Character Quirks and Interests

by Lorie Lewis Ham

 

When writers sit down to create a new main character, our goal is to make them interesting to the reader, and honestly to ourselves as well. We will spend many pages with this character, and in the case of a series, possibly many years, so it helps if you like them. 

A couple of things that can help make a character interesting are their personality quirks and interests. When I created the main character in my Tower District Mystery series, Roxi Carlucci, I wanted to make her different from the main character in my past series, the gospel singing amateur sleuth series. That character, Alexandra Walters, was a little more like me, except for the fact she had blonde hair. She was short, a singer, and had a small child. I also gave her the more positive and upbeat side of my personality. 

 

Roxi on the other hand, is tall (5 ft. 10 in.), comes from a Mafia family, and has a little bit of a dark side to her. While she believes in justice—she wouldn’t make much of a sleuth otherwise—she has the ability to see the gray sides of people and life a little better than Alex did. And she is less judgmental of her “family” than her cousin Stephen is. Roxi is also tougher and braver than I am. While I have started learning swordplay for fun, she takes it seriously and is very good at it. We do both have replicas of Excalibur, but she can actually wield hers—my swordplay is with a foam sword lol.

 

Speaking of swords, Roxi will take a sword to a gunfight any day, as she hates guns. I haven’t really gotten into the why of that in my books yet, but it just seemed to suit her. So, if there will be any guns involved, it will be her cousin, P.I. Stephen Carlucci, who will be carrying it. 

 

Another quirk of Roxi’s is that even though she lives in a pretty big city, (Fresno, CA) she rides her bike everywhere and hasn’t owned a car in years. She can drive if needed, but she just doesn’t want to. Thankfully for her, she lives in the Tower District (the arts and entertainment district of Fresno) which is pretty much its own little community, so she can get by riding her bike to most places. But when it’s too hot or too foggy, she is fine grabbing a ride with Stephen or one of her new friends in the Tower. Readers will learn over time (you get to hear this here first, as it has not yet been explained in the series) that her reasons for not driving are a combination of caring about the environment, and because her parents died in a car crash when she was fifteen. 

 

Another thing that can help make a character interesting is their interests. Roxi is obviously a big fan of King Arthur and Camelot—hence the sword. To her, they represent honor, which is very important to her. But it also gives her a connection to the father she lost. She carries with her a well-worn copy of The Once and Future King that her father gave her, and is a big fan of the musical Camelot which her parents took her to see as a child. 

 

Roxi also shares some of my TV interests. She is a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Star Trek, Gossip Girl, and Sherlock. Speaking of Sherlock, she is a HUGE fan of Sherlock Holmes. 

 

In the new book in the series, One of You, you learn that she enjoys other mystery novels as well, including cozies. And you discover that she has more recently become a fan of manga and anime, thanks in part to her new friendship with BookTuber/playwright/bookstore owner Clark Halliwell.

 

Another interest Roxi shares with me, and my other character Alex, is a love of animals. Both Roxi and I have worked in animal rescue in the past and find ourselves with a family of rescue animals of our own. Roxi has a pet rat named Merlin, a black cat named Dan, and a Pit Bull named Watson. I have five dogs, five cats, two pet rats, and a bunny—all but one are rescues.

 

I hope some of you will take the time to get to know Roxi better and follow her life in my Tower District Mystery series. I also hope you like her as much as I do! Quirks, interests, and all. 

 

 

Bio-

Lorie Lewis Ham lives in Reedley, California and has been writing ever since she was a child. Her first song and poem were published when she was 13, and she has gone on to publish many articles, short stories, and poems throughout the years, as well as write for a local newspaper, and publish 7 mystery novels. For the past 14 years, Lorie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher of Kings River Life Magazine, and she produces Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, where you can hear an excerpt of her book One of Us, the first in a new series called The Tower District Mysteries. Book 2, One of You, was released in June of 2024. You can learn more about Lorie and her writing on her website mysteryrat.com and find her on Facebook, BookBub, Goodreads, and Instagram @krlmagazine & @lorielewishamauthor.

 

One of You

Back cover copy-

 

With her life on the California Coast behind her, Roxi Carlucci is beginning to feel at home in the Tower District—the cultural oasis of Fresno, CA—where she now lives with her cousin P.I. Stephen Carlucci, her pet rat Merlin, a Pit Bull named Watson, and a black cat named Dan. She has a new entertainment podcast, works as a part-time P.I., and is helping local bookstore owner Clark Halliwell put on the first-ever Tower Halloween Mysteryfest! The brutal summer heat is gone and has been replaced by the dense tule fog—perfect for Halloween! 

 

She just wishes everyone would stop calling her the “Jessica Fletcher” of the Tower District simply because she found a dead body when she first arrived. But when one of the Mysteryfest authors is found dead, she fears she jinxed herself! The Carlucci’s are hired to find the killer before they strike again. Will Mysteryfest turn into a murder fest? How is the local gossip website back, and what does it know about the death of Roxi’s parents?

 

Buy links-

Ebook amazon https://tinyurl.com/83befuae

Amazon print https://tinyurl.com/tb79uukj

Barnes and Noble.com ebook https://tinyurl.com/4trwukbb

Barnes and Noble.com print https://tinyurl.com/yf3kyhxj

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/one-of-you-3

Universal Buy Link (does not include Kobo) https://books2read.com/u/m0eWAy