Author Archive: glowinbright
Kristen Keck 30 Characters 2012
Doing the challenge was a great experience. I wasn’t sure if I was taking on too much by trying to do this and NaNoWriMo, but an interesting thing happened. Because I was drawing characters from the scripts I planned on writing, the two projects sort of fueled each other. Also, seeing everyone else’s characters as the month went on was super motivating. I must admit I was checking the site multiple times during the day at work to see if there was anything new…it was a little bit of an obsession 
#30 Allie
Poor little Allie doesn’t quite get the ramifications of being a vampire. She has been a vampire for centuries, but her mental age is stuck at the level of a six year old. Except for the fangs and corpse-like pallor, you’d never know that she was anything but a normal six year old girl…that is, until she gets hungry.
#29 Emmie Mae
Each time Emmie Mae has been married her husband has been found dead the morning after the wedding night. Suspicion would fall on Emmie Mae herself if not for the fact that the men have been ripped to shreds as if a wild animal had done it. And the authorities have checked, Emmie Mae has no claws. You would think this would stop men from trying to marry her, but it hasn’t. Probably due to her vast fortune. I guess some guys think the reward is worth the risk.
#28 Rosalind
One day while doing an inventory in her secondhand bookshop, Rosalind comes across a book promising to teach her how to take over the world. Since she has become increasingly sure that most of the human race is comprised of mean-spirited idiots who really need a cool head (like Rosalind) to guide them, she starts to follow the directions in book…
#27 Orin
Orin is a long forgotten domestic god. He shared much of his duties with his female counterpart until her cult overshadowed his and left Orin without any worshippers. He is brought back inadvertently to the earth again by a moody teen and her older sister. Instead of being resentful at being forgotten, he’s pretty excited to be out among people again and maybe gain some new followers. He is really excited about all the technological advances that have happened in the household realms of cooking and cleaning. He’s fascinated by vacuums and irons, but the washing machine makes him a little uneasy.
#26 Jane
Jane was lucky enough to get a job as a sassy history-slinging cowgirl on a children’s educational TV show right out of college. The new job barely leaves time for a social life (not to mention housework), but she was doing OK until her mother dumped her much younger sister on her doorstep. Now Jane has to balance a time-consuming job, a resentful teenager, overwhelming housework and still try to eek out time for herself so she doesn’t go crazy.
#25 Eliza
Eliza’s mother has gone off to work in Europe and left her with her older sister who is trying to get a budding acting career off the ground. Her sister has almost no time for her, so she’s feeling a bit isolated. Inspired by the fantasy books she devours, she has decided to try to learn magic. Since magic isn’t real her sister has no problem with Eliza’s little hobby…until the day that Eliza accidentally summons an ancient forgotten god (which Eliza will tell you was totally her sister’s fault).
#24 Ginger
Ginger is the bubbly, chatty person that tends to be the most irritating coworker in the world. She is also super hard to hate because she is so dang nice to people. Her favorite pastimes are talking about men, dating and trying to ignore the stupidity that goes on around her in her soul crushing office job.
#23 Molly
The timid and shy Molly has just inherited a giant house and fortune from her godmother, but only on the condition that she spend one night in the house. Naturally, the house is supposed to be haunted…MWAHAHAHAHA!
#22 Abalone
Abalone is the daughter of two eminent scientist/ambassadors in the deep sea laboratory. She has lived with her parents and her brother under the sea for 5 of the 18 years she’s been alive and she loves it. She’s become an excellent spear hunter and is thinking about following in her parent’s footsteps and staying on as an ambassador herself. Especially since she’s had a long term crush that has blossomed into romance with Kai.
#21 Oralie
Oralie is what they call a sea spider (despite the fact that she only has six legs). She tried for a time to have a truce with the deep sea merpeople so they would stop hunting her. And it worked until her appetite for their soft flesh got the better of her. She now lives the labyrinthine caves and uses a poorly constructed dummy to lure the unwary merperson into her clutches (which doesn’t actually work very well).
#20 Kai
Kai is one of the deep sea dwelling merpeople. He has often wondered what the land is like, but is physically prevented from finding out, since his kind can’t survive far from the sea floor. But when a group of scientists build an underwater lab/embassy he is the first to sign up as the ambassador of the merpeople.
#19 Soledad
When she turned up on Isla de Oro Oculto, the completely out of place Soledad was immediately taken in by Big Red. Eventually her ability to sniff out the truth led her to become the island’s first (and only) private investigator.
#18 Big Billy
Big Billy is Big Red’s main squeeze. He also helps out around her tavern and serves as bouncer when the patrons get a bit too rowdy. As quiet as Red is loud, they prove the rule that opposites attract.
#17 Lady Leona
With a gift for sleight of hand and an ability to act that would put the brightest stars of the day to shame, there are few people that Lady Leona can’t fool. She is, as the story goes, a reincarnated ancient Egyptian queen who can talk to the dead and tell the futures of the living, for a fee naturally. She claims to be the possessor of the feather of Maat, which a person’s heart will be weighted against in the afterlife. She can weigh you heart for you and if it is not lighter than that feather (and most people’s are not) she can sell you some remedy to rectify that situation.
#16 Jackie Diels
Jackie managed to get in a lot of trouble with the police as a teenager, as she was trying to distance herself from the rising popularity of her outgoing twin brother Jack. Being around the police headquarters so much, she found herself fascinated with the inner workings of the police and eventually straightened up her act enough that they let her join. She rose through the ranks quickly and is now the formidable Captain of the police. She’s tough and cynical, but does occasionally give into a latent romantic streak. She tends to wear her heart on her sleeve no matter how hard she tries to hide her emotions. Her officers know when she’s all bark and when she’s about to bite, which is about the time they all make themselves scarce.
#15 General Prion
General Prion is the real leader of the Imperial army and he is good at his job. The empire has grown large under his command and it irks him that some upstart little princeling keeps trying to tell him what to do. The prince will get information on a need to know basis and Prion thinks that there’s not much that Prince Valorius needs to know. Prion is power hungry and brutal, with very little room in his world view for mercy. The mere idea of a peaceful treaty negotiation is an anathema to him.
(Usually, letting my brain just free associate for names results in the most ridiculous name possible, but sometimes it works out. I find it pretty amusing that this guy is named after infectious misfolded proteins. Hmmm…maybe that’s why his proportions are so out of whack.)
#14 Craig O’Connell
Craig O’Connell is a salesman that currently specializes in the latest and greatest technological innovations. His clientele of the moment is the surplus of amateur archaeologists in Egypt, to whom he sells machines that aid in excavation, which are usually very fast, very loud and very destructive. His only interest is in making a quick buck and he has little to no scruples about defacing the monuments of the ancients. This has made a quick enemy of Beryl Hartsford, who has nothing but reverence for the ancient monuments. Craig is able to annoy Beryl greatly by forming a tenuous friendship with her brother, due to Reggie’s fascination with Craig’s machines.
(By the way, I have no idea what the machine he’s leaning on is supposed to be, I just started drawing and out came that thing. Maybe it’s a power washer?)
#13 Prince Valorius
Here we have Prince Valorius, who has an insatiable appetite for women and laying around, or so he wants the general of the empire’s army to think. When it became clear to the Emperor that his son did not share the same Imperial goals, Valorius was sent to learn how great being in charge of an empire could be by leading the army. At first Valorius tried to stop all the imperial conquesting, but was thoroughly overruled by the general, who believed Valorius to be nothing more than a coward and a spoiled brat. Eventually, Valorius realized that the only power he actually had was in collecting all the captured women of the conquered cities onto his own “harem†to keep them away from the other soldier’s dubious tastes. The harem grew almost as large as the army itself, which gave Valorius and idea. He threw himself whole-heartedly into the role of a lazy, sex-crazed entitled brat all the while training the women of the harem to fight so that one day he could overthrow the general and bring about the changes that he wants to make.
Bonus character: Vaolrius’ head tactician Jacinda! She’s gotten Valorius to promise that when they take control of the army, she gets to take her personal revenge on the general.
#12 Lauren Brule
When the imperial army was knocking down the gates of the secluded valley, it was clear that the peaceful inhabitants of the valley would not be able to defeat the invaders. The queen issued the order to escape to the confines of the tombs of the holy mountain (basically, in their belief system, if they aren’t buried under the holy mountain their spirit is doomed to never find rest). The queen would remain to mislead the army into thinking that the people had simply fled and destroy all evidence that they used the holy mountain to keep it safe from those that would disturb their eternal slumber. Lauren, the queen’s handmaiden decided to make the ultimate sacrifice and take the queen’s place, so the queen herself could go and be at rest in the holy mountain. Lauren does what she must to destroy the holy records and is captured when the army reaches the palace. The army is happy enough to loot the laden palace and leave with the captured “queen†who is to become part of the prince’s ever growing harem, thus assuring rest for the souls of Lauren’s people.
#11 Lucy Grant
Lucy is the vice president of accounting at a successful manufacturing company. You usually won’t find her at her desk. If she’s not in a meeting then she is checking up on her workers to make sure they are doing everything right (which they inevitably are, but it never hurts to check two or three…hundred times). She uses her grandfather’s old pocket watch because she believes it keeps the best time of any clock she’s ever encountered. You definitely don’t want to be in her way when she is in danger of being late for a meeting.
#10 Reggie Hartsford
Reggie is a firm believer that life should be enjoyed. He is energetic and loves to overstate opinions that are generally not his own. He is easily swayed by others, especially his sister as she is clearly the more rational of the two. His love of fiddling around with things invokes a passion for the newest technologies. His latent interest in photography was exploited by his sister to get him a position at the same dig as her. Though quite skilled as a photographer, his inattention to details and tendency to get distracted is a bit trying to those around him.
#9 Beryl Hartsford
When Beryl and her brother visited Egypt, she instantly fell in love with everything about the place, but mostly the antiquities, tombs and history. As an accomplished artist, Beryl was able to easily find a position with a fairly reputable archaeological dig and even managed to wrangle a job for her brother as a photographer so she could keep an eye on him (despite the fact that he is technically her “chaperoneâ€). She is quiet by nature, but fantastically opinionated. And once an opinion is formed it is hard to convince her otherwise. She is tenaciously devoted to those she loves and respects, but if you get on her bad side nothing short of a miracle will change her opinion of you.
#8 Wanda Diels
Wanda is the wife of the Ballooner explorer extraordinaire, Jack Diels. She met Jack when he happened upon her homeland of Iridnia. Being an island in the middle of the vast ocean Iridnians had never seen anything like the human Jack and Jack had never seen anything like the aquatic mammalian species with blindingly beautiful iridescent skin and the ability to not only breathe under water, but also fly through the air as if it were water. The Iridnian princess Wanda was one of the few who was sure Jack was not the harbinger of a coming invasion to their peaceful island and fell for the charming Jack while teaching him the Iridnian language. And Jack fell for Wanda’s mysterious and exotic eyes and sweet, gentle manner. So when Jack was finally allowed to continue his journey, Wanda decided to accompany her beloved human and leave her homeland to travel the world at his side.
#7 Jack Diels
Jack is the preeminent Ballooner, those brave men who take to the air in their personal hot-air conveyances. They travel the world exploring new lands and coming back with fantastic finds from around the globe. Having traveled extensively Jack had seen more of the world than any other person. This makes him celebrated by some and envied by others. He is brash, speaks his mind and knows no fear. Women want him and men want to punch in his smug face (actually some women want to do that too).
#6 Max
Max is a young butler following in his father’s footsteps. At 17 he clearly knows everything and that tends to make him very irritable with others who know so much less than he. Every maid that has come to work at the house has quit because Max is never satisfied with their cleaning abilities, so he just does the majority of the household chores himself. If you want something done right, you should probably just let Max handle it himself. He’ll just have to redo it anyway once you’ve made a mess of things.
#5 Big Red
Big Red is the chatterbox owner of one of the two taverns on the pirate infested island that the locals call Isla de Oro Oculto. Her mouth is as big as her hat and does she ever like to use it. Most patrons come for the beer and stay for the gossip, since she knows virtually everything on the island. Of course, no one is sure how she knows so much since she’s always the one talking.
#4 Veronica LeVerdigris
Veronica is the daughter of Big Verde (as his miners call him), the owner of the Verdigris copper mines in southern Arizona. When her father becomes suddenly ill, she has to take over operations. She is adored by her father’s men, who call her the Copper Princess, but can she convince them that she has what it takes to run the mine herself?
#3 Sammi Brand
Sammi Brand is an exuberant young woman who has caught the eye of the artistic trendsetter Carl Redmonde for her pioneering work with the hottest new technique, fire painting (where you literally paint with fire). This sweet young lady is bearing the sudden fame well, but being in a room with Carl for any amount of time may lead her to think of other uses for her fire brush.
#2 Carl Redmonde
The colonization of Mars happened decades ago, but Mars is showing up the news once again as a burgeoning new scene in the art world and the man leading this artistic revolution is Carl Redmonde. He is the hottest trend setter of the moment in art, fashion, architecture…you name it, he has a very strong opinion of it. He can also boast a 5 year streak as the winner of the haughtiest raised eyebrow award.
#1 Sugar Baby
Sugar Baby is the crime fighting pseudonym of Gloria Winter, the fantastically lovely and hot tempered Latino trophy wife of the billionaire Mitch Winter. When a group of hackers cause a ruckus at Mitch’s company and cause him to miss Gloria’s massive yearly holiday party, she goes hunting for revenge. She dons a platinum blonde wig, diva shades and the hideous gold lamé jumpsuit that her husband gave her last Christmas (he may have her heart, but he certainly doesn’t have her fashion sense). This effectively hides her identity because, really, who would ever imagine someone with her impeccable taste wearing such a travesty of an outfit. She accessorizes with as oversized designer bag filled to the brim with everything you could ever need to fight crime or possibly give an unfortunate fashion disaster a much needed make over and it can double as a weapon in case some baddie need a designer bludgeoning (good thing she started those weight training classes at the gym). Finished off with her titanium heeled stilettos, her outfit is just to die for. A little touch of a too-bright red lipstick and Gloria is transformed into Sugar Baby, who fights white-collar crime with a red-hot passion.
#30Characters Chatter…