Leap Day, The Day of All Seasons, and Luke

Happy Leap Day! I'm glad Leap Day fell on one of my normal blogging days, since it gives me an opportunity to share with you some of my early thoughts about the Season Avatars universe.

If you're unfamiliar with the Season Avatars series, it takes place in Challen, a country that is afflicted with a magical weather that mixes up the seasons--just like typical Midwestern weather in the early spring, but more extreme. In my first draft, this weather was called "Day of All Seasons," and it typically happened (if I remember properly) every four years, like a Leap Day. Currently, I call the magical weather "Chaos Season," which is much shorter and catchier (a plus when your first draft was about 170,000 words), and it can happen randomly (making life harder for my heroines).

Each heroine in the series is born on the first day of one of the seasons. The gods and goddesses of  Challen ensure that no one else in the country is born on that day. But what about if someone is born on the Day of All Seasons? In my original draft, that was a magical day, and no births occurred on it. If they did, the unfortunate child didn't live long. That was the case until Luke (nicknamed "Luke the Fluke" was born. He turned out to be the reincarnation of a magician who could do things the Season Avatars couldn't. Luke was young and not a very strong protagonist. In the current version of the story, he's been replaced by an artificer named Kron Evenhanded. His magic doesn't stem from a magical birthday; you'll have to read Seasons' Beginnings to learn more about him.

Do you do anything unusual to mark Leap Day? If so, feel free to share it in the comments.