COPPER INTO THE SEA: Danann and Sidhelagh of SONG

*laughing because they're laughing*

The above is one of my earliest sketches; there are very few of this couple (or of any of the Characters, now that I think of it ... hmmm ...). 

Danann and Sidhelagh are the two 'first' Characters of SONG - Danann is the grandson of Mamm of Dunnottar and Sidhelagh is his wife.

The two of them are exactly the same age; having been born at the same in the same place of two different lineages, they are what in the books we refer to as 'Spirit Twins'. Inseparable from birth and bound for all time by one of those mysterious Sidhe things that eternally link two individuals, they marry as soon as they're old enough.

The four daughters they produce are Alianora, Sass, Caileen, and Aine - the Sisters of Dunnottar whose Stories we tell through the generations as they unfold.

Danann grows to be a good six and a half feet tall; Sidhelagh doesn't.

Even so they are well-matched.

The mystery of who Danann's father is and the identity of both of Sidhelagh's parents is never quite fully solved, although as the books progress we learn a bit more here and there.

They are on my mind at the moment because I'm finishing up the rewrite of They Are My Song, the first of this series of books.

I'm procrastinating is what I'm doing.

I've left the hardest part of this project until the end because I don't want to have to do it.

Knowing full well that I must and therefore I will, I still put it off as long as I can.

Because this couple dies.

In battle.

Writing it the first time shocked me half to death. I had no idea they were going to DIE when I started this whole thing, else I might not have started it.

But they do.

And I have to write it all over again.

The 'copper into the sea' title comes from the colors of their eyes. Danann's are copper while Sidhelagh's vary as much as the colors of the sea do. From dark dark green through the pale but brilliant blue of sun dancing off a wavelet, Sidhelagh's eyes mirror her emotions.

When I finish with this rewrite all of the books of SONG are going to get re-released with their updates and revisions and all that.

A part of finishing this is getting more and better sketches of all of our Characters done, including Danann and Sidhelagh.

Meanwhile, the one up top will have to get us through.