Casting my next set of characters! Okay, so I’m writing an lgbt+ comedic fantasy series and I’ve been working on the first quartet of books for the past few years. I’m nowhere near done that, but I’ve been jotting down ideas for the next trilogy in the series. This is sort of the next generation since three of them are kids of my current batch of characters.

These characters actually exist in three places in the timeline. It's complicated, but the idea has intrigued me so much! Gilly, Chantrell, and Ametrine are in the present (a few years after the first quartet takes place). Astra and Char are about 15 years in the future from that. Grandeau and his ghost friend are caught on the plane of shadow that exists outside of time, but Grandeau originally started in the present.

The pictures above are:
1.) Gilly: she fills the "main character" slot that Adair holds in the first trilogy and is part of a trio, as well. She can’t speak, so she communicates via sign language and a small chalkboard. She’s a carnival performer as her profession, working mostly with sleight-of-hand tricks. Her more secret occupation is that she's one of the thieves that return stolen art. Her magic is that of a medium who can control/communicate with ghosts.

2.) Chantrell: the Artisan of the trio who becomes a musician with the carnival troupe. Chell's magic involves sound. Gilly rescues her in their first book and brings her back to the troupe. They fall in love and it's freaking adorable.

3.) Ametrine: Gilly's long-time roommate and best friend. Exasperated roommate because Gilly keeps bringing home haunted objects and leaving them in their apartment. Ametrine is gender fluid and aro/ace, ending up in a queerplatonic relationship with Gilly and Chell later. Ametrine's a dancer with the troupe, specializing in hula hoops. (I needed a hooper in my series somewhere!) Ametrine is my only completely mundane main character so far and has no magic whatsoever. He was adopted as a pre-teen by the characters in the first quartet, so he's technically Astra and Char's sibling.

4.) Grandeau: Gilly's brother, although neither of them know this. Grandeau was raised by their mother, Gilly was with their father but adopted after he died. (Their parents separated to keep the kids safe... it sorta worked.) He makes decisions based on arbitrary answers- I'm thinking he uses playing or tarot cards. This bad decision is what got him stuck on the plane of shadow in the first place. He's a goofball- basically the kind of person who would make decisions based on the equivalent of a coin toss, lol.

5.) ? is Grandeau's best friend, if just for the fact that he's a ghost on the shadow plane where Grandeau is stuck. He has no memory of who he was before he died and can't remember his name. Gradually I think he starts to piece this together.

6.) Astra: the daughter of Adair, Blythe, and Etri. She's a member of a different carnival troupe (haven’t come up with an act for her yet) and her part of the story exists in the future. Her magic is... weird. She has Etri's shadow magic, but she also managed to end up with light magic, too. (Because Etri's twin has light magic, it runs in the family.) Part of her plot is deciding between the two types and using it to help free Grandeau.

7.) Char: daughter of Firedrake and Sol, she’s Astra's cousin and closest friend. She's a fire performer with the troupe since she inherited the fire/light magic from both of her parents. She's also part Salamander (my shapeshifting lizard people), but I don't know if she's enough of one to be able to shift. It's possible she can only change her appearance slightly.

I really need to finish the current trilogy so I can move onto the next one. These characters and their stories intrigue me so much! (You can find my post with info about the characters in the first quartet here.)