Authorpreneur Dashboard – Nicholas Chapman
No More Heroes (The Crossover Series)
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Stories are meant to be told. But many stories go unfinished, unpublished and unread. What happens to the characters in those books when nobody reads them? Where do they go? In a city populated by these forgotten literary denizens, Jack Reynolds works as a member of an ancient order called “The Heroes,” who are charged with defeating villainy and maintaining order. Alongside an immortal humanoid computer and a knight from a children’s tale, Jack must solve a case by the end of the week or his division will be permanently closed. After stumbling across a case of illegal magic which threatens the safety of the entire city, Jack also realizes that solving this mystery is the only way he can do right by his friends. With time and veiled forces aligned against him, does Jack have what it takes to be a Hero one last time?
Book Bubbles from No More Heroes (The Crossover Series)
The Coffee House
Noir protagonists tend to hang out in either their offices or their nearest bourbon dispensary, but Jack's office is the boiler room and getting drunk on the job would drive Presley mad. Heavily inspired by my own habits, I had Jack take up residence in a coffee house instead. Originally I planned to call it The Thorn (because every Rose has its Thorn) but the real life coffee house I visited in the city of Hull filled me with inspiration. You see, the real life Word stocks books that can be read or bought by the patrons. With this Rose's collecting habit suddenly became a main feature of the Word, and so it became part coffee house, part library. The real life Last Word has similar décor, and I found its name to be a much better fit.
The Spoiler
If you're reading this one you're consenting to the spoiler it contains. If you haven't read Heroes yet, I suggest you come back to this another day. Final warning people! ************************************** Ostensibly the Hero of his Origin, Ignacio crossed over before his story could come to a satisfactory conclusion. This never sat right with him. He was supposed to be the hero, after all. But he kept his head down, working hard with the Lawmen, all the while thinking how much better things would have been if he'd been the one holding Darkbeard's doomsday orb. Ignacio is meant to be the big twist, though the hints are there to be found along the way. Jack is quick to judge Gwen as guilty of Ignacio's crimes, and Iggy does everything he can to encourage this. I wanted someone to come out of Jack's blindspot and surprise him. I'm pretty happy with how it worked out.
The 'Hero'
Jack Reynolds starts the story as a Hero in name only. Shuffled out of the Lawmen for a scandal that saw many of his cases overturned, Jack was attached to the Heroes because the Bear believed he deserved a second chance. Haunted by his old life, his new mistakes and stuck carrying the Heroes chequered legacy, Jack nevertheless does his best to put some good into the world. He tends to leap before he looks, which means he gathers a decent collection of bruises as the story develops. When deciding his name I wanted something that could be shouted or cursed without becoming unwieldy. I settled on ‘Jack’ because of Jack O’Neil in Stargate: SG1 and ‘Reynolds’ came from Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly fame. I’m a nerd. Sue me.
The Anarchists
I'm forever intrigued by the culture that has sprung up around the internet. Before the hacktivism of recent years, Anonymous existed mostly as machine of lulz (which is like lols, but usually at someone's expense). The idea of this casually malicious collective influenced the Legion's development drastically. I even borrowed the forgive and forget quote from Anon doctrine. Their appearance was inspired by the character of No-face from the film 'Spirited Away', though with more of an insectoid bent than No-face's spiritual form. The Legion hail from a sci-fi background, where they existed as a chaotic force searching for new ways to get their kicks. I threw them in the story as henchmen for the main antagonist, but as with many things they grew as I wrote and I can see them easily resurfacing to make Jack's life hell in another novel.
The Bear
The Bear was born in an early draft where I decided to have Jack transition from one chapter to the next by saying something about being late for a meeting and how 'The Bear will eat me alive'. Some people complain about having disagreeable bosses, and I thought the situation would definitely be worse if the boss in question was an apex predator. From there on the Bear, or Lord Arctos in his Sunday best, was destined to embody his name. He chews Jack out like his collogues expect him to, but quietly works as his biggest official supporter. As an ex-Hero himself, he has a thorough understanding of Jacks work and it's undervalued importance in safeguarding the identities of crossover villains. He reluctantly sends Jack off with his ultimatum, but if he was free to do as he saw fit he would resurrect the Heroes to their former glory. While this is a nice idea it is one that sets him on a difficult path with Jack, as he may find their ideas differ in what the Heroes should be...
The Nemesis
Gwen Lucas does not like Jack, there are no prizes for working that one out. A focused and highly diligent detective, she uses every weapon in her arsenal to make sure she gets her man. Jack doesn't know what he did to make her his enemy. Perhaps it's because they were both once running for the same job. Or maybe it's because their methods of policework are at polar opposites. Most likely her indomitable will, which has pushed her to the top of a male-dominated profession, is powered by some old secret linked to their grudge. The kind of secret that might be explored in future novels. :)
The Paragon
Presley was born from my own personal struggles to understand 'The Right Thing'. What it is, where it lives and what it looks like still eludes me, but it doesn't bother me half as much as it bothers Presley. He hails from a children's story, one about a brave knight who charged around finding evil wherever it would rear its head. When he crossed over he was plunged into a world where his familiar black and white moral values were lost in a sea of grey. This didn't slow him down, of course. An old school Hero, Presley is of the opinion that hard times are life's way of telling him he's doing the right thing. Life has a way of wearing you down though. After two years trying with the Heroes to do 'The Right Thing', the knight is beginning to struggle. He'll keep on swinging, but real life might be a dragon bigger than he can hope to slay.
The Savant
In most fictional group dynamics there will be a character who distinguishes themselves as being 'The Smart One'. With Presley's innocent naivety and Jack's determination to break fists using only his face, it's Ludwig who must shoulder the burden of being the most intelligent Hero. Confined to the Station because of his frail body/brilliant mind combination, it would be easy to make Ludwig pitiable. However I felt that would make for dull reading, so his mischievous nature was brought to the fore to offset that. Jack may still carry guilt from his inability to set his companion free, but Ludwig has the measure of his cage and knows how to enjoy his time in it.
The Barista
For me, writing works best when it's all planned out. If I know the structure of the story, where it's going and how it'll get there, I can focus more on the moment and worry less about the big picture. But every now and again real life flips the design table over and shows me how things could be better. Rose didn't exist in the original draft of NMH. She stepped onto the page, near fully formed, after a chance encounter I had with a real life barista. A charismatic woman with a sharp wit who put Tabasco in at least one cocktail that I saw, she helped breathe life into a character I honestly hadn't thought too much about. Rose is a complicated person with baggage in her back-story, which she'll have to come to terms with as her story continues. For now, though, she enjoys her time behind the bar at The Last Word and the friendships she maintains there.
The Jumper
"If you don't grab the reader on the first page they're gonna put the book back on the shelf and walk away." This kind of thinking led to chapter one being the most re-written and overanalysed section in NMH, but the death of Darkbeard was a constant. Jack has no idea what has driven Darkbeard to the wall and even less of an idea how to get him down. Initially I thought it was just a racy opener, having a man jump into the river. But the more the idea developed, the more it became integral to the whole story. Darkbeard may die here in chapter one, but his legacy has a life of its own.
