Beauty's Kingdom, chapter 16

Here, King Laurent is described (by Eva) as a person of immense self-confidence and inner strength.  Oh, how to be that!  That is earned.  And truly that's why Laurent is royalty.  But surely there is some way for me to approximate that.  I have so much to learn.

I wonder if A.N. Roquelaure depicted Lexius as quite obnoxious and presumptuous in preparation for this scene, or whether, as I am inclined to believe, she simply followed his behavior in her mind's eye as the chapters unfolded, wrote it down, and then when she got to this chapter, had Lexius take a dose of Laurent's medicine.  Maybe the latter, and I am basing that solely on Anne's many videos on writing, which are very useful for aspiring writers.  It's November and a lot of people are NaNo-ing, and Anne gives much practical advice here.

In this chapter there is a seed, a hint, a possibility, of a future A.N. Roquelaure book!  Or am I wishfully thinking?

But I'm beginning to feel very sorry for Lexius now.  And this is Anne's trick (or devise) that I always fall for.  I get emotionally involved in her characters.  Always.  I could never be neutral towards them.  I am either antipathetic or totally sympathetic.  Madly in love, or seething in hatred.  But always there is a feeling.  Lexius now is working his way into my heart.

Well, what Lexius revealed, I never expected.  And then again, when has Anne ever been predictable?

It's a good time as any to reveal who I think of as Titania, the fairy woman who started it all with her gift of a hundred years' sleep to Beauty.  My ultimate teenage crush, of course.  Lea Salonga.  I wanted her to be Lady Eva from the beginning.  Well, maybe I could allow that.  And have Zhang Ziyi swap as Titania.  Well, it's my imagination.