My Favorite Character? The One I'm Writing Now...

by Fae Rowen

I'm deep in the final edits of the second book in my YA series P.R.I.S.M: Prisoner Relocation Internment System Management.

Since you're kind enough to read this blog, I'll share a preview of the cover (to the left) with you. (It hasn't been released yet!)

The main character is a teen named O'Neill. She's self-sufficient, a pilot, a trained soldier, and lives on a prison world for exiles who lost the global civil war on Earth twenty-five years ago. Prism is the only home she's ever known, or will know, because to try to leave it would mean her execution.

All that would seem like enough problems, but in the first book, her father went missing during an exploration of the planet and her status is about to change because of the First Law of Prism. She will have to declare a male protector who will have the authority to control the smallest detail of her life.

She refuses to declare a protector and her life changes, though she doesn't land in the brig for life.

In the first book she fell in love with an Earther, no small task since she hates all things from Earth. But Jericho Montgomery, sole heir to the richest conglomerate owner on Earth, travels to Prism and they both start imagining a life they'd never contemplated before. Jericho returns to Earth with the promise of coming back to Prism to marry O'Neill, who is still conflicted about marriage.

Oh, did I mention that Earth is sending mercenaries to enslave the exiles and make them work in the deadly translithium mines that her father found on Prism?

So, why is O'Neill my favorite character? 

During these edits, I'm deep inside her skull and I love her determination, her fighting spirit, her dedication to doing the right thing. She loves her family and friends without reservation, but she worries about marriage and losing her independence. Her fight for independence has sparked a rebellion against the First Law of Prism, which happens to be the only law on the prison world.

She didn't think anyone would notice when she took on the planet's Joint Committee, but her fierce struggle for liberty has awakened the long dormant or deep-suppressed feelings of the females who were originally exiled to Prism and had agreed to the First Law for their survival. Those not in favor of throwing out the law that says every female must be protected by at least one male, who has the power to dictate what she can and cannot do to maintain her safety, focus their anger on O'Neill.

But she trains for the coming war, drills with other pilots, first-and second-gens, to protect the lives of the people of Prism. That is the battle she focuses on now...while she deals with an ex-boyfriend who thought she'd be his fiancee, her stepfather who wants to sell her tiger for tiger steaks, and Jericho, who acts like he's not sure he still wants to marry her. And her father who's become a hybrid between an energy being and a human. And her grandfather, who is the leader of the military forces on Prism.

Amid all this, she maintains a wicked sense of humor, her duty-filled schedule, and hope.

When I started writing O'Neill's story, I didn't know she was such a fiercely independent teen. The more I wrote, the more I liked her. The more I realized she was like me during those years (though I had a much easier life) the deeper I was pulled into her story.

And that's what happens with all my characters. I fall in love with my heroes as I write them. And I grow to love my heroines as I discover the layers to their character. Once this book "goes live" at the end of October, I'll start work on the final revision of Keeping Athena, a science fiction book about a fighter pilot in a war against a superior force for four years. I fell in love with Drake, who fights on the side of her enemy. And I love Athena's character for her tenacity to escape the enemy world and to do the right thing by Drake, who protected her there. If you ask my favorite characters after Halloween, I'll probably answer Athena and Drake.

After the first of the year, ask me the same question, and the answer will be the characters from the book I'll be working on then.

I am so predictable.

About Fae

Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak. Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes that she can live anywhere but the present. As a mathematician, she knows life’s a lot more fun when you get to define your world and its rules.

  P.R.I.S.M., Fae's debut book, a young adult science fiction romance story of survival, betrayal, resolve, deceit, and love is now available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.Fae's second book in the series will be available for pre-order October 1, 2019.