Character Connection

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.Rachel Kalama, the main character in Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, is a fighter and an optimist. In 1892, at the age of seven, she is diagnosed with Hansen's Disease, commonly known as leprosy. Hawaiians, having been such an isolated population for so long, were particularly susceptible to this disfiguring disease. To control the spread, the Board of Health established a leper's colony on the island of Moloka'i. Everyone who was diagnosed with the disease was ripped away from their family, friends, and communities and shipped off to live out whatever time remained to them on Moloka'i. So off Rachel goes. Of course she's angry and confused and hurt and feels abandoned. She's seven. She doesn't really understand what's happening to her. Heck, the older people who are sent over there feel the same way and they sort of do understand. But she's also young, adaptable, and an eternal optimist. And that's the Rachel that I adored. Even as…

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay is an amazing book. I could probably write 2 or 3 months' worth of Character Connections from it alone! Even minor characters reach out and wrench your heart right out of your chest. Today is about Alessan though. At first glance, Alessan seems to be a simple traveling musician, passing through towns and playing his pipes unbelievably well. He can blend into the background, yet he can also be the charming center of attention when he so chooses.  You don't have to look far to see that there is infinitely more to him than that. (Oh, where to draw the spoiler line? On the safe side, I suppose, although that makes him a little less interesting.) Black-haired, gray-eyed Alessan is the leader of a group of people trying to overthrow two evil sorcerers who have taken over the area. More particularly, Alessan is aiming for the wizard Brandin, who in a brilliant act…

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.Aliena, from The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, starts off as something of a spoiled little rich girl. Don't get me wrong--she's feisty and I love that about her. But she is sheltered by her father and his wealth and she doesn't realize how vulnerable she would be without both. The family loses everything in a scene that makes my blood boil, even a couple of years after reading the book. I expected Aliena, the sheltered flower, to wilt like one. Instead, she comes into her own. She thrives on the adversity. I won't get into specifics, but I respected her so much for what she went through and what she became. She has a younger brother and she does anything to protect him and help him regain his rightful place. In a time when independent women were treated with suspicion at best (and burned for witchcraft at worst), she fought hard for her independence and…

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.Not-quite-nine-year-old Swede is the youngest in her family, and the only girl.  Found in Leif Enger's Peace Like a River, she is adorable, described as "dimpled and blond", and all tomboy. We first meet her when she's out hunting geese with her dad and two older brothers. When she has a moment of "cowardice," she later asks her brother Rube, only 11 himself, for forgiveness. She feels so bad for running she just needs a little absolution. Swede loves old westerns, like those written by Zane Grey, and longs to write her own. In fact, she's working on writing an epic western ballad. She may be young, but the girl's got talent. Check this out: "Now Sundown's wound is seeping and he's tilting as he rides; His eyes are red and gritty as he scans the canyon's sides. He hadn't known the nature of the man whose track he sought, And it sickened him to death to see…

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.My favorite book is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, so you know it has to have some great characters in it. I've written about Rudy before, but today is dedicated to Hans Hubermann, aka Papa. There's so much to say about Papa and yet so little. "To most people, Hans Hubermann was barely visible. An un-special person....He was able to appear as merely part of the gackground, even if he was standing at the front of a line. He was just there. Not noticeable. Not important or particularly valuable....The frustration of that appearance, as you can imagine, was its complete misleadence, let's say. There most definitely was value in him....His manner.  The quiet air around him.... [His eyes] were made of kindness, and silver. Like soft silver, melting. Liesel, upon seeing those eyes, understood that Hans Hubermann was worth a lot."I think he isn't noticed because he doesn't want to be noticed.  He's too busy watching out…

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.Okay, ladies, it's almost Valentine's Day. So you know where my Character Connection is headed. Straight to the heart. Or, erm, maybe less innocent parts of the anatomy. ;-) Daemon Sadi from Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop. Oh. My. Gosh. Where's my fan? Let's start with a description. "His face was a gift of his mysterious heritage, aristocratic and too beautifully shaped to be called merely handsome. He was tall and broad-shouldered. He kept his body well toned and muscular enough to please.  His voice was deep and cultured, with a husky, seductive edge to it that made women go all misty-eyed. His gold eyes and thick black hair were typical of all three of Terreille's long-lived races, but his warm, golden-brown skin was a little lighter than the Hayllian aristos--more like the Dhemlan race. His body was a weapon, and he kept his weapons well honed. Daemon shrugged into his black jacket. The clothes, too,…

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.My apologies. I scheduled this post to go up last Thursday, but Blogger decided it was just a draft. That's happened a lot recently. If you love Alice in Wonderland, you have got to read Un Lun Dun by China Miéville. It is a book that is all its own but that has a similar magical, whimsical feel to it. Deeba is one of the two girls we first meet, and she is a feisty little thing. She is more practical than her friend Zanna, but infinitely loyal. Zanna is dreamy and tends to wander into situations without really thinking about it. Deeba tries to anchor her, and when she can't, she follows along to watch out for her. She's very adaptable as well. She finds herself in a world that does not follow any rules she understands, but she quickly learns to deal with it and to accept the situations as they are. The girls end up…

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.I had a rough day at work, so I'm going to take it out on a character I hate. Her name is Amy and you can find her in Scott Smith's The Ruins. She's one of a group of young Americans on vacation in Mexico who find themselves trapped in a horrific situation in the jungle. Okay, it's horror. Horror can sometimes rely on stock characters, and that's pretty much what Amy was. The little individual personality she had left me wanting to smack her, wring her neck, you name it. She's the girl who causes the whole problem in the first place but then blames everyone else. She falls apart under the stress of the situation. She steals rations when no one is looking, thinking that her need is greater than everyone else's. She's willing to pick a fight with anyone and everyone. If someone comes up with some sort of idea or solution to try, she's…

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them. I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless. Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters. Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.Merricat Blackwood is an oddly disturbing little character. She's the narrator of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Merricat is 18 years old in the book's present, but she feels like she's mentally about 12. Oh, she's a smart girl alright, but she's happier acting younger and letting her long-suffering older sister, Constance, take care of her. She has her own little rituals of protection for what's left of her family. She's buried and hung talismans all around the family property to protect them. She makes the rounds weekly to make sure that they're all still in place. She even practically has a witch's familiar in the form of Jonas the cat.  She also goes to the nearest town a few times a week to get supplies. She makes no secret of the fact that she hates everyone in the village. They make no secret of the fact that they hate her right back. There's…