Fellow writer and blogger Dave Farmer recently posted a summary of a character from his up-coming novel The Range. Dave kindly invited me to continue the theme, so I’m going to use this as an opportunity to introduce you all to a character from my next book, the project I’m working on now Vessel is complete. Here are the questions:
1. What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?
Meet Jake Brooks, a fictional character from my next as yet untitled novel.
2. When and where is the story set?
Future Earth is all you need to know. Oil is a distant memory and space travel is nothing special. Planexus leads the way in interplanetary mining, and the company has begun to set its sights on the possibility of inhabiting a new planet.
3. What should we know about him/her?
Jake Brooks is an ordinary man. He has a degree, a good job that pays well, and enjoys passing the time playing video games. And he has a lot of time to pass, because 99% of his employed life is spent travelling. Jake is an interplanetary geologist, and his job takes him to faraway places in search of valuable natural resources. It isn’t an exciting job, but it gets him by comfortably.
4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
Being an inter-planetary geologist isn’t considered a particularly demanding role, however the requirements for long-distance travel are strict. Several shorter missions are necessitated before an astronaut’s license is rated for deep space, so when a fellow geologist is replaced last minute by a young man, Byron Ash, who claims not to have a license at all, Jake has due cause for concern. As the time passes and the mission ticks on, Byron begins to show his darker side. On board a small craft of ten crew, it’s going to be tricky to stay focussed and keep calm.
5. What is the personal goal of the character?
Jake, like most people, wants a simple, quiet life. With the addition of Byron to the crew, that isn’t going to get any easier, but nevertheless it’s a goal that remains the same. The problem is, the rest of the crew start to have different ideas on how to achieve it.
6. Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
The book is as yet untitled, but I will soon be posting a chapter per week right here on andrewjamesmorgan.com as soon as Vessel is published on August the 1st.
7. When can we expect the book to be published?
Once all the chapters are up, the book will be formally edited ready for pitch and publication. Hopefully that will be before the end of the year.
Work in Progress 
Jake sounds very interesting indeed! Definitely interested in hearing more!
I can tell you that he’s in for a bit of rough time! Keep an eye out for him after Vessel is released.
Looking forward to Vessel, but also this one, sounds like a great platform for some quality interplay between characters.
Thanks. That’s the idea! Hopefully the scenario will help me learn how to write good characters as I can’t lean on anything else.