The Dude Sports Guy/ Imminent Cover Reveal

    First of all! Come Monday, there will be a Title/Cover/Summary Reveal for INSIGNIA, Book Two!

    Second: I’ve been trying to think of what to do with this blog, and even considered giving it up altogether, but then I got an idea. I’m just going to talk about where various characters/situations in INSIGNIA came from, because I seem to get asked about this stuff a lot.

    So, first up…

THE CHARACTER: VIKRAM ASHWAN

    One year, I lived in a separate dorm from my friends, mostly because they wanted to stay at this place that had double rooms, and I needed a single, since no one else can bear how messy and disorganized I am, and anyone who can bear it is probably just as messy and disorganized, therefore I would be unable to bear them, too.

    My randomly assigned room was smack dab in the middle of this large group of Indian guys. This was a dorm with thin walls where you could hear everything in the surrounding rooms. That wouldn’t have been a problem, if it weren’t for the fact that these guys turned out to be the loudest, most obnoxious neighbors I’d ever had.

    There was one guy in particular whose voice rang above the rest. I never figured out whose it was on sight, but when I heard the voice, I very quickly recognized it. I’d be working on homework at 11pm, and I’d hear this loud guy run into someone else’s room, and go like, “DUDE! SPORTS!” and other variations of such. He didn’t literally shout ‘sports’, of course, but ‘Sports’ just stands in for various diatribes about sporting events.

    That was fine at 11pm, but it was not fine at 3:00 AM when I was either frantically finishing something, or trying to sleep, and I’d hear Loud Guy again shouting, “DUDE! DUDE! SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS, DUDE! OH, DUDE! SPORTS!’

    The bizarre thing was, I’d wake up for an eight A.M. class, and the first thing I heard in the morning was this exact same guy, again, being like, “DUDE! SPORTS!”

    It was mystifying. It was like he never slept. He was just too busy being awake all the time, shouting happily to various dudes about sports.

    Anyway, when I got to the part in the story where Tom meets his roommate in the Spire, the very first voice that jumped into my head was this guy’s, this kind of loud, overbearing guy who would probably be incredibly fun to be friends with, but who seems absolutely obnoxious if you are not (and if you are his next door neighbor). Vik evolved from there, and no, he doesn’t say much about sports, but his voice is very clear in my head and has been from the absolute beginning thanks to the Dude Sports Guy.

    So wherever you are, Dude Sports Guy— thanks.