A Fox Retrospective

While I was editing The Wild Charge, I started thinking about the first time we met a character, versus their most recent moment in the current text. I was thinking about just how much time had passed - in the real world, for me, the writer; and within the Dartmoor universe. I love working with such a big cast of characters - except for the times when having that many players on the board gets hectic - and it's always an interesting internal process to go from "I need a character to plug into this spot" to, over time, through writing them and peeling back their layers: "What's this character's deepest fear/love?"

Fox first appeared in Snow In Texas. 

Two men who could only be identical twins sat at a table with longnecks, watching Oklahoma play Tennessee. A third man sat at the bar and turned, taking note of Colin's appearance with a slight nod. His eyes were large and an eerie shade of blue, starkly visible across the distance. Familiar eyes; he'd seen them somewhere else. His bottom rocker read England.

...

He dropped his bags when he reached the stool and stuck out one giant hand. "Hey. I'm Colin. Bob sent me up from NOLA."

There was a beat, a moment of appraisal in which those blue eyes tracked down and then back up him, flat, cool, and giving nothing away. Then the guy accepted his shake, firm grip despite the height disparity between them. "Fox," he said, nationality confirmed by his accent. "You're Mercy's brother." Not a question.

"Half-brother," Colin said firmly.

Fox tipped his head in acknowledgement. "Lots of us have half-brothers, I 'spect. You met mine, I'm sure. Walsh."

That's where the eyes came from. This brother had dark hair instead of Walsh's blonde, and the faces weren't quite the same - the noses, the angles of their jaws. But the eyes were a dead giveaway. And they shared that spooky calm that belonged on a much larger, more physically imposing man.

"Ah. Yeah, I did. You guys aren't in the same chapter."

One brow lifted. "Neither are you and your brother."

"Fair enough."

The book dropped in early 2016 - How has it already been six years??? - and Fox, while a horrid little delight, was very much a background character who I wanted to remain that way. I thought of him as a fun deviation from the other guys, and a useful tool when I needed an spec ops touch in certain situations.

But that was the thing. In making Fox the "spec ops touch," it expanded the Dartmoor world outward a few degrees. It was no longer confined to dealers, criminals, and misfits. Up 'til this point, Michael and Mercy were the only "specialists," so to speak, but their skills were more about willingness rather than any sort of formal training or experience. 

And then here was Fox. Mr. Spy. A character who offered new opportunities...but new risks, too. Each time you expand a universe, you risk taking it in a direction that strays too far off the main course. Not to mention: the more complex a character's background, the more legwork it takes in the writing to bridge the gap between them and the original characters. 

What resulted was several cameos, which led to POV scenes, then chapters. All told, Fox's journey has taken place over several books, and it's one, given his nature, that is very much still ongoing. He's not a happily ever after character; with Fox, it's more about helping him slowly realize where his heart and mind converge - although he'd tell you he doesn't have a heart to speak of, the wanker. 

He debuted in 2016, and this is a snippet from last recorded scene, just last week:

The farmer's market laid out in the narrow, shaded streets of Saumur was a bazaar of every kind of food imaginable: from staples like baguettes and cheeses wrapped in wax, to fresh seafood and local beef, to escargot quiches and piping hot sandwiches and flaky pastries. At a small, streetside table shaded by an umbrella, Fox thumped down baskets of steamed mussels and handed around plastic forks.

"I like the cap," Tenny observed, breaking a loaf of bread into quarters and putting the largest portion on Reese's paper plate. "It's very London cabbie chic."

Fox flipped him the bird without looking over, popped a mussel in his mouth, and scanned the street. "He's late."

Reese sliced two fat hunks of camembert, put one on Tenny's plate, and topped a slice of bread for himself with the other. Added a dollop of plum jam and, after his first bite, quietly swore off American grocery store bread. "Well," he reasoned, "Devin's a little..."

"Stupid?" Tenny offered.

"Annoying as shit?" Fox asked. "Insufferable? Prone to running his fucking mouth?"

"Hey, my mouth does what it needs to do, thank you very much," Devin said, materializing behind Fox and dropping into the chair beside him.

I still marvel over the fact that he became a fan favorite - but I'm encouraged, too. Big, splashy characters like Mercy can feel like they suck all the oxygen out of a fictional room. It's nice to see the sneaky one steal a few hearts. 

Dartmoor Book 9, The Wild Charge, dropped this Tuesday. 633 ebook pages of Fox and his two junior Foxes. You can grab it HERE.