Who the Heck is Dave?

How do you know who your main character should be? It sounds like question with an obvious answer, right?

In most cases, the main character should be the most interesting. That is who the story should be about. But my latest book breaks those rules.

Meet Dave. An ordinary guy. Middle-aged, overweight, taller than average. Not especially wealthy, and is employed by a charity organisation that helps people off the streets and into employment.

By all accounts, Dave isn’t very interesting. Perhaps not the kind of man you want to read about. Especially when this story contains three genetically modified humans, an assassin, a wealthy billionaire couple, a lab that is doing heinous things to women, and a vigilante organisation who will stop at nothing for justice. Surely any of those would be more interesting, right?

So why Dave?

Well, if you’ve read my other stories, you will already have a good idea of what the genetically modified humans are like. They are all very similar in the early days of freedom, and while I get compliments almost daily on what a fantastic and unique character Edel from the Almost Human series is, I highly doubt anyone wants a carbon copy of her as the protagonist in the series spin-off.

I could have written about the fantastic lives of Natalia and Richard Rice, the extremely wealthy power couple who are manoeuvring themselves into becoming leaders of their local branch of a vigilante terrorist organisation that wants to overthrow the government… or I could have written about Leon and his seedy, grubby life maiming and torturing people in his endless pursuit for justice, or perhaps I could have written about Dr Jefferies, the brains behind a giant illegal scheme that a local laboratory is involved with. But there’s just something about Dave.

I’m a sucker for an underdog. And I love a nice guy.

Poor Dave just wants to help people. But his life quickly spins out of control when he finds himself living with three non-humans who don’t know how to behave. Then when his boss convinces him to take a job in a lab so he can pass information to a group of vigilantes, every area of his life suddenly feels foreign to him.

Dave struggles under such unusual pressures, but he still cares, and he still keeps showing up for the people he is meant to protect. He’s a good, kind, and courageous man, and I thought his story was worth telling.

Look out for my new book, Right to Life, coming soon.