Now that I've officially got my second novel out I can begin to share some more into the characters!
Gertrude is quite a character and I had some difficulty writing her. Since I'm a firm believer in love and want nothing more than to be taken care of by someone (which I am) she has a whole different set of values and beliefs. Namely, her dislike of magic.
This was a constant issue while writing her character since I'm a huge believer in magic. While Gertrude, or Trudy as she likes to be called, has magic, she tries to pretend she doesn't to live a normal life. A large part of this has to do with what happened between her and her parents and brother.
I don't want to have spoiler alerts since my book is still so new, so I'll leave the family drama at that and focus on Trudy.
Trudy has a area affected gift that is triggered by two Latin phrases. "inrita" which means cancel is how she is able to, quite literally, take away everyone's magic. "reditus" (also Latin), means return. Even though she has taken the magic from everyone to include herself, her magic is loop holed to allow her to use this phrase to bring it all back. No one ever said magic was easy and anyone who did I would call "lies" to.
So, Trudy has this ability and she thoroughly detests it. Even more so because she came from a family of non-magic users. She was the first in multiple generations to even possess the gift. Her parents thought this was grand and basically exploited her and used her as a stepping stone to gain status in the town. When her brother was born with even more magical abilities, but a drive to be more, her parents and brother than continued to try and get her to be on board with their plans. By any means necessary.
Trudy got tired of this and fled her life opting to live in the woods away from the society that now shunned her. The only exception to this was her few clients that she sewed for. Trudy has a knack for intricate designs on gowns and some women still liked the feel of hand-stitched rather than magically woven.
Bottling all this together, one can begin to see why Trudy detests magic so much. She was never shown any sympathy or love and was only used because of her magical ability. When she meets the Volkenheim's and her soul mate, she is hard-pressed to reject them and their gifts. She is also undergoing emotional struggles as her lack of magical knowledge puts her at a disadvantage. Couple that with her inexperience at being loved put her at odds with Damarcus.
While she does eventually warm up to the idea that magic isn't all bad and that these feelings are okay to have, she is still hesitant and reserved. It may be cliche and overdone how I get her to overcome these last few issues, but it works none-the-less.
I hope this has been eye-opening for the character of Trudy. If there are questions, please ask. I do my best to answer.
Enjoy the world of Volkenheim. Cheers!
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