Well, clearly I stink at updating blogs 😂 BUT! I have been working on Jade Torch consistently this month! A good friend of mine convinced me to participate in Camp Nanowrimo this month. Unlike the November challenge, writers can choose to edit, plan, or write for Camp Nano. I chose to edit, and I’ve been plugging away at refining the book. The feedback from my beta readers has been invaluable, and I’ve added and made adjustments to things I’ve wanted to tweak as well. I’m super proud of how this book is shaping up!
As far as publishing updates are concerned, I’ve begun talking with folks about hiring a graphic designer to do the layout design for the book, I’ve started planning my illustration list, and I’ve begun reaching out to freelance editors. Exciting things!!! Depending on what I hear back from editors on availability, my hope is to finish this this thing by the fall (Lord willing and the creek don’t rise).
I know last year I was aiming for a late 2021 or early 2022 publication date, but obviously that didn’t work out. However, I think it was for the best. Some of the novels I’ve been reading over the past 7 months or so have made me realize there were some subtle world building elements I was missing in my story. If I had proceeded with publishing before Christmas, I don’t think I would have caught those and been able to make additions and adjustments.
The thought of getting this book into the hands of readers is an exciting and motivating one. Hopefully, I can make that happen soon (with the help of a few other fantastic people, of course)!
Jade Torch is about a princess, but I’m always hesitant to tell people that my story is about a princess because, generally, that has a certain connotation. The other day, I told a friend that my book was about a princess, and the first thing that my friend asked was if it was a “Disney princess” kind of thing. And that’s very much not what Jade Torch is about. It—and Lune—is about so much more than pretty dresses, talking to animals, and rebelling against expectations.
Growing up, I never really liked the princesses that were glittery, rebellious, or that sassed off to their parents. They annoyed me, and I decided pretty early on that I was, generally, on the side of the parents. After all, a lot of times, the (glorified) rebellious behavior of these young ladies landed them in a heap of trouble that ended up spiraling out of control and negatively impacting a lot more people than just the sassy princesses.
No, these weren’t my favorite princesses. But that’s not to say I didn’t have princesses that I looked up to and admired. So, here are my top 5 princesses that inspired and influenced me as a child.
Mia Thermopolis
Okay, maybe this one surprises you because Mia makes some pretty impressively dumb moves, which you might think would annoy me…and you’d be right. There are several mistakes Mia makes that are just plain dumb (in both movies). BUT! Especially in the second film, she does a pretty good job embodying a princess who is ready, willing, and strives to put the needs of her people above her own desires. Yes, she messes up along the way, but it wouldn’t be a comedy without some colossal blunders, right? And in the end, she gets to have her cake and eat it too, ducking out of the arranged marriage to instead choose the man she loves. It’s a nice fairy-tale ending. However, it’s not her romantic struggles that draw me to her as a character. I simply adore her poise, resiliency, and responsibility in the second movie. She’s grown into a proper princess who is ready to shoulder the responsibility of her birthright and be a true leader and statesman for her people.
On the role-model-o-meter, I give her a solid 3/5.
And above all—to me—a princess should be a good role model.
Kidagakash “Kida” Nedakh
Underrated lady. Like, seriously, WHY is she never included in the official Disney Princess lineup??? It’s actually a massive pet peeve of mine that Mulan, who isn’t a princess at all, is always in the lineup and on the merchandise and my gal Kida is left out. I genuinely don’t understand it. (Disclaimer: I absolutely adore Mulan, and this is nothing against her. I just don’t get how she’s on the list and actual-princess-Kida gets left off.)
So, here’s what I love about Kida: a) she’s kick-butt, b) she just plain cool, and c) she’s clearly a part of her people and their lives, not just a figure ruling over them.
This third point is the most important. For me, a true princess has nothing to do with pretty dresses and everything to do with leadership and servanthood. And Kida is clearly a servant leader to her people. When we first meet her, she’s not in some stuffy, stately throne room holding court. No, she’s in a set of warrior’s garb patrolling the borders of her land with her people. Then, she immediately dives in, pulls up her metaphorical sleeves, and begins the diplomatic work. She serves as translator and then ambassador, presenting the newcomers to her father, her people, and their culture. Afterwards, she works tirelessly to save her people and solve their mystery. The argument could also be made that she was willing to sacrifice herself for her people. (It gets a little murky since she was kind of in a trance when she bonds with the Heart of Atlantis, but still, it’s not out of character to assume that.)
Does she have disagreements with her father? Yes, but they’re not giant fights, and anyway, I don’t put her in the same category as someone like Ariel, a teenager. No, Kida is literally over eight thousand years old. At that age, you’re allowed to have disagreements with your parents, for sure. But note: even when she disagrees with her father, she’s not a brat about it. She’s frustrated, but still respectful, and she clearly loves and respects her dad.
Anyhoo, Kida is easily and by far one of the absolute best Disney princesses!
For me, she’s a solid 4.5/5 on the role-model-o-meter.
Anneliese
Oh goodness! This one! This fantastic princess is such a good role model! I’ve already said that princesses should be servant leaders, and Anneliese embodies this beautifully. She understands the importance of duty and responsibility in a way that very few of the Disney princesses do.
There’s a line in the song “Free” from the movie. It says, “duty means doing the things your heart may well regret.” I could write an entire essay on Anneliese and how much I adore this lyric alone. You see, in the self-centered, follow-you-heart culture we live in today, Anneliese is an anomaly. She understands that because of her birthright, she has certain duties. I think spider-man has something to say about power and great responsibility?
Anneliese—much like Mia, but even more so—understood that serving the needs of her people sometimes would mean setting aside her own wishes and wants.
She’s smart, gracious, brave, and responsible.
I give her an easy 5/5 on the role-model-o-meter.
Mulan
I know, I know—considering my rant up in the Kida section, this may seem weird. Yeah, but since Disney includes her in the line-up, I will too. Besides, growing up, Mulan was my favorite Disney “princess,” so that’s why she’s in the #2 position instead of Kida.
She doesn’t have the same duty-over-desire themes that some of these other princesses have, but I so admire her sacrificial love, her resiliency, her brains, and her strength of character. Did she disobey her father? Yes, but she did so because she wanted to save his life. There’s a pretty decent argument to be made that she didn’t think she was coming out of that war alive when she left home. After all, she was completely untrained and was choosing to take the place of her father because she thought he would die if he went.
Once she’s in training, she struggles with the challenge of it, but then she makes the deliberate choice to rise to the challenge and be the best she can be. A+ role model material right there. And once she’s exposed, she doesn’t just turn back. She puts her life on the line again to do what’s right and first warn her friends, then fight for the country she loves.
Yep, I’m gonna give her a 4/5 on the role-model-o-meter.
Nausicaä
And here she is! Nausicaä, princess of the Valley of the Wind. I’m gonna have to be careful to not spend the whole time just gushing over this character. When I first saw this film, I was probably either nine or ten years old, and the impression she made on me was HUGE. I won’t lie, it’s definitely fair to say that Nausicaä did a lot to influence the character Lune became and the kind of princess I wanted her to be.
You see, more than any other princess in this lineup—and she’s among good company—Nausicaä is the most well-rounded servant leader. She is humble, curious, smart, strong, skilled, and brave with an unwavering sense of right and wrong.
The scene early in the film where she’s helping repair the windmill has always stuck out to me. I love how Christ set a perfect example of servant-leadership when he washed his disciples’ feet. Well, Nausicaä isn’t washing feet, but she’s participating in the everyday tasks of her people by doing something as menial as climbing on top of a windmill to do repairs. Then later, she’s seen helping dig the graves and bury the dead of the ship that crashed. No task is too small or humble for this princess. She is a servant to her people and, therefore, she is truly a part of them. She doesn’t just have their love and admiration as their princess, she has their trust and respect as their leader.
This. THIS is what I think a princess should be.
I also like that her story isn’t bogged down with unnecessary romantic dilemmas, but I feel confident that if she was ever faced with the choice of doing what she wanted or what was best for her people, she would doubtlessly choose her people over herself.
Overall, Nausicaä is the peak embodiment of a good princess and role model. She’s smart, humble, she knows how to love and show mercy to her enemies, and she’s willing to lay down her life for the innocent and to do what’s right.
Yeah, Nausicaä gets, heck, a 6/5 on the role-model-o-meter.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this peek into my childhood and the princesses that I admired and were inspired by as a kid. Who are your favorite princesses and why? How did they impact/influence you growing up? What qualities do you think are most important in a princess?
Next time, I’ll give y’all a rundown of my least favorite princesses from my childhood.
So, this site is getting a little bit of an overhaul because–drumroll please!–I’m turning Jade Torch into an illustrated novel!!
Yes, you read that right. On the one hand, I know it’s sad that Lune’s story will no longer be a webcomic, but that’s okay, because I genuinely believe that a novel format is going to be much healthier for the story.
“Why are you changing it?” you ask?
Well, when I originally conceived this story back over a decade ago, I started writing it as a novel. Eventually, I dropped this idea because I got more involved with art and for some reason (it’s a bit of a mystery to me) I convinced myself that I could either be a writer or an illustrator. So I set aside writing–something I’d loved since I was a little kid.
When I started drawing the webcomic, I enjoyed the process. It was exciting to draw a comic. But that initial excitement faded, and I realized I wasn’t enjoying the process. Drawing each page was a chore and almost like pulling teeth to get it done. Then, realizing that the story I wanted to tell was actually kind of long, I started to take a lot of it to the chopping block so that I would have fewer pages to draw. Now, sometimes condensing and shaving off parts of your story can be healthy and is an important part of the editing process. But it wasn’t in this case. My story needed room to breathe, and I was deliberately constricting it so that I’d have less work.
I knew this wasn’t good, and the shame I felt over “failing” my story was frustrating. I stopped enjoying the characters and the world because I was butchering a story I loved. I stopped drawing pages–and felt guilty for never updating this comic.
Then, for some reason, back in February I started writing again. And I remembered how much I loved writing. So I pulled out the old start of the Jade Torch novel, and I got to work.
A couple of months later, I had a completed first draft of book 1, and I announced to the world (over on Instagram) that I would be writing and self-publishing the story of Lune and her friends as a trilogy of novels which I would illustrate myself.
So, now that you know what’s going on, what does it all mean for this site?
Well, my goal is to sort of use this site for updating fans/followers of Jade Torch. Patrons over on my Patreon are going to be getting some exclusive updates for sure, but over here I want to share some of the journey as I navigate the waters of self-publishing. Additionally, I think it would be fun to have a little bit of a blog where I talk about stuff like what inspires me to write the kind of stories I write and stuff like that.
So, keep an eye out for future posts. Don’t worry–you’ll still be able to find the webcomic pages I’ve already posted over on the Archive or Comic tab. (I haven’t decided yet if I want to rename it.)
I think my first blog post is going to be an analysis of my top 5 princesses from my childhood–some of whom definitely helped inspire the character that Lune became.
I’m excited about the journey ahead, and I hope you’ll join me and my beloved characters as we plunge into whatever this future holds!
