdens, thinks only she can fix everything and if everyone would just listen to her it will be all right. Her way is the only way. Well. You can imagine how well that plays out. She desperately needs to learn to be more adaptable and know being only confident in herself can lead to some pretty nasty self-loathing when her plans fall apart.

9.) How do they handle defeat?

Eheheheheheheh. Judging by the above answer, you can probably guess she does not handle defeat well. At all. Even sort of. Again, her happiness comes from accomplishing tasks efficiently and effectively. When her well-thought-out plans fall apart…well. She starts out blaming everyone around her, because obviously it’s not her fault. It has to be the stupidity of others. Buuut the delusional denial does eventually wear off, and from there it gets into self-loathing because how could she have failed?

Depending on how bad the defeat is, she’ll either stew over it for a while until she’s found the flaws, and then rework a new plan to fix everything. Or just completely shut down.

10.) Without spoilers, how are they the hero of this story? (Even if they’re the villain!)

Wow. I love this question. But goodness, it’s hard to answer.

Well, I guess, technically, her actions caused the entire plot to happen. If she hadn’t done a certain (not nice at all) thing at the beginning, there would be no story. She got the whole thing moving. So there’s that.

Yes, that was vague. I make no apologies.

And there we have Anya. She’s a force, that’s for sure. Annnd I kind of absolutely love writing her. *grins* What can I say? Antagonists are FUN. And Anya is a particularly complex one. Sorting out her personality and motives was one of my favorite challenges in this story.

Don’t forget you can snag the questions and join this linkup yourself HERE!

LET’S TALK!

What do you think of Anya? She’s…something. Who else totally loves writing antagonists? And have you joined in this linkup? BECAUSE YOU SHOULD.