Joshua Bader's Blog: How I Learned to Love the Bomb - Posts Tagged "freebook"

This is part 3 of my series on characters and the actual people in my life that inspired them. I've avoided adding family to the list. They have shrinks for that, not poor unsuspecting faithful readers. But I've got one who didn't start out as blood, but definitely belongs on the list.
I was at home on Christmas leave from my station at the Naval Nuclear Power Command. There was a girl I was seeing in South Carolina who for a variety of reasons didn't want anyone to know she was seeing me. New Years Eve I called out to talk to her. She promptly handed over the phone to her best friend, Jennifer, to distract the room from the fact that I called her. (This was in the day when cell phones were the size of small elephants and people had enough courtesy to let other people in the room know who they were talking to.) Jennifer and I had never even met before... but the conversation was interesting enough, I was determined to meet her once leave was over. I even wrote her into a story I was working on that very night.
If I had to pick one characteristic to summarize her, it would be charming. From watching her all these years, she is someone people genuinely want to like. I've seen people manipulate to that end... hers is simply a result of innocent beauty of the soul. She is as endearing in a flannel shirt and jeans as she is in formal dress. (The 90s were weird. Everybody wore flannel. She looked good in it.)
She has always worked well with children and jobs that surround her with children. I think it's because they know, just by looking at her that she is a good person. Her charm wins them over from the first smile.
She is not a simple creature. She has a darkness of her own. Her temper can be a thing to behold, particularly when playing video games where we remark that her usual strategy is "Jennifer smash". Her sense of humor can be... twisted.
She has been a supporting cast of any number of my books and stories, most recently with providing inspiration for Agent Andrea Devereaux in Frostbite and Two Wizard Roulette. In real life, I did my best to surround her with children of our own.
As a reminder, you can comment on this blog post for a chance to win an autographed copy of Frostbite. (And two others out of the archives: Characters and Sympathy for the Devil.)