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The “Meet My Main Character” Blog Tour

June 24, 2014
by JMGajda

Last week the amazing Weaver Grace was kind enough to ask me to participate in an interview where authors of works-in-progress discuss the main character of their historical fiction. While the book I’m writing isn’t strictly historical fiction per se (it’s a fantasy based on a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood), it’s based on 16th – 18th century Afro-Brazilian culture and late medieval English nunneries.

I’ve been researching extensively, reading scholarly works such as Eileen Power’s eye-opening ‪Medieval English Nunneries:‪ C.1275 to 1535 (available for free on Kindle), which dispels any notions of quiet-living, pious women. It must be remembered that many women of this period who ended up in convents were not necessarily there because they felt called to serve God, but often because they had no choice. Late Medieval English nunneries were sometimes used as dumping grounds for unmarriageable or unwanted females of the nobility and the upper class (untitled, rich merchants and such) . . .

1. What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

Porcelana is my main character and she is fictional. She is an Afro-Brazilian albino who’s been hand-picked to train to become one of the warrior/nuns of Convento do Pano Vermelho (The Convent of the Red Cloth), the protectors of her town who hunt the savage wolves said to roam freely in the surrounding forests . . .

Young Porcelana (Photo of Young Afro-Brazilian Girl by Gustavo Lacerda)

My inspiration images for the young Porcelana are from the amazing Brazilian photographer Gustavo Lacerda whose website you can visit by clicking here . . .

read more at Jessica’s blog