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Deadtown features Victory Vaughn, a Welsh Cerddorion shapeshifter who kills other people's demons for a living. Vicky specializes in personal demons, the kinds that torment individuals when they're all alone with their deepest, darkest fears and secrets.
The idea that sparked Deadtown came from reading an agent's blog. The agent was talking about clichés and meaningless phrases that crept into query letters; as an example, she mentioned a character who "wrestles with his own personal demons" and, getting literal-minded for a moment, she wondered who else could possibly wrestle with your personal demons besides you. I got literal-minded, too, and started to imagine a character who'd do exactly that. (And wouldn't it be fantastic if you really could hire someone to exterminate the fears that haunt your dreams or the pangs of guilt and regret that gnaw at your guts at two o'clock in the morning?)
So I had an idea. But I didn't yet have a character who'd bring that idea to life. I set to work developing one.
It's almost impossible to say where characters come from. When I write, I don't piece them together like Frankenstein–a physical trait here, a personality quirk or bit of backstory there–and then hope they'll come to life. Instead, it feels more like the character already exists somewhere in my subconscious, waiting to step forward. But that doesn't make things easy for me, because the character won't venture out of the shadows until I've got a pretty decent understanding of who that character is. For me, creating a character is more a process of discovery than creation.
With Vicky, the first thing I knew about her was that her name was Victory. Early on, the same words that would come to Vicky's father in a prophetic dream popped into my own mind: "A girl child shall be born unto you, and her name shall be Victory." I liked that; Victory seems like a good name for a demon slayer. And the way her name was given to her father offered me another clue: I liked the idea that Vicky came from a race of demon slayers. I wanted her beef with demons to go way back.
So the next step in getting to know my character was to learn about her family history. I researched demons and demon fighters from several different mythologies, but I kept coming back to medieval Europe. I'd done a PhD in medieval literature and taught as a medievalist for several years, so I already knew a lot about the mythology of that place and time. I started thinking about myths and legends that might fit Vicky's background.
When I hit upon the Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh stories written down during the 12th and 13th centuries, something clicked. One of my favorite stories from that collection is the legend of Ceridwen and Gwion Bach, which includes a shapeshifting contest. (You can read a 19th-century translation of the story here.) I thought, "This is where Vicky comes from!" and a lot of things fell into place. Vicky is one of the Cerddorion (ker-THOR-yon), which means "sons of Ceridwen." Taking my cues from the Welsh legend, I developed the Cerddorion as a race of shapeshifters that are different from weres. They can shift at will into any kind of creature (or sometimes strong emotion can force a shift), up to three times per lunar cycle. Although both sexes fight demons, only females can change their shape (Ceridwen had natural shifting ability but the boy Gwion Bach stole it from her); this ability appears at puberty and is lost if the shapeshifter gives birth to a child. The seeds for this limitation are in the legend, but it also causes a conflict for Vicky that will strengthen as the series progresses.
At this point, Vicky was starting to come into focus a bit more. I started filling out a character sheet so I could keep track of the details that were emerging: age, eye color, hair color, height and build, stuff like that. But a character sheet is static, just a list of qualities. It's kind of like reading a personal ad–you need to go on a date before you get any sense of what the person is really like. Same thing with characters; you get to them by seeing them in action.
To put Vicky into action, I began writing some scenes. I didn't know whether any of these scenes would make their way into the novel (most didn't), but they let me get to know her better. For example, I initially expected Vicky to have a dark, almost grim personality, but as I wrote her voice took over and showed me what she was like. When Vicky explained her job to someone by saying, "I'm kind of like a therapist, but instead of a couch I use a flaming sword," I realized that she had more of a sense of humor than I'd let her show so far. And why not? When you routinely face the creatures that give other people nightmares, a sense of humor can keep you sane. With more writing, Vicky's voice grew stronger, her personality more her own.
Speaking of her flaming sword, the Sword of Saint Michael, Vicky uses that to fight Hellions. Personal demons aren't the only demons who haunt Boston in Deadtown, and Hellions are every bit as big, bad, destructive, and just plain nasty as their name implies.
My next post will be all about Deadtown's demons, from the personal demons who feed on human emotion to the Hellions who revel in large-scale destruction.
Remarkable Creatures
Committed
Outstanding!
Riches Within Your Reach!
The Killing Dance Unabridged CDs
Bloody Bones Unabridged CDs
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
Kisser
Drive
The Brightest Star in the Sky
Nancy Holzner
Deadtown
demon slayer
zombies
magic
Penguin Books
