Monday 20 April 2009

The Post Thief II - The Characters Bite Back

It seems I’m surrounded by imaginative and wonderful bloggers that I can’t resist stealing from. First off we had the post about your 10 favourite stories and now Danielle Ferries has blogged about her five favourite characters – ones she created, of course (her Tallulah Todd sounds perfectly awesome). So, not one to be left out, here are mine…

Tobias Tribute
Tobias Tribute is a grim reaper with emphasis on the grim. I feel sorry for him (is that a bad reason to like a character?) despite the fact he is nasty, selfish and doesn’t care that the people he murders (in many varied and gruesome ways) are young and happy (or even old and grumpy). All that matters is that he reaches his quota. Tobias can be found within the pages of my novel, ‘The Midnight Motel’. Unfortunately, you’ll never get to meet him.

Frog
Frog just wants someone to love him. Well he did until he met his mail order bride. Frog can be found in the obviously titled short story, ‘Frog & the Mail Order Bride’, and I very much hope you get to meet him.

Uncle Joe Kendrick
A supporting character in ‘The Poisoned Apple’, I think he is a sweet, bizarre man who doesn’t see the world quite as we do. Plus, he talks to garden gnomes.

Wolfram Lavoisier
Wolfram (who sometimes doubles as the not-so-ferocious Wolf Dude) has not yet been fully realised. He makes a brief, but very important, appearance in the rewritten ‘The Poisoned Apple’, and his fate is balancing on the acceptance of TPA. He is on the brink of starring alongside his daughter in the unimaginatively titled ‘Red’. Red is about a girl who is to become a werewolf on her eleventh birthday and who would rather be a chiropractor even though she hates feet. Especially hairy feet. I guess I really like Red too.

Swan Ecklund
Swan is a selfish, preening, anti-hero. What’s not to love about that? He’s one of my soldiers in the ‘Theatre of Curious Acts’.

If I disappear from the internet for any length of time it means one of my characters has escaped and snared me in a real-life net for not naming them amongst my favourites. I would like to reassure them now that I love them all too.

10 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

Oh, now I'm going to have to steal this one from the both of you...

;)

Cate Gardner said...

YAY! :)

Katey said...

Hell, even I could do this one! Then again, I might start a Civil War in my head. (Fingers crossed that yours don't get hold of you!)

Swan Ecklund sounds like my kind of guy! Of course so does Tobias Tribute. Hmm, I guess I just like selfish characters. No shock there!

Cate Gardner said...

I was surprised by how much I favoured selfish characters over eager-to-please ones - I guess they are more interesting.

Fox Lee said...

I know what I'm posting next!

PS: I predicted this would come to pass. Writers can't resist reflecting on the worlds we make : )

Jeremy D Brooks said...

Kind of off-topic, but I thought you may be interested in this (just in case you don't read Pub Rants)...sounds like notes from a symposium on what UK publishers are looking for in children's/YA this year: http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-uk-childrens-editors-want.html

K.C. Shaw said...

I wish I'd read this post before I blogged! I'd have stolen the idea too. :)

Your character names are as fun as your titles. I especially love Swan Ecklund.

Danielle Birch said...

The most deranged characters are always more interesting :) I'm sad that I'll never get to meet Tobias Tribute.

Cate Gardner said...

Natalie, I bet you have a very hard time choosing.

Thanks, Jeremy. I'll check that out later.

You can post it tomorrow, KC. :)

Me too, Danielle.

Unknown said...

I feel its perfectly fine to talk to garden gnomes. Though its probably not good if they start talking back to you...