No this post is not devoted to becoming a better person. Perhaps I should be writing about character development in a spiritual sense. After all, the purpose statement of my blog has nothing to do with promoting books. But its my blog so I can do write what I want. I thought I’d fill my readers in on how some of the characters in Strong came to be. Some are based on real people while others are collections of traits from many different people while others are completely made up with perhaps a few minor influences. I’ll start with some of the smaller characters. If you haven’t yet read Strong, you’ll have to bookmark this post so you can come back to it and see who the character was based on and some background information that wasn’t included in the book.
Erik Remont – Erik is a psychologist who works with the armed forces. He is not an enlisted man but has traveled with the military to different bases around the world. His ultimate goal is to start his own practice. Much of Remont’s back story underwent the editors’ red pen because of where it was in the story. Erik helps Ethan sort out his past and get him moving toward his future. Erik was one character who was closely modeled after a college friend of mine, Jeremy Haskell. He served in the capacity of psychologist with the military. Erik’s manner and practice however are my own invention.
Dr. Siegers – Siegers is a doctor on base who inspects Ethan upon his arrival to North Carolina. He immediately wants to do tests on Ethan to determine the source of his great strength. Siegers is a mix of doctor and business types who have spent their lives dreaming of a prestigious award for their work. They feel they live and work in obscurity and it drives them to do foolish things.
Dr. Kelso - Brilliant scientist but with a touch of madness. He is doing things that could actually win awards were the technology directed toward more noble purposes. Another backstory that didn’t make it into the book: he became bored with his current research project and so developed something so dangerous that he was dismissed from the lab and stripped of his funding. The book skims over this very quickly. He too is a collection of the brilliant-but-mad type but lacks the comedy that makes this type of character over-the-top.
Ethan’s Team – After researching special forces I decided to model Ethan’s team after Delta Force and the Unit as seen on the CBS TV series and written about in the book, Inside Delta Force by Eric L. Haney. The characters on the team resemble “everyman”. Casey Linz was Larry the Cable Guy in fatigues. He’s not as funny but he has the same relaxed attitude. If Vic Dombrow could say one thing to Ethan it would be ”I’ve been here longer than you, I’m smarter than you, I’m better than you so put up or shut up.” We all know people like that.
More characters tomorrow!
