Pieces of me in the main characters,2/12/2012 In order to write believable characters it is always good to have pieces of you, in each character. To people who know me, it is easy to see what parts are me and what parts are contrived. It is good to have characters that vastly differ from one another, gives the story texture. But no one I know is safe really, I’ll take pieces of people I know and incorporate them into characters throughout. *Each position on the team is associated with a color and a gem stone that is applied to a team’s mascot pin. ![]() Na’tan is the typical controlling personality with a bit of an anxiety disorder. Everyone knows someone like this. Either a parent, a spouse, or sibling that takes on the role of a leader trying to protect everyone and stressing out on “what could happen”. This makes Na’tan a perfect Captain for the Peregrine Falcons. I guess I do have a bit (LOL) of a controlling attribute but not the anxiety. Na’tan also has a superiority complex, an arrogance that I know I appear to have sometimes. And the feeling that I must always be in control and try to imagine every possible scenario-yeah that’s me. Na'tan not only has a keen understanding of the smaller parts to a bigger picture, but can see how the bigger picture can influence the universe, which again, makes him an excellent Captain. Over time Na’tan had to learn, and still struggles with, letting go of controlling others. He has a tendency to blame himself if anything goes wrong, and internally beats himself up, until it is almost considered an mental disorder. Thankfully everyone on the team can hear his internal thoughts and can stop him before he goes too far. ![]() Kealin is a girly girl, which I am not. But she is also driven to never being nailed down to anything, which is me to the hilt. Freedom in all things is beyond important to me, freedom of belief, thoughts, even being tied physically to a place or title. Yet, Kealin’s avoidance of anything new, is a friend of mine. Kealin will change drastically over the series of the books. Right now, she lacks confidence in everything, especially herself. In her teenage passive aggressive way, she does fight against the concept of being a part of this team because of her trust issues. Again, being forced to be on the Peregrine Falcons goes against her personality, so trusting a group of people and their abilities is currently a bit of a reach for her. But in time, she will come to trust them, and even rely on them. She is also naive and believes that everyone has a loftier goal at heart. ![]() Cornac is that guy that knows he’s gorgeous and has no problem flaunting it and using it to influence people. Everyone knows a guy like this, the hot quarterback, the confident guy who has no problem swaggering into a room full of people, because he thinks everyone in the room either wants to be him or know him. His charisma can be construed as conceit, but let’s face it, guys like that usually get what they want. Cornac and his crude thoughts are without a doubt me. But he enjoys pushing the boundaries and finds life to be amusing. He’s very relaxed and doesn’t stress because he believes life is short. When you gotta go, then it’s time to go, so might as well try everything full throttle until then. I suppose that is my belief as well. If you don’t try things and push your boundaries then what’s the point of living this life. But I have to say, a part of Cornac is my cat. He knows he's gorgeous, and that he can get whatever he wants with one look. ![]() One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was write for Nicholas. He is considered the most intelligent and manipulative on the team. Being an Intelligence Information Officer makes it his prerogative to be this way, though I do not get into his craftiness in this book. He has to be able to subtly, psychologically, manipulate alien societies/beings to complete his team’s objective. Nicholas is required to know all the players and their culture. He appears to be the quiet contemplative type who tries to discover all sides to a theory, or person, or situation. Generally IIO are the most intelligent and use more of the brain power than the rest of their teammates. Their memory capacity is beyond measure and for good reason. I suppose my characteristic that I add to Nicholas is I do know how to manipulate people and situations. Like I said, I didn’t get into the manipulative aspect of Nicholas in this book, I only get into his intelligence and drive for knowledge. But it is difficult writing about a person smarter than yourself. Very difficult. I know what he does-thinks-sees, yet to get it down in words that are a fair representation of Nicholas, is difficult to say the least. ![]() Henry and his blinded belief that everyone has good intentions, has a hard time understanding those who are evil. He is compassionate almost to a fault. Henry cares deeply for everyone, not just his teammates. The only time Henry loses his temper is when a teammate willfully jeopardizes their health. But he continually tries to placate opposing personalities with his gentle disposition. He is a nurturer but finds being on a Fathis team invigorating and a testament of testing his limits as a healer. Henry is the Falcon’s moral compass and is the loving father figure everyone can rely on. Henry is possibly the character that is least like me, but I know several people that emulate him. ![]() Hands down my favorite character is Ray-cause he’s such an ass. In the first book he hates Kealin. In the second, he does a 180 and becomes overprotective of her. You get a feel for his extreme personality. Ray is always misinterpreted and appears to look at things in a black and white manner. He blatantly speaks his mind (his “filter button is broken”). “Tactless” would be a good word for Ray. And he fully embraces his OCD’s. Everything in his life/world must be perfectly in-order, and anything that seems chaotic and unpredictable (Kealin), he shies away from. His ego is ridiculously enormous. You may love him, you may hate him, but he is who he is, and Ray’s changing for no one. He would share similar characteristics with Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory on CBS, except Ray knows how to physically fight. All his pent-up frustrations and anger, is funneled into his fighting skills, making him as lethal as a martial arts expert. Being misunderstood is something I can relate to. Many times something comes out of my mouth is misinterpreted completely. So many times... And people always seem to believe there is an ulterior motive, but 98% of the time it’s just their suspicious mind over-thinking what I’ve said. Matter of fact, if I say something and you don’t “feel” you’re being misled, is when I am misleading a person :) (That is where my "Nicholas characteristics" comes out) And again people do seem to believe I am tactless at times (I'm just being truthful). And when I was young I used to think Sesame Street was demeaning. I couldn’t stand watching it. Of course, I didn’t know the word “demeaning” at the time, but there ya go. That is a very "Ray observation". ![]() Thatcher is a loner with an eccentric disposition. In the past he struggled with being different, but came to the healthy conclusion that he is who he is, and he shouldn’t care if he fit-in with his fellow Engineers. Soon, he learned to embrace his differences, making him more confident yet more reclusive. Thatcher is very relaxed and has a certain boyish charm, though can appear strange to people outside his team because of his habit of saying incomplete thoughts. Thatcher could spend days absorbed in a piece of equipment and not even realize days have gone by. Usually his emotions are so strong that they affect him physically. And he shows little interest in anything beyond his technical universe, making him appear lazy. I can be a bit of a loner. I could spend days without talking to anyone, and it doesn’t bother me one bit. And I have gotten tunnel vision where time, doesn’t seem to exist. Many of these characters is an extension of me but there are also pieces of people that I know. Who do I relate to the most, would be a toss-up between Na’tan and Ray.
For example: Say I place a food order, I want this food to be “just so” (Na’tan). I like to eat one item on my plate at a time (Ray), but every so often I like to mix things up just to screw with myself (Cornac). My construed splitting of my personality makes the characters come alive in Fathis: Birth of a Falcon.
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Technology in this Fathis world1/17/2012 _ I’ll admit it. I’m a Luddite to a point. I was probably the last person on the planet to get a cell phone. I think it was 2007? I think. I don’t use it that often. And I still don’t have a facebook page, or any of that crap. And I suck at texting. Takes me too damn long to punch out a single word, too annoying. But I’d die without my puter. SO there!
But people who know me, and know what I do for a living, would just crack up to hear I’m a bit of a Luddite. Considering I work with some of the latest greatest computer programs out there in my field, and also considering how quickly I pick this stuff up. This website is an enormous leap for me, but I figured there would be questions about this Fathis world. And it kind of gets it out of my head, and makes it clearer. In Fathis: Birth of a Falcon I have it so that technology is so far advanced that it is in the background of their daily lives. Unlike now, how it is in the foreground of everyone’s life. There are no separate components or programs. The only thing separate is the teams’ wrist monitor, and that is only because they go off planet for missions. People use ear buds as phones but it works off of a central global main frame which is also their data storage, television, news source, mail, web browser, libraries of all types, and so on. Everyone has access to it worldwide. No one has control of it. It’s too big. Once the Breaking happened, humanity plunged into the dark ages for a short time, until we came together. Then with our combined, now powerful minds, our technology exploded. It was more controlled this time, with a design in mind that would make it more nature friendly considering these post-Breaking humans were now having to clean up the broken and destroyed nuclear facilities and chemical plants worldwide. But the Chief Engineers of the Fathis teams are the leading experts in the technology of their time. They work with Nanites all the way down to the atomic level. But they do work with the very large, like a grid system to protect a planet. They can create memory chips using atoms, and of course, impressive weapons. They work hand-and-hand with the Science division of the Fathis teams. Hover crafts are the typical means of transportation around the planet and that is based off of the planets magnetic polarity. The spaceships are actually plants that we learned to “back engineer” into space. But with Earth’s mother ships the size of four football fields, technical devices supporting human life within these space-pods is a necessity. With the combined work of engineers and the Wingmakers gives humanity the chance to travel through space within the safety of these plants. The Wingmakers are in charge of these spaceships. Interview with Thatcher Griffin12/22/2011 _ Thank you for your time. Tell me Thatcher Griffin, a little bit about the technology you deal with in the future.
I deal mainly with Nanites. And what are Nanites? Microscopic robots whose components are … nanometer (10−9 meters). The devices ranges from 0.1-10 micrometers and constructed to…molecular components. I believe you have them in your time. I think we have a problem with the connection, you’re coming in and out. And I don’t think we have Nanites. It sounds interesting. I was told you are the second youngest on the team. Yes. I am. As the Chief Engineer of the Peregrine Falcons, do you deal with space ships? Sure, but they are bio-form, not mechanical in nature. What does bio-form mean? They are an organic propulsion system, plant life. An alien ship…your time with one…back engineered them. Nicholas is really the one you need to talk to about it. Sorry, the connection still seems to be bad. Nicholas Crumb? Your team’s Intelligence Officer? Nick’s specialty is communicating with non-human life forms. Is that better? Sometimes I forget. Forget what? To talk out loud. Ok…what about weaponry? Engineers mainly deal with shielding. Weapons would be Cornac or Kealin. What kind of shielding? One use would be using the Nanites as a suit. All Fathis teams wear Nano Suits when on assignment. The suit creates an all-encompassing body-forming shield around the wearer, protecting them from the elements of an inhospitable world, or weapons fire. Well, tell me something that has changed technologically from my time, to yours. I’m not sure if you had developed molecular memory storage yet… I don’t believe so, what is it? A technology that use molecular atoms as the data storage element. In a molecular memory device, each individual molecule contains a bit of data, each atom leading to massive data capacity. For example you could take a sugar cube and on each individual atom, store information. It would then be possible that your continent’s internet could be stored onto one sugar cube. Wow! This all sounds so amazing. It seems everything is technologically smaller but more powerful there. Of course, why would someone want bigger? Again, thank you for your time. No problem. Favorite food:
Mint Chip Ice cream, Krispy Kreme donuts, homemade pizza, pralines, Chinese chicken salad...mmmmm! Categories
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