Before we jump into today’s post, I’d just like to announce the winners of the Kindle book giveaway from last week. The winners are Catherine D. and Holly D. Congratulations to you both! I’ll send you an email. I hope you absolutely love reading The Crystal Tree. And if you didn’t win, don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll be running another giveaway in the near future.
And with that announcement out of the way, let’s get right on to the post.
Today, I thought I’d do something a little different. I’m joining in with the writerly link up The Language of Worlds, a bi-monthly tag designed for writers to get to know their characters better, and to help them share these characters with other people. Today, I’ll be answering the ten questions for my character Nicola from my spec-fic/sci-fi thing currently (and badly) titled Snow.
A little synopsis before we jump into answering the questions. Please forgive how rough this is:
Eric is trying to find his place again after losing his mother. However, adjusting to living with his difficult step-father, and his constant battles with the bullies to protect the mutants in his school, isn’t helping either, especially when he finally snaps and lets his icy powers loose.
Nicola is trying to fit into a brand new team of government agents, all teens, and all mutants. More than anything, she wants to finally succeed at something, but with even her own team mates doubting her abilities as an agent, she’s struggling to believe she even has a chance.
But when a new law is proposed that, if passed, would force all mutants to publically register their abilities, things take a turn for the worst for them both. Eric fights for mutant’s right to privacy, with a group he’s quite sure he trusts, while Nicola protects the people proposing this law, when she’s not sure she believes it’s right.
The protestors are getting desperate, and there will be blood. Eric and Nicola must work together to try and stop the violence before someone gets hurt.
I like to describe this book as The X-Men crossed with a touch of Agents of SHIELD.
And now, on to the questions!
1. Where does your character live, and how does that impact them?
Nicola lives in an underground facility where she and the rest of her team live, train, and work together. It’s a far cry from the beachside suburb where she grew up, and she often finds it confining. The one thing she does like about it is the enormous swimming pool on the bottom floor. Living in the facility means she faces a constant battle of trying to prove herself and her worth as an agent every day, not just to her team, but also to herself.
2. If they could book a vacation to anywhere in the world, where would they go and why?
A remote coastal beach, somewhere almost tropical. Nicola’s mutant ability is breath like a fish, and grow a mermaid like tail when submerged in water, and, of course, she grew up near the beach. Her dream would be a vacation away from people, where no one is going to stare at her in her mutant form, but where she could spend all day every day just swimming, body surfing through the waves, and exploring the sea bed.
3. On a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high), how ambitious are they?
Probably around a 6-7. She’s messed up a lot in the past and knows she’s lucky to have the chance to become an agent, she doesn’t dare set her sights too high. Not screwing up is pretty much her only ambition at the moment.
4. What do they want to achieve long term?
A successful career as an agent. Maybe even the chance to lead missions herself one day. Secretly, she’d love to be a proper spy and travel the world on solo missions. She’d also love to have a chance for her mutant ability to actually be useful for once, instead of an annoyance to be planned around.
5. Who inspires them?
Nicola is super inspired by their trainer, Greg, who is both incredibly capable, and also amazingly patient. She aspires to be like him one day, though whether she’ll make it to that level of patience is less certain. She’s also quite inspired by action movies, like Tomb Raider, James Bond, and Jason Bourne, which is probably where her agenting style comes from. And she’s got a secret love for Shakespeare that very few people ever suspect.
6. How would they handle seclusion?
Not very well. She’d try and distract herself for a while, but eventually she would get bored, and sick of her own company. She doesn’t like to stop and think, because then she starts to feel rather uncomfortable with her own mind, and seclusion would give her far too much time for that.
7. Are they a cat person or a dog person?
Definitely a dog person. Nicola’s not exactly a sit still and snuggle sort of person. She’s active and independent, and her ideal pet would be one that could run at her heels and keep up, and maybe even be a little scary too. A German Shepherd would be her ideal dog.
8. What’s their favourite type of weather?
Sunny, just a little wind and quite hot, but not humid at all. Her second favourite type of weather is a huge thunderstorm when the ground is shaking from the thunder and the lighting whips across the sky, and the wind howls. It makes her feel alive.
9. When they’re hungry, does it show? How?
If Nicola is hungry, you can be sure that everyone is going to know about it. She will mention it several times, ask other people if they are hungry too, then start to talk about what kind of food she would like to be eating right now. She doesn’t whine about it, but she doesn’t let you forget about it either.
10. What’s one Bible verse your character would identify with?
I’m actually not sure. I’ve never really associated Bible quotes with characters before. If you know of one that might fit Nicola, suggest it in the comments. Maybe you can help me find one for her!
And there we have it, a sneak peek at Nicola, the second main character from Snow. I hope you enjoyed reading about her as much as I enjoyed answering these questions. If you’re interested in joining in with this link-up for yourself, you can find this month’s questions HERE, or a new list will be posted sometime next month.
Did you enjoy hearing about Nicola? If you could ask one question about her, what would it be? What’s a Bible quote that you think might suit her? Did you participate in The Language Of Worlds this month? Link me to your post and I’ll check it out! If you didn’t, why not pick a question from the list and answer it for one of your own character in the comments. I would love to get to know some of your characters hear about your characters too.
Enjoyed this post? Sign up to the blog and get all future updates delivered to your inbox. Never miss another post!
