Interview with a character: Dan Ellison

Posted Mar 17 2015, 1:00 am

Welcome to pattyblount.com. If this is your first visit here, I write mostly young adult contemporary novels and also have a grown-up romance called Goodness and Light available, too. In case you missed last week’s blog, here’s how you can find author Lillian Marek, whose hero Lucien Chambertin is a French adventurer (or is he?).  

In this hero interview, I’d like to introduce you to Dan Ellison, the main character from my novel, SEND, which was released in 2012. Dan remains my favorite character. He was, after all, the first to be published. But it’s more than that. He’s so…real. I know where all his scars are. I know where he’s ticklish. I know how his muscles curve.

The muscle’s not for show. It’s for survival. An annoyed voice interrupts us. 

Oh. Hello, Dan. Dan’s a tall, big young man with sandy hair and stormy eyes. 

“Yeah, hey. So, um, the first thing you should know is Dan Ellison’s not my real name. It’s Ken. Kenneth James Mele. I was named Ken after my grandfather and James after my father. But I changed it. Legally. I did it to protect everybody. My parents. My grandfather. Me. But it hasn’t helped. People always find out what I did. And then we have to start over. Again.”

Dan, tell us about your deepest fear. Have you ever told anybody what it is? Is there anyone you’d never tell?

“Oh, no. I’m not afraid of anything…” He laughs once, a short breath of air. His eyes are anything but quiet and when he catches me looking, he closes them. “Just…you know…ruining lives. Liam Murphy’s. Mine. His family. My family. I’m afraid that I’m not, well, normal. And that I never will be again. I try to hide it, try so hard to pretend everything’s fine, everything’s just perfect so that my parents don’t find out. I’ve already put them through too much.” 

Is there anybody who’s made a positive influence on you?

“A positive influence… 

… 

…

I think you have to be open to positivity. And for a long time, I wasn’t. Yeah, there have been a few people who inspired me to keep going, to keep trying, even when I knew I was beyond help. My dad. My dad’s the best. He never turned his back. He never looked at me with disappointment in his eyes and God knows I sure gave him reasons to.”

Where do you go when you want time by yourself?

“By myself? Did you forget about Kenny?” He laughs out loud for a long moment. “I’m never exactly what I’d call by myself but that’s okay. I live with it. I like to run on the beach. The shore is where I grew up. I love the ocean. I spend as much time on the beach as I can and somehow, even I find it peaceful.” 

Do you have secrets?

He laughs harder. “Secrets? What, the fake name isn’t enough? That I might be crazy isn’t enough? Okay, okay, a secret. Let’s see. I killed somebody. Oh, it wasn’t murder. It was an accident. But the thing is, that doesn’t matter. Kid’s still dead. And it’s my fault. So I changed my name. I moved to one new town after another. Because even though it was a stupid accident, people never look at you the same way again once they find out.”

If you could ask for one thing, what would it be? 

“That’s easy,” he replies with a grin. “I wish for a TARDIS. A Time-Turner. A DeLorean. Hell, I’ll take a malfunctioning transporter. Anything that would let me go back in time to eighth grade and prevent me from clicking that damn Send button. Can you make that happen? You’re a freakin’ writer, aren’t you? Rewrite my story. Make me good again.” That bright grin does little to hide the torture I see in his eyes.

Okay, thanks for answering my questions, Dan. 

“That’s it? You’re not gonna change a word, are you?” He says with a glare.

Dan, this interview’s over. 

“No, it’s not. It’s never over.”

I’m sorry.

“Sorry. Yeah, I get that a lot. I’m going for a run.” He jumps to his feet, strides out the door, slamming it behind him. 

Wow. Um, sorry about that. Dan is pretty intense. If you’d like to know more about Dan and what he did, pick up a copy of SEND. Thanks for reading. Be sure to check out next week’s interview with author Debora Dale! Meet Debora’s hero, small-town restaurant owner, Jake Marlon, in her romantic suspense novel, Tears before Love. 

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