This question has a strange and twofold answer – one of my favorite characters I've created is Cameryn Mahoney, a seventeen-year old girl from a small Colorado town who is determined to follow her dream of becoming a forensic pathologist in order to give voice to the dead. The reason this character is so compelling to me is as simple as it is complex - of my over thirty published books, Cameryn is the clearest reflection of who I am as an individual because I, like my character, have come face to face with the tragedy of murder.
When I was twenty-two, my best friend Savannah Anderson became the victim of a serial killer. Savannah was an only child brutally killed on Mother's Day, and her loss left a gaping hole in my psyche. It became the dividing line of my life: before Savannah, and after. Her killer (Robert Lloyd Sellers) was not captured for five excruciating years. After he was finally apprehended, I was summoned to testify at his trial, which meant I had to sit within five yards of the man who destroyed my best friend’s life. Everything concerning this trial hung on forensic evidence, and at the time I had complete faith in the system. Five years after his conviction, my sense of justice was shattered when the California Supreme Court overturned Sellers’ first-degree verdict due, in part, to lost forensic material. (Exactly how does one lose a victim’s trachea?) Sellers pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, giving him a chance at parole, and I went reeling. In the end, that pain was channeled into the creation of Cameryn Mahoney and my Forensic Mystery Series.
Like me, Cameryn is passionate and stubborn and an endless researcher, relentlessly chasing after justice. Like me, my character trusts in facts. However, the flipside of this equation can be discovered in Dragonfly Eyes, a short story found in the anthology FEAR. The protagonist in that piece (soon to be expanded into a three-book trilogy) is named Savannah Anderson in honor of my friend. I’ve chosen to explore a character who is a murder victim trapped as an earthbound spirit. Clearly, as an author, I’m circling the same life-and-death theme, but this time I’ve stepped beyond the absolutes of science to create a world where Savannah’s spirit goes on. Now, in Dragonfly Eyes, I’m writing of intangibles, of spirits, evil, and the surprise gift of love that’s given even after physical death, of choices that face her on the other side. Surprisingly, I find myself equally represented in this character. Through Savannah I’m allowed to pose eternal questions where I imagine the answers, a dreamscape that is boundless as it is dangerous. Love and loss are approached from this unique perspective, and I’ve admired Savannah’s courage as she comes to grips with her own sudden death. So in a way, as an author, I’ve been split in two: the science in Cameryn’s world vs. the ethereal human soul imagined in Savannah’s netherworld existence. I’ve created two characters that represent both sides of me, two unique individuals who have bloomed from a single traumatic root. They are both my favorite characters.
What kind(s) of character do you consider this character primarily to be, or how would you describe this character?
Since my four installments of the forensic series (soon to be five) have been published as opposed to only the short story treatment of Dragonfly Eyes, I’ll allow the pendulum to swing to Cameryn for this question. I created Cameryn as a smart, dedicated, strong girl who is also vulnerable and capable of making mistakes, which I hope makes her well-rounded and relatable to teen girls. Even though she is young, Cameryn still wrestles with the question of her future career vs. extant love, juxtaposed against the backdrop of life and death. As a character, Cameryn is the opposite of Bella Swan, who lives for Edward in the Twilight series. Although I have enjoyed those books, I’ve always been dismayed by Bella’s eagerness to trade in her own beating heart for love. The real world is (I hope) less demanding when it comes to choices. I created Cameryn to be more reflective of the young women I meet.
What is a character from a published fiction story by another author you would compare this character to and why are they similar?
Since my favorite book of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird, I hope Cameryn is a bit like Scout Finch. Scout’s inquisitive mind was one of her greatest assets. She, too, loved her family, and came to understand life’s bigger picture as she grew. Cameryn, too, changes throughout this series. By the end of book four, The Dying Breath, she decides to let no one dictate her future but Cameryn herself.
To what extent did you use any pre-existing character formula, template, paradigm, character design, archetype, or theory or principles of making or analyzing character in planning, writing, and refining this character?
What an interesting question! Again, I must go back to my origins in order to fully explain how I approach the process of creating a character. When I was young, my sisters and I called ourselves the Estrogen Nation, because I was the fourth in a family of five daughters all born within six years to an aerospace engineer father and an author mother. All of my sisters went on to amazing careers (doctor, engineers, etc.) but I, sadly, never finished college. I actually learned to write in an unconventional way, which I can only describe as ‘author osmosis.’ I began to understand the intricacies of writing by critiquing my mother’s published work.(I had that kind of chutzpah at the tender age of twelve, if you can believe it. To her credit, my mother actually listened to my ideas. I’m not saying she took all of my advice, but she considered my opinion, which, in retrospect, is amazing. Here’s a shout out to my still-publishing mother, author Gloria Skurzynski – she rocks!).
I also had the privilege to eavesdrop on the writer’s group held in our house. (Important writing tip: choose your parents wisely!) My mother’s published friends read aloud, and that was followed by a gentle but straightforward manuscript critiquing. Character arcs and plotlines were discussed, work was polished, and I learned the most valuable lesson about writing anyone could learn, which is to embrace the revision process. As to creating my own characters, well, for me it was a bit like learning to play an instrument by ear – I’d absorbed all kinds of information, so one day I just jumped into the deep end of the pool and wrote a picture book. Luckily for me, it was sold to the first publisher I sent it to. That unexpected success was followed by and Edgar Alan Poe Award for my first novel, Show Me The Evidence, and…I’ve been writing ever since. Which is my long-winded way of saying I’ve never heard of templates, paradigms, theories or archetypes. Embarrassing! For me, it boils down to the instinct of writing a strong story with a character I believe in, and then being ready to cut/expand/rethink anything that did not properly translate to my audience.
How would you describe the first chapter, scene or section of this story in one paragraph?
The first chapter in The Christopher Killer explains the origins of Cameryn’s strong passion for forensics. Cameryn’s grandmother, or Mammaw as she is called in the Irish tradition, voices her strong objection to her granddaughter’s choice of career, blaming Cameryn’s dark turn on her missing mother. Patrick Mahoney, Cameryn’s father, is the coroner of tiny Silverton, a town nestled high in the Colorado mountains. His job provides a perfect access point for Cameryn, who is determined to give voice to the dead. The opening scene begins with a phone call from the new deputy concerning a body found in a rundown Silverton motel. When Patrick grumbles about his workload, Cameryn convinces her father to hire her as his assistant, and thus she begins her journey into a new, extraordinary, and very unsettling underworld to which few have access.
Pick one of your published stories. How would you describe the introduction of the main character, or one of the main characters, in this story?
I’ll switch now to my published story found in the anthology Fear. Savannah is introduced by her own voice when she opens with, “Monday morning, on the floor of my science classroom, I, Savannah Rose Anderson, woke up dead.” I would describe the introduction as ‘unusual’ and, I hope, ‘interesting!’
What makes this an effective character introduction for this story?
Since this is quite a contradiction in terms, I think the reader has to stop and consider what this actually means. My goal was to hook the reader’s interest from the very first line!
What major changes does this character go through, or what major challenges does the character encounter and how does the character respond to them?
Savannah faces the biggest change any of us can face, and that is passing from life into death. But beyond that, or rather because of that, Savannah learns to see inside others and read others ‘soul light.’ One character in particular, Claire, was a person Savannah ignored in school because Claire was both unpopular and plain. In death, she sees Claire as someone who is extraordinary.
How does the character respond to them? Savannah at last understands the importance of inner character and what is truly valuable in a soul.
How would you describe the most important minor characters in this story and the changes in their character, or the challenges they encounter and how they respond to them?
Because the short story “Dragonfly Eyes” has so few minor characters, I will switch once again to my other work since the forensic mysteries are rich in minor characters. In my Forensic Mystery Series, Lyric is a very important minor character because she challenges Cameryn in ways that only a true friend can. They describe themselves as each other’s yin and yang. Lyric is very New Age in her thinking while Cameryn was deeply influenced by her Irish Catholic grandmother, which leads to some interesting exchanges of ideas. Due to the fact that Cameryn’s father is a coroner, death is always a part of the conversation, and the mystical element of the soul fascinates Lyric. She approaches eternal questions in a way that is very different from Cameryn. In addition to her Catholicism, Cameryn is also a scientist, which colors her opinions concerning what ‘comes next.’ I, as the author, don’t take sides, because I love to hear Lyric’s take on the afterlife as well as Cameryn’s rebuttal. It’s fun to debate different ideas through the lens of different characters!
Lyric changes throughout the books by becoming stronger and more confident in her own, plus-sized skin. Body image is another topic I care deeply about, particularly when it comes to young women. Lyric’s arc allows me to address the pressure placed on teens to become ‘that girl.’ Charismatic and funny, Lyric learns throughout the series to embrace her larger self. (Pun intended.) Dimensional, caring and fierce, Lyric is someone I would choose to be my friend.
Another minor character whom I love is Cameryn’s father, Patrick Mahoney. Father and daughter are allies rather than adversaries, which I think is a refreshing change from the I-hate-my-parents storyline cliché. Patrick respects Cameryn. When it comes to the perilous situations in which Cameryn inevitably finds herself, his biggest challenge is seeing her as an adult rather than as a child. How does Patrick respond to his daughter’s constant brushes with danger? Let’s just say, he’s working on it!
What does the story gain from the minor characters?
In a word: texture.
To what extent would you describe the characters in this story as typical or atypical of characters in your fiction stories?
I try to create a unique character to anchor every book (or series), which is only fitting since every individual is distinctive in his or her own way. Novels should reflect that reality. Cameryn is unlike any other character I have written, which makes her atypical when compared to my body of work. However, by that definition, ALL my characters are atypical. It’s a joy to create fictional personalities who evolve in interesting ways and who develop in a way quite different from the person I am. For example, although I have witnessed many autopsies, and while I greatly admire those who go into this demanding field, I myself could never be a forensic pathologist. Cameryn’s dreams are her own. Savannah, while planted more firmly in the materialism of a wealthy teen girl, is also atypical of every other character I have drawn. Whether it’s Cameryn or Savannah or one of my other protagonists, I hope every character in my work reads as an individual.
Author website: www.alaneferguson.com
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