Episode 4: Questionable Characters
Cake, characters and fan art galore 👩🏻🎨
Welcome to the Pub Dates newsletter! We’re so glad you’re here.
This newsletter is released as a companion to each podcast episode, and we use it to share the visual elements of our discussion — from mood boards to design sketches, from photos to secret giveaways just for subscribers. And this episode, we’re sharing our first ever snippets from the books!
In episode four, we talked about our characters—who they are, what they’re like, and all our favourite tropes.
At the very start of the episode you can hear a little outtake where we talk about cake—a very common topic of discussion—so please enjoy this picture. We’re recording in Amie’s campervan. Note the microphone propped up on a plate on top of a salad bowl (we are nothing if not profesh) and note Kate looking at the aforementioned cake with all the love and adoration it truly deserves.
Seriously, get you someone who looks at you the way Kate looks at that cake.
Now, on with the newsletter! This episode we talked about our characters, and we’re wondering if you have a favourite! Here’s the list:
From Nightbirds:
MATHILDE: This spoiled society girl loves parties, adoration, and being a Nightbird. She is sure of the gilded world she grew up in and doesn’t have patience for her new Nightbird sisters, who don’t seem to want to play any of her games. But when her family starts pressuring her to choose a suitor and get married, she finds she isn’t ready to give up her freedoms. So she does what she always does: she gambles. But a few reckless mistakes may bring her secrets tumbling out into the light.
SAYER: A tough girl from the wrong side of the canals, Sayer’s got a serious chip on her shoulder about the Nightbirds. After all, her mother was one once, and look where that got her…nowhere good. She didn’t join up to make friends, no matter what notions Matilde might harbour. She came to make some money and settle scores against the people who did her wrong. She may or may not have a knife under her dress: fair warning.
ÆSA: She’s that sweet friend who will always remember to bake you muffins on your birthday, but she's afraid of many things, the magic inside her most of all. But her family back in the Illish Isles have fallen on hard times, and to help them this country girl is going to have to get over her concerns about big city life and kissing strangers. She’ll have to find her courage, too, buried deep.
FENLIN: Fen’s had to be cunning to become Simta’s only female gang boss, and one of its youngest. Don’t ask her how she got her eyepatch unless you want to risk getting stabbed. She keeps her secrets close and will do just about anything she must to keep them hidden. Even from Sayer, her best friend - especially her. But when Sayer gets herself into some serious trouble, Fen finds she can’t turn her back, even if it means getting tangled with the Nightbirds and revealing more of herself than she’s ready to show.
ALEC: Alecand is an ambitious alchemist’s apprentice who is very good at making potions. Some create truly enchanting glamors…and some explode. He’s been known to singe off eyebrows on occasion. He’s frustrated by Prohibition, a terrible law that stunts progress in his city. He’s also frustrated by Matilde, the Great House girl who is WAY out of his league. And yet he can’t stop teasing her. After all, a guy’s gotta have dreams.
From The Isles of the Gods:
SELLY: A headstrong, frequently cranky sailor girl who took her first steps on a boat. Her father is the captain of a merchant fleet, and one day she plans to take over the family business. She’s always ignored the affairs of the land-bound, but when her ship is commandeered to take Alinor’s prince to a secret rendezvous, the fate of the world, and this incredibly annoying boy, are suddenly both in her hands.
LEANDER: A charming, easy-going prince who always has everything his own way. He’s just been forced to interrupt his busy schedule of parties for a secret mission on behalf of his sister, the queen. When the enemy’s warships appear on the horizon, suddenly the game turns deadly serious. Like, saving the world serious. On the upside, he’s in it with Selly, who only hates him a little…
KEEGAN: A scholar who just wants to live inside a book, and for everything else to go away. He is not at all impressed to find himself on a quest, and will be lodging a complaint as soon as he can figure out who to write to. But as things go from bad to worse, Keegan might be forced to lift his head from his latest read, and decide what he’s willing to fight for.
LASKIA: A girl in a sharp suit who came from nothing and wants everything. Her big sister Ruby runs one of Port Naranda’s underworld gangs, and Laskia wants to impress her so badly that she’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen. Even start a war.
JUDE: The illegitimate son of a nobleman, who fell from grace when his father died. Now he bare-knuckle boxes for a living, and to keep the doctor coming for his desperately ill mother, he’s fallen in with the local crime gangs. He has anger to burn, much of it directed at the prince he once thought was his friend.
We also talked about fan art — Amie promised to include a couple of her favourite pieces, and Kate promised to include a portrait of Sayer by her husband and general Renaissance man, Paul. Do we love her fashion, or do we love her fashion?
Here are a few of Amie’s favourite pieces of fan art…
This is Tarver and Lilac from These Broken Stars by Grace Fong — this print actually hangs on Amie’s office wall.
And this is Kady from the Illuminae Files by Megan Jeong — there are so many amazing styles and artists out there. Amie regularly posts fan art for #fanartfriday on her instagram — you can follow her there if you like.
Is there an artist out there you love? Especially if they take commissions, we’d love to know — leave a comment and tell us?
And finally, we thought we’d add in one more extra thing just for our newsletter subscribers—a couple of lines from the books themselves. Here are a few quotes from early on in the stories…
She is not a star made for if only wishes. She’s the kind of star that burns. — Nightbirds
It’s a familiar feeling—watching something unspool ahead of me, yet somehow not quite able to bite my tongue and find a way to fix it before it happens. — The Isles of the Gods
This place is full of sharks, and she is a minnow. She is certain it will swallow her whole. — Nightbirds
Sometimes, if I’m tired enough, push my body hard enough, I can stop thinking, stop feeling, and just be. I can feel that moment coming close now, and I want it with a tired ache that never leaves me. — The Isles of the Gods
Got a guess as to who they’re about? Let us know which character you think it is!
And that’s a wrap for this episode! We’ll leave you with a picture of Kate’s hound Galahad, and his precious bandaged paw. Look at that good, fragile boy. Isn’t he the best?
I think my early favourites from this are Leander and Aesa but both storied sound like they have such a great concoction of characters! Can't wait to properly meet them all!
I really love this podcast - thanks so much, Kate and Amie.
I'm spoiled for choice when it comes to picking an 'out-of-the-gate' favorite character, but I'm going to go with Alec from 'Nightbirds' and Keegan from 'Isles' - one who wants to burn down the world (and maybe accidentally does), and one who wants to hide away from the world. I can relate to both - they sound a lot of fun.