Today we have a post from Jonathan Hanson on characterisation:
Effective characterization has always been very high on my list of what makes a book readable. If I can’t connect with the characters, can’t find empathy for them, it’s difficult for their plights to draw me in and make me care. The book gets set aside, slowly subsumed under others in the reading pile until I find it again, bookmark on page 40 or so, and give it away. So I try very hard to make my characters interesting—even the bad guys. The easiest way to do this is to base a character on someone I already know and like, in which case half my work is done for me. Several such characters appear in Trail of the Jaguar. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement officer, for example, is based on a friend who’s worked for the USFWS and other game and conservation organizations.
Other characters, however, are cut from whole cloth—such as Jedediah Carson. It’s fair to say he might be an imaginary version of the father I never had, and thus, in his own way, comes from a certain powerful, if wishful, familiarity.
Trail of the Jaguar
Biologist and wildlife photographer Clayton Porter witnesses what appears to be a routine drug-smuggling flight across the Arizona-Mexico border. Instead, he uncovers a sophisticated operation involving a secret lodge high in the Sierra Madre, canned hunts for endangered jaguars, a ring of opioid-dealing doctors in the U.S., and a string of cartel victims partially consumed by a large predator. After he unwittingly throws a wrench into the works, Porter becomes a target of revenge, and resorts to skills from his military service to save himself and those close to him.
Purchase Link – https://books2read.com/u/bWrEPx?store=amazon
Author Bio –
Jonathan Hanson grew up northeast of Tucson, Arizona, with Sabino and Bear Canyons as his backyard, providing him with years of desert expeditions, hunting like the Apaches and building wickiups (which failed spectacularly).
He has since written for a score of outdoor and adventure magazines including Outside, National Geographic Adventure, Nature Conservancy, and Global Adventure, and has authored a dozen books on subjects including natural history, sea kayaking, wildlife tracking, and expedition travel.
Jonathan’s exploration experience encompasses land- and sea-scapes on six continents, from the Atacama Desert to the Beaufort Sea, from the Rift Valley to the Australian Outback, and modes of transportation from sea kayaks to sailboats to bicycles to Land Cruisers.
He has traveled among and worked with cultures as diverse as the Seri Indians and the Himba, the Inuit and the Maasai. Jonathan has taught tracking, natural history writing, four-wheel-driving techniques, and other subjects for many conservation and government organizations.
He is an elected fellow of the Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society, and a charter member of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and lives in Southern Arizona with his wife of 37 years, Roseann Beggy Hanson.
You can follow Jonathan’s Overland Tech and Travel blog and order signed books at ExploringOverland.com.
Social Media Links –
www.facebook.com/authorjonathanhanson
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