Friday Factoid is a weekly blog feature where I’ll be sharing a little bit of background behind something from one of my books: ideas, characters, environments, pieces of research, you name it, it’s all fair game for the Friday Factoids! If you have a specific question, feel free to email me at jrfrontera@gmail.com (comments are still being finnicky)! What will be featured this week? Read on to find out…
About the character Redbeard!
That’s right! Today we’re going to talk about the fabulously fun space pirate character known to all who love and fear him as… Redbeard!
He doesn’t have a last name.
Well, he might. But if he does, I don’t know what it is yet. So let’s just move on…
Redbeard features prominently in my co-written funny space opera series Starship Ass, currently in progress. The prequel to the series, Escape from Aresh Five, hit Amazon in March, and Book 1, Of Donkeys, Gods, and Space Pirates, is available right this very moment for pre-order, with a launch date of May 28th, 2019!
Whoohoo!
So why are we talking about Redbeard today? Well, for one, he’s one of my very favorite characters in the series. Granted, this series has a lot of favorite characters… it’s hard to choose one over the other! But Redbeard is definitely up there at the top. And for two, because he’s a space pirate. And for three, because it turns out the inspiration for his character has quite suddenly skyrocketed in popularity very recently due to the last season of a popular tv show finally starting…
So why a space pirate?
I think the real question is actually… why NOT a space pirate?!?!
But for real. People generally tend to really like pirates. Mostly because pirates are so romanticized in this day and age. Trust me, I also once wanted to write a historical pirate novel, so I did a bunch of research on pirates. And, well… they really aren’t so great.
They didn’t used to be so great, either. They’ve never really been as awesome and dashing and swashbuckling as our popular media has made them out to be.
Darnit.
But let’s ignore the reality for awhile here and just focus on how cool pirates seem, okay? 😀 Ah, yes, that’s better!
And like everything else that’s fun and cool, it becomes even more fun and cool when you put it in space!!! (No really, it’s true!) Thus… space pirates!
But also space pirates were needed for the actual plot.
This is also true. We didn’t just decide to have space pirates because pirates are awesome and most people love pirates. We also needed space pirates to make the basic plot work.
We needed the main character, Harry (the donkey), to be abducted by someone. Well, space pirates really wouldn’t have much initial interest in a herd of space donkeys… but space livestock herders might, since that’s what they’d sell at a marketplace for cash.
Except, following around a crew of livestock herders isn’t the most fun story idea ever (*pauses to write down idea for book involving a cattle drive in space because actually that does sound fun*), so we decided the spaceship carrying all the donkeys should be attacked and boarded by….
You guessed it — space pirates! (Who aren’t super thrilled when they discover what cargo their target was hauling…)
This gives us a nice bit of action for the beginning of the book, plus a cool intro for our space pirate crew!
So what’s so special about Redbeard?
When my co-author Ethan and I were brainstorming the space pirate characters, we knew we wanted to have one that was the quintessential pirate. One character who was the stereotypical pirate, who could have been at home on the sea with a peg leg and a hook hand rather than on a spaceship in space.
Just to keep things lively and interesting.
And to stand apart from the more tech-savvy, suave, calm and collected members of our space pirate crew.
Thus, we invented Redbeard.
We envisioned him as a giant of a man, with wild, matted red hair and an equally wild and unkempt red beard. He’d be loud and inclined to violence, with little patience for anything or anyone standing in his way of whatever he happened to want at that moment. But also… he’d be loyal to those he respected, and fiercely protective toward those he counted as friends.
We hadn’t named him yet, so for a placeholder name, we labeled him Redbeard. Obvious, but it worked.
And then… it stuck. Hah!
No other name seemed to do him justice after that. And so, Redbeard he remained.
What was Redbeard’s inspiration?
Technically, we created the character of Redbeard before we actually “cast” him. But, as tends to happen while I’m creating book characters, as I flesh them out, a real person tends to pop into my head.
And as a Game of Thrones fan, this one seemed only too fitting….
That’s right!!! If I could cast an ideal Redbeard, I’d totally go for the actor who plays Tormund! He’s given that bit character so much life that I swear the series writers expanded his role just because he did such a great job of it.
Tormund’s wild hair and beard and intense expressions also fit our Redbeard perfectly. As does his questionable hygiene and cluelessness in how to woo the ladies.
Of course, Redbeard is bigger in stature than Tormund, still. And his hair and beard is actually a bit wilder. And honestly, his hygiene is even worse, to our poor dear pirate captain’s dismay… but it’s a close match!
I absolutely love the character of Tormund, and it’s fun to imagine him cast as Redbeard in the crazy adventures of Starship Ass!
What do readers say about Redbeard?
Judging from reader reactions to the prequel Escape from Aresh Five, they got a kick out of reading about Redbeard just as much as we did over writing him! Here are a few of things they’ve said about the big red-headed space pirate:
…the double act of Redbeard and Kitt 10 is so… Well, you’ll find out for yourself.
— Kay Smillie, 5 star Amazon review
Other things I liked about this story are the names of the characters: Tone E Robbins, pirate leader; Kitt 10, Cass’s furry companion; Spiner, the android; and Redbeard… Oops, we can’t win them all, can we?
Love the Redbeard character.
— EA, 5 star Amazon review
I want more of Cass, Redbeard, Kitt and Spiner. Pirates make interesting characters, and girl pirates are even better! I wonder if there will be a romance between Cass and Red, and what future adventures await them?
— Kindle customer, 5 star Amazon review
And my very favorite description of Redbeard of all, also from Kay Smillie in her 5 star review:
Redbeard was the stereotype pirate-ey person that you wouldn’t go near if you were on fire and he had the only extinguisher in the world.
LOL! Just absolutely love it! Of course, the best thing about Redbeard is the fact there’s another side to him entirely that only those who know him best get to see! To see that side of him for yourself, you’ll just have to read the books!
Want to know more about Redbeard?
Feel free to ask any other burning questions in an email to jrfrontera@gmail.com or on my Facebook page (since comments still aren’t working), or you can catch up on all of Redbeard’s recent adventures in the prequel story Escape from Aresh Five or book 1 of the series, Of Donkeys, Gods and Space Pirates!
We hope you enjoy Redbeard’s antics as much as we loved writing them!
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