Meet the Crew

I think that one of the things I enjoy most about Vampirates – and hopefully readers do too – is the cast of characters. I know from letters, e-mails and visits to schools, libraries and literary festivals that everyone has their own favourite. There are so many characters in the books that I now keep a handy WHO’S WHO by my side to ensure I keep track of them all. This has proved really useful – in the new book, Black Heart, there are over 60 named characters!

I love creating new characters, like Lady Lola Lockwood – the Vampirate Highwaywoman you’ll meet in Black Heart – but I also really enjoy bringing out new dimensions of the existing characters and having different combinations of characters engage with each other. One of my favourite scenes in Black Heart is when Cheng Li finally meets… actually no, I don’t want to spoil the surprise!

When creating a new character, I’ll do whatever research I can to get a feel for them. This is one of the most enjoyable parts of the job. When creating Johnny Desperado, I read fascinating stuff about real-life vaqueros, some of it very sad and moving. I incorporated this into Johnny’s back story and “crossing story”. When I was developing Lady Lockwood, I of course had to watch The Wicked Lady on DVD. Great fun!
In many cases, I know more background on the characters than I can reveal in the book I’m working on, but it all helps me to depict them as fully-rounded individuals. Besides, it’s always good to have a few secrets up your sleeve to reveal as the story unfolds!

So let me introduce you to some of the key players in the story and give you the lowdown on how they each came about…