ICOS Character Inspirations

Over the years I kept watch for any characters who might make good representations for aspects of ICoS characters. Of course, I often would identify someone and then later forget who it was. Luckily, eventually I got smart and kept a list. I already did a post on Baby Boyd. This is a collection of videos and pics of the other characters who caught my eye as good representation. Keep in mind: the characters don’t necessarily look like the people I have marked as representative of them. More often, it’s the way they act or other aspects that put them on this list. ****VIVIENNE BEAULIEU**** Jenny Shepard, NCIS The best– and honestly, only– character I have seen who represents any part of Vivienne is Jenny Shepard from NCIS. Jenny is a woman in charge of their agency, and while attractive she can also be cold. I like the way she has a poker face so often. At times she is kind of mean, but mostly she is certain she knows what is best. She also deals with a lot of the same things Vivienne does, like being a woman in charge in a male-dominated field and sometimes being looked upon harshly for that. I imagine a version of Jenny that is a bit less emotive in her intonations, and not quite as nice. Or rather, I think Vivienne’s guards are far more entrenched than Jenny’s ever were, but Jenny still makes a good representation. I wanted to find clips of her interacting with other characters but mostly only found music videos of her, and a single clip I’ve included...

Q&A: Titles

Over the years, we’ve been asked a couple of times about how we came up with the titles for the series/what meaning they have. On April 8, 2012, Chaos asked on our forum and I wrote the answer below. There are possible semi-spoilers for the series in the answers, mostly in the themes. Q: Question from Chaos: I’ve been wanting to ask about the story titles for a while now. I’ve wondered about the meanings behind them, especially of the series name In the Company of Shadows and Evenfall. I can see the meaning behind Afterimage and Fade, or at least some of it. With what Sin goes through in book two and the early information we find out in book three, some of it is obvious while maybe some other meanings may be more elusive. I finally decided to look up the word “shadow” and garnered many results, some of which I hadn’t thought of. 1. darkened shape of something in light: a darkened shape on a surface that falls behind somebody or something blocking the light 2. darkness: relative darkness in a place that is being screened or blocked off from direct sunlight Part of the room was in shadow. 3. hint of something: a slight suggestion or hint of something 4. ominous gloom: a depressing or ominous gloom 5. threat: an ever-present threat or blight 6. dark area under eyes: a darkened area of skin under the eyes usually caused by fatigue 7. overshadowed state: a state in which somebody is always overshadowed by another person 8. somebody always following after another: somebody who constantly follows another person around wanting to be with the other person 9. person secretly trailing...

What Might Have Been: An O’Connell Agency reunion

Over the years of writing In the Company of Shadows, we learned to be very fluid with our plot. There were some things we planned to do but when it came to that time in the story it just didn’t work anymore. Other times, we pushed a scene forward or back, or had to remove it altogether. Some plots were nixed, some were expanded. Some characters were supposed to reappear but the story was too compact to fit them. And more than once, I wrote multiple versions of the same scene well in advance of something I knew was coming, and by the time it appeared that scene changed dramatically. Any post labeled What Might Have Been or WMHB is a sneak peek into what was planned but didn’t end up happening. For the first post: Caoilfhionn O’Connell, aka, Keelin My favorite model inspiration for her so far is Anna Lutoskin from storm models. Keelin is Owen’s younger sister. She shows up in his side story -somnia, but that wasn’t supposed to be her only appearance. Keelin was going to end up working at the Agency. Most likely, she was going to become a civilian. There was also talk of her first appearing in the main series by meeting Hsin on a bus, probably in Afterimage. One of the things that would have been interesting about her was how it would have not only shown a civilian’s adjustment to the Agency, but also how it would have affected Owen to have his little sister so close. And how she would have dealt with the same secrecy and lies already...

Inspiration pics: Baby Boyd

This is the character Henry from the TV show Criminal Minds. Henry is played by Mekhai Andersen. From the moment I first saw him, he made me think of what Boyd would have looked like as a kid (except Boyd’s eyes are lighter). The way he acts in some of his scenes also seems Boyd-like to me. More than once I thought, “Aww, it’s okay baby Boyd!” This kid is seriously too cute for words, so have some animated gifs instead: Rock on, baby...