Since I did a piece on the villains last week, it seems only fair that I do one on my hero characters now. Which might be a bit tricky to avoid repeating what I said in but I’ll see what I can do.
I had intended to use that previous post to examine how bad the villains in my books were. I’m not sure I accomplished that but since I’ve already talked about each of these characters in their respective pages, I’ll try doing the reverse here. Which might also help keep me from repeating myself.
Basing it purely on the amount they appear in the two books, as well as those that get their own short stories, there are three or four I would consider the ‘hero’ characters. There are several others who would fall into the ‘good’ category but I want to try and keep this manageable. And, of course, the definition of being good guys is based on their relationship with my P.O.V. character.
So first up on the list, by default, is the aforementioned P.O.V. character, Ash Valerian. I say by default because as the books progress he does a number of morally questionable things. Things that don’t fit into his notion of being a good person (particularly something I have planned for House In Exile). Now it’s not that I don’t think he is a good person at heart. We both hope he is and he tries to be. But some of the things he learns and does often lead him to question himself.
Of the three others, Casey Preston is one of Ash’s biggest supporters. As Sergeant-At-Arms, it’s part of her duties to protect him but something in her nature, as well as her relationship with his uncle, makes them closer than she might have been otherwise. She does what she can to keep him safe and help him throughout the first two books. At the same time, she doesn’t take much nonsense or let him get away with much either. Of course, she has her flaws; the foremost of which is her attitude toward Jodie Hawkes. I won’t go into that too much just now; I’m saving that for her short story Rivals, but my current thinking is that she’s so antagonistic with Jodie because she’s a reminder of a mistake she made.
Quinn Hendricks is another of Ash’s close friends and (so I like to think) a warm, jovial, easy-going person. He’s also a cold-blooded killer. He worked as a bounty hunter in the late 1800s, as detailed in Hunter’s Moon, he more or less continued that work for Ash’s father. I can’t remember if I made it clear in House Valerius, (another reason to go back over it) but one of Quinn’s main jobs is to hunt down and execute anyone who might be a threat to the House. Of my hero characters, he’s probably the one with the most blood on his hands.
Curt MacReady, has the least history with Ash but plays a fairly big role in the last third of each book. He also gets a starring role in War Stories. He’s quite similar in temperament to Quinn, which is probably why they get on and work together so well. Of course, working with Quinn means he’s probably been involved in a number of deaths himself.
So it looks like all my heroes have a dark side to them…
The Scribblings 