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Apr. 9th, 2019 07:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ghislaine posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
rosesanctuaryI fell asleep puzzling over the first story in the Cristalle series. While I have a fairly clear feeling for the other stories, I don't have a cohesive vision for this one. Yet, somehow, I have other stories preceding and following this one that are dependent on it. I have a prequel short story called "White Roses" that centers around an angel. Then, in my original first novella, which has been called The Awakening or The Sleeping Bride, the main character of the story is an automaton who takes on the qualities and memories of her likeness, Cambriel, who is other-than-human as the daughter of a half-angel and vampire. Her name was originally Ophelia. I have also considered calling her Michaela. The most distinct parts of the story are when she uncovers memories she has blocked that give her clues as to why she thinks and feels as she does and then, when she follows after Shelley, the maker of her automaton form, to save him from his captor, who seeks to expose him for revenge.
One of the issues I have puzzled over most with regard to this story is the fact that Shelley and Jeremy, Shelley's captor, both her love interests, are obsessed with her because of their obsessions with Cambriel and Valentine (another woman whose likenesses Ophelia has developed). In scenes with these characters, Ophelia is never really appreciated as herself, and I never went far in developing her as herself. The point of the story is that she isn't Cambriel, and it makes it hard for me to see a happy ending for her with either man.
The second novella, Red Rose, is in many ways different plot-wise, but similar scenario: the main character's love interests are Jude, her scientist/creator, and Jade, a vampire who takes her to a vampire coven to shield her identity from the government. However, Jade had unconscious motives in doing so. Scarlet, the main character, is an automaton formed after Amelia, with whom both Jude and Jade have a close tie. Amelia was Jade's caretaker, being about eight years older than himself, and Jude finds her injured in the woods, and transforms parts of her into this automaton. Both men have semi-romantic feelings for her. In the end, Scarlet finds love with Robert, another vampire, and leaves both men behind.
In my re-imagining of the first novella, I felt that Ophelia, too, eventually finds love with Jude, Scarlet's scientist creator, but they don't end up getting together until the end of the third novella, The Book of Faery, which centers around Coral, an automaton who transforms into a succubus through a magical ritual, and Jade, the vampire from Red Rose. I had originally wanted all three novellas to stand alone as complete romances, but as it is, the first one ends in an open manner. I feel that given Ophelia's circumstances, however, it's hard to imagine a happy ending for her as already married off, because the motivation behind her striving throughout the novella is to discover her own identity and in the end, that seems enough. With all that happens in the story, it's hard to develop a cohesive romantic plot with a male character.
I have also considered that, instead of Jude as a future love interest, that Ophelia and Jeremy move toward a romance at the end of the story.
I am still struggling with a title for the novella. The Sleeping Bride no longer seems appropriate, because Ophelia does not end up being Shelley's bride, as he intended for her to be. The title is doubly confining and indicates Ophelia's problem, but not the overall trajectory of her experiences in the story. The Awakening is too generic. Isn't that the name of a Kate Chopin short story? It says Victorian-realist to me, not fantasy-romance. I also tried Cameo of Porcelain because it also expressed a sense of duplication or crafting from nonliving material, but the title seems a bit unwieldy. However, it goes better with Rose and Book along the lines of physical objects.
One of the issues I have puzzled over most with regard to this story is the fact that Shelley and Jeremy, Shelley's captor, both her love interests, are obsessed with her because of their obsessions with Cambriel and Valentine (another woman whose likenesses Ophelia has developed). In scenes with these characters, Ophelia is never really appreciated as herself, and I never went far in developing her as herself. The point of the story is that she isn't Cambriel, and it makes it hard for me to see a happy ending for her with either man.
The second novella, Red Rose, is in many ways different plot-wise, but similar scenario: the main character's love interests are Jude, her scientist/creator, and Jade, a vampire who takes her to a vampire coven to shield her identity from the government. However, Jade had unconscious motives in doing so. Scarlet, the main character, is an automaton formed after Amelia, with whom both Jude and Jade have a close tie. Amelia was Jade's caretaker, being about eight years older than himself, and Jude finds her injured in the woods, and transforms parts of her into this automaton. Both men have semi-romantic feelings for her. In the end, Scarlet finds love with Robert, another vampire, and leaves both men behind.
In my re-imagining of the first novella, I felt that Ophelia, too, eventually finds love with Jude, Scarlet's scientist creator, but they don't end up getting together until the end of the third novella, The Book of Faery, which centers around Coral, an automaton who transforms into a succubus through a magical ritual, and Jade, the vampire from Red Rose. I had originally wanted all three novellas to stand alone as complete romances, but as it is, the first one ends in an open manner. I feel that given Ophelia's circumstances, however, it's hard to imagine a happy ending for her as already married off, because the motivation behind her striving throughout the novella is to discover her own identity and in the end, that seems enough. With all that happens in the story, it's hard to develop a cohesive romantic plot with a male character.
I have also considered that, instead of Jude as a future love interest, that Ophelia and Jeremy move toward a romance at the end of the story.
I am still struggling with a title for the novella. The Sleeping Bride no longer seems appropriate, because Ophelia does not end up being Shelley's bride, as he intended for her to be. The title is doubly confining and indicates Ophelia's problem, but not the overall trajectory of her experiences in the story. The Awakening is too generic. Isn't that the name of a Kate Chopin short story? It says Victorian-realist to me, not fantasy-romance. I also tried Cameo of Porcelain because it also expressed a sense of duplication or crafting from nonliving material, but the title seems a bit unwieldy. However, it goes better with Rose and Book along the lines of physical objects.
