My apologies for the double delay in posting. More interviews to attend, more companies to research, and more anxious waiting for a decision. And to add to the fun, my thumb drive with all my story information decided to stop working. Thank goodness I backed it up two weeks earlier, though unfortunately I lost my new section of Chapter 3 and all the character questionnaires I had completed. Darnfangled technomogy, dagnabbit!
But on the plus side, it means this entry is a double dosage. We get to address the vices of sloth and gluttony, as well as the virtues of diligence and temperance… and no, I don’t mean Kathy Reich’s fictional forensic anthropologist. The wife loving both the book and television series has fried the name into my brain, just as badly as her love for the CSI series has fried Horatio Kane in there too.
Back to business…
SLOTH
1) (n) habitual disinclination to exertion; indolence; laziness.
The vice everybody will be suffering from post-Christmas. This will be built into a character from one of the families in Book 1 (PoP), and it will be the cause of a pretty horrendous event that will haunt the character for the rest of their days. Such a vice would have to mean they are stinky, wear dirty clothes, do not do much in the way of focused activity. As such, they should not look particularly appealing. Despite this, there will probably be an important twist in their background somewhere…
How would you present a slovenly character into your stories? Can you make the reader care about such a person?
DILIGENCE
1) (n) constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken; persistent exertion of body or mind.
This virtue is another that I would associate directly to a warrior type. With all the drills and discipline involved in their training, it would have to be the number one attribute to have. The character I have in mind is lined up for introduction in Book 3 (PoD) so far, though they have a quite similar background to Wrath. A fake-out to who is which may be in order…
GLUTTONY
1) (n) excessive eating and drinking.
The other vice that will be making itself known during the Holiday season. This character will also be from another of the families in Book 1, though they will probably the most unlikeable out of all of the main characters… well, in any case I don’t like them very much.
TEMPERANCE
1) (n) moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc.; self-control.
The character with this will be tightly linked with the Diligence character. Due to the connection, they will also find their way into the story in Book 3. It is likely that this character will be of a religious bend, as the monks and practitioners of the day seemed to deny themselves a lot of the creature comforts that others would not forgo. They will also play a part in expanding the story world east, as some parts of the world will be briefly addressed in Book 1 (PoP), and start the true world expansion will start in Book 2 (PoK).
The next post will be on Boxing Day. Hope you all have a great Holiday Season, gets lots of pressies and that a few more notches in your belt buckle will help decide your New Year Resolutions =)
djkeyserv140 
Congratulations on so much hard work! And good luck with all the interviews! And have a happy holiday season. And…and…and…can’t wait to continue reading.
Thank you =)
I will try and get Chapter 3 Scene 2 rewritten quickly, and send Chapter 3 on over for some feedback =)
I don’t know how I’d make a character with the sloth vice likable, as I get quite peeved at laziness. Usually, when I see characters that are lazy, but likable, they are friendly and laidback. This makes me somewhat like them, until they are unreliable and lazy when everyone else is hard at work, and then I get bothered again. I’m not sure what I’d do with a lazy character in my own stories. I’m sure I already have some, but brain not working right now….
No one likes a lazy sod… just ask my wife haha.
It seems the balance I found was that the character is not inherently lazy, but a situation where they were lazy lead to a disastrous event. I guess it is more like not being diligent instead of being lazy, but it causes a changing point in the character’s story.