Character Profile: Leticia Altria

 Happy (latish) Sunday!

I was busy today, baking, putting up the tree, chasing the toddler, so on and so forth, so we're a bit late tonight.

But on with the show!

Leticia is one of the deuteragonists of the Fairy Tale Case Files and a pretty important character in her own rights (particularly in the latter part of the series, but *spoilers!*). She was pretty deliberately designed early on and her arcs are fairly deliberate as well (As much as anything I do is).

 Tag line: I will follow my heart and the needs of my kingdom to the best of my ability.

 

Appearance:

Mid height (about five foot five) with long blond hair and cornflower blue eyes. Light skin. Roundish face, normal sort of weight. A few years younger than William at time of first book. Looks like the stereotypical princess!

Personality:

Leticia may look like a stereotype, but she is no damsel in distress. Smart, capable of taking care of her own destiny, and coming into her own in terms of the power she wields, the princess of Altria is slowly, but surely building up her power for when she will be Queen of Altria. Leticia also enjoys romance, teasing her friends, and outsmarting her father.

Age: 20 (at time of first book)

Favorite food: Cheese, green grapes, and ham

Least favorite food: olives, fish of any kind

Favorite color: grey

Hobbies: shopping, painting, playing music, dancing, making wine

What drives her crazy: secrets (especially ones that could harm others)

Weapon of choice: Dagger and her friends

Coffee or tea? Tea

Tattoos: None

Glasses: none

Phobias? After the incident in book 1, Leticia has a fear of darkness

Nicknames: Letti

Biggest downfall: Gets into things she really shouldn’t, snap temper at times

Family: Mother, Father

Background:

Leticia is the only daughter of King Silas and Queen Thalia. For the first nineteen years of her life, she was simply raised to one day take the throne as Queen, marry someone suitable (preferably someone she at least liked) and would often take on studying tasks with her father who wanted someone clever as well as pretty. However, when she was eighteen, she was kidnapped by the sorcerer Kalen who intended to ransom her back for needed funds. Over the next two years, she was kidnapped several more times until William Tenys stepped in, brought in to figure out how Kalen was doing it so that it could be prevented.

Leticia quickly proves herself to not be a fainting damsel in distress and knows a lot more about what’s going on than William initially would have given her credit for.

Backstage!

From the Author:

Leticia’s design is of course, incredibly deliberate. In a lot of the princess stories, the princess is a beautiful girl with long (often blond, but sometimes brown or red) hair, bright eyes (er, often a strange color) and fair skin. Leticia is of course modeled to be the absolute caricature of this: blond and blue eyed (cornflower eyes to be exact. I had to get my jab in where I could).

Though I don’t picture her with a tiny waist. Considering that she likely eats well, exercises regularly, and is healthy, she’d be considered a normal sort of weight and build. Her rounder features have been commented on several times. She also enjoys eating and while it hasn’t come up, she makes wine!

Personality wise, she’s a tad more complex than that (at least I hope!) Certainly, over the series of books, she deepens a lot into a complicated woman with a lot of trauma to unpack still to come.

Anyway.

Leticia is also probably modeled after Princess Peach since of course it was watching my oldest son play with his Bowser and Peach plush toys that inspired the first novel. I think there’s a lot of Rapunzel in there as well (the whole trapped in a tower thing if nothing else).

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I’m glad I haven’t caught flak for how Leticia is portrayed because I’d get annoyed. I swear it was deliberate. Read The Curious Case of Prince Charming (once it's out of the hands of my editor and into your hands!) You’ll see she’s more than a damsel to rescue!