Wisdom's Kiss (83 page)

Beyond supernatural ability and conspicuous tresses, this character-who-would-become-Trudy had one other critical function: she needed to end up brokenhearted. I very much wanted to write a YA story where the girl doesn't—against all our hopes and expectations—get the guy, but at the conclusion to the book ends up better off and happy without him. Here's a tip to my younger fans: that fella you adore at the age of fifteen, much as you might wish otherwise, will in all likelihood not be your life partner. It's statistically proven. So fall in love, yes; adore him. But don't forget that "Happily Ever After" usually isn't.

A note on Trudy's family:

Mina, like all good fictional mothers, dies young; in this case on page six. (For more on this bitter truth, see my
article
"The Adventures of Mommy Buzzkill." ) While developing characters for
Wisdom's Kiss,
I sought out unusual names, particularly unusual virtues, and miraculously stumbled upon a
www.cslib.org/nickname.htm%3ewebsite%3c/pararef
website listing colonial names and nicknames. Wow. Allow me to say that America has produced some mighty cruel parents. "Mindwell" (actual nickname of Mina) is one of the more odious examples, but "Waitstill" ranks up there as well, and I loved the name so much that for a while Trudy had a long-lost aunt. But the story didn't otherwise need her, so out she went.

I named Trudy's husband Count Rudolph of
Piccolo
because the couple then would be known as Trudy and Rudy. (NO ONE will ever get this joke, though I do hope at least a few readers will pick up on the pumpkin reference to "Cinderella.") He is very sweet and devoted to his wife, though a bit tedious on the subject of squash. Their daughters Faith and Humor—
more virtues
! —will have a central role in any future Montagne stories, should such stories ever come to pass. I particularly like the notion of Humor hating her name, but I'm personally so fond of it that I can't get any further: why would anyone dislike humor? Perhaps I could tie it somehow into the four cardinal humors
...
Shall have to ponder further, as well as pondering how and when exactly Humor helps Trudy write her memoirs. Whatever Humor is like as a teen, as a grownup she's akin to Rose Wilder Lane (a woman every American girl should know; write your next history paper on her).

Read more on the
structure
of
Wisdom's Kiss,
Tips
and Trudy's role in
Queen of All the Heavens

More Commentary on Characters
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Author's commentary on Tips, a.k.a. Tomas Müller
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Of all the characters in
Wisdom's Kiss,
Tips was probably the hardest to write. Not because he was a difficult personality—he's wonderful, if perhaps a bit perfect (handsome, kind, loving, brave, cute in tights ... Dizzy's statement that he's "modest AND confident" is about the most tantalizing description of a man that I can imagine). But he presented two major challenges: how to keep his true profession a secret for the first half of the book; and how to convey his ambivalence about Trudy—the truth that while he is devoted to her, he is not in love with her—so that their breakup, when it comes, is disappointing but not entirely unexpected.
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Luckily—I stumbled upon this solution only because I wanted a genre that differed from Trudy's memoir and Dizzy's diary—Tips's letters solved both of these problems. In writing to Trudy, Tips quite self-consciously chooses what to tell her and what to omit, omissions made even clearer with his crossed-out words and painstaking rephrasing. In keeping secrets from her, he's also keeping secrets from the reader, who doesn't learn until the end of Part II that Tips is in fact a circus acrobat, not the soldier he claimed to be. Reread his letters and you'll see how often he changes "I worked" to "I guarded," and "I walked" to "I marched"—all to appear more soldierly. (Soldierly—adjective, by the way. Cool.)

I wanted this secret for the drama, pure and simple. Think of it: Tips and Trudy reunited, stunned and hurt, before a massive audience as Trudy realizes he actually loves the princess whom she serves as lady-in-waiting
...
It was no mean feat to write up the first meeting of Tips and Dizzy when he swings her through the air, though it helps that Ben, who relates the scene, doesn't know his name. (Nor does she when "the acrobat" charms her the next day; the "Master of Air" also merits an obscure aside in the Circus Primus encyclopedia entry, as well as a much less obscure role in the
Queen
of All the
Heavens
. That's probably my favorite instant (versus my favorite
entry
) in all of
Wisdom's Kiss,
the moment when Dizzy extends her hand and Tips lifts her into his arms, whispering in her ear as they sail together, eyes locked, above the awed and silent spectators ... It still gives me goose bumps, every time I think of it.

Tips's confusion about his feelings for Trudy are similarly visible in his self-edits, such as when he mentions marriage and then hastily deletes it, or states "I love like care for you." He does care deeply about Trudy—she's almost family, and his oldest, dearest friend—but he can't muster the passion that she so clearly feels for him (or perhaps that she thinks she has for him; she's never let herself consider anyone else). He, with obvious misgivings, preserves this pretense of romance until he meets someone who knocks him off his feet—almost literally! Then he has to pick up the pieces, and Trudy (and we readers) learn the pain of a broken heart, and also a heart's mending.

Tips's magnificent battle with the evil gardener came very late in the writing process. Originally, I wanted Trudy and/or Dizzy to solve Montagne's problems, to show that girls can save countries, too. But Tips by that point was looking a bit like a third wheel with nothing to do except apologize to Trudy and moon at the princess, so I decided to give him something dramatic ... like fight a dragon. Unfortunately,
that particular scene
stunk and was promptly deleted. But it demonstrated that Tips needed to show what, exactly, he was capable of. He needed a guy scene. And, not coincidentally, the end of the book needed some oomph. At that point the "dramatic conclusion" was about as exciting as stale bread. Hence the sword fight; thank goodness Felis provided suitably
thrilling narration
.

In yet another nod to "
Puss in Boots
," Tips's last name is Müller, or "miller" in German. (As with many fairy tales, the son/hero in "Puss in Boots" is never named; he's an archetype, not a person.) And of course Tips is the third son, and while third sons are often quite unfortunate in life, they're fortunate indeed in fairy tales.
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If I were a movie director, I'd cast Skandar Keynes to play Tips ... although now that I muse on it, I'd also cast him to play Prince Florian. Clearly I have a thing for tall, dark and handsome—or at least a thing for Skandar Keynes.

More Commentary on Characters
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Author's commentary on Felis el Gato

So, the
Booted Maestro
...

I'm outlining
Wisdom's Kiss,
trying to figure out how all these different plot lines and characters will
fit together
. I've got the love triangle, I've got Nonna Ben and the evil duchess, I've got Montagne intrigue and a dopey suitor and—O joy!—an acrobat scooping up a princess and sailing with her across a circus tent. I definitely had to include THAT. Pondering, I realized that the swooping princess + acrobat could be two of the people in that romantic love triangle; characterwise, I'd be killing two birds with one stone. And this boy—Tips—could begin life in nowheresville (ultimately dubbed Bacio) with the triangle's third person, sweet and loyal Trudy.

But how exactly did the boy get from nowheresville to acrobatdom? He wouldn't run away and join the circus; not with Trudy so close. Someone passing through nowheresville must have caught sight of the boy and realized that such a gifted athlete deserved proper training and a paying audience. The sighting had to be unforgettable and intensely visual, so powerful that it seizes not only the passing stranger but the reader as well, a real grab-you-by-the-throat kind of moment ... Thus Tips's dive, with all the supplementary and oh-so-useful details of the flour mill and his sullen brother and Trudy's sight.
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