Kristen Marlena Linder | |
Fictional Character | |
1632 series POD: May, 1631 | |
Appearance(s): | Grantville Gazette III "Command Performance", in Ring of Fire II 1635: Music and Murder 1636: The Devil's Opera Grantville Gazette LXXVI |
Type of Appearance: | Direct |
Nationality: | United States of Europe (born in the United States |
Date of Birth: | 1982 |
Occupation: | Musician |
Spouse: | Franz Sylwester |
Relatives: | Jonni Chieske (sister), Susan Garrett (aunt), Mary "Liney" Linder (grandmother) |
Created by: | David Carrico |
Kristen Marlena "Marla" Linder was a talented musician from Grantville. Her parents had taken her brother to a chemotherapy session the day the Ring of Fire fell; she had a cold and had been staying with her aunt so as not to infect her brother. As a result, they were left up-time, which was a strong emotional blow to her.
Linder had intended to further her musical career before the Ring of Fire. Initially, those dreams appeared dashed. However, over the course of time, Linder befriended crippled down-timer musician Franz Sylwester. Sylwester could relate to Linder's wounds; a former violinist, Sylwester's hand had been deliberately maimed by a rival some years before. The two were married in January 1634.
Linder was both a protégé of Mary Simpson and the center of a circle of musicians who regularly performed at the Green Horse Tavern in Magdeburg. Her mother had accumulated a large collection of Irish music, and many of those songs proved popular with the patrons of the Green Horse, especially members of the city's Committee of Correspondence. She was an accomplished pianist and flautist, and her public performances helped to introduce and popularize the modern piano and transverse flute.