Clare
asked
Harry Bingham:
After reading Talking to the Dead, which I found really lovely and startling, I wondered how someone could craft so polarizing yet compelling a character that even prim young Catholics like myself found her irresistible. I normally take a secret pleasure in heroines who resemble make-believe-heroine-me, but Fi is quite different from that. I guess my question is, what did you focus on most when crafting Fi?
Harry Bingham
Wow! Good question . . . but I'm not sure if I have a great answer. Here are some of the things I've thought about a lot:
POWER: I wanted a heroine who was petite, junior, young, female and a member of a smallish regional police force. I wanted a person of no consequence. But I wanted her to have inner resources of will and determination that would make her, in truth, a woman of extraordinary power.
HUMOUR: Fi is a very dark character - that morgue scene (you know which one I mean) is as black as it gets, in a way. But I needed to make sure that there was something bright and upbeat in Fi as well. Her humour (*) is a big part of making her attractive and engaging, I think. (* - not a typo, just British.)
FAMILY & FRIENDS: Likewise, a lot of maverick cops in fiction are boozy, older men with dysfunctional relationships. I wanted the opposite. Someone who was mentally challenged in herself, but who did everything she could to foster a warm, supportive body of friends & family.
SURPRISE: One of the GREAT things about writing Fi, and I hope one of the pleasures of reading her, is that you never really know what she'll do / say / think next. When she does it, it's very often something very surprising . . . but also something that makes you think, "Oh yes, that's Fi through and through."
VULNERABILITY: I also wanted the reader to connect with Fi in an almost protective way. I want to show someone who is genuinely a very vulnerable person . . . so the reader wants to protect and shelter her . . . but who then astonishes us by entering places of great danger AND achieving whatever it is she set out to do.
I hope that all explains part of what's going on in my head - but I could write heaps on these subjects! Oh, and I will say this: that I'm putting the finishing touches to book number 5 in the series which will be a very interesting one for any prim young Catholic women with an interest in Ms Griffiths. No spoilers, but I hope your medieval theology is up to snuff . . .
POWER: I wanted a heroine who was petite, junior, young, female and a member of a smallish regional police force. I wanted a person of no consequence. But I wanted her to have inner resources of will and determination that would make her, in truth, a woman of extraordinary power.
HUMOUR: Fi is a very dark character - that morgue scene (you know which one I mean) is as black as it gets, in a way. But I needed to make sure that there was something bright and upbeat in Fi as well. Her humour (*) is a big part of making her attractive and engaging, I think. (* - not a typo, just British.)
FAMILY & FRIENDS: Likewise, a lot of maverick cops in fiction are boozy, older men with dysfunctional relationships. I wanted the opposite. Someone who was mentally challenged in herself, but who did everything she could to foster a warm, supportive body of friends & family.
SURPRISE: One of the GREAT things about writing Fi, and I hope one of the pleasures of reading her, is that you never really know what she'll do / say / think next. When she does it, it's very often something very surprising . . . but also something that makes you think, "Oh yes, that's Fi through and through."
VULNERABILITY: I also wanted the reader to connect with Fi in an almost protective way. I want to show someone who is genuinely a very vulnerable person . . . so the reader wants to protect and shelter her . . . but who then astonishes us by entering places of great danger AND achieving whatever it is she set out to do.
I hope that all explains part of what's going on in my head - but I could write heaps on these subjects! Oh, and I will say this: that I'm putting the finishing touches to book number 5 in the series which will be a very interesting one for any prim young Catholic women with an interest in Ms Griffiths. No spoilers, but I hope your medieval theology is up to snuff . . .
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