Behind the Hero: Oliver Russell

Oliver Russell from Calling the Bluff is one hell of a hero…and he was, quite honestly, hell to write. LOL He’s so intensely private and locked in his own head that there are vast pieces of his backstory I’d developed and taken notes on, but was never able to write about. It would go something like this:

Me: So, this would be a good time to expound on how you used to be a gunslinger type–
Oliver: Nope.
Me: Um, okay. Or how you gave up the outlaw life for your first wife–
Oliver: Uh-uh.
Me: –but she was never really comfortable with the animalistic side of being a wolf–
Oliver: Are you still here? Leave me alone.
Me: *sigh*

That’s OBVIOUSLY a dramatization (no actual conversations were had, so don’t send the psychiatrists after me!), but the truth of the matter is that I just couldn’t work that backstory in. Not many people in town, including Hazel, really know Oliver’s history, and he isn’t the sort of man to sit and dwell on the past and make narrative exposition easy. He’s terse and short with everyone, including me and (to a certain extent) himself.

As Bree has already said, we developed the concepts for the heroines of the trilogy and then “designed” their heroes. Since I’m not usually responsible for the true alpha bastards when we write–those are mostly all Bree, LOL–Oliver was a bit of a surprise. Yes, he used to be a bit of an outlaw and, yes, he walked away from that life for his first wife.

In a lot of ways, he’s more of a hardass than Jack, but he’s also not cut out for leadership. Because of his past, he’d rather be left alone with his cows and horses, and maybe a warm woman once in a while. Until Hazel comes along, anyway…but that’s the heart of the story, so I’d better leave you to your reading.