Character Inspiration: Luca

It’s not often that I can point to something specific and say, “This thing inspired this character.” But Luca, the love interest in my upcoming Missing Heir trilogy, is one of the few times where something I encountered sparked the idea for a very particular kind of character I wanted to write.  

Inspiration

Years ago, I read the adorable middle grade trilogy The Blackwell Pages. It’s a story about the descendants of the Norse gods and the roles they must play in the upcoming Ragnarok, the prophesied end of the world. It’s got kind of a Percy Jackson vibe, except with more of a family element to it (found family, adopted family, extended family, etc.) and is so fun. 

One of the characters I adored in this trilogy was Odin’s stand in for Ragnarok, who had Odin’s ability to see the future. He’s only a teen (as all the main characters are), and he struggles to make sense of what’s already happened from his visions and what has yet to happen. And he is a sweetheart.   

Since the story is middle grade, romance isn’t emphasized in the trilogy, but after reading about this character, I loved the idea of a love interest who struggled to keep track of where he was at in his relationship with the woman he’s in love with because of having visions of the future and knowing how close he and the woman he loved would be – eventually. So, the idea of Luca the seer was born and put inside a Word document for a story idea it’s taken me many years to finally get to. (So thank goodness for the world of the enchanted races, where I was finally able to give this story a home!) 

Luca, with his struggles to keep track of where reality is at in relation to all his visions, was a lot of fun to write. And at times writing him gave me call backs to writing Garan from my Genie Whisperer series, who also struggled to keep track of the world around him for several books. Though Garan’s problem was more that he lived inside his own mind most of the time rather than his mind being stuck half in the future, like with Luca. 

I hope that readers will enjoy Luca and his struggles with picking out just where the heck he’s at in his relationship with Arabella at any given point! 

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