Here’s a picture of Ellen and Rosa holding up the proof copy of Twin Worlds for all to see. Ellen and I visited Rosa on campus after she returned from her preview trip to Oman during her Spring Break. As she said, Oman was “dope,” but the flights to and from JFK were anything but.
Where did Tucker McLeod come from? McLeod is a character I developed during the days of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was to have been a ship’s captain in the same academy class as Ryker, yet he had already had two starship commands. McLeod had been known as something of a trigger-happy commander whose decision making too often defaulted to who’s got the bigger — whatever. During the fictional episode at which McLeod was introduced, he did a number of things that showed Ryker that he had matured significantly as a ship’s captain and wasn’t the hothead Ryker had known years earlier. And in many ways, that’s exactly where McLeod is at the beginning of Twin Worlds.
As for Raina Wolfe? Well, there really is no exact model for her. Originally named Raina Olan (yeah, it eventually didn’t grab me either) I changed her name to Wolfe shortly after completing the rough draft. She is a strong woman and leader, and that’s the kind of character I enjoy in both mystery and science fiction. She is an excellent foil for McLeod, not because she is less capable (think of many of the movie representations of John Watson as compared to Sherlock Holmes), but because she is equally strong yet with a complementary personality. While I started the novel focusing on McLeod, as I was writing, I found myself as engaged with Wolfe as with him.
I think you’ll like them both as well!
