Some Gemstone Royals History
Humble Beginnings
The Gemstone Royals Series debuted with it’s first installment of the series in 2018 on Amazon. Of course that was after it was initially published as a blog series from as early as 2015 and later developed on Wattpad as “The Princess and the Soldier”, a copy of which was published on Smashwords later on.
Character Development
As the story, world and characters developed the more I became attached and the more convinced I became that this story needed to be made available to a wider audience. But before I could do that I needed to dig deeper into what was the message the the world, characters and plot conveyed.
Characterization became very exciting for me from the time I decided to make the world so racially diverse. From the brown skinned Aldorians to the light skinned Dravians, straight hair, curly hair, afros, locks and sharpened canines. To the cultural differences which contributed to the world.
As someone from the Caribbean, who would have grown up with stories of predominantly white characters, it was very liberating for me to create a melting pot of people that could’ve reflected my Caribbean world some more. We are a very diverse people here in the Caribbean and I wanted my work to reflect that, while not taking away from the fantasy experience.
Now the Gemstone Royals series has long moved past its debut to it’s third installment with adequate character and plot development. It has moved past my initial focus of just Ruby and Deswald, to other characters such as Jasper, the king, her sister Topaz and even that mysterious stranger from Book 1, Lady Shadaya Quadin. I’ve done this because I found that this added good depth to the story, as each character had their own experiences and world view to add to the plot. But of course, the focus still is on the series forerunners, Ruby and Deswald and their frustrating love story, as they continue the search for themselves
Themes and Messages
Initially, the story surrounded the characters Ruby and Deswald, (hence the princess and the soldier) and explored the themes of identity and purpose and that stubborn pursuit of our own idea of what would make us most happy. Ultimately resulting in a deeper understanding of self and the realization that often times the things that we pursue in the hopes of attaining happiness pales in comparison to who we can become or… are capable of becoming in the process. And that was the foundation of the GSR series: identity and purpose.
But as it grew it started to include themes of faith, hope and the exploration of truth amidst the comfort of tradition. I personally loved what that development meant for me as a Christian writer.
World Building
As the story developed, the world became alive for me as well. Because the world itself (Saharia) added to the theme of Good vs Evil in it’s own way. One of the pride points of this series for me, is that in addition to it being my first fantasy series, I did a lot of the work myself. World building grew from my crazy notes about people groups, places, names, cultures to a very horrible map of Saharia which I drew by map (see exhibit A 😂😂). Eventually though I dug in and figured out how to use my go to image manipulation program and created the current map you will find in the books now (exhibit B).
Up next in the series is the long awaited “Kingdom’s Darkness”, which takes us on another journey through the world of Saharia as the plot continues to unfold through these characters.
Stay tuned for more posts leading up to launch day. Cover reveal coming soon!
Like Kelly A. Purcell’s Facebook page for more updates!
Kelly is the founder of Royalty Press United. Author of the Gemstone Royals fantasy series, Twist of Faith and Crossroads. Counseling psychologist, proud Grenadian and devoted follower of Christ.
You must be logged in to post a comment.