Fun Facts About
The Adventures of Silver Dove
- The Crow’s mask was based off of the masks worn by doctors during the plague.
- Silver Dove’s armor was based off of the armor of Trojan warriors. I got this inspiration since I started writing these books while working on my masters degree at Troy University, home of the Trojans.
- Each book is designed to focus on a different reason for why someone is being bullied.
- Each book, from start to finish, takes on average around three months for me to write. Unless of course there is something big going on in my life.
- Colomba’s last name, Carter, is a reference to Lynda Carter. She was the actress who played Wonder Woman in the Wonder Woman television series from the 70s and was also Miss World USA in 1972 and finished in the top 15 for Miss World in 1972. She was also an inspiration for Colomba’s personality and appearance.
- The way Shadow speaks is designed to sound like a therapist. Since she is supposed to act as a guide, being like a therapist would be part of her job.
- Colomba was originally going to have her own guide like Shadow, but I decided instead to have her grandmother take over that position as her guide.
- The name of the town, Drew’s Hollow, is a reference to two things. Nancy Drew, which I read several of the books of to learn how to write for younger people, and Sleepy Hollow, which is one of my favorite short stories.
- I have two main bullies within this series, Alex and Angela. I wanted to have two bullies of both genders since each gender has a different way they typically bully.
- Alex is based off a bully I had in my freshman year of high school.
- Angela is based off several bullies I had in school over many years.
- I got the idea for writing this series while babysitting, watching a French show called Miraculous Ladybug.
- I wanted to make this series about bullying because everyone wants to end bullying, but nobody really knows how.
- Several of the bullied kids in the series were named by Jean Buffkin as a prize for a contest I held when I released my final book in the Death’s Assistant series. The characters she named were Jade Elizabeth, Cheyanne, and Kal.
- Jean Buffkin has been a long-time reader of mine, and she is how I met my new cover artist, Cheyanne Buffkin, her daughter.
- Cheyanne started doing my cover art while still in middle school. A very talented young lady.
- My original cover artist, Suji Gallianetti, drew the first two covers and helped design the characters.
- Ms. Gallianetti developed her artistic talents in a previous career as a fashion designer.
- I met Ms. Gallianetti in my master’s program at Troy University. She had to stop for personal reasons.
- My current artist, Cheyanne, draws the main characters within the scene while her mother and grandfather help with the background.
- Even though we have been communicating for years, and we have been working together, as of this moment I have never met Cheyanne or Jean Buffkin face to face. The miracle of modern technology.
- A- Streamer is a completely made up social media site, so nobody sue me. I felt it needed to be included considering how rampant cyber bullying has become.
- I was bullied constantly as a child. The mindset Luis has about the world and people in general is based on how I thought then.
- I now have a much happier life with true friends so the positive mindset that Colomba has is the mindset I have now.
- Silver Dove and the Crow are supposed to be symbolic of an angel and a demon.
- The dove and crow were decided for the characters since a dove has been a symbol of peace for centuries while the crow is symbolic of something bad to come.
- Cheyanne named the character Shay.
Fun Facts About Death’s Assistant
Part #1- Setting
1. The town that the pack lives in is never named, that was done on purpose. It’s supposed to symbolize that this could happen anywhere, that these issues could happen anywhere. And I also just didn’t want to name a real town and have to be exact on where things are and if certain places are actually in that town. Being factual can be irritating sometimes.
2. Even though the town isn’t named, the places and events in the story are actually based off my old hometown of Winchester, KY.
3. Winchester is a very small town with a lot of problems. There is a huge drug problem and alcoholism and prostitution is quite common.
4. Winchester was once said to be in the top 10 most dangerous towns to live in KY, they’re getting better though… hopefully.
5. The old hospital where the pack hangs out is based on a hospital in Winchester that was torn down but had previously been abandoned for about a year.
6. I chose an abandoned hospital as the hangout spot for the pack since Alba’s codename is Azrael, or the Angel of Death. Where else would the Angel of Death hang out?
7. The high school the pack goes to is based off of George Rogers Clark High in Winchester. The original building has now been converted into a middle school.
8. The high school has also been left unnamed for the same reason as the town.
Part #2- The Cover
9. The cover photo was done by Shelby Barnes, a young, up-and-coming photographer who was in high school during the time the photo was taken.
10. Shelby and I decided to team up to take the photo while I was modeling for a wedding photo-shoot for Hollyrood, a historical building in Winchester, KY. Yep, I have modeled multiple times, I’ve lead an interesting life.
11. The dead white roses symbolize purity being killed by the evil of the world.
12. I was actually given the rose in the picture by my church, they were supposed to be given out to all the mothers in the church on Mother’s Day but my mother gave hers to me and the idea for the cover was born.
13. The first cover photo was taken by kneeling on the sidewalk right next to the Hollyrood.
Part #3- The Plot
14. This mainly focuses on drugs since I believe that drugs are one of the worst things a person can willingly do to themselves yet more people get addicted every day.
15. Out of those people who have finished the book so far, several of them have asked me, why does this book have to be so dark? Answer- it’s a book about drugs, child abuse, bullying, and evil in the world. Why wouldn’t it be dark?
16. I’ve also been asked why the main villain doesn’t come into the story until around the second half. Answer- he’s not really that important, the point of the story is the pack, not the villain and the struggle he creates.
Part #4- The Pack
17. I chose the term pack to describe the group of shape-shifters since that is the fiercest sounding term that describes a group of animals, and calling them a flock would just be weird.
18. The pack organizes themselves in a wolf pack way, having an Alpha and Omega, but I barely use the other Greek letters as ranking since I get them confused. One of the many reasons I could never join a sorority.
19. The old pack in the forest symbolizes some of the many aspects of humanity that I despise the most; this includes ignorance, greed, and sexism. Mainly sexism though.
20. The old pack’s original language I made up completely. I have made up elements of their language, which will be seen in later novels, but I have thought a few things through. For example, having –can at the end of a word means that the prefix of the word shows the physical station of the person (Lycan- a being whose physical form is a shape-shifter, Rican- a being whose physical form is completely human, Socan- a being whose physical form was changed from a human into a shape-shifter(Alba’s pack)).
21. I decided to have most of Alba’s pack leave since it would have been hard to keep track of all of them, I only kept Night and Day because it would have been too few people without them, even though they are still in the story they aren’t mentioned very much. Plus, having a smaller pack makes everything more intimate.
22. In this story the pack members are all bullied at school and each of the main pack members, besides Jake, Night, and Day, represent one of the main reasons why kids are bullied at school.
23. Each pack member has their own fighting style based off what animal they transform into.
Part #5- Alba
24. Among the reasons kids are bullied, Alba represents people with anti-social personalities.
25. Alba’s fighting style is based on Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, Kuntao, and Pressure Point Grappling. This works for her since, although snow leopards are very strong, they are very small. These different martial arts focus on using other people’s weaknesses against them.
26. Alba’s last name, Destephono, is actually my great-grandmother’s maiden name on my father’s side.
27. Alba’s appearance can either be seen as an extreme of a characteristic that is considered beautiful or the exact opposite of a “beautiful characteristic”. For example, it is considered attractive for a woman to have very light colored hair, especially blonde, so I made Alba’s hair white.
28. Alba was originally going to be a black panther but I decided on a snow leopard instead. I still wanted to use a black panther so the idea of Panther in Midnight was born.
29. I wanted Alba to look the exact opposite of what people would expect from her based on her appearance because I have the same struggle in my life and I could understand that problem. So I gave her an almost angelic appearance with her white hair, blue eyes, and tiny body.
30. I decided on a snow leopard for her character since it does add to the angelic appearance but it is also symbolic of her character. I can sum it up in the phrase “tiny yet mighty”.
31. Alba’s home life is mainly based off the home lives from people I met in high school.
Part #6- Jake
32. In the beginning I actually contemplated naming Jake Thomas. That didn’t last long.
33. I based Jake in the beginning of the book off of a bully I had in my high school freshman science class. I punched him in the throat… No guilt.
34. Since I had that bully in my science class, that is the only class that Jake and Alba share in the first book.
35. I wanted Jake to be the popular bully in the beginning to add extra tension between him and the pack but to also go against the teen story cliché. The protagonist in a story with teens is usually trying to be with the popular group but with Jake it’s the exact opposite.
36. I made Jake Asian since I have found that the Asian population is under represented in American literature and cinema (except martial arts movies).
37. When Jake becomes a shape-shifter, his fighting style is based on Judo and Tae Kwon Do
Part #7- Scott
38. Among the reasons people are bullied, Scott represents those who lack social skills.
39. Scott’s fighting style is mainly based on Judo since grizzlies move very low to the ground and they depend on their good footing and strength in battle. Judo is similar since its grappling mainly focuses on the ground level.
40. Scott was mainly created to be an antagonist and a romantic rival with Jake.
41. I made Scott a grizzly since I wanted to make Scott’s character an overly muscled, lumbering moron and a grizzly bear kinda fits that description. That sounds really mean to bears, but it is true.
42. Later on in the story you find out that Scott was actually a weakling before he became a shape-shifter, this gives him the added awkwardness of a guy who doesn’t understand his own strength but adds to the menace of a guy who was weak but is given sudden super strength. Bad idea.
Part #8- Amanda
43. Among the reasons kids are bullied, Amanda represents the shy kids.
44. Amanda’s fighting style is mainly based on Tae Kwon Do since she transforms into a bird which would make those high kicks pretty easy.
Part #9- Sam
45. Among the reasons kids are bullied, Sam represents those of a sexual minority as well as racial minority.
46. Sam’s fighting style is a mixture of boxing and Tae Kwon Do.
47. Sam’s original full name was going to be Samuel Jackson… I swear that was a mistake. I was writing the part where the pack was introducing themselves to Jake and I couldn’t think of a last name for him and I was listening to a Michael Jackson song at the time so I just chose that for him. It wasn’t until a friend of mine was reading the story and burst out laughing that I saw my mistake. Instead, I gave him the last name Chilton, named after a group of thesauruses that I saw nearby.
48. Sam was originally going to transform into an orangutan but then a friend (same friend who pointed out the Jackson mistake) informed me that “monkey” is also a racial slur for African American people, so I changed him into a ring-tailed lemur instead, which is technically not a monkey. I was grateful for this since a ring-tailed lemur fits Sam’s personality better anyway. I had the most difficulty making Sam’s character than anyone else’s.
Part #10- Jeff
49. Among the reasons kids are bullied, Jeff represents those with disabilities.
50. Since Jeff’s animal can fly as well he basically has the same fighting style as Amanda and Violet.
Part #11- Violet
51. Among the reasons kids are bullied, Violet represents those who have a more hyper personality.
Part #12- Marty
52. Marty is actually based off of a police officer in my town with the same name. I have known him since I was a child and I actually went on a ride-along with him as research for this series. It was actually a lot of fun as well as depressing. Hard to explain that feeling, but it was there.
Part #13- The Villains
53. This story is chock-full of bad people, why? Because this is realism, sometimes good people are hard to find, especially in high school.
54. The main villains at the pack’s high school would have to be Brandy and Tyler. They’re basically just two annoying people who think they are the most important things in the world and the only thing that matters is that they get what they want. Sadly, these two are based off many people I knew in high school.
55. A lot of the bad things that happen in the school in this story and in the town are based off of some things that happened in my high school. My high school experience was terrible.
56. As I stated earlier, the main villain of the story, the Gentleman, only comes in near the second half of the story and even then he isn’t really sought by Alba very much after their first meeting, she wants to find Ares. The reason why she wants Ares so badly? You’ll have to read it and find out.
57. In Ares’ description he is seen as a beaten up, permanently scared man with both his nose and one of his ears missing. The reason I made him look so scary is because Hollywood keeps giving us these images of beautiful or hot assassins and that is completely unrealistic. Assassins kill people for a living, they will naturally get into a lot of fights and so they will be scary looking, another reason why you can never trust Hollywood.
Part #14- If It Was a Movie
58. It’s weird to say but I’ve actually thought this over, if my book ever became a movie I would like it to be filmed in Winchester. It was based on this town so why shouldn’t it be filmed here too?
59. If this became a movie I would like to play Alba. It sounds kinda narcissistic of me to try and put myself in one of the leading roles but I actually based Alba on myself. We both have a very dark sense of humor, I have studied, or have experience with, the different forms of martial arts that Alba specializes in, and I have a similar personality to her (kinda dark but having an optimistic side to it since Alba is always trying to make her town better even though she knows that it won’t happen).
60. I would want Ariana Grande to play Amanda. Why? Well besides fitting the physical description of Amanda I have also seen her play in parts similar to Amanda’s personality and she does wonderfully at it. She usually plays the good friend who has a heart of gold.
61. For Panther in Midnight I would love it if Michele Pfeiffer would play her. Her portrayal of Catwoman actually helped inspire a lot of the elements of Alba’s character, especially her costume. She is a wonderful actress and plays a great mean character. Plus, I think it would be an honorable thing to have the inspiration for the character play one of the main parts.
62. For the Gentleman or Ares, I would like Benedict Cumberbatch to play one of them. Just because he’s Benedict Cumberbatch and he’s a brilliant actor no matter what he plays and I think he could play either of these villains beautifully.
Part #15- References Made
63. The character Anya’s name- Her name is based off one of the people in the graphic novel Maus, a truly horrifying biography of the Holocaust. She transforms into a rat, another reference to her namesake.
64. The line “You’re only an empty chair at an already empty table.”- This is a reference to one of my favorite songs in the musical Les Miserables, except in that story that line was used to describe how everyone was dead.
65. Ares’ name is taken from the ancient Greek god of War.
66. Julie Newmar- In one part of this story someone uses this person’s name to describe Alba’s costume. Julie Newmar was the first person to play Catwoman in the 1960’s Batman show. Catwoman’s costume was actually used as inspiration for Alba’s costume. The line Alba uses about kissing a lady’s hand was actually a reference to a line that Julie Newmar used in the show.
Part #16- Things That Didn’t Make It In the Book
67. The original copy of my book was actually around 450 pages before I trimmed it down to its finished 376 pages. You’re welcome.
68. In the original the pack was going to be a part of the school musical while they were doing everything else, the musical was going to be the Phantom of the Opera. It was a bad idea but it was supposed to symbolize the love triangle, or quadrangle, that is going on within the story, but the story was too long, I thought it was stupid at a second glance, so it was scraped.
69. There was also supposed to be a scene where the pack celebrates Christmas together and Jake gave Alba a necklace he made himself but it ended up sounding corny so it got scraped.
70. In the scene where Scott and Alba have their “disagreement” on page 281 after that scene there was going to be a chapter in Scott’s point of view where it reveals that he was planning on taking what he did a little bit further. Okay a lot further. It was going to get a little too disturbing, even for me, so I scraped it.
Part #17- Random Facts
71. I started writing this book in my freshman year of high school, but I didn’t really start working on it until the end of my sophomore year, and I finished it on Thanksgiving day my senior year of high school.
72. I didn’t self-publish until the summer of my second year of college because, first, it takes a long time to edit something that big. And second, I tried to get an actual publisher for this at first but nobody wanted me since I don’t really have a lot of experience as a writer and they didn’t want to take a risk on an entire series from an unknown author. That was understandable so I decided to self-publish and get some experience so I could get an actual publisher one day.
73. The mall scene, as well as Alba’s blue dress, were inspired from the book Beauty by Lisa Daily, my favorite book when I was fifteen.
74. I am actually considering writing a fifth book in this series, it would be a prequel that discusses Panther in Midnight’s life. Please provide feedback on whether or not you would like to see this.
Facts About Azrael
#1 Cover
1. Due to certain issues, I was not able to use the same photographer for the second cover as I did with the first. This was done by a friend of mine using her phone because we were college students, we were broke.
2. You see that dark background behind the rose, yeah that’s a dumpster. I wanted to have a dark background, but my friend and I couldn’t figure out what to use so we went out the back door of my apartment building and sat on the steps to think. That’s when I saw the dumpster. In real life the dumpster is actually a dark green, but since I wanted the picture in black and white it came out looking much darker. The more you know.
#2 Alba
3. Both in this story, as well as the other books in this series, whenever Alba is frustrated or deep in thought she is shown to run her hand through her hair. This is something I do whenever I am frustrated or in deep thought. I added many aspects of myself to Alba since I needed to understand her the most. Having her with similar actions and ideas with myself helped me get her right.
4. During the story, Alba is suffering from PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Her symptoms include anxiety, anxiety attacks, lack of sleep, lacking in the ability to trust, nightmares, and hallucinations (both auditory and visual). Although the other symptoms are common in those with PTSD, hallucinations are not. They are a symptom of PTSD, but only in extreme cases. Since this is a novel and it needs to be engaging, plus I believe Alba’s traumas throughout her life could be considered “extreme”, I put in this more dramatic symptom to move the story along. I think it worked.
5. Alba’s hallucinations were actually some of the first scenes that I wrote, I found them to be the easiest. I just had to think of some of the most horrifying and disturbing images I could think of and then write them down.
6. Alba’s job as a library assistant was actually something that I did during my senior year of high school. It was pretty awesome, all I ever really did was put away some books, deliver a few things, chat with the librarian (whose actual name is Mrs. Cobb), and read or do my homework. It was a pretty sweet gig.
7. In Chapter 4, during Alba’s dream, the reason why Panther in Midnight and Alba’s grandmother are switched is to show how different Alba’s maternal figures were and how they both played different roles in her life. Panther in Midnight gave her strength, while her grandmother gave her love.
8. Alba has always known that she would one day develop some kind of mental illness due to everything she has gone through, she actually mentions that in the story, but what finally made her go over the edge was that she faced her worst fear, having her pack get exposed. Even though only one person, Brandy, found out, this was still one of the worst people who could have found out their identities.
9. The dream rape in Chapter 6 reveals one of Alba’s other main fears, being taken advantage of as well as intimacy.
#3 Peter
10. Yeah, many people were angry with me about how Peter’s story ended, I hated myself for how it ended, but it is what needed to be done. It brought about another straw on the camel’s back for Alba’s mental condition as well as a stronger motivation to end this situation as fast as possible and by any means necessary.
11. I have also been asked, when Peter is found mauled, why his stomach was eaten by the old pack members. This was kinda a small thing that I don’t think anybody caught. The reason the old pack members did that was because they were high… let me explain. When the scene is being described, the plastic bags that Peter was using to hold the drugs he was selling were ripped apart and the drugs were scattered all over the place. Since the old pack is very animalistic they most likely ripped apart the bags with their teeth while trying to intimidate Peter, thus coming into extremely close contact with the drugs and getting high. Although Lycans don’t really eat humans, with the influence of the drug as well as their animal natures inside them, they gave in and did something truly horrifying. It was a small thing to catch, I should have probably explained that better in the actual book, sorry folks.
#4 College
12. I actually finished this book as my Honors Thesis Project for college. My thesis was on PTSD and Shape Shifter Mythology. To be perfectly honest, I kind of cheated. By the time I was supposed to start on my thesis project I was over half-way through with the book and I had done the research previously, before I started writing the book. So in a way, all I had to do for my Honors Thesis was finish the book (around 100 pages), write a ten page paper, make a powerpoint, and do a presentation for it for about five minutes. This may sound like a lot, but compared to the other Honors Thesis projects, this was nothing, so yeah I cheated a bit, don’t tell my professors. 😉
13. In a few of my college courses, as well as during a few presentations I made to a few high school English classes on writing, I read to them the scene with Alba’s hallucination of Becca and the scene with Alba using the metal rods in the fireplace to train herself to withstand torture. Each time I did this, whenever I looked up the audience stared at me as if I was the spawn of Satan. That’s when you know that you’ve succeeded in writing something truly disturbing. Yay me!
#5 References Made and Other Small Facts
14. In chapter 24, the scene with Alba and Brandy’s little verbal cat-fight was inspired by a similar verbal cat-fight from a youtube series. I won’t tell you which one because there are probably young people reading this and I don’t want their parents getting mad at me if they decide to try and watch it.
15. The Prologue is actually based off the mythology of the formation of the Clans in the Warriors series by Erin Hunter (a team made up of several writers). I read these books obsessively when I was younger. They are still making more of these books today, so I sometimes still find myself picking them up in book stores because I need to know how it ends and the authors just won’t let it end.
16. All of the teachers named in this book were teachers I have actually had in my life, they just have what they taught mixed around.
17. Alba’s line in Chapter 3, Their gaze hits the side of my face, is actually based off of the title of a piece by a modern feminist sculptor that I learned about in my AP Art History class during my senior year of high school, when I first started writing this book. I don’t really like modern art, but I liked the title so much that I wanted to include it into the dialogue of my story.
18. The reference made to Machiavelli’s The Prince in Chapter 4, relates to Alba’s view of the world and her sense of justice and order.
19. In Chapter 5, Jake talks about how his teacher was telling the class about how the term “hooker” was named after a commander in the Civil War, that is actually true, and I heard that from one of my teachers in high school.
20. The fox from Dusted Light’s pack, Aesop, is named after an ancient Greek storyteller, Aesop, who came up with many classic stories like the tortoise and the hare. Practically all of his stories involve talking animals, one of the most popular animals he uses is the fox.
21. Dusted Light is actually based off my cat Dusty, the description matches her exactly.
22. Snow Shoes is based off of a cat that would visit me whenever I was waiting for school during my seventh grade year, sadly he passed away. The description matches his appearance.
23. The old pack is actually a metaphor for homegrown terrorism; there aren’t very many of them yet they hold their own form of power over others. There is a very low rate of females in both groups, and they have lacking and hypocritical morals and guidelines.
24. The inclusion of Sandra’s bulimia was to show her lacking self-confidence and declining mental health.
25. In chapter 10, when Alba describes to Brandy what she will have to face as a vigilante in the town, I wanted to include many of the things that they don’t show or mention in superhero movies, which are honestly full of lies when it comes to criminal activity.
#6 Jake’s Mom
26. The way I wrote the tension between Alba and Jake’s mother was two Alpha females battling toe-to-toe. Although Alba is an Alpha female in the Lycan world, Jake’s mom is an Alpha female in the human world, creating a strange relationship between the two of them based on mutual respect and curiosity since neither of them truly understands the power that the other one has.
27. All of the clothes that Jake’s mother buys for Alba is based off of outfits that I have.
#7 The Ending
28. Yeah, I had a lot of people grumbling about the ending. They said that they enjoyed it, but they felt that Alba broke her rule about no killing to achieve it. First off I would like to point out that they explain in the story that she technically didn’t kill her, the old pack did, Alba only brought her there so that the old pack wouldn’t try to go after her in the town to get their revenge. So no, her rule wasn’t broken.
29. Truthfully, the final chapter in Jake’s perspective was depressing for me to write, the reason I even wrote that scene in the first place was to show how much Alba has missed in her life because of her station in life and relationship with her parents.
30. For those of you who were confused about the last chapter in Scott’s perspective, you are not alone. I have had many people ask me questions about what on earth was up with that ending. Answer, it’s supposed to be confusing. Scott’s mind isn’t a pleasant place to be, nor is it a very logical one. All you need to know is that it is a cliffhanger for the next book. If you thought that cliffhanger was annoying (as all cliffhangers are) wait until you see the one I have in the next book. It’s so frustrating it will make you rip your hair out. ; p
Facts About Shadow of Death
- The dark world from Alba’s nightmare in Chapter 53 is based off of the Upsidedown from the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. All it needs is the Demagorgon. Maybe that’s what killed all those people…. maybe. 🙂 That would be an awesome twist, wouldn’t it?
2. The wounds that Jake has in Alba’s nightmare in Chapter 53 are the same wounds he receives from Scott in their last battle, just a bit of foreshadowing.
3. Alba’s death scene is based off of Sherlock Holmes’ “death” scene in the British television series Sherlock.
I love it when folks get together and share views.
Great website, stick with it!