The Evolution Of Zelda
I introduced Ali's mother, Zelda, in the third book of my Serpent's Kiss series, His Forbidden Kiss. She was a minor background character, showing up briefly when Kim visits her best friend. We don't get to know much about her other than the fact that she can't seem to hold onto a man. She comes off a flighty and needy.
Because we're in Kim's point of view, we don't get a lot of insight into Zelda or her relationship with her daughter, either. It isn't until Ali and Daniel's story, Claiming His Kiss, that we begin to see more.
Ali lets it slip fairly early on she doesn't have a great relationship with her mom. The flightiness we glimpsed in His Forbidden Kiss is confirmed when Ali shares she was raised by her grandmother because her mom wasn't around much.
At this point in the story, I didn't know what I was going to do with Zelda. I knew she was going to make an appearance in Claiming His Kiss, but I had no idea what her role would be.
Being an author that writes by the seat of her pants, I let the story unfold naturally. This includes characters.
When I began the story, the only things I knew about Zelda was she had been absent much of Ali's life because she was constantly chasing after men. But there is always more to it than that.
In order to figure out Zelda's motivations, I dug deep, asking myself why was she constantly chasing after these men? I needed to determine the why in order to know how she would react to finding out her daughter was in a relationship with a man 23 years her senior.
The internet is a glorious thing. You can find out information on just about anything if you can locate the right sources.
I watched videos and researched women who hop from relationship to relationship as Zelda does. It was fascinating and a bit disturbing at the same time. People are complicated, but we can't deny our primal instincts.
In the end, Zelda turned out to be both a complex and a very simplistic character all wrapped up in one. Her motivations were simple, but her logic was flawed.
To read Ali and Daniel's story, check out Claiming His Kiss through one of the retail links below.
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