My Characters

People all the time ask me who my main (lead) character is. Is it Jesus or Storm or Rae. I like to think they all are. And don’t ask me who the protagonist vs. antagonist is or anything like that, because at some point every character takes on every role.

Like I said, I don’t much like rules when it comes to characters, because no one human being that I’ve ever met is just one-dimensional.

The Biker Chronicles is the story of Storm Morrison, but it is also the story of Jesus, and it is the story of Rae. 

Storm Morrison is the son of old hippies. He was raised to respect other people, to care about the environment, and to love his fellow man. He is stunningly handsome, multi-talented and personable. At first glance it would seem he has everything he could ever want, but the further we get into the story we see his life is a series of tragedies, bad breaks and questionable choices. He internalizes his pain, keeps it to himself.

On the surface he’s hot-blooded and confident, but lurking just beneath the waves is turmoil, and this turmoil shapes his life.

Jesus is 12+ years older than Storm, and was involved in the motorcycle gang thing long before Storm ever rode a bike. Jesus has his own share of tragedy in his life. Unlike Storm, though, he doesn’t bottle his pain up inside. He talks about it to friends. He gets drunk. He suffers.

Always likeable, always a figurehead, Jesus doesn’t believe in violence. Although he will not run away when it happens, he prefers diplomacy and tact. In some ways he’s a dreamer - and he knows it - but he also knows that dreamers are the ones who get their hearts broken.

He’s a smart, thoughtful, college educated guy who can speak fluent French and have lunch with the corporate elite, but who can also turn a good wrench on a leaky old Harley Davidson. He makes a damn good living at his day job, but at night and on weekends, he’s an outlaw biker through and through..

His whole thing is about truth and honesty and loyalty, and people respect him for it, but he sometimes fails to see the truth of his own situation. 

Rae grew up in an abusive household and hit the streets at an early age, doing what she had to do to survive. She lucked out when one of her tricks took her home, then fell in love with her and married her.

She is both insecure and tough, loyal and quick to run - in one direction or another. She is unable to end a relationship without always having another one in place. When she found out her husband was cheating on her, she didn’t leave, she took a lover of her own. 

She falls in love and bonds with lovers forever, even long after the relationship has ended. She can be confrontational when she feels someone has wronged her or someone she cares about, and her lovers and friends respect her for it. She is courageous in the face of danger, helpful to others, but still so very insecure, and not without reason.

She holds her emotions in check, keeping her feelings inside, telling no one except her friend Gina, and that’s not enough, because she can’t even tell her lovers how she feels. There are too many rules against it. She dare not break the rules because at any moment she’s afraid she will find herself on the streets again.

As the story weaves it’s way through the years, things happen, people change, and little by little, the things in the character’s pasts begin to wear them down. They all react in different ways. They become bound together by circumstance, and then later on, by the past.

Who the most important character is, I can’t say. That’s a choice I leave up to the reader. Maybe all of them are. Maybe none of them are.

Maybe it’s the other characters in the story who are most important. That, too, is for the reader to decide. I just told it the way it came to me, and what is, is...  But from the feedback I’ve gotten, I find that every reader identifies with some character, and it’s not always the same character.

Go figure. I guess the world is just full of characters, and that includes all of us if we’re brave or stupid enough to be different...

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