My heroine with the gift of healing. She is a willowy, classic Italian woman with long, curling hair, huge brown eyes and a haunting quality about her that makes her memorable–and enticing–to almost any man she meets. (Maybe a taller Rebecca St. James? I had a magazine ad for a while with her on the cover, but sent it to my publisher…)

Her strength is that she’s willing to go anywhere God sends her, regardless of consequence. She also endures incredible attack and temptation at the hands of my villain, Abramo Amidei, and still manages to hold on by her fingernails…and by focusing on the bigger hands of God. Her weakness is that her heart has been broken when her first love, cast her aside in his desire for an heir (when she did not become pregnant.) So our healer is seeking healing…

He is a giant, bulky knight with sandy hair and muddy green eyes, similar to Sean Bean in Lord of the Rings, but, er, more handsome.

His strength is his undying loyalty and his weakness is that in his desire to protect everyone he loves, it threatens to compromise his desire to always trust in God’s leading (especially when things are really bleak). So our faithful man must learn still new aspects of faith…

Rel here: My two cents worth? Want more handsome? Clive Owen is Gianni to me 🙂

Piero:

This underdog hero is the backbone of the troupe, the priest with the gift of wisdom. It is to him that the sacred letter has been passed, God’s catalyst for the Gifted to gather and together, usher in change within the Church.

He is a small, rather homely man with an elongated head (shaved in priestly fashion into a ring). (I can’t think of the police show actor’s name that I envisioned while writing him…the one with the smoker’s voice…Chavez?)

Rel here: Not sure either but I picked James Edward Olmos instead!

In leading a burgeoning, searching group, he gets stronger and stronger in maintaining his grasp of the call upon them, and following God’s lead with utter faith and trust. It is to him that everyone goes, wrestling through their questions. And so our wise man is constantly seeking God for wisdom…

My silent hero with the gift of visions, the silent sentinel. Hasani was Daria‘s childhood friend and is now her adult guardian…until Gianni arrives on the scene.

A mute slave (his tongue was cut out), he speaks volumes through expression, and later, his drawings of what is to come. I was thinking of the amazing actor, Djimon Hounsou (Gladiator), but a little taller and thinner.

His strength is his devotion to Daria, his weakness is born out of his ex-slave status. It always impedes his physical progress in the world, and deeply angers/frustrates him. So our visionary is seeking a greater vision of his own…

My villain is fiendishly handsome, even slightly taller than Gianni, but about the same in bulk. He is a ladies’ man, and uses it to his advantage, every time possible.

Think of the most startingly handsome, tall, and dark, dressed in a swirling, black cape, and that’s your visual. He is Temptation in Motion, sometimes incredibly subtle and wilely and spookily seductive, othertimes overt and forceful. He is my idea of Satan’s #1 man on Earth, so well, (cough, cough), there’s his weakness. His main goal is to take down every one of The Gifted–win them over or kill them–so he is a classic antagonist for this series.

His strength? The man has money to burn and leaders in every city in his pocket. Sound familiar?

Rel here: Cuban model, William Levy Gutierrez, gets stuck with being Abramo. He needs to be a bit older but you get the idea!

Background to the trilogy

The background for this series was that I was impacted by two forces—reading The Da Vinci Code within 24 hours (and loving it–except the heretical ending); and watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy on film. I longed to write something that had an ongoing mystery and quest aspect, and add in heavy doses of suspense and romance. I wanted to write an epic, classic “good vs. evil” story–and I loved doing it! Finishing The Blessed was a sad event for me. I hated leaving these characters because I fell a little in love with all of them.

Looking for a biblical mystery to hang my hat on, two scholarly-type friends mentioned the lost letters of St. Paul (he mentions other letters to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians.) So that got me going on what we know he wrote to the Corinthians–and what caught me were his words on spiritual gifts and love. These are the anchors to the Gifted trilogy.

I have just loved this extra insight, Lisa ~ it makes me want to read them all over again!

Have you read any of the trilogy? Let Lisa and I know what you thought by leaving a comment.


On Monday I will be spotlighting Colleen Coble’s Bree Nichols and Kade Matthews, now the subjects of a fourth book, Cry In the Night ~ do drop by!

Relz Reviewz Extras

Reviews of The Begotten and The Betrayed ~ The Blessed is coming soon 🙂

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