Meet the Turrim Cast: Grayden
Although you meet the rest of the pirate crew before you meet Grayden in The Orb and the Airship, Grayden is a more main character than they are, and so I’m introducing him here because he comes first in terms of importance.
Grayden Ormond lives on his family’s large orchard on the outskirts of Dalsea. (Yes, the same town that Dalmir’s tower is located near). He’s a bit of a prankster with a fantastic sense of humor (as you can clearly see in his portrait above - truly, Chloe Grace captured him so perfectly), but he also has a serious and studious side.
Self-assured, confident, and capable, Grayden is fairly unrufflable. He likes structure, but he’s also good at rolling with the punches.
If I had to Meyers-Briggs-type him, I’d say he’s probably an ESFJ. But even though we differ on how much we like to be around large crowds of people, Grayden Ormond was super easy to write. Of course, he kept his prankster side hidden from me until we were a couple of books in… but adding those aspects of his personality weren’t too terribly difficult.
Despite his jokester tendencies, Grayden is also a natural born leader and a super hard worker.
Ever since he was little, Grayden has dreamed of leaving his family’s orchard and enrolling at the Academy, a prestigious military school where young men train to become defenders of Telmondir. He’s spent the past several years of his life training and studying so that he could pass the entrance exam and be chosen to attend the Academy. His greatest dream is to become an airship pilot, as the idea of the sky and flying and that kind of freedom has a compelling pull.
So when the Academy accepts not just Grayden, but also his best friend, Wynn Drexel, and waves the entrance fee for one of them, allowing them both to attend, Dalsea decides to make them the guests of honor at the annual Harvest Festival before they set out on this new adventure.
As the Harvest Festival nears, Grayden finds himself suddenly overwhelmed with a mixture of emotions as the story opens. He is of course overjoyed and excited about being accepted into the Academy. But he is also experiencing a certain amount of trepidation at the unknown he is about to enter into. If he decides to become a defender he will be away from home for six years. In that time, Seren (his six year old little sister) will practically be all grown up. Ailwen (the girl he’s been secretly sweet on forever) will probably marry some other young man from the village, and he can’t tell her how he feels before he leaves as he doesn’t feel it would be fair to ask her to wait for him to come home when he doesn’t even know if he will come home.
So when his friends dare him to climb the tower before he leaves (something he’s been wanting to do for as long as he can remember) Grayden takes the dare.
He never expected to find a way to get inside.
He certainly never expected to discover a grumpy old hermit inside.
And he definitely never expected said grumpy old hermit to insist on traveling with him and Wynn to the Academy to study the books housed there!
But this set of unexpected circumstances are only the first interruptions to Grayden’s planned voyage…
All his careful studying and practicing could never have prepared him for the journey he’s about to take.
Come back on Wednesday to meet Grayden’s best friend, Wynn Drexel!
Update: The kickstarter is trucking along and we’ve raised 50% of the funds we need. However, there are only two more weeks to go!
I’m happy to report that Benjamin Fife has gotten started on recording the first book in the series. I highly recommend you check out the latest Kickstarter Update for instructions on how to get a back-page pass to listen to the Prologue and the First Chapter of The Orb and the Airship right now!