Hey Space Cadets, how are you this fine Monday? Still feeling the effects of the New Years Hangover? I’m sober, and even have some blood in my whiskey stream. My wife is out of town, so I spent a quiet night writing after the kids went to bed. The Legion Awakes and Fortress Beta City are continually surprising me and I have you guys to thank.
First, let me give you a little bit of backstory about Fortress Beta City and Operation Breakout. Those two stories started as one novel, until Boss Man caught on that I was about to write a Tolkien worthy novel. After we split the two, Fortress Beta City became the story of the Marines of the 6907th TAC RGT struggling to survive in a doomed city. The next half of what I plotted became Operation Breakout, where two task forces must fight to secure the continent of Serendine from the New Order.
I felt like the build-up in the second book made a lot of promises for the third, so I want to deliver. Operation Breakout will be as high octane as I can make it, and then my editor will help me add on some dynamite for that little bit of something extra. As I developed these plots, one of my secondary characters, whose whole purpose was to show how the lost Kalino City was different from Beta City and Detroit City. The Auxies were treated a bit better and the culture was different, which likely led to Kalino City being lost to the ravages of time. One of those characters was Auxiliary Technician Basil Terloar.
Basil was a cowering wreck, a pacifist in a world where the gun ruled. He wasn’t like the other boys and girls, resulting in his being shipped off to the Aux Pens (slave pens) to be tasked with the manual labor needed to keep the cities alive. That is, until that fateful day he met Veteran Sergeant Lance Scipio. For a sneak peek into him, a look at how the sausage is made, here is his character sheet.
I hope you found this peek into my process enlightening, and the character compelling. If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask!
Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!
JR
–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section.
J.R. Handley Blog 
One of my favorite characters is Basil. His character arc is rags-to-fame, in a literal kind of way. How he acquires his fame and the toll it takes on him are very realistic, and something I’ve seen folks who achieved wartime awards cope with. His relationship with Lance Scipio enhances both characters and I look at him as the hero of the Auxies. I think the direction we took with him in Fortress Beta City is extremely powerful and makes him even more interesting and dynamic. I look forward to seeing what you thrust him into in Operation Breakout.
On a side note, congrats on crushing sales! It’s a thrill for me to see you bouncing around in the top 20’s in military science fiction (and other categories) on Amazon. Step one of world domination is complete.
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Ooh! Thanks for your glimpse at this character sheet. Basil looks intriguing–I love characters who start out so out of their element–and it’s always good to see how another author puts a character down on paper. 🙂
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He actually grew as I wrote the story, and became something more. I wrote this sheet for him AFTER I wrote him. It was for my editor to be able to help me tweak my story. I liked what the sheet offered, so I will be using it for all major and secondary characters. It does help, I think, to track the character as he grows since I update it when I do things to and for characters.
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The article posted was very informative and useful. You people are doing a great job. Keep going.
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Thank you my friend!
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