The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #561: Thirteenth Hour Sequel Update 10 - Aurora's Story 1

About this episode

The episode discusses Aurora's backstory and themes for the sequel to The Thirteenth Hour.

This week, I thought I'd discuss a bit about Aurora's backstory and some of the themes I wanted to touch on in the sequel to The Thirteenth Hour. Not all of the research/backstory always makes its way super explicitly in the actual text, but I usually create a history for the characters in order to help create things consistent. For Aurora, we already learned she grew up at an orphanage and knew nothing about the family of her origin. For this book, I have been filling in parts of her past we got only hints about before. I imagined that she was almost always the oldest kid in the orphanage and thus probably the tallest and biggest as well as someone who others would naturally tend to gravitate towards for comfort and support. I imagine she also entered puberty a bit on the earlier side (maybe 11), which is not always the kindest to girls that age. That often comes with some changes - menses, body changes, societal expectations, sometimes unwanted attention from men, etc. Aurora didn't exactly have a mother figure in her life, but the Headmistress of the orphanage and its staff (most of whom were probably women) kind of filled that role, and I imagine that since she was there so…

People in this episode

Host: Joshua Blum

Topics covered

• Aurora's backstory
• character development
• themes in literature
• orphanage life
• coming of age

Keywords

• Aurora
• Thirteenth Hour
• orphanage
• character history
• coming of age
• literary themes

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Thirteenth Hour

More episodes of The Thirteenth Hour Podcast

• The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #565: Thirteenth Hour Sequel Update 14 - Plot Overview · June 8, 2026 · 21 min
• The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #564: Thirteenth Hour Sequel Update 13 - Musical Interlude - Making an Ending Theme in F · June 1, 2026 · 18 min
• The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #563: Thirteenth Hour Sequel Update 12 - The Wayfarer Meets Logan and Aurora · May 25, 2026 · 28 min
• The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #562: Thirteenth Hour Sequel Update 11 - Reading a Random Excerpt · May 18, 2026 · 33 min
• The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #560: Thirteenth Hour Sequel Update 9 - Working a Fast Shooting Archery Technique , Ishi, A Wizard of Earthsea · May 4, 2026 · 41 min
• The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #559: Thirteenth Hour Sequel Update 8 - Trying a Fast Shooting Archery Technique Inspired by Thorgal · April 27, 2026 · 28 min