Who are Sparrow and Mister Glasses?

I could spend the next few posts introducing you to more characters from my novel, Daughters of Darkwana, but the time soon arrives to move on to a new topic for this blog.

I will, today and for the final time, make another round of introductions from that novel. Today, I introduce Mister Glasses and Sparrow.

Mister Glasses wears a suit and (big surprise) a pair of tortoiseshell glasses. He carries a slim, notorious, enchanted briefcase.

A three-digit combination lock seals the case. While every combination causes the case to open, each combination . . . well, allow me to demonstrate.

Let’s say you dialed the combination of 0-9-8 into the case’s lock. The case would open, and you could put your cellphone, or whatever else (worry not about size; you could drive an entire RV into the case), inside it.

Shut it. Now, if you open the case with a different combination, you will not discover your cellphone inside it. Only the combination of 0-9-8 will produce the phone.

Glasses placed every object of possible necessity inside the case. Whatever he needs, the proper combination will cause the case to open and produce the required item(s).

The briefcase lives. It drools and possesses fangs. It will often snap at people it dislikes.

Glasses holds an affection for fire. He worships fire’s “purifying nature.” He, as a child, burned down his house with his parents trapped inside it. He prays that Hell exists and that he will go there, forever embraced by flames.

He experiences excitement whenever he burns someone.

He works as one of Vasuki’s assassins.

I will not share too much with you about Sparrow. His true identity serves as something of a surprise in Daughters.

Sparrow, who wishes to keep his aforementioned identity a secret, paints his face as a geisha’s.

He wields collapsible, razor-sharp, steel fans, which he can throw with deadly accuracy. He bonded each fan to a magic fortune cookie. If he destroys one of the cookies, the corresponding fan detonates.

I shall, next post, discuss some of the changes I made along the way while I wrote Daughters, why I made those changes, and what led me to those reasons.

I, after that, must discuss the things I wish I had changed in Daughters, poor decisions with which I feel stuck and how another writer might avoid them.

Thanks for reading.

Daughters of Darkwana received a sweet, succinct review, which you can read here, http://www.thebookeaters.co.uk/daughters-of-darkwana-by-martin-wolt-jr/

         Also, the third book in my series, Diaries of Darkwana, recently arrived on Kindle. You can find the entire series at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Darkwana&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ADarkwana

Movie reviews at moviesmartinwolt.blogspot.com

Short stories at martinwolt.blogspot.com

A look at the politics of the entertainment world at EntertainmentMicroscope.blogspot.com.

An inside look at my novels (such as Daughters of Darkwana, which you can now find on Kindle) at Darkwana.blogspot.com

Tips to improve your fiction at FictionFormula.blogspot.com

Who are Spyder and Manning?

Time to meet a few more members of my antagonist’s (Special Agent Baxter’s) supportive cast in the first novel (Daughters of Darkwana) of my series (Diaries of Darkwana) now available on Kindle.

Let us begin with Spyder (yes, pronounced “spider”).

I already provided a little of Spyder’s history in my last post. Today, I would like to discuss his appearance and abilities.

Spyder’s ice-cold skin appears blue because he technically died. He manages to keep his muscles functional via small, electric impulses (Don’t look at me like that. This serves as a fantasy novel, not a medical thriller).

Spyder cannot see because he lost both of his eyes. A pair of shiny, black, oversized buttons, sewn onto his eyelids, decorates his face.

Spyder cannot talk because his lips remain stitched shut.

He wears shredded, shiny, black leather.

Spyder, armed with a superior sense of smell, works as an assassin for Vasuki (for whom Baxter also works).

Spyder possesses the ability to absorb any form of energy with one hand, convert it to electricity, and discharge it as lightning from his other hand. He keeps a lighter to provide the heat needed to create such discharges.

He, in a scene I ultimately deleted from Daughters, faces a car that loses control, flips off the road, and rolls straight at him. He catches it with an open palm, absorbs all of its kinetic energy (thus stops the vehicle with no force against him) and discharges that energy from his free hand as lightning.

The capture of Wally Cook (my protagonist), serves as Spyder’s only goal, shared between him and the other assassins on Vasuki’s payroll.

Manning (a.k.a. the Sandstorm) serves as another assassin who lacks a goal beyond a paycheck (though a demonically sadistic streak guides his actions).

Manning, the offspring of a gorgon and a shape shifter, stands tall, bronzed, and in possession of both dreadlocks (which can extend and move as tentacles) and a seemingly endless supply of sunglasses. He continuously breaks and immediately replaces these sunglasses throughout Daughters.

He often appears shirtless. He performs flawless capoeira.

Sand makes up his entire body. He can reshape himself, even into a cloud of sand that floats.

He proves nearly impossible to damage any other way, as his sand-body can reform around any injury performed against it.

Manning can also summon long, sometimes bladed, chains, which he throws from his body (amongst puffs of sand) at his targets.

I will, next post, introduce you to two other “bad guys,” each of which possesses deeper motives for his bad behavior. See you then, and thanks for reading.

Thanks for reading.

Daughters of Darkwana received a sweet, succinct review, which you can read here, http://www.thebookeaters.co.uk/daughters-of-darkwana-by-martin-wolt-jr/

         Also, the third book in my series, Diaries of Darkwana, recently arrived on Kindle. You can find the entire series at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Darkwana&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ADarkwana

Movie reviews at moviesmartinwolt.blogspot.com

Short stories at martinwolt.blogspot.com

A look at the politics of the entertainment world at EntertainmentMicroscope.blogspot.com.

An inside look at my novels (such as Daughters of Darkwana, which you can now find on Kindle) at Darkwana.blogspot.com

Tips to improve your fiction at FictionFormula.blogspot.com

Who are Khadija and Diana?

I, over the last few posts, discussed the protagonist, antagonist, love interest/mentor, and the protagonist’s supportive cast in the first novel (Daughters of Darkwana) of my series (Diaries of Darkwana).

I want, today, to share a few members of the antagonist’s supportive cast.

I will introduce you to Khadija (Ka-dee-jah) and Diana, both assassins hired to recapture my protagonist, Wally Cook, and kill anyone in who steps in their paths.

Khadija exists as a two-tailed kitsune and former member of the Zenko Clan (see former posts on these subjects if necessary).

Khadija, years ago, when she existed as a kitsune juvenile (called a “kit”), joined several of her adopted sisters in their battle against Vasuki, a doomed attempt to avenge their parents.

None of Khadija’s teammates survive the battle. She plays possum while several of Vasuki’s soldiers (the Merchants of Chaos) rape her.

She, in light of her violation and survivor’s guilt, decides that fear serves as her enemy. A fearless being would have forced the soldiers to kill her before she allowed them to defile her.

She decides that she cannot allow fear to rule her again.

She discards every bond that someone might use to corrupt her. She dissolves her love of self so that she will not fear death. She disowns her clan so she will not fear for the safety of her (remaining) adopted sisters.

She, for years, trains in physical and magical combat. She earns a reputation as an assassin, and—in an effort to identify and dispatch those soldiers who spoiled her—joins Vasuki’s payroll.

Baxter, our antagonist, promises all of Vasuki’s assassins that they may each name their own reward upon Wally Cook’s capture. Khadija plans to ask for the soldiers whose throats she seeks.

Khadija, as a two-tailed kitsune, possesses a respectable quantity of fox fire (kitsune magic). She wields a pair of kamas, which each resemble miniature scythes.

She, in an effort to face daily her worst fear (a repeat of the night that forever changed her life), dresses in provocative fashion. She wears only an unbuttoned, oversized, white shirt and panties, as if to dare anyone to touch her.

(I, in hindsight, deeply regret this choice of wardrobe. I wanted to express the aforementioned chip on her shoulder, but, in that effort, I reduced and objectified her.)

She also wears a metal helmet with horns.

Khadija possesses red fur with a river of white that flows from her throat to her inner thighs. One of her eyes appears dull green, the other bright red.

Her specialties, magic-wise, include Fox Fire Blasts (a destructive pillar of raw magic, usually discharged from one or both palms) and a psychic shield she evokes in front of herself at will.

She shall discover, in the course of Daughters, that she still cares for the members of her former clan (what few members linger) even though her mission places her at direct odds with the Zenko Clan.

Diana, a thirteen-year-old girl, exists as the last of a race called “clipps,” the members of which appear human and can create powerful magnetism with their minds.

Vasuki, threatened by the clipps’ power, orders them exterminated. He spares Diana only because she cannot psychically lift anything larger than a paperclip.

Vasuki fails to question how many paperclips Diana can lift at once.

Diana wears a fanny pack stuffed with metal ball bearings, some barely macroscopic and some smaller than that. She can manipulate them all. At once. Into any shape she chooses.

She can even “fire” them as if she commands thousands of shotguns.

Diana’s unrest in regards to the genocide of her people takes a twisted route. She experiences anger not because of the murders, but because Vasuki underestimated her, considered her unnecessary to kill.

She becomes the youngest assassin on Vasuki’s payroll, all because she wants him to witness and respect her power.

Diana proves remorseless and joyfully psychotic.

She instantly thinks of her fellow assassin, Spyder, when Baxter promises her (and the other assassins) any reward they choose in exchange for Wally Cook’s capture.

Spyder led the genocide against the clipps. He convinced Vasuki to spare Diana. He overlooked her. Diana plans to ask for the right to fight Spyder, so that he regrets his low expectations of her.

Vasuki, Baxter, the Merchants of Chaos, and the other assassins all treat Diana and Khadija with measures of distrust, given the two female assassins’ histories. This creates a weak bond between them.

I shall, next post, discuss a few more members of Baxter’s supportive cast, to include the aforementioned Spyder.

See you then!

Thanks for reading. You can catch my my novels, such as Daughters of Darkwana on Kindle,

and my other blogs at the following sites:

martinwolt.blogspot.com

moviesmartinwolt.blogspot.com

entertainmentmicroscope.blogspot.com

fictionformula.blogspot.com

darkwana.blogspot.com