Part of the Journey to Vigilante
Don’t you believe that Princess Tessa Warren is one of the more interesting parts about The Aluria Adventures? I would like to think so. Her role in the series hasn’t changed in the series since I invented her decades ago. Since day one, I knew she would be royal. I knew she would have the ability to inherit the powers of the Oracle. I knew I wanted her to be an equal to the main character, Jason. And I think I made all three of those desires possible.
I don’t think I ever mentioned this before, but Tessa wasn’t her original name. For years, her name was Jane. And when I began putting Aluria’s stories on paper, I wrote it with Jane instead of Tessa. But I knew from the start that I would have to change it. Throughout my writing, I have caught myself using the same letters of the alphabet for multiple characters. That became true for my two main characters, and I didn’t like the idea of them both sharing the letter “J”. So, one day, completely by accident, I came across the name Tessa. I fell in love with it, and the meaning (“derived from the word “asset” (spelt backwards) representing a princess who is loved by everyone”) matches perfectly with what I had in mind for her.
Tessa will have a difficult time in this story. If you remember what happened in the last book, her actions will continue to haunt her, which could affect how her testimony in Washington, DC will go. I made it very clear in the first book that Tessa would have to fight to keep her title as ambassador, and I had a blast preparing those scenes and tying it in with the rest of the book. I had to do a bit of research, which is rare for me in my writing, because I wanted to make sure that I got the process of congressional hearings as accurate as possible. I’m not sure how well I did (because even the federal government doesn’t fully understand how it all works. I should know, I called every agency in Washington!), but I still think it’s a good story for those both educated and uneducated in politics.
I won’t say too much on the subject, but she’ll be more help to Aluria than she realizes in this book. This will set up her role for future novels, and I can’t wait to see where she’ll turn up. I have so much in store for her in the third book, it kills me that I haven’t started writing it yet.
If you haven’t read Aluria yet, I highly suggest you do, or thing things you read about Tessa in Vigilante may confuse you. Remember, Vigilante will be released worldwide on March 4.