Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Character "by any other name..."

My mom has been getting exclusive access to my WIP because
1) I still live at home and
2) she, being a retired educator, can be objective to the grammatical mechanics of what I have written.
My mom just loves my character, "Slash" Castellano!

"Slash Castellano - in work mode and suited" (c)

And she isn't the only one. Since creating the character in sixth grade summer school, and with his numerous incarnations after, my canine gangster has impressed and awed numerous people over the years.
Junior high classmates adored him. High school friends thought he was cute/handsome/gorgeous.
I had a fellow-Caribbean girl friend tell me she was jealous of my heroine because she would get to be with my dog mobster! I told her, "But he's a dog! You're human!"
"Who cares? He's still cute!"
I even had a male friend, who was Russian-Jewish, ask for a simple line drawing, so he could have my dog gangster tattooed on his upper arm after he entered the military!

"Slash" has also impressed head-banger classmates, (that's 80s-90s speak for fans of Heavy Metal) because of the obvious nickname association with the guitarist of "Guns-N-Roses"! 
Someone asked me if I wasn't afraid of people assuming I fashioned the character after the famous guitarist, and I said "No!", because I got the nickname from growing up on classic gangster films and mob flicks. In these black-and-white reels, there was always a "Slasher", "Spike", "Whitey", "Smiley", and even a "Gimpy" (I apologize that this particular term offends, but this was an actual nickname for many regular folks, underworld figures, criminals, and even street urchins, back in the day!).
I once watched a 40s Western where the criminal who went around shooting people was named "Slash"!

It is how I see that an unpublished character has affected so many, from differing backgrounds, why I know I have a fully-realized person. I've lived with this character since age 12, and now I'm in my mid-thirties!
My sincerest wish and hope is that, once published, "Slash" Castellano will continue to impress, awe and enliven many more soon-to-be fans!

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