Intriguing Observations - Last Keepers Daughter
The Intriguing Observations series was created to gather some of the greatest supporters and bloggers to provide their own insight on all things creative both in their ventures and their techniques. This week on the guest series is author Rebecca Trogner.
In my book, The Last Keeper’s Daughter, Krieger Barnes agrees to take Lily Ayres under his protection. When I decided to write this book I wanted to create a vampire of complexity and age to balance Lily’s youth and naiveté.
Krieger is over two thousand years old; he was born in Germania and taken prisoner by the Romans. Not to get too far into the weeds, but the name Germania came from the Romans and roughly signifies the areas of modern day Germany to the North Sea and stretching across the Netherlands.
As a young man he was captured, tortured, and eventually escaped the Romans. This experience left him with a deep understanding of what it means to feel powerless. Later, in battle, he was captured again, but this time he was turned into vampire.
When he brings Lily Ayres into his home, Castle Stoke, he is always conscious to not make her feel like a prisoner. He welcomes her, gives her as many freedoms as possible, and is patience with her. Perhaps it is the blond bond they share that causes his deep attraction to her, but he doubts it, because Lily is an ethereal creature, almost haunting in her composition.
Krieger is male, and he is powerful, but he tries to control his nature, to nurture the trust Lily has for him. Though his intellect surpasses that of a human, he is a man of action, not one to be paralyzed by indecision. To this day he carries the gladius sword he used under the Roman rule, and remembers his many feats in battle fondly. While he has adapted to the modern world, and has embraced its myriad of technology, he has not shed the warrior’s code.
Physically he is large, very large for the time he was born, and his body was shaped by the physical demands of battle. When I researched Krieger I looked at paintings and sculptures of gladiators. They were thick of build with large muscles developed from swinging heavy swords that cut through flesh and bone.
Krieger would not be a man that would clothes shop with you or pick out place settings, but that does not mean he isn’t caring or thoughtful. Here is a brief excerpt of Krieger describing his impression of North America to Lily.
“When did you arrive?” She looked over the rustic furniture.
“We sailed across from London in the early seventeen hundreds.”
“How did you manage that?” A strange carving in the logs above the door caught her eye. It was an X with a hook connected to the bottom right portion.
He laughed. “It wasn’t easy, but I endured. There were stories about a land filled with trees, and game, where there were no wars or disease. I wish I could show you how beautiful this land was. After spending a lifetime in Europe, it was Eden.”
I think he’s quite poetic the way he describes what the New World meant to him. This, among other things, is what draws Lily to him, that deep reservoir of knowledge and history that she can dip into endlessly.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my brief character study of Krieger Barnes, and I hope you take the time to read The Last Keeper’s Daughter to get to know all the characters. Thank you.
About the Author:
Rebecca Trogner lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and frequently crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains that were the inspiration for Krieger’s home. She always dreamed of being a writer, but got sidetracked by the day-to-day adventures of life. With the encouragement of her family, she has finished her first novel and is currently writing the next book in The Last Keeper’s Daughter series. Rebecca lives with her husband and son, and a rescue dog named Giblet. To find out more about the author visit www.rebeccatrogner.com.
Website: www.rebeccatrogner.com
Blog: http://blog.rebeccatrogner.com
Twitter: @RTrogner
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/RTrogner