Living on Writer's Block

Ramona Redhawk.

She is an assassin, sickened of her craft, and longs for escape. But how to manage that alone, when so many of the Matron’s other slaves will be sent out to hunt her down?

Enter Samuel, and enter the beginning of the story.

But who is she, really?

Ramona Redhawk was inspired long ago, when my siblings and I had two hammocks side-by-side between four ponderosa pine trees, and we played pirates in them one day. I, of course, played the dazzling and bold heroine, because I was (and probably still am) a bit of a diva, and had to have all the focus on me. I dressed up in a red velvet cloak with a hood (an item our mother had made for my sister’s Red Riding Hood costume), silver hoop earrings, and some wine-red pants. I may have worn a blouse, and maybe a bandana, but I know my costume at least consisted of those three items. I was the daring pirate captain-ess of one hammock, crewed by probably my sister, while the older of my two younger brothers played the evil buccaneer captain in the other hammock. (I also remember a stuffed animal rabbit, black-and-white, received her own pair of hoop earrings and was christened ‘Bess the pirate bunny’ for a day. I don’t know why we chose that precise name, but we did. She will likely not make an appearance in the book.)

Originally, Ramona was the super-cool girl-boss, in a wine-colored, fitted suit with a high-collared, ruffly white blouse and a black sword belt to match her long black gloves and heeled black boots. All, of course, was surmounted by a scarlet cloak. She carried her rapier everywhere, and originally, she did not like Samuel, and in their first scene together she flared out at him and scored his face with her rapier.

An excerpt — the very first few paragraphs of the whole story:

Ramona had been swindled. And that was not something she enjoyed, though, unfortunately, it was something she was fairly used to. She smiled at her wrong-doer, a man called (not surprisingly) Samuel the Swindler. A tall, well-built, but lean man, he was about five years older than herself. Being a more-than-capable seaman, he had the arms of one, though they too were rather lean — but he was not a crew member. He was a pirate captain, though he preferred the term ‘sea rogue,’ or at the very least ‘swash-buckler.’

“Well, Samuel, you old sea rogue, still playing the old one, eh?”

Samuel laughed, actually a very nice laugh for a pirate, and replied, “Yes, Ramona. How else would I keep up my fearsome reputation?” He spread his arms wide in a disarming gesture and then put them behind his head, at the same time leaning back in his seat and putting his feet on the inn table they sat at.

“Why do you need to? What ‘fearsome reputation?’ And anyway, you told me those were strong young slaves. What I got were old dotards, three-year-olds, and sick vagabonds who had no muscles at all. And even if they were young and healthy, you told me there were five score slaves in that shipment.When I looked in the hold there was a score.You tricked me — PIRATE!” Now the pretty 21-year-old was on her feet, eyes blazing as she drew her long rapier and whipped it about Samuel’s face. Similarly, he leapt to his feet and drew his fencing saber, holding it up to block any potential jabs or slashes. She whipped her weapon towards him, and he blocked the feint — but did not see in time the rapier flash over his blade to give him a tiny but stinging cut on his jaw.

Leaning close to his pale face, she hissed, “A mere lesson, Samuel.” Then she turned on her heel and left, cooly sheathing her blade as she went.

Samuel turned to his first mate, rubbing the cut ruefully, and said, “That is one fearless woman. I’d not be ashamed to have her as part of my crew!”

— Original Manuscript

Clearly, I needed help. An editor note I put in myself, bracketed and in bold letters, says:

Edit: Too fast –– establish better connection

Fair point. Time to slow down.

So now we have the current version. Ramona is much less of a girl-boss now, and for that I am grateful. Not being a girl-boss myself I found I can’t really write one, and the new Ramona is much more write-able for me. She loves baking for her friends, she loves Jiminy, she’s got a bit of a ‘brave face’ facade going that melts a little as certain situations arise — and beneath that facade is a frightened and lonely girl, desperate for help.

And now she’s no longer in a suit either; now she’s wearing a white linen blouse with balloon sleeves that end in tight cuffs edged with lace, a boat-neck collar again edged with lace, and a slightly stiffer bit of fabric around the collar with three buttons down it. Unfortunately, I’ve found that nowhere on Amazon or Etsy or even Google does such a specific blouse exist, and so I cannot buy one for myself to dress up for Halloween with (😂).

Her pants (which most historical women on the seas would actually wear, to disguise themselves) have been replaced by a faintly Edwardian-style skirt. It has three layers; the top two are a sheer fabric that has many many tiny ripples and folds in it, creating a beautiful fluttering effect when she moves with any speed; and the last layer is cotton, slightly fitted around her hips and then loosening up and billowing more in large folds as it reaches her ankles. This design is also rather unique and so I have not found anything close enough for my taste. I’m beginning to think I may have to make the whole outfit myself.

She still wears a sword belt, however; actually she wears two, crossed over her hips as seen in the pictures. The one slung high on her right and low on her left hip has two straps attached to the sheath of her rapier (which she’ll get later in the story) while the other has a sheath, which is aligned with the belt itself, on the back of it which makes it perfect for concealing a dagger beneath her long red cloak.

The cloak is nothing terribly unique — any floor-length scarlet velvet cloak off Amazon, as long as it had a decent-sized hood, would fit the image well enough. Ours is now too short, reaching only the back of my knees, but when we were little it would trail through the grass and sticks perfectly (and catch on all the bushes). That cloak was a foundational part of her original image and as such couldn’t possibly be changed.

Her boots are also pretty foundational, and didn’t need to change anyway since any other type of shoe would have been pretty severely impractical. (Sandals are terrible for fighting and for climbing in rigging, and there’s really no other option.)

In addition to all that she lost the big, broad-brimmed red hat with the fluffy white feather she’d had originally, and she gained a little red oval necklace, courtesy of a website created for dressing up characters in a scene when the only necklace that seemed to fit the ‘Ramona’ character I made was a red oval stone in a basic silver setting. After that I became fixated on that necklace and have been trying to figure out how on earth to weave it into the story. (Any suggestions? Thanks! 😉)

In the end… Ramona underwent a lot of transformations to become who she is now. Not only the physical/appearance changes, but also personality-wise, and she’s going to change a lot more as the story goes on. And I’m so looking forward to seeing you join her and the crew (and me, ngl) on this journey!