The Beautiful Books 19: July

Hey there, Camp NaNoWriMo wasn’t a success but it wasn’t a failure either (in the strictest sense). I had a super amazing writing friend beta read what I had written so far and Kim did a brilliant job pointing out some problems, so if you need to hire an editor, talk to Kim.

I meant to make this post in July, but I was busy working on my project, so readers will have to have two Beautiful Books posts this month (so too bad if you’re already sick and tired of me talking about Pushing Boundaries). Unfortunately, because of some realizations I’ve made about my project, I haven’t finished the first draft, at this point I’m not really sure how I could possibly get to the end point at this stage in the story and I can’t continue finishing the story until I’ve made these edits.

Do they want to get married and/or have children? Why or why not?
James: James doesn’t want to get married, he honestly thinks it’s a meaningless and therefore worthless ritual that society forces upon people for capitalist reasons, which will be funny later on when James is asked to be the Best-Man at a wedding (or at least it’ll be funny to me).
However, if James was emotionally invested enough into a romantic relationship for marriage to be considered an option, James would be the type of guy to suggest eloping instead of traditional white wedding. James wouldn’t be the type to have kids, he’s just not interested in having children.

Beth: Beth would definitely want to get married, marriage is something that’s surprisingly important to her, but kids she’s a bit unsure of. She’s not in a stable relationship or in a stable employment situation right now and Beth would prefer to have a stable job and home situation figured out first before even discussing the possibility of children.

What is their weapon of choice? (It doesn’t necessarily have to be a physical weapon.)
James: Computers and technology. Most people aren’t very good with computers or passwords, so James will use that lack of experience or knowledge to his advantage in a hostile situation or when he’s trying to research someone or something. This can sometimes backfire.

Beth: Frying Pan or words, Beth is very much the type of person who uses humor to cover up how she feels, so she’s most likely to make a joke out of serious situation (which can cause problems).

What’s the nicest thing they’ve done for someone else, and why did they do it?
The problem here is that James and Beth don’t consider these actions “nice” in the strictest sense, they consider the following actions to be like standard behavior.
James: After Justine lost her foot, Justine went to live with her ex-girlfriend Virginia, the situation wasn’t working out because Virginia’s mother Ines was diagnosed with cancer at about the same time, so James had Justine live with him and Rosemary until Justine felt she could be comfortably independent. Virginia and Ines live in Paris, James also financially supported Justine being able to visit Virginia and helped with transport. Unfortunately Virginia’s mother Ines ended up passing away an Justine’s relationship with Virginia fell apart

Beth: Beth has been supportive of her friend Jack coming out as a Lesbian to her South Korean and Chinese parents and for the last year or so Beth has been helping Mary get through the trauma of a domestic violence situation with an ex-boyfriend and the subsequent legal proceedings.

Have they ever been physically violent with someone, and what instigated it?
James: The Hammer Incident – James was being bullied by kids at the local primary school, he took a hammer to school and knocked one of the kids out, the incident has repercussions later on. However, James does participate in karate, so while I wouldn’t consider it violent, he has sustained shoulder injuries from it.

Beth: Beth has the tendency to contain something, until she snaps and the reaction seems out of proportion to the current event. There was a big incident with her mother, where her mother escalated from verbal and emotional abuse to physical abuse (which is one of the reasons she left home and no longer speaks to her mother).
Beth defended herself, but may have gone too far. However, the context of that situation involved verbal abuse and emotional abuse from her mother over a long period of time. Then there was a social worker who was attacked by a crystal meth addict and Beth beat him up with a fold up chair.

Are they a rule-follower or a rebel?
James: James is willing to make an exception for or justify actions for Operation Nightshade and while I like to think of James as a rule-follower, this novel is about how he’s being pushed to a breaking point and is sort of sliding into being willing to break the rules and do some arsehole-like things in order to close the case.

Beth: Beth is both, depending on the situation, Beth strives to know the rules as well as possible so she can bend them later or present plausible deniability (like acting dumb). In some ways, Beth is more rebellious than rule-following, but is simply better at hiding it and putting on a Stepford Smile

Are they organized or messy?
James: James is super organised
Beth: Beth is rather messy but she tries really hard to be organised

What makes them feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way?
The worst part about this question is that it’s taken me ages to give an answer for this and I still don’t really have a definitive answer. So I’m just going to say how James and Beth express affection. James and Beth and both the type of person to show affection through action, they are more likely to do things for the other or put up with a bad situation because of how they feel about the person in question, and that’s an across-the-board type of thing.

However, while James is the type of person to think the action should speak for itself, Beth is the type of person who wants the other person to say it or tell her she’s loved. Neither of them are big on physical affection in public, but in private James can be rather affectionate, where as Beth can be considered distant or cold with regards to physical affection.

What do they eat for breakfast?
James: James has a strict eating routine, he has a smoothie or a protein shake for breakfast during the week, but Saturday is an egg based dish (like poached eggs, but he does like scrambled eggs) and pancakes on Sunday (if he’s in a good mood).

Beth: cereal or what’s on offer, she loves a full continental breakfast

Have they ever lost someone close to them? What happened?
James: I suppose you count the absence of James’s biological father, though currently James does not think of it as a loss, however when James’s biological father stopped visiting (after James’s received his Autism diagnosis), it did hurt him and that same fear of rejection is mostly the reason for his hedgehog mannerism.

Beth: I suppose you could count Beth’s mother Claire, but she doesn’t consider it a loss, for Beth it’s more a relief that she is no longer obligated to deal with Claire, but occasionally has indirect contact with Claire via Mary.

What’s their treat of choice? (Or, if not food, how else do they reward themselves?)
James: James and his family are rather partial to sweets and desserts, dessert is mandatory, not optional, for all meals.

Beth: Beth is more of a savory type of person, Beth has a great weakness for cheese, and while she does like chocolate, she prefers dark chocolate (the 75% cocoa stuff).

Hopefully, I’ll be updating The Beautiful Books 20: August by the end of the day, because I need to do a journal entry as apart of my University assignment. Hopefully the train won’t be packed so I’ll be able to do some writing/editing on the way home.

Links:
~Paper Fury: BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE #19 // JULY EDITION

~Further Up and Further In: The Beautiful People 19 – July Edition