Meet Lily - Such Crooked Wood

One of my favourite book series is Ellen Hart’s Jane Lawless mystery series, and that’s due in no small part to one of my favourite literary characters. Sorry, Jane, but I mean your sidekick Cordelia Thorn. Anyone who’s read a book in the series will be familiar with Cordelia’s flamboyant personality, and it captured my attention from the first book.

Why we’re drawn to specific characters is partly down to personal preferences and experiences. For instance, Cordelia’s exuberance reminds me a little of my oldest friend, so I look at her fondly. But I also appreciate Jane’s pragmatic nature and, especially, the way she tries to handle Cordelia.

Lily, the protagonist of my forthcoming novel Such Crooked Wood, has a strong friendship of her own to support her, although she doesn’t realise the worth of it at the beginning of the novel. She’s one of those people who thinks of themselves as an island, albeit one where the waves lapping at the shore get a bit close sometimes. One of the major problems she has to contend with throughout the novel is that she isn’t as isolated and resilient as she’d like to think - and that could have huge consequences.

As with all my characters, there’s definitely a little of me in Lily. She’s stubborn and she can be monosyllabic when she doesn’t know how to deal with something. However, I’m not as confident as she is in certain situations and I wouldn’t get my head around how to refurbish a piece of furniture if I had one-on-one tuition for a month. Part of knowing your characters is understanding how and why they diverge from you as the author, and Lily’s another great lesson for me in that respect.

She also has the honour of being the character who’s been with me the longest. To learn more about how long Such Crooked Wood has been in development, head over to this post.

Such Crooked Wood is out on Kindle on 23 April and is available for pre-order now.