Inanna Harth
Jedi Knight
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
The cover of the first edition features a picture of a humanoid couple sitting on a cloudy beach, their backs to the camera; emblazoned in white letters above the scene is the title Sand Castles Burning. Inanna Hoole’s name is printed below the title in a slightly smaller font.
CONTENT INFORMATION
Dramatis Personae:
Plot Summary:
Amelia Merrick arrives on Jerrilek after a long space voyage from Lao-mon. The purpose of her visit is to meet Harley Tremain, a Zeltron-Human hybrid whom she met and befriended online. The two bonded over their shared interests in true crime and unsolved mysteries.
She and Harley arrange to meet at a bookstore. The meeting goes well; they have lunch together and any awkwardness between them quickly dissipates. They continue to spend time together over the next few days, with Amelia managing to convince the reserved and reclusive Harley to show her around the city, and eventually to take her into the more rural area where he grew up. Harley introduces her to his family, who still live in the house where he spent his childhood.
Harley’s parents, Benji and Nadine, welcome Amelia into their home. Amelia immediately likes Benji, who is friendly and charming, but Nadine seems somewhat cold towards her. She chalks it up to the pheromones. Because their visit wasn’t planned, it accidentally coincides with the arrival of Harley’s aunt Janice, her husband Gideon, and their two children, sixteen year old Ocey and twelve year old Talia. Janice is an actress whose career is waning, Gideon is a high-strung and neurotic businessman, Ocey spends all her time messaging her boyfriend, and Talia is a precocious bookworm. The visiting relatives claim the guest house which Harley had intended to let Amelia stay in for themselves. This means that Amelia must sleep in the main house in his sister's old bedroom.
One night, Amelia is unable to sleep. She goes downstairs and finds Harley eating ice cream alone at the kitchen table. While they are talking quietly, they hear Harley’s parents in the bedroom upstairs as the couple engage in a heated argument, something about Benji breaking a promise. Amelia, not wanting to pry, doesn't ask questions about the incident.
The next afternoon, Amelia convinces Harley to go out for a walk with her, arguing that she doesn’t know the area well enough and might get lost. When they return to the house, they find Harley’s mother dead in the yard, having collapsed on her way back from the guest house. Amelia calls the police, and notices that while Harley is clearly in shock, he shows very little emotion otherwise. This isn't abnormal for him, since he is fairly reserved and introverted for a Zeltron, but it still stands out to her as unusual.
The police determine the cause of death to be poison; Nadine's lunch, which she took alone in her lab, was laced with cryptberry venom. It is revealed that Benji made her lunch that day. When questioned, Harley reveals that the “broken promise” which his parents had argued about the previous night involved Benji having vowed to remain faithful to Nadine, despite this running counter to the non-monogamous Zeltron culture he was raised in. Naturally, Harley argues, it was only a matter of time before his father broke this promise. You’d think his mother would’ve known that and not tried to tie him down in the first place.
The police arrest Benji. Amelia tries to be supportive and comfort Harley, but he becomes more distant than ever. She begins to doubt that his father is the killer and attempts to investigate the crime herself. Initially Harley doesn’t want to get involved in her amateur sleuthing, but she drags him along by making him drive her around.
They find Benji’s mistress, a Twi'lek dancer named Lori Demaris. She reveals that Benji actually ended the affair two months ago and was trying to patch things up with his wife. Talking to Janice and Gideon doesn't reveal much, Ocey barely seems aware of what's happening, and while Talia brags to the other members of her family that she knows who the real killer is, she refuses to reveal them when asked and is thus dismissed. Privately, Amelia also considers the possibility that Harley himself may have been involved, recalling an earlier conversation in which he was unwilling to admit that he loved his mother.
Harley resents Amelia's attempts at solving the mystery, and the two get into an argument while he is driving home. This results in them getting into a speeder accident. The vehicle is totaled and they narrowly escape with their lives. In the aftermath of this disaster, Amelia apologizes and offers to leave him alone. He tells her he doesn't want her to leave, and when she asks why, he replies, "Because you're my friend."
When the police arrive at the scene of the accident, Amelia is arrested. To her utter surprise, she is charged with the attempted murder of Talia, who was found unconscious in the yard after being struck in the head with a heavy metal wrench. The accusation is based on the fact that she was the last person seen with the girl, and because Talia claimed to remember seeing her attacker "change shape" prior to the assault. The problem is, Amelia knows she wasn't the last person to be with Talia - Harley was.
And it is Harley who manages to get Amelia released on bail. Distrustful of him, she questions his motives, but he insists that he had nothing to do with any of it. Rather, he thinks Talia arranged the "assault" on herself, causing the wrench to fall and hit her head by knocking it down from a great height, because he found markings in the dirt that indicated she knocked it down several times before it managed to actually strike her.
Since Talia is in the hospital, they can't question her. They do however receive a call from Gideon asking if they know where Ocey is - apparently her family has been unable to reach her, and they are afraid she has run off with her boyfriend.
Amelia and Harley search the guest house, looking for her. In the room Ocey shared with Talia, they find Ocey's belongings left behind, including her purse and datapad. While Harley continues to search, Amelia slices into Ocey's datapad, hoping to find out where she is. Startlingly, she finds no messages at all - there is no boyfriend. What she does find, however, are Holonet searches for hired hitmen, lethal poisons, and quickest ways to kill someone. Amelia hears a loud noise coming from outside the room and calls out to Harley, but he doesn't answer. She goes into the kitchen to investigate and is attacked from behind by Ocey wielding a knife. A scuffle ensues in which Amelia manages to wrestle the weapon away and stabs Ocey, severely wounding her. Amelia calls the police and finds Harley lying on the bathroom floor, having been stabbed in the back by Ocey, although Amelia calling out to him after she heard him collapse meant that Ocey didn't have a chance to finish the job. Medics are able to save both Harley and Ocey's lives.
When all is said and done, it is determined that while Ocey put her up to it, Talia poisoned their aunt Nadine. The two sisters conspired together to see if they could get away with murder, as they were bored during the family visit and, after overhearing the argument between her aunt and uncle, Ocey realized they could pin it on Benji. When the case seemingly solved itself and the police arrested Benji, Talia began coyly bragging about it, claiming she "knew who the real killer was" and that the police were too stupid to figure it out. Realizing her sister was a liability, Ocey convinced Talia that she had jeopardized the situation by sowing doubt in Amelia and Harley, and therefore they would have to stage Talia's "assault" and then pinning it on Amelia. The marks on the ground were caused by Ocey, unwilling to actually hit her own sister, repeatedly dropping the wrench down on her until it hit Talia in the head, knocking her unconscious. As Amelia points out, they would've been better off pinning the faux assault on Harley, but they apparently considered Amelia more of a threat and therefore tried to frame her instead. When Harley saw through the plot and bailed Amelia out of jail, Ocey decided to play the part of the victim. She was going to kill them both and claim that it was in self-defense, but she underestimated Amelia's abilities. Amelia had kept it a secret from everyone that she was a former Jedi Padawan who had failed to achieve knighthood, but she had enough command of the Force to enable her to overpower Ocey. Her Force sensitivity is also the likely reason why she had such a "bad feeling" about all this in the first place.
With Ocey and Talia charged with murder among other crimes, their parents are left wondering where they went wrong. Benji is released from custody, and he makes preparations to move away. In a final scene which the critics complained was "tacked on", "unnecessary", and even "tone deaf" after all that had transpired before it, Amelia and Harley share a passionate kiss.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Inanna Hoole began writing what would become Sand Castles Burning as far back as when she was first employed by the Office of Imperial Truth. With the help of her secretary Hal Yomin, she was able to complete the manuscript during her Sith training on Nathema. The main characters bear a noticeable resemblance to people Inanna knew, with Harley being modelled on Hal and the heroine Amelia Merrick obviously inspired by Inanna herself. Her affiliation with Gildenleaf Inc., for which she had worked as a nightclub manager, enabled her to manipulate her connections and get in touch with the publishing branch of the company.
Many have questioned the business relationship between Inanna and Hal, with some going so far as to suggest that he is a ghostwriter whom Inanna paid to write the novel based on her ideas. Both have denied this, insisting that Hal merely acted as a typist, taking verbal dictation from Inanna when necessary and making minor grammatical edits to the manuscript. There are strong signs of the influence of Hal's minimalist prose style in the writing, however, mostly in his curbing and cutting down of Inanna's longer, more flowery passages. The result is a robust writing style hampered by the occasional rough scene or odd creative choice.
- Intent: Inanna’s first published novel.
- Image Credit: N/A
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: “My Heart Is A Hollow Plain”
- Media Name: Sand Castles Burning
- Format: Book/Holobook
- Distribution: Common
- Length: Medium, just under 200 pages.
- Description: Sand Castles Burning is a mystery/thriller novel written by Inanna Hoole. The book centers on Amelia and Harley, two people who become friends after meeting via the Holonet. Amelia travels to Jerrilek to meet Harley in person, but not long after her arrival tragedy strikes when Harley's mother is found murdered. The police are looking for the killer, and Amelia is determined to help solve the mystery - especially after she herself comes to be considered a suspect.
- Author: Inanna Hoole
- Publisher: Gildenleaf Inc.
- Reception: For a debut novel by an unknown writer, this has been a modest success. It is selling well but the critics are largely unimpressed, with reviews describing it as well-written with interesting characters, but with a contrived and occasionally silly plot full of hodgepodge ideas copied from other works of literature that never quite fit together properly.
The cover of the first edition features a picture of a humanoid couple sitting on a cloudy beach, their backs to the camera; emblazoned in white letters above the scene is the title Sand Castles Burning. Inanna Hoole’s name is printed below the title in a slightly smaller font.
CONTENT INFORMATION
“She had built a sand castle, expecting it to be washed away by the sea. Instead her sand castle had burned down, licked to death by stray flames from the beachgoers bonfire. There really was no predicting such things.” - Excerpt from Sand Castles Burning by Inanna Hoole.
Dramatis Personae:
- Amelia Merrick; former Jedi Padawan (female Shi'ido)
- Harley Tremain; college student (male Zeltron-Human hybrid)
- Benji Tremain; Harley's father (male Zeltron)
- Nadine Tremain; Harley's mother (female Human)
- Janice Andor; Nadine's sister (female Human)
- Gideon Andor; Janice's husband (male Human)
- Ocey Andor; Janice and Gideon's elder daughter (female Human)
- Talia Andor; Janice and Gideon's younger daughter (female Human)
- Lori Demaris; nightclub dancer (female Twi'lek)
Plot Summary:
Amelia Merrick arrives on Jerrilek after a long space voyage from Lao-mon. The purpose of her visit is to meet Harley Tremain, a Zeltron-Human hybrid whom she met and befriended online. The two bonded over their shared interests in true crime and unsolved mysteries.
She and Harley arrange to meet at a bookstore. The meeting goes well; they have lunch together and any awkwardness between them quickly dissipates. They continue to spend time together over the next few days, with Amelia managing to convince the reserved and reclusive Harley to show her around the city, and eventually to take her into the more rural area where he grew up. Harley introduces her to his family, who still live in the house where he spent his childhood.
Harley’s parents, Benji and Nadine, welcome Amelia into their home. Amelia immediately likes Benji, who is friendly and charming, but Nadine seems somewhat cold towards her. She chalks it up to the pheromones. Because their visit wasn’t planned, it accidentally coincides with the arrival of Harley’s aunt Janice, her husband Gideon, and their two children, sixteen year old Ocey and twelve year old Talia. Janice is an actress whose career is waning, Gideon is a high-strung and neurotic businessman, Ocey spends all her time messaging her boyfriend, and Talia is a precocious bookworm. The visiting relatives claim the guest house which Harley had intended to let Amelia stay in for themselves. This means that Amelia must sleep in the main house in his sister's old bedroom.
One night, Amelia is unable to sleep. She goes downstairs and finds Harley eating ice cream alone at the kitchen table. While they are talking quietly, they hear Harley’s parents in the bedroom upstairs as the couple engage in a heated argument, something about Benji breaking a promise. Amelia, not wanting to pry, doesn't ask questions about the incident.
The next afternoon, Amelia convinces Harley to go out for a walk with her, arguing that she doesn’t know the area well enough and might get lost. When they return to the house, they find Harley’s mother dead in the yard, having collapsed on her way back from the guest house. Amelia calls the police, and notices that while Harley is clearly in shock, he shows very little emotion otherwise. This isn't abnormal for him, since he is fairly reserved and introverted for a Zeltron, but it still stands out to her as unusual.
The police determine the cause of death to be poison; Nadine's lunch, which she took alone in her lab, was laced with cryptberry venom. It is revealed that Benji made her lunch that day. When questioned, Harley reveals that the “broken promise” which his parents had argued about the previous night involved Benji having vowed to remain faithful to Nadine, despite this running counter to the non-monogamous Zeltron culture he was raised in. Naturally, Harley argues, it was only a matter of time before his father broke this promise. You’d think his mother would’ve known that and not tried to tie him down in the first place.
The police arrest Benji. Amelia tries to be supportive and comfort Harley, but he becomes more distant than ever. She begins to doubt that his father is the killer and attempts to investigate the crime herself. Initially Harley doesn’t want to get involved in her amateur sleuthing, but she drags him along by making him drive her around.
They find Benji’s mistress, a Twi'lek dancer named Lori Demaris. She reveals that Benji actually ended the affair two months ago and was trying to patch things up with his wife. Talking to Janice and Gideon doesn't reveal much, Ocey barely seems aware of what's happening, and while Talia brags to the other members of her family that she knows who the real killer is, she refuses to reveal them when asked and is thus dismissed. Privately, Amelia also considers the possibility that Harley himself may have been involved, recalling an earlier conversation in which he was unwilling to admit that he loved his mother.
Harley resents Amelia's attempts at solving the mystery, and the two get into an argument while he is driving home. This results in them getting into a speeder accident. The vehicle is totaled and they narrowly escape with their lives. In the aftermath of this disaster, Amelia apologizes and offers to leave him alone. He tells her he doesn't want her to leave, and when she asks why, he replies, "Because you're my friend."
When the police arrive at the scene of the accident, Amelia is arrested. To her utter surprise, she is charged with the attempted murder of Talia, who was found unconscious in the yard after being struck in the head with a heavy metal wrench. The accusation is based on the fact that she was the last person seen with the girl, and because Talia claimed to remember seeing her attacker "change shape" prior to the assault. The problem is, Amelia knows she wasn't the last person to be with Talia - Harley was.
And it is Harley who manages to get Amelia released on bail. Distrustful of him, she questions his motives, but he insists that he had nothing to do with any of it. Rather, he thinks Talia arranged the "assault" on herself, causing the wrench to fall and hit her head by knocking it down from a great height, because he found markings in the dirt that indicated she knocked it down several times before it managed to actually strike her.
Since Talia is in the hospital, they can't question her. They do however receive a call from Gideon asking if they know where Ocey is - apparently her family has been unable to reach her, and they are afraid she has run off with her boyfriend.
Amelia and Harley search the guest house, looking for her. In the room Ocey shared with Talia, they find Ocey's belongings left behind, including her purse and datapad. While Harley continues to search, Amelia slices into Ocey's datapad, hoping to find out where she is. Startlingly, she finds no messages at all - there is no boyfriend. What she does find, however, are Holonet searches for hired hitmen, lethal poisons, and quickest ways to kill someone. Amelia hears a loud noise coming from outside the room and calls out to Harley, but he doesn't answer. She goes into the kitchen to investigate and is attacked from behind by Ocey wielding a knife. A scuffle ensues in which Amelia manages to wrestle the weapon away and stabs Ocey, severely wounding her. Amelia calls the police and finds Harley lying on the bathroom floor, having been stabbed in the back by Ocey, although Amelia calling out to him after she heard him collapse meant that Ocey didn't have a chance to finish the job. Medics are able to save both Harley and Ocey's lives.
When all is said and done, it is determined that while Ocey put her up to it, Talia poisoned their aunt Nadine. The two sisters conspired together to see if they could get away with murder, as they were bored during the family visit and, after overhearing the argument between her aunt and uncle, Ocey realized they could pin it on Benji. When the case seemingly solved itself and the police arrested Benji, Talia began coyly bragging about it, claiming she "knew who the real killer was" and that the police were too stupid to figure it out. Realizing her sister was a liability, Ocey convinced Talia that she had jeopardized the situation by sowing doubt in Amelia and Harley, and therefore they would have to stage Talia's "assault" and then pinning it on Amelia. The marks on the ground were caused by Ocey, unwilling to actually hit her own sister, repeatedly dropping the wrench down on her until it hit Talia in the head, knocking her unconscious. As Amelia points out, they would've been better off pinning the faux assault on Harley, but they apparently considered Amelia more of a threat and therefore tried to frame her instead. When Harley saw through the plot and bailed Amelia out of jail, Ocey decided to play the part of the victim. She was going to kill them both and claim that it was in self-defense, but she underestimated Amelia's abilities. Amelia had kept it a secret from everyone that she was a former Jedi Padawan who had failed to achieve knighthood, but she had enough command of the Force to enable her to overpower Ocey. Her Force sensitivity is also the likely reason why she had such a "bad feeling" about all this in the first place.
With Ocey and Talia charged with murder among other crimes, their parents are left wondering where they went wrong. Benji is released from custody, and he makes preparations to move away. In a final scene which the critics complained was "tacked on", "unnecessary", and even "tone deaf" after all that had transpired before it, Amelia and Harley share a passionate kiss.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Inanna Hoole began writing what would become Sand Castles Burning as far back as when she was first employed by the Office of Imperial Truth. With the help of her secretary Hal Yomin, she was able to complete the manuscript during her Sith training on Nathema. The main characters bear a noticeable resemblance to people Inanna knew, with Harley being modelled on Hal and the heroine Amelia Merrick obviously inspired by Inanna herself. Her affiliation with Gildenleaf Inc., for which she had worked as a nightclub manager, enabled her to manipulate her connections and get in touch with the publishing branch of the company.
Many have questioned the business relationship between Inanna and Hal, with some going so far as to suggest that he is a ghostwriter whom Inanna paid to write the novel based on her ideas. Both have denied this, insisting that Hal merely acted as a typist, taking verbal dictation from Inanna when necessary and making minor grammatical edits to the manuscript. There are strong signs of the influence of Hal's minimalist prose style in the writing, however, mostly in his curbing and cutting down of Inanna's longer, more flowery passages. The result is a robust writing style hampered by the occasional rough scene or odd creative choice.
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