No, this is not about the boy who broke my heart when I was fourteen. This is the first character I've sent out in the world, Jakes. Okay, Angie went with him, but Jakes...? Oh, I must confess that I will always have a soft spot for Jakes. He is like my first love. You know you have to move on, but you will still think fondly of him.
How does Jakes look like? Well, this is the photo I used as inspiration for Jakes. I later found out it is Matt Janney who is a former boyfriend of Emma Watson. And he played rugby (which was a coincidence), and he studied at Oxford.
Maybe it was because Jakes was more than just a good rugby player. He had it all. Good looks, physicality, macho male image, intelligence and other attributes to make him an alpha male. They were all there, but that was not Jakes' story though. He wanted to highlight important issues that had nothing to do with his looks. He wanted to show that men like him can be sensitive too. They have similar fears and anxieties as many other people in the world.
I first got that creative light-bulb moment for Eye on the Ball while watching a Six Nations Rugby Match. At first, it had a Christmas theme, and I called it Under the Mistletoe. That first scene I wrote is still in the book as Jakes and Angie’s first kiss, under the mistletoe, of course . I didn’t have much to go on apart from the scene and the names of the two characters, Jakes and Angie.
When I plotted the series approximately eight months before, I created a team list. I planned the first six books and built the team around the characters in those books. The only character I had on my team list who might have been Jakes was the eighth man, JJ du Plessis, who didn’t have a story. He was at that stage just a number in the team.
After writing that first scene, Jakes kept on popping in my head. I ended up spending more time thinking about him than I did the manuscript I’ve been working on (which was Making the Right Call). A few days after I’ve written that scene, the rugby world was shocked by the passing away of the Wallaby Dan Vickerman. There were many panel discussions and articles about his passing. I watched a debate on an NZ show about Dan’s death and the struggles of professional sportsmen and women. One panellist said it was not uncommon that men in a macho environment don’t talk about their emotions and fears as they don’t want to appear weak. That phrase caught my attention and stuck.
I realise then why Jakes was so cagy. He had something to hide, but it was only two-thirds into the manuscript I figured out what it was. Why that specific trigger?
I know people like that—men and women who have been or still are in abusive relationships. Some even doesn't know that they are. Maybe that was why Jakes insisted that I tell his story first. I will always love Jakes because he was prepared to open and share his story. And I will love him he gave me an opportunity to write the story.
This is the first blog in a series about my characters.
#abusiverelationships, #eyeontheball #firstkiss #francinebeaton #playingforglory #indieauthor #southafricanindieauthors #saiag #romancesetinsouthafrica #southafricanromance #rugbyromance #southafricanromance #characters #series #mzanindieauthors #mia #southafricanromance #abuse #domesticabuse #alphamen #indierom #romancenovel
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