I had never been truly curious how a hybrid vampire and a leprechaun might get along until I put them in the same room at a tense part of my novel. Boden had been a name for me for quite a while, but his only descriptor was that he was a leprechaun. I even originally imagined him as a short redheaded man, although young, that was very typical to the myths and legends that produced our popular views of the species.
But what happened was that I had created this tall, young, redhead to enter Ria’s life just as things were beginning to spiral out of her control–not that she had a real handle on what was happening to her to begin with. I pulled Boden’s name off my very very VERY long list of characters awaiting fleshing out or cameo spots in one of my stories. And he wouldn’t leave. <laughs.>
No, poor Boden knew he was meant to be in this book, and it took me more than seven years from his original creation, one draft of the novel, and a moment of desperation to put him just where he belonged. The second addition to a love triangle, and a great influence in my young narrator’s life.
Sometimes, I wonder where these wonky characters that play around in my head come from. Truth is, I still have no damn clue. But I have figured out, that what was meant to happen will happen, but most importantly, when a character speaks, I’d better damn well listen.
Boden:
Fill-in-the-blank-ness... 