Character Highlight: Ethan McCormick
Apr. 27th, 2011 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dracoqueen22Just because I happen to be in the middle of typing up all my Synesthesia chapters, I thought, why not give a little focus to Ethan! He's the main character, he deserves some love.
So here I am today with another character highlight. Today, I bring you Ethan McCormick, the Empathic protagonist of my novel Synesthesia, destined to turn into a series. Book one is complete and in the process of being typed up, edited, revised, etc. And I'm currently posting it for everyone's reading pleasure.
Ethan McCormick is in his early twenties at the start of the series. He's a Literature major at his local college and he works at the Shop More, a grocery store in the small town of Vaula, Washington. And when I say small, I mean small. It's the sort of town where everyone knows everyone else and new arrivals are treated with suspicion until they've found a way to insert themselves into the fold. I've lived in towns like this. *shudders*
Anyway, Ethan would seem like your everyday college boy if one looked at him superficially. A little under six feet, brunette, with brown eyes and an average build. He's a lucky guy who stays in reasonable shape without much exercise, though the fact that he tends to lose his appetite might help some. His mother is Jeanne Taft, remarried to Darryl Taft after the death of Ethan's father, and he has a younger half-sister, Christina whom he calls Christy or "Sprout."
At the moment, Ethan lives in a small apartment by himself, citing a discomfort amongst his "new" family. He has no issues with Darryl and he adores his little sister, but he still feels uncomfortable around them, and as is often the case with Ethan, when uncomfortable, he creates distance.
Ethan's life would be entirely normal or average, if it weren't for one tiny little secret. He doesn't know why or how, but he's an Empath. Internet research had given him a name to the strange things happening to him since he was a child. He doesn't feel other's emotions, however, he hears them, often equating said emotions to familiar songs or music to better understand them himself. Stronger emotions are louder, better able to penetrate the barriers Ethan has crafted for himself out of necessity over the years. These strong emotions usually result in intense migraines and nausea, which in turn causes Ethan to lose his appetite, miss work, or sometimes, miss assignments.
The only person who knows about his secret is his best friend Adrayan Foster, whom Ethan and pretty much everyone else calls Dray. Like usual in a small town, the two men attended elementary school together and had every class together after that. Dray is also Ethan's only friend as his ability makes it difficult to form a relationship with other people.
In that vein, poor Ethan is a virgin. It's not really something he stresses over. With the same resignation he's given toward his inability to form connections with others, he's resigned himself to the fact he may be alone for the rest of his life. Physical contact makes his ability to hear emotion stronger, as does the loss of his own control. He's had a couple disastrous encounters with women/girlfriends, and those have made him wary of trying again.
For hobbies, he likes to read. He's got boxes and boxes of books, and his old room at his stepfather's house has bookshelves chock full of books. Ethan likes to collect series of books and he refuses to sell any of his novels, or trade them in. He likes to keep them all. He'll read just about anything, even Harlequin romances if the urge strikes, and values literature in all forms. He's not a big TV watcher, but he's been dragged to enough movies by Dray that he's mostly up to date on what's decent. Due to his ability, however, Ethan is not a big fan of listening to music. He's heard enough that he can recognize it, even reference back to it, but unless he's trying to drown out particularly loud emotions, Ethan likes to relish in silence whenever possible.
Ethan does own a car. A small, older model Honda Accord that's completely paid for. His father helped him buy it when he was sixteen and they split the cost of purchasing it, so Ethan values it a lot.
You can read more about Ethan in Synesthesia, of which you can find here on the livejournal or here on my personal website.
Questions? Be sure to ask!
So here I am today with another character highlight. Today, I bring you Ethan McCormick, the Empathic protagonist of my novel Synesthesia, destined to turn into a series. Book one is complete and in the process of being typed up, edited, revised, etc. And I'm currently posting it for everyone's reading pleasure.
Ethan McCormick is in his early twenties at the start of the series. He's a Literature major at his local college and he works at the Shop More, a grocery store in the small town of Vaula, Washington. And when I say small, I mean small. It's the sort of town where everyone knows everyone else and new arrivals are treated with suspicion until they've found a way to insert themselves into the fold. I've lived in towns like this. *shudders*
Anyway, Ethan would seem like your everyday college boy if one looked at him superficially. A little under six feet, brunette, with brown eyes and an average build. He's a lucky guy who stays in reasonable shape without much exercise, though the fact that he tends to lose his appetite might help some. His mother is Jeanne Taft, remarried to Darryl Taft after the death of Ethan's father, and he has a younger half-sister, Christina whom he calls Christy or "Sprout."
At the moment, Ethan lives in a small apartment by himself, citing a discomfort amongst his "new" family. He has no issues with Darryl and he adores his little sister, but he still feels uncomfortable around them, and as is often the case with Ethan, when uncomfortable, he creates distance.
Ethan's life would be entirely normal or average, if it weren't for one tiny little secret. He doesn't know why or how, but he's an Empath. Internet research had given him a name to the strange things happening to him since he was a child. He doesn't feel other's emotions, however, he hears them, often equating said emotions to familiar songs or music to better understand them himself. Stronger emotions are louder, better able to penetrate the barriers Ethan has crafted for himself out of necessity over the years. These strong emotions usually result in intense migraines and nausea, which in turn causes Ethan to lose his appetite, miss work, or sometimes, miss assignments.
The only person who knows about his secret is his best friend Adrayan Foster, whom Ethan and pretty much everyone else calls Dray. Like usual in a small town, the two men attended elementary school together and had every class together after that. Dray is also Ethan's only friend as his ability makes it difficult to form a relationship with other people.
In that vein, poor Ethan is a virgin. It's not really something he stresses over. With the same resignation he's given toward his inability to form connections with others, he's resigned himself to the fact he may be alone for the rest of his life. Physical contact makes his ability to hear emotion stronger, as does the loss of his own control. He's had a couple disastrous encounters with women/girlfriends, and those have made him wary of trying again.
For hobbies, he likes to read. He's got boxes and boxes of books, and his old room at his stepfather's house has bookshelves chock full of books. Ethan likes to collect series of books and he refuses to sell any of his novels, or trade them in. He likes to keep them all. He'll read just about anything, even Harlequin romances if the urge strikes, and values literature in all forms. He's not a big TV watcher, but he's been dragged to enough movies by Dray that he's mostly up to date on what's decent. Due to his ability, however, Ethan is not a big fan of listening to music. He's heard enough that he can recognize it, even reference back to it, but unless he's trying to drown out particularly loud emotions, Ethan likes to relish in silence whenever possible.
Ethan does own a car. A small, older model Honda Accord that's completely paid for. His father helped him buy it when he was sixteen and they split the cost of purchasing it, so Ethan values it a lot.
You can read more about Ethan in Synesthesia, of which you can find here on the livejournal or here on my personal website.
Questions? Be sure to ask!
