Now that I’m in between drafts again, I think I have some time to put up character bios. So here’s how the blogs will be set up: first I’ll put down the basic physical description of the character. I’m always looking for illustrators to draw my characters, and I figured that having an easy place to point them to for details would be a good thing. It’s also good to have a reminder for ME as well. I will also go through the characters’ abilities and such.

Then comes the second part: the inspiration for the character! I’m sure other writers, like my friend Kim, would just love to be exposed to my brilliant thought processes. So whether it’s from an old video game or a personality trait from the most repressed corners of my psyche—you’ll get to hear every juicy detail!

Now, let’s start with the main protagonist of Abandonment Party: Mean.

Physical Features:

A petite woman with shoulder-length hair. Her eye, skin, and hair colors are all listed as “Sandy-Brown” on Mackaba’s police file in the story, yet her hair is slightly darker than her skin. I don’t usually care what color a character is, but I needed a sing-song nickname for Mackaba to refer to her by. And it didn’t sound very melodious to have him say “Whitey Whitekins” or “24601,” so “Sandy-Brown” it is.

Due to her smaller body she is sometimes forced to wear either child-size clothing or pants that are a bit too long for her legs. In the prologue of the first book her jeans are described as frayed at the bottom, having been worn away from dragging on the ground.

Personality:

A woman that goes where she wants and does what she wants. She has no affiliation with any organization; no duty to any job or occupation. I didn’t want a main character that did things because they were told to. What’s the fun in that? If someone is “chosen” to do something it makes writing boring for me. It’s too easy to construct a story if the character is SUPPOSED to be somewhere. “Destiny.” Pfff.

However, when she does find something she either likes or hates, she is quite passionate about it. I suppose that’s what I like best about her; it’s the part of my personality that I contributed to her.

Oh, whoops! I’m supposed to save that for the “inspiration” part. Sorry; I’ve never written a character bio before.

Abilities:

Gravity magic! That is, she is able to affect an object by nullifying gravity’s pull upon it. She can then program the object to act as if another source of gravity were pulling on it from any direction she chooses. “She can make stuff fly” in other words.

Now she does learn other abilities later but I think that would count as spoilers. So check it out: I finally figured out how to put hidden spoiler tags on my blog! If you’re ready take a peek at the BOOK ONE SPOILERS!!!

The inspiration for the character:

Along with Dark, this is one of the first characters I had in my brain years ago. And believe it or not, I’ve encountered girls like this throughout my life! In school or just going to restaurants: they’ve been there. Petite, brown hair, and just doing whatever. Seriously, I saw a Mean-like person at Red Lobster once. She was just sitting in a booth with fingerless gloves and tattered jeans. Everyone else in that joint had frickin’ suits on and there she was just chilling with her friend. I took a picture for inspiration, but I don’t think I can just put up snapshots of strangers on my blog without their permission. So I waited ten years until my friend Matt found an artist that could paint Mean for the cover of my book. So here she is, by Thomas Hugo:

Nice, right? Thomas did everything I asked, down to the Jesian flag on the backpack. Mean’s body type is also the opposite of what I am: a tall male. It makes things interesting. Since I’m always being forced to think: “How would a shorter female interact with the world?” It keeps me on my toes.

Now, there was a fictional character that also inspired Mean’s design. You may have even guessed who it is. Another petite woman within a fantasy setting. Someone that’s quite good at SLAYING, if I may say so. Yes, the one and only:

Lina Inverse from The Slayers!

Were you thinking of someone else? Impossible. Lina Inverse is THE SLAYER—accept no substitutes. I watched the first two seasons of this anime when I was a teenager and the character of Lina has always stuck with me. She’s a treasure-hunting sorceress, and she’ll blast all foes into oblivion with a FIRE! BALL! The image of a petite woman “just blowing everyone away” was so amazing I decided that my own protagonist needed to be similar. But without the fireballs. Or flat-chested jokes.

A guy wearing a full suit of armor still follows her around, though.