I’ve been tagged by Louise Charles to take part in this blog hop about main characters in your work in progress.
Louise has recently published a historical romance The Duke’s Shadow, and is also the leader of the online expat writers’ group Writers Abroad, of which I am a member.
It’s very exciting to be writing this inaugural blog post for my new Author website! Here’s the interview.
What is the name of your character? Is he/she a historical or fictional character?
My male lead character’s full name is Miles Pravat Copeland, but most people don’t know his middle name. His father, however, insists on calling him by it. It means ‘History’ in Thai. His mother was Indian and his father is a retired professor of history.
Where and when is the story set?
The story is set in the near future in a fictional village in middle-England called Pembleton. There’s a global crisis going on with a deficiency of sugar and by a tangential connection, vegetarians have become the new minority group to be singled out for blame. Media hype and mass hysteria abound.
What should we know about him/her?
He was created as an Action-Man/Nerd hybrid. (By me, that is, not in the story. You never know these days.) He spent an early career in the Army, which we don’t know much about. It has left its mark in chronic sleeplessness, and we hear that he “disappeared” for a year afterwards. He now runs a one-man business selling specialist computer programs to large organisations, the latest of which is a logistics program. He is heavily into sports, goes kayaking, works out regularly. At the start of the novel he has just bought a 19th century house in Pembleton High Street, next to the newsagent’s.
What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
He meets what seems to be the woman of his dreams. Imagination and reality clash, making a disastrous psychological cocktail. In the meantime a true friend is threatened by the rising tide of hysteria. When he turns his back on her, you know something’s gone very wrong…
What is the personal goal of the character?
Miles is desperate to escape his loneliness. He’s goal-oriented and is concerned with building up his business, but it’s not at the centre of his thoughts. Nightmares haunt him from his past which he can’t cope with alone. He’s already had “two near misses” at getting hitched but we don’t know anything more about it. When he meets his dream woman he will do anything to ensure she doesn’t get away. Like many, he ignores the real answer, too obvious to be noticed.
Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
Project X. It was started as a Camp Nano project this April. So far it is at 50K words and about half way in. There are some excerpts on the site under “Works in Progress” to whet your appetite.
When can we expect the book to be published?
Currently aiming at September 2014.
I’ve tagged Anthony Wood, fellow member of Hunter Writer’s Centre for the next blog hop. Anthony has numerous prestigious flash fiction and short story competition wins. Read about his fictional main character here.
Louise has recently published a historical romance The Duke’s Shadow, and is also the leader of the online expat writers’ group Writers Abroad, of which I am a member.
It’s very exciting to be writing this inaugural blog post for my new Author website! Here’s the interview.
What is the name of your character? Is he/she a historical or fictional character?
My male lead character’s full name is Miles Pravat Copeland, but most people don’t know his middle name. His father, however, insists on calling him by it. It means ‘History’ in Thai. His mother was Indian and his father is a retired professor of history.
Where and when is the story set?
The story is set in the near future in a fictional village in middle-England called Pembleton. There’s a global crisis going on with a deficiency of sugar and by a tangential connection, vegetarians have become the new minority group to be singled out for blame. Media hype and mass hysteria abound.
What should we know about him/her?
He was created as an Action-Man/Nerd hybrid. (By me, that is, not in the story. You never know these days.) He spent an early career in the Army, which we don’t know much about. It has left its mark in chronic sleeplessness, and we hear that he “disappeared” for a year afterwards. He now runs a one-man business selling specialist computer programs to large organisations, the latest of which is a logistics program. He is heavily into sports, goes kayaking, works out regularly. At the start of the novel he has just bought a 19th century house in Pembleton High Street, next to the newsagent’s.
What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
He meets what seems to be the woman of his dreams. Imagination and reality clash, making a disastrous psychological cocktail. In the meantime a true friend is threatened by the rising tide of hysteria. When he turns his back on her, you know something’s gone very wrong…
What is the personal goal of the character?
Miles is desperate to escape his loneliness. He’s goal-oriented and is concerned with building up his business, but it’s not at the centre of his thoughts. Nightmares haunt him from his past which he can’t cope with alone. He’s already had “two near misses” at getting hitched but we don’t know anything more about it. When he meets his dream woman he will do anything to ensure she doesn’t get away. Like many, he ignores the real answer, too obvious to be noticed.
Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
Project X. It was started as a Camp Nano project this April. So far it is at 50K words and about half way in. There are some excerpts on the site under “Works in Progress” to whet your appetite.
When can we expect the book to be published?
Currently aiming at September 2014.
I’ve tagged Anthony Wood, fellow member of Hunter Writer’s Centre for the next blog hop. Anthony has numerous prestigious flash fiction and short story competition wins. Read about his fictional main character here.