Inspiration: Grace O'Malley

One of my larger interests when creating the story is Grace O'Malley. When designing Mikala, I wanted to give her a common Irish look--bright red hair, milky skin, deep green eyes. I was originally going to name the comic "The Pirate Queen", but when I looked into making sure no one else was using the name, I stumbled across the musical with the same name. This introduced me to Grace, who is actually "black Irish" (like I half am). I read the book Grania recently and can't have made a better choice. 

There will be some major differences, but I am definitely inspired. Both with be a noble blood type, but Mikala is a southern belle, giving her more comforts and more people to help her. I do like Grace's affinity for continuing when in pain--something that I will be pushing through to Mikala. Mikala's father is a merchant, and I really enjoyed the secret pirating. As much as I love the brandished, wave my Jolly Roger flag pirates, there's something about the secrecy I love more...You'll definitely be seeing that.

Here's a link, since we all know how accurate Wikipedia is...:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_O%27Malley

And here's a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Grania-She-King-Irish-Morgan-Llywelyn/dp/0765318083/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351725549&sr=8-1&keywords=grania