Guest Post: Aven Ellis – Creating Harrison Flynn

Posted 7th April 2014 by Emma in Guest Post / 0 Comments

So it’s Monday and I’m sure you all have those Monday blues. Well today I have a post that will wash them all away. I have a guest post from the wonderful Aven Ellis. Aven is one of my favourite authors and both her books Connectivity and Waiting For Prince Harry are firmly up there as my all time favourites. Today she is telling us how she created Harrison Flynn.

The inspiration for Harrison Flynn started with a conversation over a printer.

You see, my day job is in sports television production. The printer is right next to my cubicle and the next cube over sits the director for an NHL hockey team. He’s my best guy friend, and we have shared many conversations over the printer next to me.

One day we were talking about NHL players—what their lives are like, their backgrounds, some who went to college, and others who went straight to the league as soon as they were able. Suddenly it hit me—an interesting dynamic would be the player who didn’t choose a university education, and possibly regretted it.

I immediately knew I was on to something I wanted to write about.

So I began to sketch Harrison. That was going to be his struggle, his internal fear he needed to resolve. Then I needed his heroine, and what her internal fear would be. I need to know who these two characters would grow and evolve and become stronger together for the story. Shortly afterwards I had Kylie Reed, who would be the match for our hero.

And as I sketched Kylie, I thought of Prince Harry, because I know if I were 24 he would be my totally hot crush.  (Okay, let’s be real. He’s one of my totally hot crushes now, and I’m married and let’s just say so not 24.) But I digress. I thought of all the jokes my friends make about “My next husband/boyfriend will be Henry Cavill/Benedict Cumberbatch/Chris Pine/Prince Harry” and I had it. The heroine would be jokingly waiting for Prince Harry! Then the EURAKA moment—I thought of my hockey player. He could be a ginger. A super hot ginger with emerald green eyes. And then the second big EURAKA moment—his name would be Harrison. Waiting for Prince Harry.

Then I could see Harrison in my head. I wanted him to be very different, so that’s why when people ask for a visual inspiration for him, I can give “kind of like this” pictures but nothing exact because he really came straight from my thoughts. I gave him red curly hair, the green eyes, the body of a sculpted body of hockey player. (By the way, ladies, hockey players have amazing bodies. Don’t believe me? Check out my Pinterest board for Dallas Demons 2 and you shall see what I’m talking about.

Next I worked on his personality. He’s curious about people. Harrison is fascinated with the human mind and how it works, so I decided his big charitable cause would be mental health issues. He’s passionate, loves to travel, and his creative side comes out with his woodworking skills. To balance Kylie, where she is very controlled and organized, Harrison is a mess. He’s unorganized and chaotic. And when these two come together, they learn to bring out the best in each other.

So yes, the entire concept for Harrison Flynn began with one conversation over a printer. Obviously I need to keep the day job, right ladies?

A big thank you to Aven for today’s post. I sincerely recommend you check out both of her books.

Emma

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