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The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist's Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alphabetical order, of course!

Today’s character is extra special, because Jan Butterworth is not only a character in The Wall of Night series, she’s also a real person whom I know and esteem from several NZ Natcons and through SFFANZ (Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand) — as well as giving her name to the very first Tuckerization character in any of my books.

A Tuckerization, made famous by an early SF author, Wilson Tucker, is when an author uses an individual’s name for a character in a book. I’ve been offering a Tuckerization opportunity as part of the publication celebrations for each of the WALL series books—and Jan’s was the name drawn from the very first Sorting Hat, when HEIR was published.

I managed to work her full name into The Gathering of the Lost, in a way I feel works with the story and the worldbuilding. I hope readers, and Jan herself, agree. The girl below is named Jan, of course, although that detail is revealed a little later in the chapter. 🙂

UK/AU/NZ

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Jan Butterworth:  a girl from the village of Butterworth, in Southern Aralorn

“She rode into Butterworth as the poplar leaves became gold tinted. The village had an alehouse as well as a forge, with a crumbling stone tower on the edge of the nearby chestnut woods. “Although only owls live there now,” the girl who was sweeping the alehouse step told Malian, before bringing her a tankard of cool brown beer and filling the trough beside the step with water for the cob. “Shrines of Serru, is it?” She shooed away the hens that had come pecking around the door. “There’s none here, nor as far as Thorpe, from what I hear.” She gazed beyond the dusty yard and the hens to the nearby chestnut woods. “You could try the Ara-fyr, although—” She crinkled up her eyes, her tone growing apologetic, as if she feared disappointing her visitor. “They may not have shrines to Serru or even Imul. They’re uncanny strange in their ways.”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 53 — The Solitary Tower