Guest Post: Masks - A portrait of Lea Huckley
Thank you for hosting me on your blog today. I’m very excited about
SCHISM being released into the world, and I’d like to talk a little about one
of the main characters, Lea Huckley. Though Lea is introduced as a secondary
character, she’s a co-protagonist alongside Gabe. As the story progresses, she
becomes more and more important.
Lea is exceptionally fun to write. She’s driven, overtly “Type A,” and
quite analytical. She’s also got her own host of issues. Because her parents
were falsely incarcerated in a mental institution from the time she turned
eight, Lea struggles with others’ perceptions of her. She wears a “mask” over
her emotions and acts how she wants other people to see her.
Essentially, Lea pretends to be eccentric and a little crazy, so if
people say she’s crazy, they do so because she made them. Otherwise, they’d
judge her for where her parents are, and she can separate their predicament
from her own identity. Wearing this mask takes its toll, and she begins to lose
sight of her real emotions. She doesn’t allow herself to feel freely. Worse
than that, it blunts her ability to connect with people as well. Since she’s
constantly creating a false representation, she assumes everyone else is free
to do the same. How can you possibly know what someone else is feeling or
thinking? She’s a terrible judge of what’s going on in someone’s head. She’d
much rather be solving a concrete problem, something she can test or
experiment.
Through the story, Lea obviously deals with these issues and becomes more
of her true self. She opens up and allows herself to be vulnerable. Gabe certainly plays a major role in her
transformation. I hope everyone enjoys reading about her as much as I had fun
writing her. You can find
me on the internet in the following places:
Author page:
www.lauramaisano.blogspot.com
Twitter:
@MaisanoLaura
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LauraMaisanoWriter
Google + http://plus.google.com/+LauraMaisano
SCHISM (Illirin Book One)
By Laura Maisano
Art therapy hasn’t done squat for Gabe
Jones. A thousand sketches of his fiancée can’t bring his memory, or her, back
to him. Nothing on Earth can. His past lies in another dimension, a world just
out of sight.
Another
student on campus, Lea Huckley, unknowingly shares Gabe’s obsession with the
fourth dimension. The monsters from the other side attacked her parents and
fled, getting her folks locked up in the loony bin. Proving this other world
exists is the only way to free them. Lea and Gabe strike a deal to help each
other, and together they manage to open a door to the world of Gabe’s true
origin. She’d use him for proof—if she didn’t already care too much.
While Gabe tries to reconcile his feelings for
Lea and his rediscovered memories of his fiancée, a much more sinister plot
unravels. He uncovers his history just in time to become the unwilling lynchpin
in a conspiracy to start a war. His memory holds the secret to the final riddle
the would-be conqueror needs to get the upper hand. Gabe must protect the
riddle at all costs, even if that means leaving Earth, and Lea, behind forever.
Lea
packed light. Other than her phone’s GPS and a flashlight, she kept a small
notepad, her lucky pencil, and the thermometer in her cargo pocket. She didn’t
need to find data, now she needed proof.
She led
the way down the alley where skyscrapers blocked the glowing moon and the lamps
from the highway. Yellowed fixtures above each back entrance threw faint cones
of light onto the cement, like holes in Swiss cheese.
Lea
checked the coordinates on her phone while she walked, and the little red arrow
crept closer to the flag icon she placed to mark the interaction point.
Gabe
spent his time surveying the area for anything that might be a danger. He kept
fidgeting behind her and turning around every few seconds, a twitchy meerkat on
patrol.
“We’re
only between buildings. It’s not the end of the world.” Lea checked her phone
again to make sure they were headed in the right direction.
He
glanced over his shoulder. “I still don’t like it. It’s night, people do get
mugged, you know.”
“The
statistics of that are so low. We’re really not in any danger, considering the
population and how many times that sorta thing happens.”
He
shifted uneasily behind her. “Whatever, we’re raising the chances by being out
here at night.”
Lea
rolled her eyes. “I’m not missing this opportunity.”
“I know
that. Neither am I.”
“Good.”
They
came to a cross section behind two major offices where the loading docks and
dumpsters sat for both of them. A stream of water trickled down the concave
cement into the large sewer grate. Old garbage left a fume hanging around, and
the humidity only made it worse.
Lea
double- and triple-checked her coordinates, cross-checking with her notes.
“This is it. Within I’d say, a fifteen foot diameter, low to the ground.” She
shoved the phone in her cargo pocket. “Perfect.”
“How
long?”
“Roughly
ten minutes.”
Ten
minutes may as well have been six hours. She paced back and forth, her sneakers
scuffing the gritty pavement.
Gabe
continued to keep a watchful eye out for muggers or vagrants. What a dork.
She
snickered quietly. For someone who didn’t know his own experiences, he sure
seemed paranoid. She watched him standing straight, darting his eyes to the
entrance and even up to the windows above them. Watch out bad guys, Gabe’s on
to you. She smiled and turned to see what looked like heat waves rising from
the cold cement. Crap. The interaction had already started.
“Gabe…”
She waved him over next to the loading dock.
This
interaction provided no shining lights or obvious movement. Not much stood out
visually, except maybe the air glistening like summer heat waves if she
squinted hard enough, but her digital thermometer found the coldest point.
“Here,”
she whispered, not wanting anyone or anything on the other side to hear. She
stretched her arms forward, and Gabe did likewise.
“On the
count of three.” She waited for him to nod. “One…two…three.”
They both reached through the interaction point and grabbed at
the thicker air. Nothing. They tried again, pulling, grasping, and making any
sort of motion to trigger a rip. Finally, Gabe leaned in and pulled out at just
the right angle, because the light tore across like a jagged line. Lea grabbed
the edge of it and tugged, opening the tear wider until they both fell through.
About the Author
Laura has an MA in
Technical writing and is a Senior Editor at Anaiah Press for their YA/NA
Christian Fiction. She’s
excited to release her debut YA Urban Fantasy SCHISM, and she’s finishing up
the sequel UNITY.
Her
gamer husband and amazing daughter give support and inspiration every day.
Their cats, Talyn and Moya, provide entertainment through living room battles
and phantom-dust-mote hunting. Somehow, they all manage to survive living in
Texas where it is hotter than any human being should have to endure. Check out her blog at
LauraMaisano.blogspot.com.
Website:
http://www.LauraMaisano.Blogspot.com
Twitter: @MaisanoLaura
Google
+ https://plus.google.com/+LauraMaisano
Thank you for hosting me! You have a lovely blog :-)
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