And Then There Was Lord Timson

Lord Timson is one of the defining characters of Facets of Fantasy. He gives “Millhaven Castle” its slightly-dippy, humorous tone, and he puts the other stories into a framework. Facets should be viewed as a complete story told in five chunks, instead of a set of unrelated stories. And this means Lord Timson’s mildly funny effort to invite random villagers to a dance in the hopes of finding ONE (Alyce, of course) because she might threaten his throne actually has reference to the other four stories as well.

When I wrote “Alyce,” as a remake of Millhaven Castle, Lord Timson was of course there and his plot about inviting-Alyce-for-a-silly-reason was reiterated. But King Felipe, although funny, isn’t quite the same. It’s Lord Timson’s role within Facets that gives him importance—without the addition of other stories around him, King Felipe has a different meaning. In The Birthday Present & Millhaven Castle, a shorter book I published before Facets of Fantasy, the same situation occurs—just in a nutshell. "Millhaven Castle" is joined to a very different story, Dystopian-sci-fi, and when that happens Lord Timson comes into his own.

In short, Lord Timson ties the books he is in together. He appears in the last story and culminates what we’ve learned along the way from a similar character in previous stories. For instance in Facets, Isadore Halogen; the Dragonak; Lord Andre; and King Thazan all have a shared interest in a shady way their family gets and keeps power, is very angsty and secretive, and has unexplained interest in other characters that gives away how anxious he is. But when Lord Timson comes along, it suddenly takes a light tone. It’s not viewed as at all dramatic or threatening to anyone. It’s just . . . just an imposition on other people’s time.

Which is also funny, because Lord Timson is a particularly useful villain. I’m sure he’d be quite disappointed to know that. 
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