#oh ill be back january 8ths for those wondering | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

diveronarpg · 5 years

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Congratulations, NAY! You’ve been accepted for the role of JULIET. Admin Minnie: My arms are wide open for you to return to us, Nay! I am so unbelievably thrilled to have your Juliana join us again. You capture her completely, without reservation and without a bit of doubt — and for good reason. You understand Juliana in a way that honestly leaves me speechless. And the fact that you wrote a whole new app that incorporated the darkness you’ve discovered in Juliana along the way? The potential, the precipice that she stands on now with so much to lose and even more to gain? Wow. Nay, I’m so glad you’re back. I can’t wait to weep reading your writing yet again. Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Alias | nay.

Age | twenty-one, but my birthday is next month (january 8th!) so i'm already telling people i'm twenty-two. or eighty? spiritually, i'm eighty & i'm knitting these days, so.

Preferred Pronouns | she/her.

Activity Level | my life is something of a circus, i'll be real with you. i live between two houses, i'm trying to get through my final year of undergrad while trying to earn money writing, fighting mental illness (aren't we all?) and basically having a midlife crisis every other week. but, like. an 8. i love y'all such a lot, you can't keep me away ;)

Timezone | gmt+5.

How did you find the RP? | i… don't even remember at this point. it's just home.

Current/Past RP Accounts | to quote Hamlet, act III, scene iii, line 87? no.

IN CHARACTER

Character | juliet / juliana rosa capulet.

J U L I A N A | the name is chosen before she is even born. picked out of a Bible resting askew atop rounded-belly, like a flower from a garden: Juliana. she is named in devotion to the once-suffering patron saint of sickness, Saint Juliana of Nicomedia (now, Naples). she is only a squirming bundle, already carrying a legend of martyrdom through a namesake.

R O S A | what smelt sweeter than a rose? her mother adored them – and thus, there could never be anything sweeter ever again. so sweet, many hearts yearn to pick them. enchanted by the intoxicating perfume, many lovers cut themselves on these thorns.

C A P U L E T | who truly understood the magnitude of a name? a name of Anglo-Saxon origin; coming from a wooded area beside a chapel, hailing from a family who once-lived in a village named Caplewood. a prophecy, then—taken, and bastardized: paupers evolving into the kings, a chapel beside no more than a house to their sins.

What drew you to this character? | i remember fragments of the last time i answered this question. this time, i made it a point not to read my old application, because if i was going to reapply? i wanted to do it the right way, go through the whole process, start on a fresh page. that said, i do recall my own surprise at a reincarnation of juliet capulet being my character of choice. i remember my own poetic gibberish; this romanticisation of colours & versatility, the whole universe inside juliana that causes her so much pain. somehow, after the span of only months of writing her, i can't answer it the same. somehow, a paltry chunk of time has turned an idea i was enchanted by into a person. somehow… it made the experience of reading her biography again, after all this time, a more impactful one. and perhaps that's the mark of rosey being the wretchedly talented wordsmith we must suffer angst for loving, but i found myself picking up on details i had missed, and lines i had forgotten to be arrested by – and somehow, a character i had, swathed in my own contradictory brand of hubris, thought i knew like the back of my hand? she still inspired me. i still had ideas flooding in my head, and love swelling my heart. i think that's the mark of a well-written character, every bit as much as it is an indicator that the character is one you can write with integrity.

thrive. ghost. onlooker, helplessness, obsession, lamented, saint, blood, symbol, succumbing.

isn't it absolutely prophetic?

what draws me to juliana is her complexity, at the heart of it. i love the boundless possibility of her; this dainty, precious, precocious slip of a girl—not just a girl, but not quite a woman yet—and the enormous weight of a last name, which really has nothing on the burden that is the heart she carts around in her chest. there's something peculiar about her, an eeriness about how truly, genuinely tender she is. and as easy as her tenderness is to mistake for weakness, she isn’t. she is the embodiment of love – and much as it is absolutely the greatest source of pain to her, it is her greatest strength. love is what makes her, and it is what has the power to completely undo her: to a different version of herself, harder or softer, or undone.

i’d see it as a great privilege to get to explore her story.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

TRIGGER WARNING: suicide mention, mental illness mention, postpartum depression mention, drowning mention

LOVER / her heart is her biggest strength, just as it is her biggest weakness. it always has been. just like it was her mother's. it's why her father worries so much about her – and how can she begrudge him for it? she worries about herself, too. jia capulet had had a bleeding heart; where had that landed her? six feet under is where. and thus, they worry, worry for the ways that she is her mother's daughter. but juliana worries about the ways in which she is her father's daughter, too. she loves him so dearly, so reverently, that she has been his dutiful puppet. she has been a figurehead, a symbol, a caricature. she has smiled… she has been smiling for an eternity, for an audience that never stops watching. she worries, still, about how much war steals: time, and lives, and this city that is their home. there is some irony to it, she thinks; the girl they say has everything, so terrified of loss.

› juliana is so thoroughly a person led by her heart. moreover, she is a compulsive overthinker. she nitpicks (internally, constantly), she analyses, she wonders and lays awake at night plagued by questions she cannot answer, and answers she knows not questions to. it isn't a surprise that her own story — i.e. the people she comes from — is something that weighs on her, heavily, and shapes her, influencing her thoughts, perceptions and choices.

this is a self-driven plot, i know, but i want to headcanon that her mother, jia, suffered from a devastating case of postpartum depression after she prematurely conceived juliana's little sister. italy is actually a frontrunner in hands-on understanding of mental health without the questionable committing to an institution, but with that said, jia capulet wasn't italian. she was chinese, and didn't grow up in a society where she would at all be open to entertaining the idea of mental illness perpetuated by pregnancy. it is incredibly difficult to help someone who does not want to be helped – and all juliana and cosimo could do for her was pray. and when they failed her, and she and the baby girl were found floating in the lake behind capulet manor, all they could do was hide the story from the world, the first secret between father & daughter. it is a personal headcanon of mine that juliana bears an eerie resemblance to her mother, and that doesn't help the difficulty of separating her own identity from the trauma that's tainted her childhood, and the trauma currently tainting her adolescence.

i'm dying to explore how it produces an adulthood for her. as much as i love a good coming of age story, juliana's needs to be something darker. i want to see what she takes from her parents, what she tucks away, what she tosses aside – and who is left, ultimately, after it all.

ALL MY FLOWERS GREW BACK AS THORNS / two years: that's how long it's been since juliana's world was turned upside down. oh, of course she'd heard the rumours. of course she'd heard snippets of conversations, caught the caution in some eyes, malice in others, in too many others. she had never asked questions for the answers she was given, had she? but an evening in her father's study — cosimo's brows furrowed, and vivianne's arched, expectant — and reality was unveiled, all the same. beneath the cover of those luscious roses, nurtured and adored, was reality. go on, they had urged her. la principessa was to get her hands dirty, to seize the opportunity she had never been brave enough to ask for – and now, those hands bled, reality's gritty red, ruddy & relentless, oozing out of thorn-impalement, those puncture wounds. it stings. it stings, it stings, it stings, over & over. how much can she take?

› the biggest overarching plot-point for juliana's i story that i would so like to explore is the changes in her as the war progresses, and how it transforms her. i genuinely believe that she is, at heart, a good person. she is also, however, a good person who has grown up with a very basic, one-dimensional view of morality and goodness and their opposites, in the way that children are. in large part, that's attributed to the extremely sheltered way juliana has been raised, protected so suffocatingly, and that's why i understand that it hits her and begins to shape her immediately, going from the extreme of being in the dark about everything and then essentially becoming the figurehead for a war that has been going on for way, way longer than she has even known about it. there is a difference between idealism and optimism, and the lesson to understand it is a painful one. i would like to put her through that, and peel back the layers of her naiveté to unveil the woman she must grow into.

GLORY & GORE / verona is falling apart. lives are being lost – innocent, guilty… who is man to decide, what is to be done with Dio's creations? juliana was raised to believe in God. she was raised to respect the universe, to do her duty to spread kindness, to work to spread good fortune where it was lacking and to be generous with it. is a gun in her hand one day meant to change who she is at heart? who is this violence for, for whose good? what is to come of it all? is power ever enough? will it ever be? who will be left standing? will anyone? the streets run too red. this is not her verona.

› i would love to see juliana, at a point, actually take over the reins from cosimo. now, the possible events that could lead up to that as endless: a death, a coup, a voluntary succession? i'm here for any of it. but a plot i'm very interested in is seeing juliana, who has spent a majority of time being rigid, and uncomfortable, too caught up in a holier than thou take on mob reality taking on power and defining it for herself now that the war has begun to very personally take from her – first, the near-assassination of her father, then vivianne's blood on her hands, and now, her beloved rafaella. i want to see how she balances her humanity and diplomacy, if it truly isn't possible to both be in power and not be corrupted by it. i want to see who follows her, who would pledge allegiance to her, and what she would do of those who do not. spicy plot, right?

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | so long as she dies for love.

IN DEPTH

In-Character Para Sample:

NOTE: i cheated and stole an excerpt of my own thread for juliana. oops?

Excruciating awareness seemed to be her stock in life. One would think—as, frankly, Juliana herself often did, excruciatingly aware of her mind’s rapid, ricocheting song—that it would be she was used to it by now. But she was no such thing, and it was because of this that she found herself ultimately unable to detach herself from what a companion of hers thought of her, unable to keep from recording even the most minute of details, some of them caught out of the corner of sharp, dark eyes. Even though Juliana Capulet knew that she thought she knew better than to care what anyone thought of her, given how routinely she exploited popular perception for the benefit of her own agenda, she had only ever been able to claim the victory of divorcing what people thought of her from what she knew of herself.

Lately, that hadn’t been feeling like much. A victory, still, but only a half-baked one. One that didn’t keep her from feeling an elementary sort of embarrassed shame, like she was a child who’d got caught with her hand in the cookie-jar. Perhaps that was only because what she knew of herself was a chapter already passed by… and the person who sat in front of Katarina DuPont was not the person she knew. This person was not Juliana alone; they did not sit together to share conversation about art and religion, about culture and cuisine, about music or magic. They sat together: the future Capulet mafiosa and a soldier in the army she would inherit. It was simple and as complicated as that.

At least there will still be wine, Juliana thought, halfheartedly.

Intravenous therapy was more than what was necessary to stay the inner-workings of the heiress’ mind, unfortunately. And there wasn’t enough chilled glasses of it poured down her throat to keep Juliana from wondering what it was that Katarina DuPont knew of her. Whether there was a file out there that encompassed all the myriad reasons in which she was the awful, doubtful fit for leading the Capulet mob, and had been from the first moment that she had finally been told about it. Whether that supposed file would be a less pathetic read even with a couple of pages worth of additional material on a traumatically-revised mindset pressed between its lips in offering. Would it make a difference? After nearly three years worth of distastefully looking down upon a history begun by an ancestor called Lucius Capulet; a man who had taken power into his own hands, with a vengeful spirit burning from years worth of mistreatment setting it alight – and then eating through it, like fire through paper, until what he resented in power-wielding elite that brought as much ruination as it did opulence is what his initiative rotted down to. Three years, and all her judgement bowed its self-righteous head down to was, what? Ah, agony that altered her. A night—one night—and she was no longer the same. Did it make her enlightened, then, to be awoken by her own thirst for vengeance, now – by an insatiable urge for Rallis—and those like him—to suffer as they ought to? Or was she just another hypocrite?

Juliana had always rather liked her eyes. They were so dark, so shadowed by raven-haired lashes casting shade over enigmatic irises, it at least kept her from flustering herself over the blonde being able to read the questions she had no answers for burning darkly within them. At least there was that. It kept her from her own worries clouding the clarity with which her honeyed counterpart answered her question. And for that – oh, for that, Juliana was ever-glad. Eternally, and boundlessly. For as right as she was about their relationship being that of a leader and soldier? She was terribly wrong, as well, for the conviction with which Katarina’s words spilt felt like poetry. They touched her soul. They stirred it. Our cause, the dauntingly tall woman called it. It warmed Juliana’s gut more than even her laugh had done. Every second we live and breathe, gives us a chance to do better. “Yes.” The word was a rough whisper, sounding from the embrace of the swelled walls of her throat. “Yes,” but her own conviction cut through it, exhaled a second time.

“Better is all I want. I –” Would it be a mistake to say it out-loud? Perhaps. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. “Well, I want more than this. For this city I love, for this universe that speaks to my soul, for… these hearts that live in my heart. Better – yes, I do agree, Katarina. I believe, as well. I want more than mindless bloodshed. I want more than fear and terror, more than domination for the sake of domination. I do not know just how clearly you can see it,” wryness laced the words as fluidly as her emotions had done, “I am not my father.”

Then that, too, dissolved. It gave way to gold, still hot & bubbling: “I am another entity entirely. Not a mouth-piece, not a symbol. I am a woman, and one of my word at that. I told you I would tell you why I asked – so here is why, signora. I ask because one of those who hold room in my heart, one of the largest… was nearly lost to me. This war takes and takes. From all of us, Capulets and Montagues and those who watch, who savour, and who suffer. I got out of bed today to work towards better.” Her head canted. Lashes lifted, unveiled those same dark eyes. Juliana let them burn.

“Would you like to join me?”

Extras:

pinterest;

playlist;

headcanons -

due to having spent a large portion of her childhood on her own, juliana very early on developed an appreciation for time to herself. many of her interests, in fact, are shaped by it: her love for learning, for one, no matter the subject matter; her attachment to art, an outlet she keeps a secret, locked away in a room no one but herself is privy access to, and; additionally, the amount she talks to and counsels herself to stay sane.

her aesthetic preferences meander on the side of classic, vintage and minimalistic. it is extremely rare for juliana to opt for overt flashiness. she's pearls over diamonds, matte lip-stain in lieu of gloss, and neutral tones apparel over pops of colour.

she is petrified of rabbits, and their evil red eyes.

juliana enjoys music, but she prefers it not having words.

she has a codependent relationship with coffee. no one with a body this slight has any business throwing back that many shots of espresso, but here she is anyway.

she has never learnt how to swim.

her nails and lips are always red, no matter the outfit. she enjoys having a signature of her own that has nothing to do with anyone else, as if it is her own private act of rebellion.

#accepted #everyone give nay a warm WELCOME BACK #accepted: juliet

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jenniferfaye34 · 5 years

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#Giveaway + Excerpt ~ The Matchmaker's Rogue by Regina Scott... #books #historical #romance #readers

On Tour with Prism Book Tours

We hope you enjoyed the tour! If you missed any of the stops

you'll find snippets, as well as the link to each full post, below:

Launch - Note from the Author

Welcome to Grace-by-the-Sea, a Regency spa village where everything is designed for your comfort and delight. Just don’t look too closely at those who pass silently in the night. . .

Bookworm Lisa - Review

"The Matchmaker's Rogue was a pleasure to read. I loved the characters. The eccentric residents and the "crazy" aunt all added a wonderful feel to the book. . . . It was the perfect blend of romance, mystery, and townsfolk. I can't wait to see who is matched in the next installment of the series."

Jorie Loves A Story - Excerpt

One of the reasons Jesslyn Chance loved the village of Grace-by-the-Sea is that it rarely changed. The same hot mineral water had been bubbling out of the limestone cliffs since before the Romans had landed in the little horseshoe-shaped cove below. The same families fished from the cove, farmed the chalk Downs above, worked at the spa, married at St. Andrew’s Church, and had babies who grew up to marry and have more babies. For the last hundred years, the same sorts of people, from young misses nervously awaiting their come out to venerable military gentlemen nursing war injuries, had come to drink the spa waters and bathe in the sea. The village had grown up to cater to the needs of its guests, boasting shops and conveniences few of its size ever managed. It was all very civilized. Until you introduced a rogue.

Among the Reads - Review

"It was such fun reading and trying to figure out who to trust and who the smugglers were. . . . While things wrapped up neatly, they didn’t. The ending hints at much more to come in this series: more mysteries to unravel, more adventures. I can’t wait!!"

Christy's Cozy Corners - Review

"I’ve read books and novellas by Regina Scott before, and I am a fan! Her characters are always so well written and lively. The characters in The Matchmaker’s Rogue are no exception. . . . The Matchmaker’s Rogue is a mystery that will keep you guessing and a romance that will leave your heart feeling happy. I can’t wait for more Grace-by-the-Sea books."

Beauty in the Binding - Excerpt

“You see it, don’t you?” her aunt whisper, nodding toward the man approaching them across the polished floor of the Grand Pump Room. “He’s a pirate, a rogue. He’s out to steal our greatest treasure.” Jess took a deep breath and raised her head. “Larkin Denby is no pirate. His mother and sisters live in Upper Grace. Very likely he’s merely here for a visit.”

Heidi Reads... - Excerpt

“Good afternoon, Mr. Denby,” she said, launching into her prepared speech. “Welcome to the spa at Grace-by-the-Sea. I am your hostess, Miss Chance, and this is my assistant Mrs. Tully. If you have any questions or would like an introduction, you have only to ask.” His head snapped up. Though he held her gaze only a moment, as was proper, she felt as if he were memorizing every feature, from the blond curls clustered around her face to her gloved hands resting on the table beside the book. His smile bloomed, and something inside her bloomed with it. “Miss Chance. How nice to see you and your charming aunt again.”

Andi's Book Reviews - Excerpt

“Mr. Denby will get on with the others famously,” she assured her aunt, letting go of her cautiously. “Look, he’s talking with the general like a gentleman.” The two men chatted, strangers making idle conversation as so many of their guests did. Then Lark moved on, leaving the general smiling as he rubbed the paunch straining his waistcoat. “Mr. Denby doesn’t fit in the spa,” Maudie argued. “He doesn’t look the least bit ill. He has no limp, no squint, no sign of a scrofulous cough.” “Neither did most of our visitors to arrive this summer,” Jess pointed out. “Not everyone comes to the spa because they are ill.” She tidied the stack of pamphlets, noticed her hands were trembling, and shook them out. At this rate, her aunt might suggest that Jess take the waters!

Locks, Hooks and Books - Review

"I love Regina’s writing and this one is probably among one of my favorites I have read by her to date. . . . I am giving The Matchmaker’s Rogue five plus stars. I can not wait to see what happens next in the Grace by the Sea series."

Becky on Books - Excerpt

“I am your devoted servant, sir,” he told the commissioner. “But surely there are other ways to identify these smugglers than to spend my time sipping the waters.” “I don’t care if you sip them, dunk yourself in them, or pour them on the ground,” the commissioner had replied, face tight and eyes steely. “Our source says the man we’re after sails from Grace Cove, and we have reason to believe he moves among the gentry, perhaps even the aristocracy. Where else would you expect to find him but at the spa?”

I'm All About Books - Excerpt

Yet it was her eyes that drew him. Large, wide-spaced, and a delicate blue, they made her look as if she were perpetually amazed by the world around her. He and Jess had been close when he’d visited eight years ago, the only two people that young at the spa then. They’d spent every day together, talking, walking, dancing at the assembly, attending church. Nothing had come of it. Nothing could come of it. They were too different—her content with life, him determined to see and do more. Still, perhaps she would indulge in a little gossip now. “Mr. Denby?” she persisted in that soft, lilting voice. “Might I be of assistance?”

Rockin' Book Reviews - Review

"I loved this story about Jesslyn and Lark. It is a sweet romance but has a lot more to offer with all that happened in Grace by the Sea and the spa that is so important to the families that live there. . . . I highly recommend this book to others to read and enjoy."

Remembrancy - Review

"Scott combines intrigue, romance, and small-town loyalty with a setting and characters I want to visit again. Not to mention an ending that makes me want to discover more about this sleepy little village. If you’re a fan of Regency and haven’t read Regina Scott’s books yet, you’re missing out."

Reading Is My SuperPower - Review

"Regina Scott’s books are always great reads, but I’m pretty sure that The Matchmaker’s Rogue is my favorite of hers so far. I can’t wait for book 2 to release – especially after the way this book ends! A story with romance, intrigue, adventure, and endearing humor, The Matchmaker’s Rogue is the perfect next read for fans of Jen Turano, Tessa Dare or Mary Connealy."

The Power of Words - Review

"The Matchmaker’s Rogue is filled with charming and sometimes quirky secondary characters. . . . In addition to the criminal element of smuggling, there’s also the concern of spies and passing of England’s secrets to Napoleon. The author skillfully aroused this reader’s suspicion of almost all of Grace-by-the-Sea residents . . . . The ending arrives at a very satisfying conclusion, with the village coming together in a unique way. Very little is quite as it seems on the surface! I hated to leave Grace-by-the-Sea and its many endearing characters, but there’s the promise of much more to come."

Tell Tale Book Reviews - Excerpt

He smiled at her. “I’m staying at the Mermaid for a few days, and I find myself wondering what to do for entertainment.” “It depends on what you find entertaining.” Said in such a disarming tone, he should not hear iron beneath the words, yet he did. She was being polite but letting him know she expected him to respond in kind. This was no time for coy comments, teasing remarks. She was no longer the young lady looking for companionship to while away the summer.

Singing Librarian Books - Spotlight

Historical Graffiti - Excerpt

Over the next while, she looked for her opportunity. But it soon became apparent she wasn’t the only one interested in the Newcomer. “And what can you tell us about Mr. Denby?” Miss Montgomery, the eldest sister, asked over tea that afternoon. Jess handed her a snowy white porcelain cup of the steaming brew from the wheeled teacart she or Maudie generally rolled from chair to chair. “His family lives nearby, a mother and two sisters.”

Red Headed Book Lady - Review

"My second book by this author and once again she has written another wonderful story. Great characters with a great plot that will keep you reading until the book is finished."

Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end of this post...

The Matchmaker's Rogue (Grace-by-the-Sea #1) By Regina Scott Historical Romance Paperback & ebook, 272 Pages January 8th 2020 Grace-by-the-Sea: Where romance and adventure come home. Polished Jesslyn Chance has one of the most enviable positions in the little Regency coastal village of Grace-by-the-Sea. She is the hostess of the spa, arranging introductions and entertainments and playing matchmaker to the ladies and gentlemen who come to take the waters, promenade through the shops, and dance at the assembly. But when a rogue returns from her past, Jess finds herself suddenly at sea. Always an adventurer, Larkin Denby left Grace-by-the-Sea to right the wrongful death of his father. Now he’s back on a mission: to identify the mysterious Lord of the Smugglers who allegedly sails from Grace Cove and takes England’s secrets to France. But Grace-by-the-Sea is the perfect little spa town, run by the still oh-so-perfect Jesslyn Chance. When the village’s future is threatened, Jess must work with Lark to solve the mystery and protect the town’s own. In doing so, the matchmaker of Grace-by-the-Sea may just find that the best match for her is the rogue who stole her heart years ago.

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About the Author

Regina Scott started writing novels in the third grade. Thankfully for literature as we know it, she didn’t sell her first novel until she learned a bit more about writing. Since her first book was published, her stories have traveled the globe, with translations in many languages including Dutch, German, Italian, and Portuguese. She now has more than forty-five published works of warm, witty romance. She loves everything about England, so it was only a matter of time before she started her own village. Where more perfect than the gorgeous Dorset Coast? She can imagine herself sailing along the chalk cliffs, racing her horse across the Downs, dancing at the assembly, and even drinking the spa waters. She drank the waters in Bath, after all! Regina Scott and her husband of 30 years reside in the Puget Sound area of Washington State on the way to Mt. Rainier. She has dressed as a Regency dandy, learned to fence, driven four-in-hand, and sailed on a tall ship, all in the name of research, of course. Learn more about her at her website.

Tour Giveaway

One winner will receive print copies of all six books in Fortune's Brides series (Never Doubt a Duke, Never Borrow a Baronet, Never Envy an Earl, Never Vow for a Viscount, Never Kneel to a Knight, and Never Marry a Marquess) US only

Ends January 29, 2020

ENTER HERE

#The Matchmaker's Rogue #Regina Scott #historical romance #Prism Book Tours #Hearts & Scribbles

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