It’s Pride month. Though Pride should be celebrated all the time. This whole month I’ve been wondering what I should say besides just Happy Pride, mainly because there is a lot of bleakness in the world… but Pride isn’t about that, and sometimes it’s okay to push those thoughts aside and focus on all the good this world has to offer. All the love and joy.
Anyway, I’m working on the fourth book in the series. Pretty slowly unfortunately. I’ve gotten to a part of the book that is a bit difficult to write. And I’m always too hard on myself when it comes to my writing. I’ve written 50,000 words since book 3 was published in November, so that’s pretty good, and I should be more proud.
Since this is about my book and Pride, I’ll talk about one of my favorite characters to write. Princess Aveline. She becomes a POV character in the second book, and a huge part of her story is her romantic relationship with Mari, her handmaid. But I find they are the strongest couple in the book series. They are very deeply in love. Aveline and Mari just want to run away together. Escape politics. Escape the people who hate them. Escape to a place they can be together always. A little excerpt from book two is below.
‘When they entered, there were only lit candles. Dern bowed and closed the door to stand guard outside. Aveline gestured to the candles and said, “Not quite a canal.”
“Did you do this?” Mari’s eyes shifted. “You lit an empty inn with candles. I’ve never known you to be romantic.”
Aveline grabbed Mari’s hands and kissed her. “It’s a thank you for agreeing to watch over Baldewin for me, and for understanding why our future looks dim.”
Mari nodded and pulled away slightly, “So you’re going to tell me this is our last night together, and when you return, we’ll pretend like we never knew one another and you’ll find some wealthy lord or prince and marry them and bear their children and—”
“—stop,” Aveline interrupted. “You’ll drive yourself mad with those thoughts.” Aveline pulled Mari into a hug and started swaying, their faces touching. “Let us enjoy this night and all the nights to come. Once I find Bertin and this whole Redington thing is over with, we’ll run away just like you wanted. Even take a few jewels.” She could feel Mari’s smile on her cheek as they swayed. “You just have to promise to be safe out there in the Nokys.”
Mari said, “Of course,” and hummed a tune. “You also have to come back. You’ve already said you would, and I don’t like it when you break your promises.”
“Deal.” She kissed Mari. As they danced, the shadows did the same on the walls. They bathed in reds and yellows as the candles burned.’
You’ll have to read it to see if they are able to get away from the madness of the world (I’ll finish book 4, I promise).
Happy Pride! All the time! Don’t let anyone try to erase you!
See the story that leads to Aveline and Mari’s relationship:
The Shining Orb Series 
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