Cloud, Billy Ray, and Jian-mei

We had characters, but needed something for them to do.

Many years ago, I wrote a true story called "The Run" for my hometown newspaper.  It was about me running a kickoff back for a touchdown in a highschool football game.  It was my proudest moment.  In The Brown Recluse, I gave the ball to Billy Ray, and he did the running.  Cloud became his cheerleader girlfriend.  Those two were off and running. (Oops!)

Dick liked Macau for some reason, so we settled on that city for our Chinese connections. My Asian character became Feng Jian-mei. I picked her up at the age of twelve and placed her in the finals of the Ti Kwon Do world championships in Hong Kong, which is only a ferry ride away. To add a bit of spice, I put her in the boys bracket, and wouldn't you know it, she won. What was she doing winning world championships in the boys bracket?  More next post.

Maryanne sprung to life as a young woman living on a vinyard in the Rhone Valley of France.  We had to get her out of France, and the way to do that was to break her heart.  So we did.  She ended up in the Israeli Mossad and became a very interesting character.

Next post will address Jian-mei's development along with that of Cloud and Billy Ray.