Kalom of Eris

One of my favorite non-major characters in the Tartarus Trilogy is Kalom of Eris. This young man is good-looking, friendly, informal ( which irritates Capt. Richard Hughes no end! ) and easy-going. Although Kalom was born on the planet Eris, one of the Thrasian race, he was raised on Terra. His father Koltok was the Thrasian Empire's Ambassador to Earth.

When his parents returned to Eris, Kalom rebelled and stayed behind. They, as well as most of his own people, now accuse him of being more Terran than Thrasian. Seeking adventure, the youth entered the Interstellar Space Service Academy in Houston, Texas, where he specialized in both Astrogation and Command.

At the start of the Trilogy, Kalom has served aboard the Interstellar Spacecraft Astrella II for eight years and has risen to the rank of Lt. Cmdr. As a result, he's now third-in-command of Astrella. Kalom is one of the few people aboard who don't actively despise Cmdr. Malkis of Tartarus, the ship's hard-nosed ExO. The easy-going Erisian just doesn't let much get to him, including the strict, acerbic Tartarian. He tells Rona Scott that Malkis is "okay as long as you obey regulations and stay on your toes!"

Kalom happens to be one darn good-looking guy: cafe-au-lait-colored skin, wavy red-gold hair, and perfectly-even features. His eyes mirror his moods, changing color from amber flecked with gold when he's happy to darker shades of brown, blue, or even violet when occasionally he's not so happy. As Tiko of Cytherea warns Rona, "Watch out for him, too!" Kalom is a real ladies' man; he enjoys a drink and a good time---but only when it's appropriate.

In both Books One and Two Kalom eventually proves his worth: he's a brave man who's not adverse to taking a few risks when necessary. His loyalty to Hughes and to his friends is unquestioned. All in all, Kalom of Eris is a good man to have in your corner in a dangerous situation.

I'd be very interested to hear your own assessment of Kalom.

MRTighe

Senses of Humor

My entire family has the strange habit of picking up odd phrases from movies, TV shows, etc. and quoting them for years on end---until hardly anyone else in the universe knows what the heck they're talking about! Some of these sayings include:
     "Holy Toledo, Batman!" (inspired by Adam West's TV series )
     "Have fun storming the castle!" (from The Princess Bride )
     "Inconceivable!" ( also from The Princess Bride )
     "That's like locking the barn doors after the horses have eaten your children!" ( from Staurday the Fourteenth )
     "Wot? The curtains?" (from Monty Python's Holy Grail )
     "I'm not dead yet." (ditto )

I'm left to conclude that a weird sense of humor is indeed hereditary; it's in your genes, so there's absolutely nothing you can do about it---what it's doing in your jeans I'd hate to say! ( I was brought up on the Marx brothers, sorry, folks! )

So what does a SOH have to do with my writing? Well, I tend to think of at least some of my characters as having a similar SOH. While I try to restrain myself, some lines manage to sneak their way in there, particularly whenever Kalom of Eris is speaking. That cocky, cheeky Thrasian just says whatever he likes. Try restraining him!

Malkis of Tartarus' SOH is perhaps the oddest. Tartarians don't really possess much of a sense of humor, but he's been around Terrans and other races long enough to have been "culturally contaminated". Hughes has very little SOH---he takes life and all his responsibilities far too seriously. At times he's downright grim. ( He had a much better SOH as a young man---which you will hopefully see someday in the prequel "Malkis of Tartarus". )

Rona Scott is a lot more fun than either of those two, which is probably why she gets along so well with Kalom. She's imaginative and playful and enjoys teasing people, particularly her husband. But it's no wonder she doesn't enjoy being trapped on gloomy Tartarus, among such humorless, rigid, and judgmental people.

Here's hoping that True Son of Tartarus will be available in just a few more weeks. The wait is killing me! But I promise you, it'll be worth the wait.

MRTighe