Category Archives: Characters

His Robot Girlfriend – Characters: Patience

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“I am Daffodil serial number 55277-PFN-001-XGN-F0103. My software is up to date.”

Patience is the Robot in “His Robot Girlfriend”. Just as you might expect, she’s perfect.



Though her hair was covered with a clear plastic cap, he could see it was jet black. It matched two dark, carefully arched eyebrows and a set of long eyelashes. She had no other body hair. Her face could best be described as cute, with large blue eyes, a button nose, and thick voluptuous lips. She had the kind of slender and yet curvy body that was just not possible on a real woman. Breasts the size of apples just kind of floated there above a perfectly flat stomach. Mike tilted his head down. She looked anatomically complete.

Patience went through several different versions. Originally, she was very tall and buxom and had platinum hair. Then in revision, I made her more svelt and small, with dark hair. When I imagined her moving, I pictured some of the actresses that fit that body type: Christina Ricci, Natalie Portman, Alyson Hannigan. Her personality was easy to write. She’s a robot.


“I suppose you don’t need any sun block?” he asked.

“I’m shielded against much greater radiation that I am likely to be exposed to here, Mike.” Patience replied.

“So you don’t tan?”

“No. I will remain always the shade that you chose when you ordered me.”

Characters

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I thought it might be fun to talk about the characters in my stories, so over the next few weeks that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll start with the characters in “His Robot Girlfriend” as there are only a few. Then I’ll move on to “Princess of Amathar”, which has a few more– about a dozen. Then I’ll move on to the “Senta and the Steel Dragon” series. There are well over two hundred characters that come and go within the series (which will be at least six books– three are completed). Be sure to let me know what you think.

The Steel Dragon – Characters Part 3

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Telling the story of an entire colony required the creation of a large number of supporting characters. Many were just spear carriers– people who showed up because I needed someone there. Some of them had their own stories that played into the main plot. It was fun working with them and I came to love all my characters. Here are some of the minor supporting characters that appear in the book.

Eamon Shrubb: I needed another police constable to play off Saba Colbshallow, so I created Eamon. He is a typically British (or what I think of as typically British) cop. Serious about his job but a great guy under his stuffy exterior.

Dot Shrubb: Eamon needed a wife and for no reason what so ever, I decided that she was deaf. This added an interesting trait that I was able to play with later.

Evo & Femke Kane: The Kanes are an unusual couple. They are more like siblings that a married couple. This is primarily because Mrs. Kane is a lesbian and they probably have no sexual relations with each other. They are both mining engineers and like to dress alike.

Honor Hertling: She is the older sister of Hero and Hertzal (both major supporting characters) and she is patterned after those people who do so much more for others than for themselves. She is a member of the Colonial Council and is the primary voice for the poor and the repressed.

Lon Fonstan: Lon is my Otis the drunk. He shows up in the jail every so often for “drunk and disorderly” but otherwise seems like a nice guy.

Isaak Wissinger: I needed a writer and Isaak is it. I built up such a great back story for him in my mind– one that didn’t see print in the books– that I’m thinking about him as a primary character in a new book.

The Steel Dragon – Characters Part 2

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With the huge number of characters in The Steel Dragon and the other two books of the series, it was always a challenge to find character names. A few of the names just popped into my head and one or two I made up. I wanted unusual names, because the story takes place in a fantasy world and not on Earth. On the other hand, I wanted them to seem real and organic. I made great use of Baby Name websites for most first names. In some cases I would look up historical people and use their last names. If I had a character who was a naturalist, I would find the last name of a nineteenth century naturalist.

I listed the main characters in the previous post. Here are some of the major supporting characters.

The Steel Dragon: He is a tiny little creature in the first book, but by the second has grown to the size of a pony and is speaking. By the third book, he is on his way to becoming a fearsome beast of legend.

Augustus Dechantagne: The younger brother of Iolanthe and Terrence is a happy-go-lucky rogue, and a suspect in a string of murders.

Pantagria: A mysterious angelic figure from a strange alternate world who visits Terrence when he is in drug-induced dreams.

Professor Merced Calliere: A scientist and inventor, Calliere has created the Result Mechanism, a steam powered computer.

Egeria Lusk: Professor Calliere’s assistant and programmer, Miss Lusk is probably the smartest person in the new colony.

Graham Dokkins: A boy the same age as Senta, Graham becomes her closest friend.

Hero & Hertzal Hertling: Twins from Freedonia and members of the ethnic minority, Hero and Hertzal are the same age as Graham and Senta.

The Steel Dragon Trilogy – Characters Part 1

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My new novel The Steel Dragon, and the two sequels The Sorceress’s Apprentice and The Two Dragons, tell the story of the creation of a colony. Because of this there are many characters in the story– somewhat over two hundred named characters. I can put them into three main categories: main characters, major supporting characters, and minor supporting characters. In each of the three books, I follow four main characters, though not necessarily the same four as in the previous book. These are the characters into whose thoughts and emotions we see.

Senta Bly: Senta is a major character in all three books. She is a young orphan girl who becomes the apprentice to a powerful sorceress. (She is the title character for book 2)

Iolanthe Dechantagne: The head of a powerful and wealthy noble family who leads the expedition to found a new colony in a mysterious land, she is a main character in books 1 and 3.

Terrence Dechantagne: A main character in book 1, Terrence is Iolanthe’s older brother, who everyone looks to as a heroic leader, but who harbors deep doubts about himself and lives with a dangerous addiction.

Zeah Korlann: Originally the Dechantagne butler, Zeah is a major character in books 1 and 3. He realizes his potential along the way to be more than a servant.

Yuah Korlann: Zeah’s daughter is a main character in book 2, but is a major supporting character in the other books. Hopelessly in love with Terrence, she struggles with her place in the world, and deals with ethnic prejudice.

Radley Staff: Radley is a main character in book 2 and in one chapter of book 3. He is a naval officer on the battleship which transports the colonists. Later, after he retires, he returns to the colony.

Saba Colbshallow: Saba is a minor supporting character in book 1, a young man who works as a gopher for the Dechantagnes. By book 2, he has grown up and become a policeman. He is a main character in books 2 and 3.

Princess of Amathar – Names

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Princess of Amathar has only one human character. All the rest are aliens of one type or another. One alien character is Malagor. He is a rather wolf-like fellow and the name just seemed to fit. For the Amatharians, I created long complex names that would look good, but would be difficult to pronounce aloud. I wanted them to sound vaguely french, because my main character had described their language as sounding that way. So my Amatharians became Norar Remontar, Vena Remontar, and the title character Noriandara Remontar. For the only human, my main character, I needed a name that implied heroic exploits and also to fit in with a plot twist, it needed to begin with the letter A. Alexander was a natural fit, though I don’t remember if I decided upon this before or after I wrote a major college paper on Alexander the Great. For a long time he didn’t have a last name, but I finally named him after a young lady I was working with (as I worked my way through college) whose last name was Ashton. So Alexander Ashton was born.