T. K. Arispe

 Concept design for Tam, one of the main protagonists of the novel I've been working on. Tam is a 16-year-old who's got it all together: her parents buy her whatever she wants, she's super popular at school, she's a star athlete, and she's tremendously spoiled and entitled because of her legendary tantrums.

When Tam's sister Carrie is taken away by the mysterious Lord Saturos, Tam follows them and finds herself adventuring through the fantastic world of Arthabasca on a quest to free the Erdunn, powerful elemental entities. Tam develops a special bond with the first Erdunn she finds, Smaragdus, who is able to link with Tam to lend the girl her powers over crystal and electricity.

While at first Tam isn't used to actually having to solve her own problems, as she journeys through Arthabasca, she learns how to work for what she wants and that the universe doesn't revolve around her. But in her stubborn drive to outwit Saturos and get Carrie back home, Tam is missing some critical details about her adversary and the beings she is helping, and her actions may end up deciding the fate of Arthabasca.

Tam was fun to write as the archetype of the bratty teen who goes on a character-building adventure. She's sort of me poking fun at the fact that in a lot of teen-oriented fantasy, the main character is a disagreeable person who it seems the writer just sent on a quest to learn some life lessons and get a good dose of humility. In Tam's case, she gets her quest completely wrong and really makes a mess that Saturos and Carrie are stuck trying to clean up--but she does end up learning some life lessons along the way, and in the end, she helps to permanently make things better in Arthabasca, and reconciles with her sister.

I find her growth into an independent and resilient young woman satisfying, especially because she is not the only heroine in the story who gets to have fun adventures in a fantasy world--but more about that later.