Author's Note:

Not all books start out the same way. Not even for the same author. Some of my books have started with an idea, some with a single scene, or others with a "vision" of sorts where I've seen the whole thing, beginning to end. Psion Beta was the second book idea I ever came up with. And it started with a dream that reminded me a lot of X-Men. Two groups of kids with a wide variety of powers were locked in a huge battle in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa. Like I said, a lot like X-Men.

I began writing Psion Beta by jotting down different characters' names. The first two I came up with were Kobe and Kaden. The twins are named after two boys I used to teach while I was in college. I tutored them for so long, they became like little brothers to me. Wanting to remember them somehow, and knowing I wouldn't be teaching them forever, I named my characters after them.

Sammy began with an idea I had of this kid in the middle of Africa who had his own little storyline that would somehow interweave with the main plot: a black kid who ran the streets in a gang and could somehow step in and out of time. Originally, Sammy wasn't even a main character, don't ask me at what point that changed. I don't remember.

Obviously the book ended up a lot different than the original idea, but that's okay. Stories often evolve into something other than what we plan. This became a tale about several kids who all share the same power because of a genetic anomaly transmitted from parents who received a certain type of medication during a "Scourge." I wanted the book to take place in a time that was removed from prejudices about race, so I looked to the future to a time when humanity had become something sacred and placed the novel in that scenario. This is something I truly believe will happen, especially as the world grows more and more close knit through faster travel and greater communication.

I like using names of friends and family throughout my books, and I'll try to share some of that background info with you here so you can see a glimpse into my life.


Psion Beta / Gamma Spoilers Ahead! Consider yourself warned.

Samuel Harris Berhane, Jr.

Sammy is the main character of the story, and is much more special than he realizes.  He comes from an interesting home. In previous drafts of Psion Beta, it is revealed that his father was a very well-known prosecuting lawyer. His mother was a gourmet baker until choosing to stay at home with Sammy after his birth. At age 12, Sammy lost both parents to a double murder. After a few months at a foster home, his foster father suffered a stroke and died.

This was the last straw for Sammy, who ran away before he could be relocated again. Caught stealing, Sammy was sent to the Grinder and escaped with a group of friends who took refuge in an abandoned grocery store. And that's where the tale begins.

I like the name Samuel. In Hebrew, it means either "name of God" or "God has heard."  Sammy has gifts that elevate him above his peers, but don't make his life any easier. The last name, Berhane, is a true African name, but most commonly a female's first name meaning, "my light." I liked it because it sounded like "Brains," his nickname among his friends, but also because of its symbolism.

Gefjon Tvedt - "Jeffie"

Gefjon "Jeffie" Tvedt is a tomboy. Her name comes from the Norse Goddess. She is simultaneously the biggest thorn in Sammy's side and his greatest weakness. Beautiful, fiery, and proud, Jeffie struggles with finding her own identity, much like most of the Betas when they first arrive. One of the things I enjoyed writing about Jeffie is that she's by no means perfect. I'm not surprised when many people tell me they didn't like her at first. That's okay. My first impression of my wife was that she was a snob. It turned out she was just really shy. As you get to know Jeffie more in future books, her behavior toward Sammy in Psion Beta becomes much easier to understand.

Pronounced with a hard "Jah" sound. Not "Heffie."

Brickert Plack

Don't ask me where Brickert's name came from. I don't know. It just popped into my head, but I like it. I think it sums Brickert up pretty quickly. He is one of my favorite characters to write because he reminds me a lot of myself. I was picked on quite a bit in junior high. It was a combination of things: dressing in the weird clothes my mom bought me, having a big mouth, and being Mormon all made me stand out. I'd walk down the hall and someone would flick my neck with rubber bands or put gum in my hair. I hated school, so I can relate to how Brickert felt when Kobe singled him out from day one.

Commander Walter Tennyson Byron

Anyone who knows poetry knows where this name comes from. Walt Whitman, Lord Alfred Tennyson, and Lord George Byron, all considered among the great poets. Commander Byron's appearance was heavily based upon a little known character I loved growing up: Lt. Col. McQueen from Space: Above and Beyond played by James Morrison. He also had a large role in the show 24, which I never watched. I like Commander Byron's approach to running the school: Teach the kids the rules, and let them govern themselves. As we see, things don't always go perfectly.

Albert Hayman

Albert Hayman, if you paid attention at the end of the book, is the first second-generation Psion. His father, Commander Byron, runs Psion Beta Headquarters. His mother, Emily Hayman Byron, was killed in combat when Albert was very young. His character is inspired by a guy I knew in Baltimore named William Weatherford Touchtone Clayton (II, I believe). Quite a name, huh?

Natalia Ivanovich

I love Natalia. She's not particularly bright or athletic, so she doesn't compete well in headquarters. Instead, she's carved out her own niche by keeping track of other Betas' stats and knowing all the gossip around the building.

Kawai Nujola

This name has an interesting backstory (maybe). While I was initially working on Psion Beta, I was also taking Organic Chemistry at BYU. If you've taken an O Chem lab, you know a little bit about infrared spectroscopy. This is a technique used to find out the molecules in a small sample of matter. The substance is coated or combined with Nujol. I liked the name of it, so I used Nujola. Where does Kawai come from? It's a popular keyboard brand.

Pronounced: "Kuh-why"

Kobe Reynolds

Kobe is another character I really enjoy writing. I didn't want to have him be someone who the reader would purely hate. Of course, he comes off that way at first. But if I'd written the book from Kobe's perspective, all you Fellow Bookworms would probably have hated Sammy for the first fifteen chapters.

Pronounced: "Coh-bee"

Kaden Reynolds

The occurrence of twins in literature is not uncommon, especially in fiction for younger audiences. The Sweet Valley series was based around two twin girls in school. The Weasley twins were the comedic relief of the Harry Potter novels. I thought it would be fun to have fraternal (non-identical) twins, since so many twins I've met feel like they're treated like one person. Kaden and Kobe only have one thing in common: they both love games. When I first began writing Psion Beta, it had a prologue that went deeper into the description of how the Reynolds brothers discovered their powers, but that's been long since abandoned, changed to a brief summary given by Al.

Parley Von Pratt

One of my heroes is Parley Pratt, an early Mormon missionary who I've always felt a certain kinship to. To me, he embodies sacrifice and loyalty.

Li Cheng Zheng

Li Cheng Zheng is another hero of mine. He was a young man I met in Baltimore, an illegal immigrant from China, who was a stowaway. I taught Li about God and Christianity. I've never met someone so humble. The character named after him has some similarities in personality.

Ludwig Petrov

I am a huge fan of classical music, particularly Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, W. A. Mozart, and Frederic Chopin. Ludwig seemed like a fun name to play with when I was planning characters in Beta headquarters. I like listening to music while I write. I lean toward music I'm very comfortable with. It makes it easier to let it slip between my ears without me noticing. Occasionally, I'll pick something that matches the mood I'm trying to create. Particularly when I'm writing something dark or violent. I'm a huge Tom DeLonge fan, and listen to all of his music. I also enjoy Danny Elfman, John Williams, Thomas Newman, The Killers, Adiemus, The Beatles, Eminem, Postal Service, Enya ... I could go on.

Maad Rosmir

A careful browse through the Acknowledgement section of Psion Beta will tell you who this character was named after.

Pronounced: "Mod"

Katie "The Queen" Carpenter

The name Katie Carpenter came from a girl I knew at BYU. My wife and I hung out with her and her husband quite a bit until they moved. I needed a name that sounded like a small town American girl. Her name was perfect, and she let me use it. I liked the juxtaposition of how an ordinary name could give rise to someone so ... horrific. In my mind, the Queen embodies the sociopath, someone who has absolutely zero moral restraints, and wastes no time doing exactly what she intends to do. No monologues, no quips, she wants to kill and do it her way. I simply couldn't kill her after one book. I think her character has more ground to uncover.

Doug Corri

Doug Corri is named after Douglas Correy, a friend of mine from dental school. He and I enjoyed bantering back and forth about the Yankees and Dodgers, about what movies were good and bad, and what constituted the grounds of a legitimate sports movie. His favorite phrase was either "You're a moron" or "You're an idiot." A very funny guy. So I killed him in fiction.
 

Thomas and Lara Byron

Thomas Byron is named after one of my best friends, Thomas Barber, also mentioned at the beginning of Psion Beta acknowledgments. His wife, Lara, is named after a good friend L'ara from high school. Thomas quotes several pieces of poetry in Psion Gamma. Here are the pieces he and Lara quote:

Oh me, Oh Life - Walt Whitman

She Walks in Beauty – Lord Byron

There’s a Regret – William Earnest Henley

Henry V Act III Scene I – Sir William Shakespeare

Thinonus – Alfred Tennyson

Invictus - Henley

Strawberry Plack

I know it's strange, but I really want to name one of my daughters Strawberry. My wife is emphatic that this will never happen, so I have turned to fiction to fulfill my wish. With a name like Brickert, Strawberry seemed the perfect name for his sibling, so I used it.

Toad

Toad was the nickname of one of my high school friends. He was huge into Final Fantasy stuff, and even built costumes based on one of the characters (no idea which one.) He also introduced me to the movie The Matrix. Anyway, fun guy, good nickname.

Toad was originally a Psion who Sammy began training as they journeyed north to Wichita. However, in one of my final edits of Gamma, I turned him into an Ultra. It was a suggestion by one of the workshoppers, and it worked better than him being a Psion. Not only did it expand the universe a little, but it also gave Toad something a little more unique about him. I like Toad, but had no way of fitting him into my larger plans for the series. That doesn't mean I killed him off just to kill him off. The lessons Sammy learns from Toad's death will be invaluable in future books.

Commander Victor Wrobel

Commander Wrobel is the antithesis of Sammy. Some readers complaints about Beta focused around the fact that I didn't set up the bad guy enough to have him be the surprise villain. I was quite aware of the issue. For many, many drafts of Psion Beta, no one knew who the traitor was until Sammy woke up inside Wrobel's cruiser near Baikonur (originally his name was Bruhne, but that was too similar to Byron, some said.) I ended up changing that because it made the cliffhanger ending of Beta even more ambiguous.

The reason I felt fine with briefly introducing Wrobel and then revealing him as the villain was because no still knew why. I liked the juxtaposition of slowly revealing a guy who couldn't move past his losses with a kid who's faced even more loss, but has come to rely on others to help him deal with such terrible pain. I couldn't do all that in Beta. So, despite the jarring revelation, I kept it. I think it worked out well in the end with the way Gamma expanded having one principle POV in Beta to several.

Another think I enjoyed about Wrobel is that he has a warped code of honor, and he's not completely unsympathetic. Some of his complaints about Byron's leadership methods aren't unfounded. However, it's easier to fall into the role of the bitter blamer than working through our problems with forgiveness and patience.

Pronounced like Roe-bull. He was in no way connected to nor inspired by Greg Wrubell.

Justice Juraschek

A contest was held after the publication of Psion Gamma. Fans of the book had to review it on Amazon.com to be entered to have their names appear in Psion Delta. Among the winners were: Caleb Dinsmore, Jennifer Kosco, Nicholas Wang, and Justice Juraschek. Justice was given the Magic 8-Ball because the fans dared me to put the object into the book. It was a fun challenge, and I think it worked out well. I enjoyed writing Justice's character. He's obnoxious and frank, but also kinda cool. Very unlike what I picture most Tensais as being: aloof and awkward, like the computer specialist Byron interacts with at "the nerdery."

"Dental School" characters

Many of the characters in Delta were inspired by fellow classmates or other people I met at dental school, which makes sense because I was in dental school when I wrote the book. These characters include: Khani Nguyen, Vladmir Kolomiyets, Travis Schuller, Gabriel Joel, Anna Lukic, and probably more. Anna Lukic is a girl I worked with at the library (where I had time to write). I knew I wanted to give Sammy a tough female honcho, and Anna seemed to fit the bill. While the real Anna is not particularly tough, she likes to think she is.

The fox

I loved writing the fox. Many of my workshoppers wanted me to capitalize his name to Fox, but I couldn't do it. It didn't feel right to me. I liked having it lower case because it seemed more obscure and dis-jarring. When I constructed his character, I debated whether he'd be a Thirteen or a Tensai. I finally settled on Tensai because I already had the perfect Thirteen in Katie Carpenter. She's ruthless, vicious, and pure evil, while the fox is more subtle and simultaneously likable and unlikable.

Other Characters

Questions about these characters and others can be sent to the author on the contact page. Look for answers at the FAQ page.