Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger asked Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger:

The Reschen Valley Series – Talk about Katharina’s character at the beginning of the book, the impressions she makes. How does she change? What are the external forces that make her that way: cultural, traditional, gender expectations, self-inflicted, etc.

Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger Conundrum – I wanted a feisty, spirited and strong protagonist when I set out to write Katharina. I know it sounds really esoteric or odd when I say things like, “the characters write themselves”. But both Katharina and Angelo, are strong-willed characters and they tend to fight me about the directions I would like to take things. And sometimes I just have to roll with it.

Katharina’s case in this first book was exactly this: the more I got into her world, the more I realized that her circumstances and her nature—most importantly—were going to be her big internal conflict. She just was not going to forgive herself for what she had done, which is mostly, blowing her chances at becoming a landowner when she gets pregnant out of wedlock. Sure, Florian comes and saves the day, but then she’s got her shame to battle with, and a new conflict within herself: she feels beholden to Florian and it takes her awhile to discern her real feelings for a guy who, let’s be honest, is a pretty darned good catch anyway. These internal conflicts change Katharina. She reigns in her more risk-taking, “I don’t care what people think” side. In fact, she almost wants to blend into the community’s landscape. Their expectations, rituals and traditions.

In other words, she begins losing herself. And who hasn’t experienced that before?

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