I was tagged by T.A. Munroe at meanderings to talk about my main character. In the past I’ve spoken about Blade…a lot! But since I’m at work on BARRON’S LAST STAND, it goes to reason that Bo really hasn’t gotten a fair shake in all this talking.

1. What is the name of your main character? Is she fictional or an historical person?
My main character is Bo Barron. She is completely fictional in as much as I can tell without having contact with the rest of the universe.

2. When and where is the story set?
The setting is a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, more or less. I write primarily space opera, so THE BLACK WING CHRONICLES series is set in a distant galaxy known as the United Galactic Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is a more or less representative body divided into the Seven Allied Sectors, each ruled by a hereditary Sovran, with the Outland Fringe remaining autonomous. Each sector has a body known as the General Council with systems sending a representative known as Councillors. The Councillors are selected depending on the governmental structures of the planets or systems themselves. The seven Sovrans come together in a Sovran Council to regulate free trade and territorial disputes across the Commonwealth. The result is something with a blend of sleek, highly advanced cultures in the Inner Commonwealth of the first three sectors, cultures with more a mix of technology and agriculture in the Outer Commonwealth, and pockets of wild-west style lawlessness outside of the main shipping lanes where piracy, slavery, and all sorts of nasty things thrive.

3. What should we know about her?
Bo is a Councillor. She is a noble. She is The Barron, the leader of her people and Commanding General of the precision combat unit known as The Black Wing. She has been wrongly convicted of treason and sentenced to execution, but her people arranged for her escape into exile in the first book of the series SOVRAN’S PAWN. Of course, in the first book, Bo has just come of legal age. By the time BARRON’S LAST STAND rolls around, seven years have elapsed. Bo is no longer an idealist or an ingenue. She has lost everything and everyone who meant anything to her. This has left her bitter, angry, jaded, and dangerous.

4. What is the main conflict?
The main conflict in the series is Bo’s quest to find her father and clear her name so she can return home with honor. Unfortunately for her, her Sovran wants to take over the Commonwealth and he wants to use The Black Wing to do it. The way her people’s alliance with the Second Sector is worded, The Barron is in direct command of The Black Wing and must be petitioned for their deployment. The other obstacle in her Sovran’s path is Blade Devon, an elite commando and covert operative of the First Sector who answers only to the First Sector Sovran…and he is perhaps something else as well.

5. What is the personal goal of the character?
Bo’s goal is simple. She just wants to go home with honor and reclaim her rightful place as leader of her people. She has no interest in the interstellar politics. She just wants to be left alone to do the job she was born to. But when it all comes crashing down around her, she is forced onto the political stage as a renegade, and driven into exile in the seedy underworld. At that point, Bo’s goal is to find her kidnapped father and to survive. All the while, she is falling in love with the mysterious Blade Devon, who is “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” and she can’t tell from one minute to the next whose interests he is really serving.

6. What is the significance of the title of your book?
SOVRAN’S PAWN is basically what Bo and Blade are. They are pawns in the game between two Sovrans maneuvering for control over the Commonwealth. HERO’S END is significant for more than one reason which becomes apparent when you read it, but basically, it is the end of Blade’s career as a two-dimensional holofeature hero, and the end of Bo’s blind trust in him as her hero. BARRON’S LAST STAND is for the turning point in the book and the culmination of the series when Bo stops running and hiding and makes her defiant last stand against the forces that have ruined her life and taken or threatened everything she loves. This is foreshadowed in Chapter 21 of SOVRAN’S PAWN by the mention of the epic poem “Requiem For The Broken Wing.”

When dark clouds gather,
when the wind howls
through the Bluestone Valley
and whispers through the trees
atop the Gallis Highlands,
when the light of hope
is fading,
on the rising thunder will come
the Black Wing,
screaming through the darkness
like the avenging hand
of the Maker.

There, will
The Barron make his last stand.

Bo’s internal monologue goes on to state:

“If she had any lingering doubts about the plot to assassinate her, the poem dispelled them. With her doubts went her fear. If she hoped to get herself and Chase out of this alive, she needed to keep her head. Her ancestors, immortalized in the epic poem known as Requiem For The Broken Wing, had faced a no-win situation and fought fiercely to the last man. Like them, she intended to give a good accounting of herself before drawing her last breath.”

7. When can we expect the book to be published?
SOVRAN’S PAWN and HERO’S END  are already available. Just follow the links to the right. BARRON’S LAST STAND will be available sometime in 2015. That’s all I can say right now. I am also working on some Bo Barron short stories to tide my readers over in the mean time.

Next up is TM Hunter. Be sure to check him out. Also, click back, too, to see what characters came before. Thanks for reading!