Authorpreneur Dashboard – Gregg Stephen Schwartzkopf
Judgment of the Elders
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Caswel Esmar is a Knight of Whiteleaf, charged with guarding the Elder Council, and he's bored with his job. When the Elders catch him sneaking into the Realm of Mortals to have a good time, they punish him by forcing him to live as a Mortal without magic for 50 moons. To increase his misery, they make him a teenage girl going to a Catholic school in Long Island. He learns a lesson, but not the intended one.
Book Bubbles from Judgment of the Elders
Motivating the Villian
The bad guys need to have credible reasons for their dastardly deeds. Esmeralda is motivated by envy and revenge, but Peter is intimidated by women with power, so he lashes out at them. It sets up a development path for him throughout the series
Promoting Minor Characters
Several of the characters in the story are bit players who serve as foils to the main cast. Some, like Amanda, have interesting quirks that made them good candidates for expansion as the series continues. Amanda sees much more action in the next book.
Humor and Villainy
Judgment of the Elders is primarily a humorous story about an elf stuck in suburbia. The villains needed to strike a balance between genuine threat and comedic foil. Esmeralda has dark motivations, but is only slightly more effective than Snidely Whiplash. There is a more dangerous arc villain, so I'll need to find humor in life or death situations as the series progresses.
Choosing a Narrator
Third person narration is like having a nameless individual with a crystal ball who sees all parts of the story's universe and can even look into the minds of the characters. I chose an interesting (i.e. quirky) variation. Judgment of the Elders has a first person peripheral narrator who is a character in the story (though not the main character) with a personality and a point of view. He also happens to have a crystal ball for observing the universe and reading minds.
