“If you’e going to call me anything, call me Bank of America, or Capital One, because apparently you think I’m a bank!”—Jon from “Biologicals”, coming soon from Woolaston Entertainment 🙂
Category: characters
Monday Blog: The Boys of Our Lady
Nick
Aidan
Rob
Mike
Jon
We’ve arrived at the final blog post for the month of June. To close out one of this month’s themes, this one is all about the male characters in the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series. I won’t lie: this is my favorite W.E. series, and I’ve sort of been looking forward to this post.
Our Lady follows Amy Edwards and friends as they start a business, a band, and try to keep up with both, while jumping over hurdle after hurdle. What sets this series apart from the others I’ve published so far, are the characters: they are anthropomorphic cats. However, when you’re reading the books in this series, you may find yourself completely ignoring that, and just enjoying the story. Another difference: stream of consciousness. Each chapter is narrated by a different character (think William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying). On the surface, that may sound confusing, but I can assure you it’s not. The chapters are short, and there aren’t that many characters to keep up with. So, let’s get to the boys, shall we? (SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!)
David Sarconi: He and Amy start out as friends, then they become boyfriend and girlfriend, then they get married. And then, it all changes. David tries to be passionate about music, but he just doesn’t seem to be his thing. On top of that, he doesn’t think it should be Amy’s thing, either. He’s also Nick’s cousin, and while the two start out just fine, David changes and begins to distance himself from his cousin.
Nicolas “Nick” Lianetti: Born in Sicily and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Nick is the lead singer and primary song writer for Our Lady of Righteous Rage. Music has been his passion since he was young. His father wasn’t around very much while he was growing up, but it helped shape him into a mature and responsible young man (or cat). He’s very even-tempered; he remains calm in situations that would send any other person into a rage (such as a cheating girlfriend…).
Aidan Sirci: Okay, I’ll just say it: Aidan is my favorite male character in the series. Life knocked him down more times than not, but he just keeps getting up. He’s generally cheerful and in a good mood, cracking jokes and making sarcastic remarks. He’s Nick’s best friend, and Amy’s non-biological big brother. Tall, blond, and green-eyed, most of the band’s female fans tend to gravitate to him, even though he’s deeply in love with his wife, Dee.
Rob Zickye: He’s half Scottish and half German, and the tallest member of the band (six foot five, btw). He’s been in love with Amy since they met in high school, but the two don’t get together until later on. Rob is a self-taught drummer, and can play nearly any song by ear. He’s also my second favorite, and another character who’s father wasn’t in the picture (a common theme in this series). He’s protective of his family, especially his older brother, who happens to be bipolar.
Mike Murnsen: Mike knows his way around audio and recording equipment. He’s been helping his father at his store since he was young, and when Our Lady opens a studio, he helps them produce their first album. Later, he becomes their manager. He’s married to one of the founding members of the Urban Collective, Vanessa. The two of them constantly bounce ideas off one another. Mike is quiet, but he has no problem standing up for himself, or the band.
Jon Sarconi: Amy’s adopted son. He’s actually David’s younger cousin, and the two of them adopted him shortly after they got married. After their divorce, Amy had to fight to get custody of Jon. He idolizes his mother, and wants to be a rock star, just like her. The older he gets, the more assertive he becomes.
Next week is the first week of July, so it will be time for a new theme. I’m considering running 2 again. One of them will be New Fiction: I’m working on three new books, and my mother is working on one, too! If you’re an indie author and you’d like to share what you’re working on, please contact me. I’d love to post some info about you and your work! Until next week…
A Moment Between Mother & Son
I sighed. “Nick wants to start finalizing the tracks for the album, but I wanted to squeeze two more songs on. I just can’t seem to come up with anything worth recording.”
“Don’t push yourself so hard, Jon,” Mom said. “You’ll come up with something; I know you will. You have no idea how extraordinary you are. You may not be able to see it, but I can.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “How?”
Mom smiled at me. “Because you’re my son,” she said, simply. “Because you’re mine. You were mine, even before you entered the world, because the universe declared it.”
This moment brought to you by “Biologicals”, coming soon from Woolaston Entertainment
Monday Blog: The Boys of Valentine & Valentine Apart
When you read the Valentine series, you may be under the impression the female characters are the most important. No offense to any of my male readers, but this is actually true. However, it doesn’t mean the male characters aren’t important, because they are. For one thing, the villain of the story is John Rafferty. It seems most of the problems in both the Valentine series and the Valentine Apart series, can be traced back to him. So, let’s meet the guys, shall we?
Vincent Entienne: He’s just a man, trying to take care of his family. Working for Rafferty is dangerous work, but it pays well. Vincent’s wife leaves him without any warning, and he finds himself alone with a young daughter to raise. He makes a poor decision, which has tragic consequences, which change the course of his and his daughter’s lives forever. But he means well. He only wants what’s best for his daughter Val and his nieces, Veronica and Victoria.
Victor Entienne: You meet him briefly in Her Name is Lola Vencent , but I wanted to mention him here, because he is important to the series. Victor is the younger brother of Vincent, and he’s Veronica and Victoria’s father. Rafferty’s nephew Damien, placed a hit on Victor on Rafferty’s behalf, when he believed Victor was trying to cheat Rafferty by withholding money. His daughters weren’t raised together, because Veronica didn’t learn of Victoria’s existence until much later on. Why Victor kept Victoria a secret, is completely unknown.
Jacob Price: He’s been working for Rafferty since he was a teenager. He used to be Vincent’s partner, until Vincent left the Syndicate (the network of criminals, hitmen, mob bosses, etc). He always seems to have his own agenda when it comes to Val: Rafferty gave him specific instructions regarding Val’s drive to L.A. in the first book, and Jacob ignored his orders. He’s supposed to keep tabs on Val, but he seems to look out for her instead. He knows a lot of people in the Syndicate, and can always find out information.
Allan Avery: A hitman for hire, who freelances. Allan is protective of his little sister Mackenzie, loves Lola Vencent, and enjoys his job. Allan has creative ways to carry-out his hits. When he spends more time around Val and her family, he becomes attached to them, and becomes protective of them as well. He is known as one of the best hitmen in the Syndicate.
Michael Aldus: He’s a liaison to the Syndicate. He arranges meetings, and hires outside contractors, when necessary. He, much like Jacob, seems to have a hidden agenda. He’s like a glorified assistant, but he has aspirations of becoming so much more.
Lorenzo Entienne: Vincent and Victor’s father. He approaches Val and offers to take her to Italy, where the Entienne family is originally from. He comes across as a loving grandfather, but he has plans to put Val and her reputation to use.
John Rafferty: The man at the top of the Syndicate. He doesn’t care who he steps on, destroys or kills in his quest to run the entire Syndicate. He sees Val as his archenemy: she’s the first person to challenge his power, and live to tell the tale. He’s involved in several criminal enterprises, including drugs (there’s a hint to this in the first book, when Val opens a box in Rafferty’s warehouse. He’s interested in having a romantic relationship with Lola Vencent, even though she makes it very clear, it will never happen.
Next week, the boys of Fortune’s Wing, and I’ll tell you all about my trip to Virginia for a reunion with the staff of my high school’s lit-art magazine, Polaris!
Monday Blog: Celebrating Jo Fuentes
This month, Woolaston Entertainment is celebrating two themes: Male Character Month, and Pride Month. I’ve decided to begin with the later. This week’s blog post, is all about Jo Fuentes of the Valentine and Valentine Apart series.
Jo is the first LGBTQ character to be featured in a published Woolaston Entertainment book. She’s also W.E.’s first LGBTQ character to receive a stand-alone book, Jo Fuentes: The Black Queen. When I created Jo, I was thinking of a sort of alter-ego for Valentine. The two of them do share a few characteristics: they’re tall, mouthy, and they don’t take any crap. Jo was never intended to be a soldier of any kind, but I had a dream about the scene in the second chapter of The Black Queen, where Jo takes out eight men in under sixty seconds. I thought, it would be cool to have a female character experience a James Bond moment, but I needed a reason. I decided, making her a Marine, would be the best reason.
Jo is a great character, because she’s a little complicated. She has a frightening set of skills, and she has no idea where she learned them. She’s gay, and proud of it. She values the friendships of the people who matter the most to her, and she’ll do anything for them. She easily makes the transition from Marine to Hitwoman when she begins working for Kelly McCormick. And, she has a wicked sense of humor.
I’m honoring Jo, by making Jo Fuentes: The Black Queen, available for FREE, June 4-June 6. If you’ve never read it, this is a great opportunity to become acquainted with Jo, and the rest of the Valentine Apart/Valentine series.
Jo Fuentes on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Jo-Fuentes-Black-Queen-Valentine-ebook/dp/B078TNHBRF/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528138515&sr=8-1&keywords=jo+fuentes+the+black+queen
Next week: the boys of Valentine and Valentine Apart
Monday Blog: The Ladies of Valentine and Valentine Apart
This week, it’s Valentine’s turn! While there are many female characters in the Valentine and Valentine Apart series, I’m going to focus on the most important characters.
Val Entienne, aka Valentine: The first time you meet her, she starts out as a wild nineteen-year-old girl, who only wants to drive from Chicago to L.A., to save or father. Over the course of the series, she becomes so much more. She becomes a hero, best friend, and a fighter. Val doesn’t take any crap, and certainly will never play the role of “damsel in distress”. She’ll do anything to protect her family, including putting herself in harm’s way.
Veronica Entienne: Val’s cousin, best friend, and the voice of reason, when she needs someone to pull her back. She’s against violence, but slowly learns that sometimes, it’s the only solution. She lost her parents at a young age, and has lived with Val and her father Vincent ever since. Veronica is a caring person, and always stands by Val’s side.
Melinda St. James: She was waiting for a train to Tulsa, when Val saved her from a group of boys who were harassing her. Melinda sees Val as the ultimate hero: she’s brave and unafraid. Melinda is sweet and can be a bit naive at times, but she has a good heart.
Victoria Entienne: She’s the half-sister Veronica never knew existed. Victoria loves her sister, but she idolizes her cousin Val. She has trouble trusting people, and it often takes her a while to open up.
Lola Vencent: She was John Rafferty’s Valkyrie, a hit woman who knows how to handle a gun. Lola has been a member of the Syndicate for years, and she knows it like the back of her hand. She lost her father, Luther Vencent, a prominent NY Attorney, when she was a child, and his death shaped the woman she later became. She and Val start out as enemies, but quickly become very good friends.
Mac Avery: People think she’s a little crazy, but the truth is, she’s just protective of the people she cares about. Mac and her brother Allan are hitmen and members of the Syndicate, but their loyalty is to each other and the people they care about. Mac’s methods of carrying out each hit may seem unorthodox, but she always gets the job done.
Jo Fuentes: Jo is a Marine who survived an explosion that killed all but two members of her unit: herself and Patrick “Sully” Sullivan. When she returns to the United States, a member of the Syndicate reaches out to her in hopes of using her skillset. Jo is tall, sarcastic, but very passionate about the people and things that matter to her. She takes a liking to Val the very first time she meets her.
Kelly McCormick: The highest-ranking woman in the Syndicate. Her father and uncle were members of the Irish mob when she was younger, so she’s no stranger to danger. Jo works for her, and while Kelly may be the only female sitting at the Syndicate’s table of leadership, she has no trouble making her presence known.
The importance of Val Entienne:
You seldom find a female character doing the things Val does in the series. She drives a classic Mustang. She knows how to handle a gun. She’s not afraid to fight someone, even if that someone is a man. I could have easily made Valentine a male character, but let’s face it: it would have been clichéd. I liked the idea of the “badass” in the story, being a young woman instead of a young man.
The importance of Jo Fuentes:
Jo is not the first LGBTQ character I have created, but she is the first to appear in a published W.E. book. She wants to be in a relationship, however, she begins to understand how dangerous her work is, and she doesn’t want to endanger anyone she loves. She’s one of the best hitmen in the Syndicate: she earns the nickname “Black Queen” after being the first to pass a weapons test with a perfect score and record timing. She’s also a Marine: she still reports to a commander on a routine basis. What makes Jo stand out from the rest of the hitmen, is her skillset: she can kill anyone, using anything , from guns and knives, to her bare hands.
Next week: The Ladies of Fortune’s Wing
Preview for “Biologicals”
I recently released my 21st published book, Righteous, which is the fourth book in the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series. This book follows the band on their tour across America, as they go from city to city, state to state, playing shows and meeting new fans…and narrowly avoiding fights with Mick, David, and the rest of the band, Stereotype. When I wrote the final few chapters, I developed an idea for yet another book. This time, I decided to focus on Jon, Amy’s son. During the story in Righteous, Jon’s birth parents contact him, much to his alarm. He doesn’t want anything to do with, but he decides to be diplomatic and try to spend time with them. My next book, Biologicals, will focus on Jon’s attempt to reestablish a relationship with his birth parents, aka his “biologicals”. Here’s a sneak peak from the first chapter:
- The Delivery Room, The Couch, and Onward
“It’s a boy!”
I imagine that’s what the doctor said in the delivery room, on the day I entered the world. I can picture myself, tiny and naked, and silent, until that first smack on the ass, which caused my lungs to open up, giving me the opportunity to take my first breath. I’m sure I must have started crying. Then I guess the doctor or the nurse handed me to my mother, so she could count my fingers and toes, and give me a once-over, just to make sure she hadn’t given birth to some freak show kid.
But, like I said, I can only imagine all of this. I don’t remember any of it, because I was just too young. The memories I do have of my birth parents, aren’t the most pleasant memories I have. To put it frankly, my birth parents—or biologicals, as I prefer to call them—are assholes.
Yep. I just did that. I called my biologicals assholes. That’s what they are. You’re probably wondering why I feel that way. Sure: most teenagers hate their parents. Most of their reasons for hating their parents are completely unfounded: not being allowed to go to parties, drink, stay out past curfew, etc. My reasons for feeling the way I do, are totally legitimate.
When I lived with my biologicals, I didn’t have my own room. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters to compete with; I just didn’t have a room. My room was the living room, and my bed was the couch. I lived with Michael and Leora, my biologicals, in a one bedroom apartment. So, naturally, the one room went to them. This was interesting, especially when they had company. They would quickly clean up the area known as “Jon’s space”, and pretend we were a normal family. Bullshit artists.
They managed to pull this off, until my uncle told them, he was going to take steps to have me taken from them. I was eventually sent to live with my cousin David, and his girlfriend (later, wife) Amy. I had been spending time with David ever since I was two. He would babysit me whenever my biologicals went out (which was often). Amy was the best. She was the only one outside of my family who was allowed to pick me up. When I was really little, David started seeing this girl named Gina, before he and Amy were dating. I hated Gina. She smelled like she had soaked herself in an entire bottle of perfume, and not even a good fragrance. And, she was a bitch. To this day, I have no idea what David saw in her.
But, Amy and David got married, and adopted me. I wasn’t sure of what to call them: Mom and Dad, or Amy and Cousin David. David went out of the country when I was younger, and left me and Amy alone for the first time. I came down with a case of pneumonia. I was a little nervous, but Amy kept it together. She was barely eighteen, and acting just like a mother. She took me to the emergency room, got my medicine, and took care of me. From that day forward, she wasn’t Amy. She was Mom.
But, David, on the other hand, couldn’t handle the whole Dad-thing. Mom can sing and play the guitar, and she and her friends were in a band. David was jealous from the very beginning. He started criticizing Mom and her friends, saying she needed to focus on being a wife and a mother instead of a rock star. But I was watching her juggle both with no problem! At no point did I ever feel like she was neglecting me. I was sad when they got a divorce…I was even sadder when I had to go and live with David. We’re biologically related, so the judge gave him custody of me…asshole. Mom is a fighter, though. She went back to court, and got custody of me. So, I got to go and live with the one person in this world who truly loves me.
Monday Blog: The Ladies of “Our Lady”
Amy
Dee
Nyda
Vanessa
Carmen
Erin
Olivia
Hello! Welcome to the first official blog post of the month of May! To kick off one of the two themes of the month, Female Character Month, I decided to start with the ladies of the Our Lady series. Her we go….
The Ladies of Our Lady of Righteous Rage
While there is a pretty long list of female characters in the Our Lady series, I’m going to focus on the most important ladies, who appear across nearly every book.
Amy Edwards: Amy is the lead character of the series, and she handles most of the narration. She grew up in a single-parent home, with her two brothers and her sister. Raised in Bayside, in New York, Amy falls in love with Punk Rock when she receives a copy Green Day’s Dookie album. From there, she decides to learn to play the guitar. She and her friends start playing, and eventually form a band, Our Lady of Righteous Rage, named after a poem Amy wrote. She’s also a mother: she and ex-husband David Sarconi adopted his cousin Jon when he was little, and despite the divorce Amy and Jon are still extremely close.
Dee Seybrook: Amy’s best friend, and the wife of Our Lady’s bassist, Aidan Sirci. Dee is petite, but she has no problem standing up for herself, and refuses to be pushed around. She’s a singer, and a drummer; she discovers she has a natural talent for drumming and develops it very quickly.
Nyda Summit: Dee’s cousin, and Nick Lianetti’s wife. Nyda is soft-spoken and tall, and an artist. Photography is her passion, and she has even taken pictures of the members of Our Lady for their album covers.
Vanessa Vance: The woman with the plan. Vanessa comes up with the idea of running a business with her friends in high school. She’s the co-founder of the Urban Collective: the store she and her friends created in order to sell their books, music and artwork. Vanessa is ambitious and a handworker, and will do anything to help her business and her friends succeed.
Carmen Portez: Carmen went to school with Amy, Dee and Vanessa. She’s a talented painter, and she began selling her artwork while she was still in high school. She eventually opened her very own art studio, Portez Art Studio, where she shows her artwork, and the work of other local artists.
Erin Michaels: Erin goes from quiet girl who likes to read, to a Punk Rock/Emo chick with a passion for music. She meets the band, and begins to work for them, after a tragic experience with her family brings her and her mother to New York. She later becomes the band’s social media expert. She’s particularly fond of Amy, and thinks of her as a big sister.
Olivia Midkiff: One of Jon’s friends and a really talented drummer. Olivia is upbeat and generally in a good mood. When Dee takes her under her wing, the two form a big sister-little sister relationship. Olivia is sometimes unsure of herself, but she’s learning to be more confident.
I created all of these characters years before I wrote this series. I used bits and pieces of my personality, and my mother’s personality, when I developed them for the Our Lady series. There’s a lot of Mom in Dee and Nyda (especially Dee). Amy and Erin represent my punk rock side. One of the reasons Our Lady is written using stream of consciousness, is because I wanted to give watch character an opportunity to grow and change. You meet Amy, Dee, Nyda, Vanessa and Erin, as teens, and you get to watch them “grow up”, so to speak. And, it was important to have a female character in the lead role. Amy’s talents as a guitarist, song writer, and artist, reflect my personal belief that girls can do anything. She’s a challenge to the status quo.
If you haven’t read Our Lady of Righteous Rage, I hope you decided to pick it up and see what its all about. I think you’ll enjoy it.
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