we now have a model for the character of Zenti in my upcoming novel Dark Soldier! It’s kind of an interesting story.
Now that I’m back in university, I am around far more people than usual. There’s a great amount of diversity at LU. Nonetheless, I told Annika (my good friend and the illustrator) we probably wouldn’t find an exact model for Zenti. She would have to fit a really specific description. Like, REALLY specific. I may do too much detail with character description, I’ll admit.
But as luck would have it, my third day back, I spotted someone who looked exact to her description just walking to class. I was shocked to say the least. She smiled, and I tried to smile back, still in shock. Then she scampered away. It was a bit paradoxical.
And only two minutes later, I spotted someone who looked just like the main character! He looked at me oddly, frowned slightly and then walked off. This just so happens to be what Malkeon would do. It was a very exciting day for me.
I told all this to the illustrator, who’s immediate response was: “Why don’t we have her be the model?”
“Well,” I pointed out, “It’s a big college. I’ll probably never see either of them again.”
As luck would have it, day four walked around, I was sitting in class, and a certain person was giving her art proposal for the big semester assignment.
I recognized her immediately.
But the simple fact is that I am a very introverted person. Most of my ability with writing dialogue comes from listening, not talking. So it was very unlikely that I would talk to this person, much less ask them to be a model for a book character. For the next week I left it alone.
Finally I decided it was either act now or get someone who wasn’t as accurate to character.
As it turns out, she not only agreed on the spot but has been wanting to do something like this for some time. And she will probably get to hold that freakishly large sword replica when it’s done. So that’s cool.
I haven’t seen the Malkeon guy since the first time, though. Here’s hoping…
Now to find Malkeon, Rük, Luc, Sapphire, Crystal, Cedric and Vatrix before the book is published.
That shouldn’t be too hard, right?
Gabriel to Earth 