My Dark Desires series takes place in the distant future where man has fled to the stars. It’s a mixture of science fiction, paranormal, and romance and it follows the adventures, romantic and otherwise, of the crew of the spaceship, the Blood Hunter.
It’s always been my favorite series to write, mainly because absolutely anything can happen. So when my publisher asked me if I’d like to write a Dark Desires Origins series, I jumped at the chance. The new series takes place about five hundred years before Dark Desires, just as the remnants of humanity, having fled a dying Earth, finally reach a new home.
Deception, book 2 in the series, is Milo and Destiny’s story, but today I thought I’d spend a little time talking about the secondary characters in the book and maybe introduce a few of the more interesting ‘beings’ that left Earth (because it wasn’t only humans who fled the dying planet.)
So how important are secondary characters and how much space should they be given in a story? I think one of the main factors is how long is the book? There’s not much room for secondary character development in a novella. But genre also plays an important part as some types of stories need a tight cast and some a nice sprawling mass of characters. I especially love secondary characters in paranormal stories—they can be so interesting.
Secondary characters can come in many forms, side-kicks, best friends, enemies, family, work colleagues… But why are they there? Why include them at all or why not at least keep them firmly in the background? What roles do they play in the story? Here are a few things I came up with:
- Secondary characters make the main characters seem more real. Without them the hero and heroine exist within a vacuum.
- Secondary characters can add conflict, humor, depth, intrigue…
- They can help to show the hero or heroines real nature.
- They can move the plot along.
- For longer stories, they can be a source of subplots to enrich the main plot.
- In a series they can become the main characters of the next book.
So who are the supporting cast of Deception? Here are just a few to illustrate the diversity of species in my new world.
- Ricardo Sanchez is a 1000-year-old Spanish vampire. He’s also the hero of Break Out, book one in the Dark Desires series (five hundred years later.) He’s probably my favorite character from all my books, so it was great to meet his younger self in Deception. He’s the captain of the Trakis Two, the ship carrying the paranormal stowaways to the new world.
- Dylan is Milo’s side-kick. He’s also an alpha-werewolf (and I’m sure he’ll be getting his own story soon.)
- Katia and Logan, the couple from Malfunction, book one in the Origins series. Katia is a werecat and Logan is a brand-new werewolf.
- And finally, Luther Kinross is the bad guy. He’s actually human for a change.
So there they are. The supporting cast of Deception—a motley mix of supernaturals and humans.
What is your favorite type of secondary character? Let me know for a chance to win an ecopy of Malfunction, book 1 in the series.
no fav type
My favorite type in sci-fi and fantasy is the villain. Villains are the most intriguing when written well. That being said, in most cases the villain’s character doesn’t ring true and there is zero empathy so zero connection with him/her/it. Sad, but true. All too soon I’m feeling bored because the character is one-dimensional (pure evil) or single-minded (rule the ‘world’/kill the protagonist) and their motivation never changes.
Hi Katherine, one of the things I love about writing my Dark Desires series, is that I blur the lines between good and bad. Having said that, I’m not sure Luther, the villain in Deception has any redeeming qualities.