Let me begin this post by saying that this decision terrifies me.

WARNING: EXTREMELY ANGSTY POST AHEAD

[credit | leslie ann o'dell]

The title says it all: I've to decided to start my WIP On the Midnight Streets over. For the second time. According to Google Docs, I'm essentially throwing out over 22,000 words. (Obviously I'm backing them up and not throwing them out entirely, but still.) Here are the things I'm planning on doing, to put it bluntly.

• Throw out my current plotline and replace it with one that flows and actually makes sense
• Make changes to my characters and develop them better
• Flesh out my worldbuilding so that my settings are logical and dynamic
• Make OtMS unavailable for public viewing while it's in drafting stages (i.e., take it off of Wattpad and Figment)

I'm rebuilding this book from the ground up, more or less. I'm keeping essential things that have been working for me, and I'm still (hopefully) keeping the spirit of the story that made me love it in the first place. But anything that isn't necessary or coherent? It will be changed.

Why on earth am I making myself go through this agony, might you ask?

The fact of the situation is that I've been working on this novel for almost three years. In that time, I haven't even finished a first draft. I haven't even hit the 50,000 word mark. I always peter out at around 20,000–25,000 words. I tend to make light of that by joking about my "poor long-suffering WIP" and getting guilt-tripped by my friends (we know which one I'm talking about, and yes, you should still love her because her guilt-trips are awesome and absolutely warranted). But if I'm being completely honest with myself, I'm incredibly frustrated and bitter about the fact that I haven't been able to finish this book. It's eating away at me. I feel like it's going nowhere, and consequently, I'm going nowhere.

The logical thing to think about, then, is what my main roadblocks might be. And I believe that I've boiled them down to three main points.

• I'm not making time to write consistently.

I'm a high school student. My sophomore year is starting soon. Being academically successful is very important to me; therefore, I spend a while on my homework. I also practice piano for around three hours every day and have other extracurriculars to do besides. So I won't be able to sit down and write every day for hours at a time. I realize that. Most first-time novelists don't have that kind of gap in their schedule to fill with writing anyway. If I'm going to finish this book, I need to manage my time and dedicate myself to making sure I can write on a regular basis. The truth is I haven't been doing this. I haven't really been making the effort to stay productive. But my hope is that this year, I can change that. I'm hoping to focus more on my work every day so that I can also get at least a little bit of writing in on a regular basis. I'll need to work hard at this. I'll need to keep myself accountable, and only time can truly tell if I have it in me to do this. But I need to believe that I'm capable of this.

• I'm pressuring myself too much for the first-draft stage.

This point breaks down into two subpoints.

A) Online posting. I've been posting half-chapters of OtMS on Figment and Wattpad as soon as they're written. Don't get me wrong; I love these online writing communities and I think they're a wonderful, vibrant new force in the literary world. I also love getting immediate feedback—who doesn't, really? And the serialization approach works for some writers, I know that. But I think what I haven't been realizing these past few years is that serialization doesn't really work for me. It leads me to pressure myself into trying to produce work that my online readers will like rather than giving my story room to breathe. Rather than allowing my draft to be terrible so that it'll be a load of rubbish but at least it'll be done. To fix that, I'm going to be taking OtMS off of Figment and Wattpad.

But never fear! I'll be looking for beta readers if/when (let's make that an optimistic when) my manuscript is ready.

B) My own personality as a writer. I'm very driven by writing style, so I spend a lot of time worrying about my style instead of throwing words down on the page. That makes me a very, very slow writer, and it also gives me a crippling fear of just dragging myself to my draft and going BICHOK (butt in chair, hands on keyboard). To try and remedy that, I want to try Alyssa's sparse drafting technique—make a draft messy, hilariously bad, bare-bones, and likely full of snarky notes to myself in [brackets]. Hopefully this will make edits easier (and more funny!) when (I'm sticking to the word when now) the time for them comes.

• I'm clinging to unnecessary aspects of my book.

Let's face it: I was twelve years old when I came up with the idea for this story. I'm fifteen now. In those years, I've changed more drastically than I ever have in my entire life. It turns out that's how adolescence works. *weeps forever* 

When I was twelve, I wanted to write this book because I was overexcited about the Victorian aesthetic and Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices series. I basically set out to write a clone of Clockwork Angel with some unsubstantial Les Mis mixed in—complete with love triangle (mine was ill-conceived and not entirely necessary), revolution (mine was incredibly underdeveloped), and magic system (which has since been eliminated because it was so poorly done). I plunged headfirst into this book with some half-baked scene ideas, a whole lot of enthusiasm, and no real inkling of what this story really was. 

Needless to say, OtMS has changed a lot since then, at least in my mind. It's become something more, something real, something that matters to me and that will matter to other people (I hope). This book has seeped into the very fabric of who I am; you could say it's grown along with me. I know that I need to tell this story, that I might very well explode if I give up on it, but I'm still figuring out how it needs to be told. But some of the more questionable twelve-year-old Christina aspects of the book, things that aren't necessary and don't make sense, have still stuck. And I'm not sure why. I think I need to root out those things so that this story reflects its true self and myself better.

The point is, I love this story too much to let it go. I need to write it. But I think it's time to build it the right way and push through so that I can finally give it to the world in the best form that I can get it to. Right now I feel like I've failed miserably—failed my readers, my characters, myself. But there's hope somewhere. There always is. 

I've decided to call this Brave New OtMS. I'm thinking that I'll post on this blog about my progress (in a new post series of the same name) in order to keep myself accountable. This is going to be a painful journey, I know. It's going to be full of anger and insecurity and work, and it'll most likely show me some of my own worst traits as a writer and individual. It's a gamble at best, a complete waste of time at worst. 

Thank you for sticking with me so far. I genuinely appreciate each and every one of you and I can't say it enough. But now I think it's time to turn over a new leaf. 

Here goes nothing everything.

So what do you think? Have you experienced something similar, and if so, how did you deal with it? Do you think this is the right choice, or do you think my brain has turned to mush at last? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Beautiful People has returned to the blog! If you don't recall, this is the monthly linkup where writers get to talk about their characters. It's hosted as always by the incomparable Cait and Sky. Unfortunately, I missed it last month, but this month is Friendship Edition. (I'm going to be quoting Figment/Wattpad commenters all over the place because I can.) Cool, don't you think? Which means...

I'M SORRY I HAD TO

This month, I'm featuring best friends Finnegan Lyle and Renton Fuller, from the ever-present novel-in-progress On the Midnight Streets. They do highly illegal things together and love to snark all over the place. A short rundown:

Finnegan Lyle (usually called Finn) aka the hat boy aka the Midnight Hatter aka James: You can probably tell that Finn is a boy of many faces. His past is inextricably linked to that of protagonist Chantilly and also that of Resident Dork Charles, making for some very awkward character dynamics. (Actually Finn, Charles, and Chantilly are all dorks. Don't tell them I told you that.) He's eighteen years old and an incorrigible hat-wearer. He's what people in Peralton (the city the book is set in) call a 'thief lord', and the most notorious + successful one in the city at that. Additionally, he's basically the leader of a brewing revolution. Why? Because there are people who break the law, and then there are overachievers who break the law. A description from my always-on-point friend Alyssa (at this point you don't even really need the link to her blog but I GAVE IT TO YOU) (this is from a Figment comment):

[...] when he [Finn] was set up in the previous chapters, he's this cool-as-cucumber character and here he's a hilarious, colloquial mess of emotions [...] pretty phenomenal.

I also have a (slightly spoilery, make sure you're caught up on Figment/Wattpad; also, warning for language) description of Finn from my friend Sophia:

Renton Fuller aka Chauncey: Renton is kind of like Finn's criminal right hand. He's pretty much second-in-command when it comes to their thieving ring, and he's also a brilliant smuggler. He was kind of a no-name Lower City boy with no shelter or way to make a living until he met Finn, so he's very grateful to Finn for that. (He and Finn are actually friends because they met when Finn first came to the Lower City and they started looking out for each other—because Renton didn't have any power and Finn didn't have any street smarts.)

Renton descriptions from Alyssa:

[...] Renton is still awesome (have I mentioned I enjoy his snark? I have, haven't I?).

Renton's dark humor is perfectly on spot and I love love love his characterisation. 

How long have they known each other, and how close are they?

They've actually only known each other for three years—since they were both around fifteen—but they can no longer really remember a time when they weren't looking out for each other. Since they more or less live with each other, Finn and Renton are incredibly close—they have inside jokes with each other, have the same arguments over and over until the arguments themselves become inside jokes, and tell each other things they wouldn't dream of telling anyone else. Their bond is one that's been forged over the course of many run-ins with many very dangerous people and places in the city, along with grudging cooperation that eventually evolved into a steel-boned trust, and it's not one that'll easily be fractured. They're both very aware that the kind of friendship they have is a rarity in a place as cutthroat as the Lower City, and they're grateful for it and each other. 

What’s their earliest memory of being best friends?

Finn and Renton met when Finn almost got himself murdered on his third day in the Lower City and Renton happened to be by—Renton saved Finn's life, and from then on they stuck by each other. Renton taught Finn to fight, and Finn learned scarily fast, so it quickly became a mutually beneficial relationship. Although true 'best friends' status definitely came later, that's where it all started. And it hasn't shown any sign of ending since. 

Do they fight? How long do they typically fight for?

Oh yes, they fight. They clash a lot, but they've never been able to stay angry at each other for too long. Usually they've made up within two days, and in extreme cases, within a week. The reason for that is twofold: a) arguing too much when they're pretty much heading up the top criminal operation in the city creates instability that others can exploit, and b) they realize the importance of their friendship and they're not ever going to let a trivial disagreement jeopardize that friendship.

The things they usually argue over are more or less consistent. The biggest one is Finn's persuasion methods—Renton thinks Finn could afford to get his hands dirty, use force, but Finn doesn't want to. He can't be a ~nice~ person if he wants to keep the power that he has, yes, but the thought of going overboard with violence or bloodshed is honestly kind of sickening to him. Renton thinks that Finn's merciful streak may end up getting him killed. This excerpt from OtMS, from Finn's PoV, says it best (cuts and brackets added):

My methods, I know, aren’t traditional for this part of Peralton—Stiefvin [another thief/good friend of Finn's] says it’s my Middle City upbringing in its death throes—but I have to believe there are better ways [...] We should deserve to be helped before anyone helps us.

Are their personalities similar or do they complement each other?

On the surface, they're very similar; typically, Finn and Renton both exude a deadly, devil-may-care kind of confidence that comes in handy in a surprising variety of situations. They also share a near-caustic sense of humor, which they use liberally and to great effect. Even their street fighting styles complement each other, especially since they've worked together so often. Their external personalities and certain parts of their inner ones are so similar that they've become attuned to each other's movements. 

But when something really strikes Finn to the core and rattles his nigh-unshakeable composure, or when Finn's around certain people who confuse or fluster him (*screams* CHANTILLY, the protagonist), it's possible to see where his and Renton's characters diverge. By nature, Renton is much more flamboyant—his soul just has a flair for the dramatic, and he's very extroverted. He's larger than life, if you will. In contrast, Finn is actually naturally inclined to be an introvert: much more reserved and soft-spoken, with a mess of internal emotions to sort through. In those instances (though they're a rare thing, mind you), when Finn's walls have been broken down, Renton tends to take the helm a bit, steering conversations with his sly wit and infuriating flirting habit.

In short: Renton's panache is simply who he is, while Finn's is a front he's developed in order to hide what a sensitive, awkward, nice dork he is (because being a sensitive, awkward, nice dork is a very quick way to get robbed and murdered in the Lower City). The lovely Adelyn said it best in a Wattpad comment:

I like James' [Finn's] reserved nature and how it complements Chauncey's [Renton's] bravado.

Who is the leader of their friendship (if anyone)?

It's probably safest to say that Finn is the leader, since he runs their crime ring and is the Midnight Hatter. Yes, I know what you're thinking—odd as it might sound after reading my answer to the previous question, Finn (and not Renton) is actually the notoriously flashy thief lord known as the 'scourge of the city'. Besides, although Renton has a much stronger natural presence than Finn and is much more bold, he almost always defers to Finn because he knows that Finn has a better mind for strategizing and adapting and picking up new skills. Finn's also much better at reading people and dealing with them effectively, as well as cultivating his external image to make himself seem like the picture of lethal, snarky condescension. While it doesn't fit his natural personality at all, Finn's grown into an unflappable thief lord, handling both allies and enemies with ease. Renton's content to let his friend take the lead because he knows that he's in thoroughly capable hands. Most of the time, anyway, except for when Finn is being the dorky teenager that he is.

Also, don't tell either of them, but Finn would likely end up on top if he and Renton were ever to come to blows.

Do they have any secrets from each other?

To oversimplify things: yes. Unfortunately. They confide in each other a lot, but there are still things they don't talk about. I think just about every character in OtMS has a thing or two they don't talk about, to be honest.

Renton's secret from Finn: he's attracted to boys and not a soul has ever known but his late mother. This is for safety reasons mostly—the Mendlands overall is a horribly bigoted, backward kingdom that's strongly prejudiced against LGBTQIA+ individuals, and according to the deplorable laws there, same-sex relationships are capital crimes. (Which is part of why the government needs to be enthusiastically defenestrated.) Renton is also nervous about telling Finn about his sexuality because he's not sure how Finn will react; they've never really talked about anything remotely related to the subject. 

Finn's secret from Renton: there are a few. I think Finn has kept at least two big secrets from every person he's ever known. 

First, Finn's never told Renton about Chantilly. Those of you reading OtMS will be aware that Finn and Chantilly have actually known each other for around eight years, but in all that time, Finn's never told Renton about his Middle City bookshop friend. He's kept Chantilly a secret because he's felt obligated to keep her out of his life as a criminal in order to keep her out of danger (OtMS readers will be aware of exactly how badly that backfired on him, haha). It feels odd, yes, because Finn and Chantilly were almost as close as Renton and Finn are currently. But Renton still doesn't know about Finn's friendship with the strawberry-haired bookshop girl.  

Also, Finn hasn't ever told Renton the real reason that he came to the Lower City. (Finn is actually from the Middle City by birth.) It has something to do with a bit of backstory I mentioned in my last Beautiful People post about Charles Mareil and his family (brackets and emphasis added):

A few months later, though, his [Charles's] father decided it'd be advantageous to make it look like Talia [Charles's illegitimate half-sister] was a ward of the family, and she came to live with them. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Charles's time with her was abruptly cut off by a... certain incident that forced the family to send her away again.

// can't say more because important backstory spoilers

// hint: may have to do with a certain hat-wearing rapscallion

I won't say more than that because yes, it's still a SPOILER (but you probably won't find out the truth until at least the planned sequel to OtMS).

How well do they know each other’s quirks and habits?

Again, they do more or less live together, so they know each other's quirks/habits a little too well, if anything. Renton knows that Finn likes to have things organized, so his room is always neat and rather utilitarian. Renton also knows that Finn's first love is books—Finn's always reading, especially novels and history books. Actually, Finn knows just about all there is to know about the Laceblade Uprising, the revolution that established the Mendlands. One of the Mendlands' first queens, Rosalind, is basically his hero. Renton's very aware of all this, as well as Finn's other habits. Finn knows that Renton really enjoys working with his hands: mending old machines, making knickknacks to give to people, even knitting. Renton doesn't show this a lot to people he doesn't know well, and he doesn't exactly put his other quirks on display, either. So Finn and Renton are in a very interesting position in regards to each other—each knows a lot of fascinating, startling, and sometimes embarrassing things about the other.

What kind of things do they like to do together?

Obviously, they like committing crimes together. (I mean, they've kind of made a career out of it.) They try not to get into fights when it's not necessary, but when they are forced into combat, they love fighting as a team. They're secure in the knowledge that they're looking out for each other to whatever end, and they move together almost seamlessly. They also like eating cake together—their personalities, as well as the hardships they've gone through, have left them with a deep appreciation of food. And another not-yet-introduced member of their crime ring, Esmeralda, bakes mind-blowing cakes when she can get her hands on the ingredients. So of course that makes eating cake together a Very Fun Thing Indeed.

(Also, being able to bake cake as well as Esmeralda is on Finn's list of #lifegoals. He's vowed that he will someday learn to bake like a pro. He hasn't made much progress, being a wanted criminal and all, but make no mistake, he's bent on doing it.)

But hmm, what about normal-person hobby things they do together?

Yeah, no, sorry. They don't really have normal-person hobbies. (Actually Finn loves to read, but he doesn't have as much time to find books anymore.)

Describe each character’s fashion style (use pictures if you’d like!) How are their styles different/similar?

Truth be told, Renton has impeccable fashion sense, whereas Finn isn't naturally inclined to give much thought to his appearance in general. Finn does realize the importance of style in making an impression on people, though. He prefers to just let Renton guide him when it comes to picking things to wear—when they can afford to pick, that is. Living in the Lower City, as well as not having a lot of money to spend, doesn't exactly give them a breathtaking range of clothing options.

So they do end up having similar styles. While in the Lower City, they ensure that they're dressed simply enough not to draw attention and that's good enough for them, but here's what they'd wear if they could choose whatever they liked. (And by that I mean if Renton could choose because honestly, Finn doesn't know a thing about fashion. Except hats. Finn has a weird thing for hats.)

ignore the face (neither of them would ever grow a mustache), but you get the general idea / [via]

How would their lives be different without each other?

They'd have such drastically different lives without each other that it doesn't even bear imagining. In fact, now that I think about it, they'd both most likely be dead. They're invaluable in keeping each other safe from the threats that run amok in the Lower City. They've saved each other's lives too many times to count. But even if they managed to survive separately without their friendship, Finn would probably still lack a source of comfort and grounding in his times of need, especially when his composure is shaken in front of others. Renton, meanwhile, would probably be rudderless without someone to talk to him or guide him. They'd be much lonelier and much more prone to fatal mistakes.

They're incredibly fortunate to have met each other, really.

So that's all! What do you think of these two? Did I overuse my parentheticals (yes, I did—look, I'm doing it again)? Did you link up with Beautiful People? Let's talk in the comments!

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Another month has rolled around, and you all know what that means. A new month heralds the arrival of a new Beautiful People feature on the blog! (Of course, it's almost the tail end of the month now, but shhh.)

This month's theme is parents, which works wonderfully for a particular character I've been thinking about. Plus, we readers of YA books are all too aware that parents tend to get shoved aside in lots of stories. While I love good orphan characters as much as the next girl (Baudelaires, I'm looking at you), I think parents are important elements in the lives of many teenagers, and they're too often neglected. So I'm glad to be able to shed light on one set of parents I'm writing today. 

This time around, I'm featuring Charles Mareil, a supporting character in my WIP On the Midnight Streets. He's eighteen years old and the son of a duke, and the fortune that he'll inherit upon his father's death is second only to whatever's in the royal coffers. He's also idealistic to a fault, and he isn't too good with the company of people he doesn't know well. His family is one of the most prominent in the kingdom, so as the eldest son, he feels huge amounts of pressure to uphold their good name. But at heart he's super earnest and well-intentioned and he cares about people and goodness and bravery a lot. Charles first becomes important in OtMS because he and my heroine, Chantilly, are engaged. They even almost get married.

Until Chantilly gets kidnapped at her wedding, but hey, whatever.

Along with dear Charles, I'm also going to talk about his mother and father, Eleanor and Richard Mareil. Richard is one of the more high-ranked, wealthy dukes in the kingdom, and he runs a thriving tea business that imports from all over the world. However, he himself has fallen into a bit of moral decay. He has a host of expensive bad habits that his family tries very hard to keep a secret. Eleanor is the epitome of a good duchess—or at least she was until she came down with a terminal illness that doctors still can't really name, most likely some kind of cancer. Charles loves them, of course, but sometimes he feels like he's been left to compensate for their shortcomings and weaknesses.

1. Do they know both their biological parents? Why/why not?

Charles supposedly lives with both of his biological parents, but his mother is actually housed in an Upper City hospital. He doesn't actually know his parents as well as he'd like to, because Upper City custom dictates that parents have their children taken care of by household servants hired specially for the task. He has a general sense of them as people, of course, but there's always been a measure of distance between him and his parental figures. They're family, but 'family' is rather a loose term in the Upper City.

(I suppose he should just consider himself lucky to be a legitimate child and not born outside of wedlock. The Upper City is a world of pain for illegitimate children.)

2. Have they inherited any physical resemblances from their parents?

Charles mostly takes after his mother, Eleanor, in terms of physical appearance. He and Eleanor are both fair-haired, tall, and pretty as anything (no, really; Charles is prettier than most of the girls in the OtMS cast, protagonist Chantilly included). They have graceful, slender limbs that make everything they do seem like dancing. They also share a somewhat aloof bearing that makes them seem almost statuesque when viewed from afar. Alas, that doesn't work so well for Charles when you actually get to talk to him and you figure out he's a Legitimate Awkward Dork.

In sum: he's very nice to look at but maybe try not to let him open his mouth.

Charles does have his father Richard's hazel eyes. However, most of his father's appearance was passed down to Charles's degenerate younger brother, Edward—brown hair and sharp eyes and a face that tends to make people uncomfortable.

3. What's their parental figure(s) dress style? Add pictures if you like!

Charles's father is always careful to dress in the height of men's fashion, having so much money at his disposal. However, part of it is that he wants to maintain the impression of power in wealth—the Mareils have been losing money lately, due to Edward's gambling habit and Richard's, er, various vices. So he spends extravagantly on clothes that will make him seem like the picture of privilege.

[via]

On the other hand, Charles's mother doesn't have as much... sartorial license, let's say. She's confined to a hospital bed the vast majority of the time, so while her clothes are still of high quality and really lovely besides, they're much less flamboyant than they might be ordinarily.

[via]

4. Do they share any personality traits with their parental figures? And which do they take after most?

Personality-wise, Charles got quite a bit from his mother. They both have very set moral compasses and are drawn to ideas above all else. They have firmly established principles that they live by, and that makes them very uncomfortable with gray areas. They can be almost frighteningly determined if they choose to be, and they try their hardest to do right by everyone they meet. They can be pretentious sometimes, but they never really mean it, and they've both been bred to be excellent figureheads for their families.

On the other hand, Charles and his father are nearly polar opposites. Probably the biggest difference between them is that Richard is perfectly fine with bending the rules a little (or a lot) to get his way, while Charles opposes anything of the sort. 

5. Do they get on with their parental figure(s) or do they clash?

Much of Charles's childhood has been about learning to inhabit himself without his parents around to help him, as neither of them have really been there for him enough to 'raise' him in the typical sense. More often than not, he doesn't really know how to act around them. It pains him to admit to himself that he does tend to clash more with his parents, as his father's terrible habits and ruthless business sense kind of rub him the wrong way, and his mother's ambitions for him are a little overwhelming. He does get along much better with his mother most of the time, though.

6. If they had to describe their parental figure(s) in one word, what would it be?

His father: unconcerned. Charles feels that Richard has always displayed a troubling ability to distance himself from problems—whether they're his own or those of society as a whole. Although this is sometimes helpful, it's also incredibly damaging in the long run, and it's one of the few things that can get Charles really, truly angry.

His mother: unyielding. Eleanor's an incredibly stubborn woman across the board—once she's decided something should be a certain way, no one can change her mind. This applies to anything from her emotions to her appearance. While Charles usually admires that about his mother, sometimes it can be a little exasperating, especially when she projects that stubbornness onto her expectations for his future.

7. How has their parental figure(s) helped them most in their life?

Mostly, Charles's father has helped him through his money and family name—using his father's prestige and financial freedom, Charles has been able to get huge amounts of privilege and opportunity that would otherwise have been unavailable to him. For example, at the beginning of OtMS, his family's reputation has put him on the kingdom's Residential Council, though he has zero experience dealing with residential affairs. The other council members kind of resent this:

Honestly, I think. One meeting. My father means to get me a position as head of the Residential Council of the Mendlands, seeing as I haven’t got the cunning to take on his tea company once he retires, but not a soul in the council other than me is younger than five and forty. Of course, that means there are daughters in their houses—and most of the council members would rather have me as a son-in-law than as a chairman. They ask for my opinions when they really mean time to marry, my lord.

Charles's mother, on the other hand, has taught him a lot about perseverance and about maintaining a tough-as-nails attitude in the face of overwhelming odds. Her illness has kept her mostly confined to the hospital for the past five years, but Charles has drawn a lot of inspiration from her determination, wisdom, and spirit.

8. What was their biggest fight with their parental figure(s)?

When Charles was fourteen or so, he got into a heated argument with his parents about his illegitimate half-sister, Talia. Charles wanted his parents to allow Talia to live with the Mareils, as an accepted part of the family. He's always wanted to get to know Talia better, since she's older than he is and he's always craved the guidance of an older sibling. However, both his parents would prefer to keep her out of the public eye, because if word got out that Charles's father had had an affair with a servant that produced a daughter, things would get ugly for the Mareils really fast. Charles felt this was deeply unfair to both Talia and himself—he still does—but in the end, he had to give over to what his parents wanted.

A few months later, though, his father decided it'd be advantageous to make it look like Talia was a ward of the family, and she came to live with them. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Charles's time with her was abruptly cut off by a... certain incident that forced the family to send her away again.

// can't say more because important backstory spoilers

// hint: may have to do with a certain hat-wearing rapscallion

9. Tracing back the family tree, what nationalities are in their ancestry?

OtMS is set in a kingdom called the Mendlands. Knowing this, we can see that Charles's bloodline is Mendish. And Mendish. And...

...yes, more Mendish. Sadly, interracial marriages are frowned upon in the Mendlands—one thing you should about this country is that it has a horribly prejudiced social mindset that needs to be thrown out the window STAT—so an old-money family like Charles's wouldn't even consider ever allowing them. The Mareils were also one of the first families to come to prominence in the Mendlands, in the kingdom's early days, and they've enjoyed high status ever since. They're very proud of their 'pureblood' lineage, although Charles has been questioning that pride lately.

10. What’s their favorite memory with their parental figure(s)?

Oddly enough, Charles has really good memories of his entire family having breakfast together when he was younger. It hasn't happened in years, so maybe the memories have been strengthened by nostalgia, but he was definitely fond of those times. His parents would converse quietly and thoughtfully over their toast and tea and other assorted expensive Mendish foods, and they would actually listen to him if he wanted to tell them something, and his brother Edward would actually shut up for once, because Edward is the only one in the family who isn't a morning person.

Or maybe those were his best parent-related memories because of the food.

Charles really likes breakfast food.

And on that note, I'd like to turn it over to you all! What do you think of Charles and his parents? Did you participate in Beautiful People?

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More exciting publication news to share with you all this month! My poem "Mouth" is in the third issue of the gorgeous Glass Kite Anthology.

GKA was founded by writers Margaret Zhang and Noel Peng—Margaret has actually contributed a poem (and a prose piece) to the lit/art magazine I run, The Teacup Trail, so I can personally vouch for the creative goodness on GKA's masthead. Plus, they've got a whole bunch of amazing staff. Here's a slice of what they're all about:

We want works that are on the verge of breaking, pieces that are bloated with experience, the ashes on your fingertips, the caverns between your cavities, the kneecaps bruised with jasmine tea. Tell us what it feels like when you first bite into your best friend’s grief, what you do when you outgrow your childhood sandals, where your brother goes at night with his lips stained orange. Let us catch the last words he indents on your cheek, the promises that hover just above the skyline, cawing away like crows.

(A little off-topic, but isn't that breathtaking?)

I highly encourage you to browse the rest of the issues they have archived on the Glass Kite Anthology website, as well as the issue I'm in:

This issue contains houses that occupy space in different ways, faeries, fresh perspectives on Greek mythology, biblical verses, love and lack of love, thirst, and a plethora of hands.

Enjoy digging into this wonderful slice of the arts, and do support all the other creators represented in this lovely issue!

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-ology switched to a quarterly format after the above graphic was made

I'm so floored to be able to tell you all this: my poem "Still Life with Broken Hearts" is being published in the second issue of the drop-dead gorgeous -Ology Journal. 

-Ology is a quarterly online journal of literature and photography with an amazing staff headed by the relentlessly creative and talented Avery Myers. I started to follow their doings and dealings when the journal was first founded, as the lovely and brilliant Paola Bennet was the managing editor. Once I'd gotten a good look at their website and 'about' page, I fell in love:

Here at -Ology Journal, we ache for writing that exudes a boldness of sentences - for writing that establishes a sense of haunt. We want to publish the electricity at the end of your spine; the Friday-night shivers beneath your lungs.

Then when the first issue of -Ology came out, with a theme of 'alethiology' (the science of truth and evidence), I couldn't read fast enough. Here's the link for your reading enjoyment, because my mere words wouldn't do it justice.

This tweet (from too-cool-for-this-world Tumblr user mythaelogy), I think, sums it up best:

@_ologyjournal your first issue is absolutely incredible and beautiful, and resonates so wholly in my bones, i feel i must be made of it.

— Maddie (@mythaelogy) January 30, 2015

Anyway, I wrote a little poem about a relationship gone awry (which basically wrote itself after I'd come up with the title) and decided I might as well submit, because although I was admittedly very starstruck (who wouldn't be? this publication is amazing), I thought it wouldn't hurt to get my work read by such a talented group of creatives. You can imagine my open-mouthed surprise at receiving an acceptance letter around a month later.

Long story short, "Still Life with Broken Hearts" is now available in the second issue of -Ology, which has the theme of 'chiaroscuro'.

READ IT HERE.

Please let me know what you think, and enjoy the rest of this breathtaking journal!

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