Imagine the evil influence in your horror novel is a demon-worshipping cult. We've all seen the films: we need a macho man like Arnold Schwarzenegger and/or a priest played by Gabriel Byrne, don't we? Wrong! This is all too predictable. It is far more exciting to have a reluctant hero or heroine, someone who knows nothing of the task ahead and who has to grow into it. Make him or her unlikely to succeed, then it is all the more satisfying when they do - and through their own wit of course.
The case above is the situation for one of my novels in progress. So what was my hero like? Young, inexperienced, small, slight, female, gentle, rich, sheltered, adopted (so she didn't know her genetic past), an only child (to increase the risk of loss) and with a powerful double connection to the bad guys (which, initially, she knows nothing about). Of course I had to give her some useful enemy-fighting attributes: she is bright, very determined, a great planner and organiser, and has a knack of surrounding herself with people willing to help, protect - and fight.
As a result of all this, someone stepped up to the plate. That's how I found the pretty, waif-like, seventeen year old Shauni Kelleher, a talented musician and composer with every privilege you can think of. Yet it is she who wins. One day you will see how.
Jack Orchison, December 7, 2013.
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