Character Models - Mac Macleod

Many writers use models or images to be able to easily remember or recognise their story characters as they work. I've known some people who will go through magazines and catalogues and snip out someone who reminds them of a particular character. They might cut out some cardboard and glue the picture on and put the character's name across it or a the bottom. Some writers who can draw, may sketch what they think their character looks like themselves or do a story board. In the end it is the reader who will use their own imagination and the writer's descriptions to create the image in their mind's eye.



When I first pictured Torkel James "Mac" Macleod he was 6' tall, broad shouldered, bugling biceps, with a flame or brick coloured "Freak Flag" falling in thick ripples half way down his back. He reminded me of the cover for the paperback  "Lion of Ireland" by Morgan Llywelyn about Brian Boru. Now you try and find someone who looks like that in real life!

In the end I had to settle for this guy as a model. He doesn't have a flame red mane or bulging muscles,...he might even be a bit shy of six feet but if you squint your eyes,....he will do in a pinch!

Mac is the driving force behind 'Loud-Macleod' and 'Heathen Hearts' the bands in the story and is the song writer and lead singer on most of the music. He plays rhythm guitar, tin whistle and percussion on some songs.

 I have to apologise to my wife for using this next photo as she has claimed it as her exclusive property! This is Mac at the Jay Seven Bar Ranch in 1976.

 I also must apologise to the Grey's Scouts Mounted Infantry Regiment for using or maybe I should say miss-using this next photo. This is Mac while serving in the Rhodesian Military in the late Seventies.

 I thought I would throw in this photo of Mac and his wife "Elf" taken in Kaslo B.C. on the occasion of their twenty fifth anniversary!

These are models for the "main" characters in the story of "Heathen Hearts". They might not meet up with the expectations of the reader when the story is finally published but these are the faces I worked with while trying to bring these characters to life.

Character Models - Deedee Hanlon

Many writers use models or images to be able to easily remember or recognise their story characters as they work. I've known some people who will go through magazines and catalogues and snip out someone who reminds them of a particular character. They might cut out some cardboard and glue the picture on and put the character's name across it or a the bottom. Some writers who can draw, may sketch what they think their character looks like themselves or do a story board. In the end it is the reader who will use their own imagination and the writer's descriptions to create the image in their mind's eye.


In some ways Deirdre Hanlon was one of the hardest to find a model for. I had an image in my head that worked pretty well but I thought I should find something as I had the others. Try as I might I could not find an Irish face that looked like Deedee. For a while I was tempted to use Avril Lavigne but I wasn't quite satisfied.
Deedee is quite short, only 5'2" in stocking feet. She has a turned up nose with a band of freckles and green eyes. Her hair is usually a sandy reddish blond but she often dyes it and cuts it to spice things up. Though the drummer for the bands in the story, being raised in Belfast, Ireland she also plays the Uilleann pipes, the Scottish War pipes, Tin whistle, Recorder, besides the Bodhran drum and singing lead vocals on many tracks.

At long last I just happened to think of an old friend of my daughter's and also happened to find some photos of her on a social networking site. I've decided not to mention her name but as soon as I saw the photos,...she became my model for Deedee Hanlon. I hope she won't mind.  :)

Character Models - Gette Kozak

Many writers use models or images to be able to easily remember or recognise their story characters as they work. I've known some people who will go through magazines and catalogues and snip out someone who reminds them of a particular character. They might cut out some cardboard and glue the picture on and put the character's name across it or a the bottom. Some writers who can draw, may sketch what they think their character looks like themselves or do a story board. In the end it is the reader who will use their own imagination and the writer's descriptions to create the image in their mind's eye.
One of the easiest because I only have one photo model is,...


Brigette Kozak

"Gette" is 5'6" with dark eyes and features that reveal her heritage. Her mother's maiden name was Kun which is the name of the people known in English as Cuman. They were a Nomadic people from the Eur-Asian Steppe also known as the Kipchak before moving into Hungary around the year 1000 c.e. Though mostly a mystery, their language is of Turkic-Iranian origin. Gette like Anja is classically trained and can play almost any instrument. She plays either lead guitar, or lead fiddle (violin) on most of their early "Rock and Reel" music but on the final tour and record she does major duty on keyboards besides.

Gette posed a bit of a problem for me as I had another image in my head altogether when I started. She transformed from bitch-witch to beautiful witch as I got to know her better. I looked through Hungarian faces for quite some time before this model appeared. I have no idea of her name but she had done excellent service as a stand in for Brigette Kozak.

Character Models - Anja Lindstrom

Many writers use models or images to be able to easily remember or recognise their story characters as they work. I've known some people who will go through magazines and catalogues and snip out someone who reminds them of a particular character. They might cut out some cardboard and glue the picture on and put the character's name across it or a the bottom. Some writers who can draw, may sketch what they think their character looks like themselves or do a story board. In the end it is the reader who will use their own imagination and the writer's descriptions to create the image in their mind's eye.

Today I thought I might show you the "models" I used for my characters and tell you a little about each character as well. Let us start with,...

Anja Lindstrom

We meet Anja when she is approx 53 yrs as well as when she is about 23 yrs. In both cases she is 5' 11" and skinny as a rake! She has thin blond hair and dazzling blue eyes. Her instruments in the bands are the Electric Bass, the cello, the viola, the violin and various percussion instruments.

When she first came to me I had this image of the Norse Goddess/giantess, Skadi in mind.

One day the thought came to me to try the web and see if Anja might be there. I basically typed in "Swedish female faces" and low and behold, "Anja" was there waiting for me.

For those in the know yes, these turned out to be photos of Elsa Sylvan the Swedish super model taken at her first photo test when she was eighteen. http://www.supermodels.nl/elsasylvan

But like I'm saying, Elsa is not Anja nor the other way round either. Anja just happens to look very much like Elsa.

450,000 Words

In my opening remarks I said that when I sat down to write a novel it was a completely different story. These characters came to me and asked that I write theirs instead. Since then they have become my "imaginary" friends and we've spent a lot of time together.

I was doing a rough calculation based on the computer word count. Now just the way I have chapters saved, etc. this is not 100% accurate. That is why it is a rough calculation.

If each chapter is approx. 30,000 words and I have 15 chapters,...that makes 450,000 words so far. I am guessing that I have one more,...maybe two chapters left and then an epilogue. For most of this first rewrite I have kept pretty close to the original, changing only minor things. There has been a lot added in dealing with the earliest phase of the story but the main has basically been complete. This "back to the present" section of the story I have done a lot of editing,...sorry guys. My "friends" talk too much! I think there were parts that were getting repetitive, perhaps the information was covered better somewhere else,...or it really wasn't necessary. In a way it was a case of "Get on with It!" I hope this editing will move the story along at a better pace toward the conclusion.

Anyway,...as I am not a professional writer, I'm not sure what publishers will think of such a wordy apical. I'll worry about that once I get to that stage of the project!

Story Fun

One of the fun things about this story is trying to imagine the characters and the music they would play, what it would sound like. Just  crusing through Youtube I came across a very young version of "Gette Kozak" playing the guitar in her room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuX2VFSBOHM&feature=related

Now if they every made a movie of this story,...ha, ha, ha, I'd have to try and find out who this really is!

What is really ironic is that I have been using this photo of an unknown(to me) Hungarian Model as my,...model for Gette. The guitar playing girl is very similar.

Maybe over the next little while I'll add photos of the faces I used to picture my characters as I wrote.

Writing wise,...I have finish a major part of the story or have it saved and pages printed anyway. The "back to the present" part remains to be rewritten and saved so there is still a lot of work to do. In a way it is kind of sad to see another section of this story come to a close. I like these "imaginary friends" of mine and I like their story. I just wish they'd picked a better writer,...I do have to look forward to actually reading it from end to end for the first time and adding more finishing touches. We'll I better not "hang about" here then!

Nearer than Further

Hey! Hello!

It's been a while since I've put anything down here. I thought it was time for a status report and I've had a pleasant surprise. My working copy consists of eight, 200 to 300 page notebooks. I have been working hard through book six and was expecting it would take another year before the story was all down on disk and/or in print form.

Last night I was on the last few pages of book six and I pulled out book seven in preparation of working straight into it. To my surprise I discovered that book seven is actually the LAST book. The story ends in book seven!

It turns out that book eight is just various rewrites and add ins plus a few epilogue suggestions. It looks like I could have this story closer to a finished version a lot sooner than I expected.

 "Yeah!!!"

Now back to the laptop!!