Meet Liz Mitchel

Hello, readers, and welcome to Character Motivation Monday!

Today, I want to properly introduce you (again) to the young woman at the center of my story: Elizabeth "Liz" Mitchel.

Creating Liz

When I first envisioned Liz, I saw her at nineteen years old, a life already haunted by a Saturday morning that happened seven years ago. On the surface, I wanted her to be relatable—a community college student just trying to get by. She works shifts at her family’s business, ‘My Bar’ , a place that was once her parents’ shared dream but now feels, to her, like a hollowed-out monument to her mother's absence. I see her as a sister, fiercely protective of her younger twin brothers, Colton and Martin , and as a daughter, watching her father, Jack, move through his life with a "bone-deep weariness" that makes him seem older than his years.

Casual picture of Liz

In my mind, she is not a warrior. She is not a chosen one destined for greatness. She is a girl frozen by a mystery, her life defined not by what she has, but by what she has lost.

Her core motivation, the engine that drives the entire story, is a desperate need for answers. For seven years, the question of what happened to her mother has been an unanswered wound. It has shaped her into the quiet, observant, and deeply resilient person she has become. She isn’t looking for trouble. She isn’t seeking out monsters.

Liz in her normal scene and a darker scene ripping through

Liz Mitchel

But the thing about the world I've built for The Night Chronicles is that the monsters are looking for her. Liz's journey begins not with a choice to fight, but with the terrifying realization that she has been part of a battle she never knew existed. She's a daughter who needs the truth, and she is about to discover that finding it will require her to walk into the very darkness that swallowed her family whole.

Until the silence breaks,

June Skye