Character Connection

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday. MAJOR SPOILERS FOR JANE AUSTEN'S PERSUASION Dearest Captain Wentworth, I can passively read no more. I must write of how you are stealing my heart, even as you are reclaiming Anne’s. You are so true, faithful, and honorable. Even when I watched you with Louisa, fearful that you would fall under that silly girl’s spell, knowing in my heart that you could only belong with Anne, I admired the way you were so attentive to all the women around you. When your sister and brother-in-law met your walking party, you saw that Anne was tired and assisted her into their carriage. When Louisa insisted in jumping off every wall in her vicinity, you blamed yourself when she fell, although she had only herself and her childish ways to blame. When you came to Bath for the express purpose of seeking out Anne, you stood aside when you thought she had an understanding with Mr. William Elliott, thinking you left Anne free…

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday. Miniature of Tyrion sold by Dark Sword Miniatures, sculpted by Tom Meier, and painted by Marike Reimer There is just something about Tyrion Lannister from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, beginning with A Game of Thrones, that I love. He's a dwarf in a fantasy book influenced by the real-life Wars of the Roses that took place between 1455 and 1485. Not a good time to be a dwarf. Especially when your twin siblings are gorgeous, intelligent, and devious. What a lethal combo. But Tyrion is more intelligent than they are.  Here's what he has to say about that:  "I must do my part for the honor my House, wouldn't you agree?  Yet how?  Well, my legs may be too small for my body, but my head is too large, although I prefer to think it is just large enough for my mind.  I have a realistic grasp of my own strengths and weaknesses.  My mind…

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday. My character this week isn't exactly a "character" in the sense readers usually mean the word. I'm choosing Tristan Farnon, one of James Herriot's friends in the non-fiction series of books beginning with All Creatures Great and Small. Tristan is based on the real-life British veterinarian, Brian Sinclair, who died in 1988 at the age of 73. Tristan is hilarious! His older brother, Siegfried, supports him as he goes through vet school, but his heart's really not in his studies. He just sort of comes home when he feels like it, goes back to school whenever he wants, and takes tests occasionally. His happy-go-lucky attitude grates on Siegfried's nerves and Tristan is on the receiving end of some epic rages on Siegfried's part. They always end with, "You're sacked!" and Tristan slinking out the door, only to reappear again a few days, weeks, or months later, depending on the severity of the crime. Tristan doesn't really like to work any harder…

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday. Anne is by far my favorite of L.M. Montgomery's characters, but there's just something special about Rilla, her daughter, too. Luckily, Rilla gets her own book, Rilla of Ingleside, the last book in Anne's series. Rilla was the "baby" of the Blythe family and was in a chronic state of secret indignation because nobody believed she was grown up. She was so nearly fifteen that she called herself that, and she was quite as tall as Di and Nan; also, she was nearly as pretty as Susan believed her to be. She had great, dreamy, hazel eyes, a milky skin dappled with little golden freckles, and delicately arched eyebrows, giving her a demure, questioning look which made people, especially lads in their teens, want to answer it. Her hair was ripely, ruddily brown and a little dent in her upper lip looked as if some good fairy had pressed it in with her finger at Rilla's christening. Rilla, whose best friends…

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday. Reading Muse and Reverie by Charles de Lint this week has gotten me in the mood to feature his characters. My very first Character Connection post was about one of his characters too. This guy has created a whole city of people that I love, so you can expect to see his books show up here fairly often. Anyway, this week's Character Connection is............ The Crow Girls!!!!!!! The crow girls, Maida and Zia, feature in de Lint's Newford books and are hard to describe. I picture them as older teen versions of Emily the Strange, graphic novels written by Rob Reger that I haven't read. Yet. Charles de Lint's wife, Mary Ann Harris, illustrated a short story about them, so you can see her rendering on de Lint's site. Mostly the crow girls, who look like identical twins but swear they aren't even sisters, are charming, funny, and lovable.  They have a crazy sweet tooth.  Here's a pretty typical exchange between…

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday. Odd Thomas, from the book of the same name by Dean Koontz is wonderful. I don't exactly have a book crush on him, but if he were available I totally would. How crazy is that to say about a fictional character? The best thing about Odd is how devoted he is to his girlfriend, Stormy Llewellyn. Oh, they adore each other. In a very Big moment, they visit a fortune teller machine together at a carnival and receive the fortune, "YOU ARE DESTINED TO BE TOGETHER FOREVER." Odd keeps this fortune with him, to remind him to be the best person he can in order to be worthy of Stormy's love. The most striking thing about Odd is that he can see dead people. Yep, Haley Joel Osment style. Except that he can only see them, not hear them. Elvis is a frequent visitor. Sometimes he's hamming it up and at other times he sobs inconsolably. Odd tries to talk to…

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday. My Waiting on Wednesday post this week has left me in the mood to talk about Mattie Gokey from A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. Sixteen-year-old Mattie is the oldest of four girls.  Their mother is dead, so she's left to take care of them all herself.  She mostly helps to take care of the neglected neighbor children too.  She complains to herself but she still gets the job done the best she can.  It's 1906 and her best friend is a young black man named Weaver.  Granted, this takes place in upstate New York, not the South, but I would imagine that prejudice was present to varying degrees throughout the country at that time.  I think it says volumes about Mattie's character that she accepts Weaver as he is--charming, smart, and fun. Mattie is a voracious, intelligent reader, writer and word collector.  Her teacher sees her talent and encourages her.  Mattie and Weaver have word duels that involve finding synonyms…

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday. I bet most of you know Scout Finch from Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. I love her, so you're going to hear all about her today. Scout is a good girl at heart but she has trouble with her temper and has a hard time understanding the concept of tact. Her chosen method of resolving conflicts is with her fists, and she doesn't see a problem with telling a poor little boy that he's poor. But she adores her daddy, Atticus. I do too! Atticus is a widowed dad who has his hands full with Scout. She loves him so much that usually he just has to sit her down and talk to her like a real human being (*Gasp* She's only a child!) in order to get her to change her ways. At least for a little bit. ;-) She is hilarious and smart, and she hates school because her teachers keep trying to drag her down. They even…

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too! Most of you will probably post about how much you love each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write a love letter to Captain Wentworth. Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Draw a picture of yourself in Jamie's arms. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday. It's back to The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay this week. My post last Thursday was about Ammar ibn-Kharain. This week, I'm going to tell you about my other book love, Captain Rodrigo Belmonte. Young men entering the army of Valleda will do anything to enter the service of Rodrigo Belmonte. Bribery in every conceivable form is sent Rodrigo's way, but he only chooses those he thinks will add something to his world-famous band of soldiers. He's a natural-born leader and his men would happily die for him. He remembers to thank them for their services, he takes care of them, he looks out for them, but he doesn't hesitate to hand out discipline when it's needed. He's also just a fundamentally good man. This book is a fantasy, but it's essentially a story of Moorish Spain. He has to operate under the nobility's rules, but he doesn't have to respect them or like them. He bends them as…