And we're back for another week of #CharactersTell, as always! And luckily we're getting closer to the good season, because our guest for today is brought from a story that has plenty to do with the water, the ocean and mermaids!
Our guest tonight is Gerard Collins, a young Irish man working at the market for the moment, in a world similar but so very much different from ours. He's one of the secondary characters in J.Avis's Aquaria Oceana, her fantasy set in an alternate version of our 1925. Gerard seems like a very pleasant person, eager to help Gemma and Kelley, and helping the former make sure her secrets are safe.
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| Bright sun and brighter smile! |
J.Avis is a lovely person, who you can find on Twitter (and where you should totally follow her through this link!) She's fond of the ocean and has...quite the interesting focus on mermaids, which shows in her work! Speaking of which: you can find the prequel for Aquaria Oceana on her Wattpad, in its own miniseries!
She has a Spotify as well, which you can find here and a Pinterest, which is easily reached with this link.
But enough with the intros! Let's get to know Gerard, shall we?
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And we’re back with another week of #CharactersTell, and with it, we’re back with one of the most important elements of a book - sidecharacters! The ones helping driving the plot forward, giving interesting external insights and so on. So! Would you please introduce yourself, the book your in and your author, please?
Gerard: I’m Gerard Collins, I live in Clew Bay Ireland, i’m from the Aquaria Oceana series, J. Avis is recording our story for us. It’s mostly about Gemma (her real name is Aquaria) and Kelley. We’re just here to help them.
Oh my! Another Irish! There’s more than I expected, along with Zoe. So, how’s life there in Clew Bay? Is it where you grew up? Or did you move there? And what do you do for a living?
I’ve been here my whole life, my whole family lives here. I grew up with Kelley and Lucy in Clew. I work in one of the markets in town, I tried working at the docks like Kelley, but that
kind of life wasn’t what I want. I prefer to be close to home and get home every night to Lucy.
My, do I sense a romance? Are you and this Lucy…? When did that happen? Was it something you always thought would happen since you grew up together, or is it something that dawned on you both later along the line?
Lucy is my fiance, and Kelley’s little sister. We have had an interesting relationship over the years. It took us about 4 years to actually get together. I wanted to date her for as long as I can remember, but her best friend at the time, always told her she didn’t have a chance with me. I hate Lyla for that.
All well what ends well though, right? What about this Lyla? Is she still trying to mess around with your life together? From the way you phrased that, you seem to think she had ulterior motives to keep Lucy away from you…
Ugh. Lyla is pretty bad. She has tried to keep us apart for years, she still tries, and stopped talking to Lucy because of it. Her motives are shady, I know what they are, Lucy doesn’t. I intend to keep it that way until someone else allows me to tell her. Not my secret to tell. Lyla also knew that I wanted to be with Lucy for years, but enjoys manipulation and making Lucy miserable.
Ouch. Yeah, she seems like a pretty bad actor in your lives. Luckily she stopped talking with Lucy after you two got together. So! What do you like to do in your free time? And, what sort of job did you apply to at the docks? I mean, there are some positions that don’t require you to go out at sea.
When I’m not with Lucy, usually training, Kelley whooped my ass this past year in the ring, and every time we are at the underground. How jobs work at our age is a little weird. While you are in your last year of school, you are sent to work half the day somewhere in town. They let you try out different ones for a week or so. You are given a position and you take what you are given. We were just extra hands at the docks. Helping the merchants, fishermen & pirates, load and unload their hauls. I like working in the shops, the docks, you always have to be armed, and Lucy couldn’t visit me on my lunch breaks. She does now that I work at the market.
Oh dear, that does bring up some interesting questions! First… what sort of shop are you working in? But most importantly, when is this story taking place? By how you’re describing it, it doesn’t seem like it’s anywhere close to our times.
I just work in the market, mostly groceries are there, other small things as well. We also have a small cafe in the back of the shop. Its 1925 when the first book takes place. But our world is different than yours, a few hundred years ago, Poseidon helped the pirates take over all the rulers on land, they have an accord on how things are run. Poseidon is King of everything and everywhere, Pirates run the land under his control. It works well. His children are in control of different regions of the sea. That little change made things different here than most other worlds.
My my! Very interesting! Is it how you got involved into the plot of this book? How did you get in touch with Gemma? What are your thoughts about her and Kelley?
Well, Kelley has been my best friend since we were five. We had gotten into a fight a couple of months before the book takes place, so I’m not in the very beginning when Gemma arrives. Gemma lives with Kelley’s family right now, and will be there for the next four years, until her wedding. I want her to be with Kelley, they are perfect together. They even each other out, and make sure that they are happy when together, even though its completely illegal. Merpeople and Humans are not supposed to be together unless they are set in this damn arrangement that Poseidon made with the Pirates in that accord. I want them to run away together, but it’s hard to accomplish that with Poseidon as her father.
I mean, considering what you told me about Poseidon, and how all the land seems to be under his control as well, I can imagine that being quite the difficult undertaking. You do work in a market, in a world full of pirates though...is that what makes you helpful in this book? Smuggling must be still alive and well, just for some other party.
I’m not in the smuggling business, I don’t want those consequences on me. My job is just temporary, I’ll be moving up to the bank in about a year or two. I’m set to take my father’s job. He is one of the town leaders, and gets to choose his successor. He wants me to take his position, so that will be more helpful than working at the market. The most interaction I have with the pirates is delivering supplies to their ships, and helping Kelley and Gemma fight them off when they try to take advantage of Gemma. She has to keep her powers on lock to keep her identity a secret.
Sounds like a dangerous balance you have to keep to make sure things turn out ok… And quite the interesting read as well. And I’m sure a position in leadership will be very helpful to your cause! Unfortunately, I’m afraid we’re running out of time for tonight - is there anything you’d like to tell to our readers? You have the stage, whatever you want!
That was faster than I thought it would be. Once J finishes editing everything, readers should keep an eye out for it. It’s a great story, Gemma & Kelley have a rough experience, but everything happens for a reason, right? Those experiences are what make us into the people we are, or in Gemma’s case mermaid. Thanks for having me, hopefully we will talk soon.
Thank you for coming! It’s been an absolute blast, and I can’t wait to see more of your stories! Goodnight!
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And there you have it! Such a nice, upstanding lad, even in such a weird world like the one he lives in! And hey, gotta love some Irish representation, right?
Anyway, for today this is all! As always, do keep in mind that YOU can have YOUR characters interviewed on these slots! Just message me on Twitter (link is in the right-hand sidebar!) to get yourself sorted in one of the slots!
See you soon!!
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