I had an old character start talking to me out of the blue yesterday. I can guess what brought him back in so strongly--I've been thinking a lot about this world recently. Maybe it's because I'm trying to put Troll's story (The Troll Bridge) out in e-format, but whatever the reason, Flare is hanging around now.
Flare was a secondary character in Eternal Nights. He's the hero's (Wyatt Montgomery) second-in-command, the chief warrant officer of the Spec Ops team. I had a story arc for him, Gravedigger, and Z-Man all worked out after finishing EN, but I never finished the proposal.
To explain how thinking about Troll could bring Flare in, Wyatt's Spec Ops team has Flare, Gravedigger, Z-Man, Troll and two other members who haven't told me anything about themselves yet. The guys are good friends and Flare kind of feels like they're all kid brothers and looks out for them.
When Wyatt was missing, he worried about him something fierce (the whole team did). He worries about Digger being involved with Nadia. Everyone on the team thinks she's going to hurt him. (Nadia is Digger's heroine, so no, she won't, not ultimately.) He worries about Troll getting himself in hot water with all his women. (Troll's story is written and happens 8 years after EN, so he hasn't reformed yet in the timeframe Flare is showing me.)
If you think California surfer dude and visualize a blond man with sun-bleached hair, you'll have a good idea what Flare looks like. Hey, Flare was a surfer dude before he joined the army. His full name is Francisco Cantore, but he picked up his nickname as a teenager and has gone by it rather than his real name since then. (Flare is a surfing term, and if I could remember the definition, I'd share it, but that was five years ago when I was writing Wyatt and Kendall's story.)
His heroine is his ex-wife, Sasha. Some of the stuff that (I think) got cut on revisions for EN had Wyatt thinking about how Flare is still in love with his ex. Sasha is a civilian psychologist who specializes in helping military members and their families. She's sent as a contract employee to J9 because the army is concerned about the mental health of the men and women stationed for extended periods of time light years away from Earth. (It's a kinder, gentler kind of military in my future world. ;-)
I'm torn right now. I really don't have time to work with Flare, not with other projects I'm either writing or want to write, but on the other hand, I love him. I've loved him since I met him in EN. He's been quiet today, so maybe yesterday was just one of those things. We'll see.
