Creating Lenox

Hey guys. As I work towards finishing up my "War Angel" trilogy, I'd like to also start sharing part of my creative process with you. Feel free to post any additional questions that you may have in the comment fields below.

“WarAngel” was a novel that originally came to me in the form of a vivid dream. I woke up one morning with the beginning, middle and end of the story crystal clear in my mind’s eye, freshly brewed in my subconscious imagination. Back then, (I can’t recall what year exactly) I was much younger and had much more faith in my memory than I do now so, I foolishly procrastinated on writing anything down on paper. Then, I completely forgot about it of course. Fortunately, it came back to me years later as if I had just dreamed it the night before. Since then, I’ve started to keep a black book of ideas to avoid repeating that mistake. At last count, I had 75 plots/storylines in various stages of development written in it and by the end of today, it’ll probably be up to 77. That book is as out of control as an avid reader’s “to-be-read” pile but I’m grateful that I definitely never run out of fresh ideas. That should also please my readers.

After I remembered the story that had sat in the back of my brain for so long, forgotten and collecting dust, I had originally named it “Monsters, Mirrors & Smoke.” I even leaked a few chapters online and received excited, enthusiastic feedback from readers. I eventually changed the title because there were a few books that had titles that were similar. My readers know that originality is such a sacred and important thing to me that I treat it almost like my religion. I also felt that the original title implied “horror” which the book isn’t…not exactly.

A few readers have asked me where the name “Lenox” came from. Well, “Lenox Road” was the name of a street I used to live on in Brooklyn. In fact, before I lived exactly on that street, I lived near it. I grew up in an apartment building on Willmohr Street and Lenox Road was nearby that address. I also lived in an apartment on East 91^st Street and Lenox Road was the cross street so the name is sort of a homage to where I’m from. I’ve also never seen that name used in any other novels so it was perfect. (I told you how serious I am about originality.)

When I began to write “War Angel,” it was my goal to create a different type of male protagonist than the ones I had written in previous stories, or even the ones I had read about in other books. I wanted to make him more complex and complicated than any of the others. (With the exception of the unnamed protagonist I wrote about in “Glass Goddesses, Concrete Walls,” I think my readers would agree that I’ve accomplished that.) I wanted to avoid writing the prototypical hero. Early on in the first book, I established how devoted to his woman he truly is but, I also didn’t want the book to be riddled with a sense of cliché romance. Throughout the books, his love for Jahaira and his fear of losing her is what sets him on the bloody road that he travels when he is blackmailed by her mother, Carmen. The moral dilemmas he faces tend to be quite extreme as he is thrust into situations where he must become an instrument of vengeance or exact justice for people who will not claim either for themselves. I wanted him to be tormented by unfortunate things from his past while trying to hold back the oceans of trouble that threatened to drown him. In each book of the trilogy, I also wanted to show the evolution of the character. Early on, he was clumsy and not prepared for the things he was forced to do but as the books continue, he becomes more competent and dangerous, a thing that he is not proud of but actually deeply regrets. He gets to a point where he takes certain violent actions out of necessity, not macho bravado or pleasure.

Another aspect of the Lenox’s growth that was very important to me was his transition from lover, to husband, to father. In the first book I wanted to show how free-spirited and confident he was when he was just Jahaira’s boyfriend but also, how uncertain he became once he found out that he was going to be a dad. In the first book, he was violently confronted by Jahaira’s over-protective father, Caesar. In the final book of the trilogy (I’m trying my BEST not to write any spoilers in this) Lenox is immersed in the role of being protective father himself but, he handles it very differently than Jahaira’s father did for reasons that you’ll just have to wait to read about. Also, one of the biggest themes in my saga is undying love, despite all of the gore, action and violence. By the time people read the last page of “War Angel III: Catalina,” I want Lenox to be one of those classic characters that remain in a reader’s heart, like an old friend. I want readers to love him, be afraid of him, even be angry with him at times but also want them to intimately understand him. His flaws and imperfections make him one of my favorites so far.