(Castle tower in Kaysersberg, Alsace, France.)
When a character introduces herself…
Following my last trip to Kaysersberg, I began researching names from the region. I wrote out a list, mostly from the Middle Ages. As I began to read each name aloud a character began to form, with a story to follow. My Alsatian Tale is taking shape. No doubt, it will shift several times before finally settling on the printed page.
But for now, she has a name…my heroine. Amelie. Her life began, as is fitting for this fairy tale, in a castle. But as fate would have it, at fifteen, she finds herself living in a small village, in an even smaller cottage.
Life in a castle may appear charming, but for Amelie it is among the timbered houses and along cobblestone streets that the real story begins.
