Tuesday, April 16, 2013

A-to-Z Challenge Day 14: The Letter N


Lance Nolan
Seven Thunders

Lance and his brother Christopher Moby (like Lincoln Burrows and Michael Scofield) are the central characters of Seven Thunders, the Zero Book of the entire Space Corps saga, which I spent fifteen years developing and finally finished writing last month.  The entire plot of Seven Thunders revolves around the idea of the British impressment of American sailors that helped spark the War of 1812.  It's Christopher who's taken by the Danab, because his mother was one of them.  Yesterday at my writers blog I wrote about the idea of adopted thought in context of the Yoshimi Trilogy, but it's perhaps better explored with Lance and Christopher, who both have to deal with this idea in a much more immediate way.  Christopher doesn't know if he should choose the life of a typical Danab because he's got that DNA or stick with the human family he's always known.  Lance doesn't know if his entire quest to rescue his brother will turn out to be a waste of his time.  He has an unwavering faith and devotion to his brother, but can he really be certain that Christopher, given the chance to have something that a childhood trip they shared already gave him a taste for, won't have taken the opportunity to embrace a completely different life?  Lance always intrigued me as a character, because he was my shot at creating a new kind of hero.  He's not a superhero, and he's not an antihero, but rather just a guy who's trying to make sense of a crazy situation, forcing himself into decisions that might have forced someone else to become more conventional.  That's as much as why there has to be six other characters around him who define the rest of the story, starting with his own brother.

Jim Nguyen
Yoshimi and the Assassins Guild
Yoshimi Trilogy Volume 2

Of the three senseis warrior orphan Yoshimi meets and trains under in the story, Jim Nguyen is the most traditional.  He runs a dojo in Vancouver (okay, the least traditional aspect of his m.o.) where students duel each other, something that doesn't happen under James Peers (official introduction on P Day) or David Halliday (who runs a glorified boarding school in England).  He's also as close to another Asian character in the whole story as you'll find.  I figured that it would probably be cliche if there was a lot of that.  Yoshimi herself is thoroughly American, though obviously she's got a Japanese name.  It's just another level of double meanings in the story.  

***

The Red Sox had already played their game yesterday (and won) by the time of the Boston Marathon explosions, because yesterday in town was in fact Patriots Day, a unique celebration that included many special events.  It's probably safe to assume that if the team had been scheduled to play at any other time, the game wouldn't have happened.

The Angels lost.  Albert Pujols is at .289, Mike Trout at .286.  It seems right that they should match up at some point.

The A's won, which helped keep them atop their division.

The Cardinals won.  Have I mentioned that like the Sox and the A's they're tops of their division?

8 comments:

Jay Noel said...

That's right the Cardinals won!

Anyhoo, your Yoshimi trilogy sounds very interesting. I love that kind of stuff.

Heidi Mannan said...

Holy shmoly! You must be elated to have finished a fifteen years project. Huge congrats! Sounds interesting. :)

The Armchair Squid said...

"Sweet Caroline" playing at Yankee Stadium as a sign of unity - hearing about that made my evening last night.

Tony Laplume said...

Jay, thanks! Fan of the Cardinals, huh?

Heidi, I was beyond relieved. It caused a great amount of anxiety, on the homestretch.

Squid, it's a nice reminder that although the Red Sox and Yankees have a longstanding professional rivalry, there's a lot more that unites us.

PT Dilloway said...

Go Tigers!

Tony Laplume said...

Tigers shmigers.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Christopher sounds like one of us - just someone trying to figure out life.

Tony Laplume said...

As it turned out, all the characters in the book are like that, even the ones I originally thought were pretty clear-cut.

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