by Susan Russo Anderson, @SusanRussoAnder
Sometimes my brain feels like the Chelsea Hotel.
Thanks to the many good books I’ve been fortunate to read, unusual types live inside me and this post is about them—the characters that some authors create so vividly that, from time to time, they pop into my head, altered from their originals to be sure, but able to move in two or three places at once and very much alive in my memory.
Here are some that haunt me today:
- Gemma James in the KINKAID/JAMES mystery series by Deborah Crombie. Not short, not tall, the slightly anxious mom, woman, and detective, Gemma James, walks with a deliberate gait and/or drives in traffic or flares up at her partner, or puts criminals at ease or is busy being mesmerized by another character. Wisps of her copper hair fly.
- Ivan in DEATH IN A WINE DARK SEA by Lisa Davis. Ivan pirouettes in my head, this great, unwashed character: “He pulled his shirt up over his barrel chest, showing weathered, hairy skin as he turned in a circle. Generous love handles spilled over his belt.” But he also drives his boat, knocks on the door, twirls, scares, smiles so that the skin crinkles around his eyes and he forgets the gun in his hand.
- Marcel’s grandmother In SEARCH OF LOST TIME by Marcel Proust. Marcel’s grandmother sits at the far end of the Piazza San Marco, shaded from the sun by her heavily-veiled hat. Still and still moving, she glides in her garden in Cambray, pace stately, dress flowing. Her head is slightly upturned. She is mute, large and sad, like lost time.
- Gil Hodges (really) in MATINICUS, AN ISLAND MYSTERY by Darcy Scott. I’ve just begun reading this book so Gil Hodges is the new kid on the block. But he’s such a larger-than-life character that he’s entered my head already, swilling his beer, gulping his pie, sitting up in bed on a dark night, listening, waiting, scared.
- The possum (no name) in “The Third Pile,” an achingly sad character in a short story by Ken Brosky. In my head the possum sniffs the road on a moonless night, searching for its lost child.
These characters occupy only one wing of my mind. They rub elbows with Anna Karenina, Dilsey, Augie March, Shurlock John, Judge Deborah, Jack Reacher, Sarah Berg, the white rabbit, and Dalziel, to name a few.
I could go on and on, but I’d rather read your comments about the characters that live inside of you. Why do some characters hold you captive? What makes them memorable?
Susan Russo Anderson is a writer, a mother, a 
grandmother, a widow, a member of Sisters In Crime. She’s taught language arts and creative writing, worked for a publisher, an airline, an opera company. In between writing, revising, and editing, she blogs and reviews books.
DEATH OF A SERPENT, the first in the Serafina Florio series, published January 2012. She just published NO MORE BROTHERS, a novella, the second in the Serafina Florio series and is working on the third Serafina book, DEATH IN BAGHERIA.
Elizabeth – Thanks for hosting Susan.
Susan – There are indeed characters who haunt one. Those kinds of characters make a story stay with one long after the last page. One character who’s haunted me since I read about her is Catherine O’Flynn’s Kate Meaney, whom we meet in What Was Lost. Such a great story, too…
Um so many well-defined characters live in my mind that sometimes I think they have parties at my expense.
Great post.
Teresa
Jack Reacher, definitely.
Doc Ford, Randy Wayne White’s long-running character, but must particularly in Tampa Burn. Ford’s combination of cerebral, unemotional, passionate, and powerful combined with his sense of justice make him complex and compelling.
Sophina Murray in T.S. Graham’s The Perpetual Rain. She’s struggling with growing up, fiercely loyal, and much stronger than she realizes.
Tris Drayke in Gail Z. Martin’s The Summoner. The reluctant hero who possesses a power that hasn’t been seen in more than a generation proves he’s able to navigate what is right even when the personal costs are high.
Thanks Margot. After reading about What Was Lost, I definitely want to meet Kate Meaney. And I think you’re right, it’s the characters that make a story, at least for me.
You know something, Topher, I really didn’t like Jack Reacher at first but now he’s in my hotel, too—”definitely, no doubt about it.” Sophina is there, too and yes I love the loyalty and what she doesn’t know about herself.
It falls under thriller/horror, but Preston & Child’s Agent Pendergast stays with me. The man is flawed but cool and classy.
Thanks for posting today, Susan!
Let’s see. I feel like I know Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Trixie Belden, and Nancy Drew almost well-enough to write them, myself!
Occasionally I feel like I know fictional characters better than I know real people. :)
Thirty years later, I’m still enthralled with the characters in Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonrider series.
Thanks for the shout-out, Susan! Hope you enjoy more of Gil Hodges, et al.
As far as characters who live in my head, I’d have to say Carol O’Connell’s wonderfully sociopathic detective, Cathy Mallory, tops the list, along with Scarlett O’Hara.
Thanks, Elizabeth, for your warm welcome and to all of you for sharing some of your favorite “guys,” as my grandson would say. He never goes anywhere without his guys—Horton, Velveteen Rabbit, Eeyore, lots more—and I guess we don’t, either.