About my Characters

My characters, Justin in particular, have been so much fun to create. They still continue to amaze and surprise me all the time and I thought I'd mention a few of the discoveries I've made about them.

Let's begin with Justin Karson, my brain child. Justin struggles between who he is and who he's been made to be. He's naturally a hot headed kind of person who feels all kinds of emotion strongly, but due to his career and the training he's received he has been molded into this cool, calculated killer. As Justin's world begins to fall apart at the seams he has to come face to face with these conflicting personalities. In my first idea of this character I had a cold, calculated, classic hit man in mind--something like a CIA guy gone bad (ie someone like John Reese from Person of Interest), but Justin kept telling me he was human, having break downs, being hot headed at times, influenced by emotion, not always cool, still mostly calculated. So, Justin swings on a pendulum between his inert nature and who he's "supposed" to be. I believe this is largely responsible for the collapse of his world. Another discovery that I have made about Justin is that he really is a noble creature all along--broken, but still noble. What he does he does for love.  He hates Phillip and despises himself more than anyone else. Did I mention that when I began writing Broken that Justin wasn't even going to be a main character?

Phillip, Phillip, Phillip. The name Phillip and the word killer now go hand in hand in my mind. Once again I have to admit that in the beginning stages of my writing I planned to paint Phillip as plainly as I had planned to paint Justin. My book was going to be black and white. Simple. Ahhh, but simple was never meant to be! Phillip has turned out to be almost as complicated as Justin. Phillip, talented, intelligent, ruined! Who knows what this man could have been if he'd been able to rise above his circumstances instead of sinking below him. In Phillip I found that not all bad guys are bumbling idiots, but instead some are genius--genius bent on selfishness and self gain. I discovered also that in some sick, twisted way Phillip used to (and possibly still could) believe that he was doing the right thing.

Well, next time I'll have to tackle talking about my good "children" (not that I'm implying Justin isn't good! He knows he's my favorite.) Julietta and Levi. The Lamb and the Law.

Forever dependant on His Grace,
Beth