Bonded

Writing Bonded was more than just a work of art for myself.  It was a process of reconnecting with some old friends, and making new ones along the way.  Some of the characters in Bonded were based on people I’ve known throughout my life, such as the daring Faroe.  The man behind Faroe is a friend I met in my travels who has inspired me in so many ways that I still look up to him every day.  He was a paratrooper, software designer, arm wrestling champion, and motocross racer in his youth.  He is the kind of man that can and does look at setbacks and stressful situations with a smile and exorbitant amount of excitement.  “Everything is an opportunity,” is something I’ve heard from him more than once.  It may be a cliché but he wasn’t wrong about it either.  Sometimes that opportunity isn’t so much about a tangible gain like money or status, but about growth and experience.  He and I are bonded, and I look to his guidance whenever I can.  He regularly rings in my ears when I find myself in a difficult time. 

Vivian Anuille had a different name originally.  One day I was speaking to a different friend who just had a daughter they named Vivian.  I instantly fell in love with the name for a character, and had to go back and change it throughout the novel.  It rang truer to her in the story in a way the original name couldn’t hold up.  I mentioned it after the story was written.  She laughed that I used her daughter’s name to be my villain.  My own children expected to be in the book as well.  Demanded may be a better depiction of their request, and so I obliged.  Most of the story had already been written, and adding a few random characters just to satisfy their demands didn’t seem like a feasible idea, so I altered a couple characters to bring them to life.  Unfortunately they all died.  My youngest was not thrilled but enjoyed the story anyway. 

Using those I am bonded with as characters wasn’t the only way they brought my story to life.  When I was stuck on a character or scene, I frequently called them to change my point of view.  Vivian was particularly difficult to create, but after a simple suggestion from a friend she bloomed.  “What is her motivation?” he asked me.  “If she is a villain, what in her life made her that way?  People don’t ever believe they are the bad guy in their own story, so what motivates her to see life the way she does?”  That man has a way with making the simple seem so profound that when I was building the world, or a character, or even a scene, I thought of him and how he would see the story.  Life may find a way, but it was rarely super easy and never an inconvenience.  Events had to evolve instead of simply happen. 

Writing Bonded The Arena has been a journey for myself, and a part of it was realizing how truly blessed I am.  Those, and many others created this novel through me and I cannot thank you enough.  I have been elevated because of them, and I pray that I can bring up their lives with my knowledge and abilities as well.

Stay Bonded my friends.