In order to help me keep track of who was who in the fictional Allred family I created, I needed to create a guide of characters. That way, I would avoid inconsistencies in names, ages, and number of children, etc. from one book to the next. After creating the guide of characters, I made a personal profile (see "Brady Allred" post) for any character who was featured in the first novel - the Narrows Escape.
I considered adding a complete guide of characters at the beginning of the book, but decided against it after adding the mystery subplot in one of the later drafts. It would have compromised one of the twists at the end of the book. In any case, I decided to add this "Allred family" version here for those who are interested:
Allred family Guide of characters
Devin Allred - The oldest of the three DTB cousins, age 12
Trey Allred - The middle cousin of the DTBs, age 12
Brady Allred - The youngest of the three DTB cousins, age 11
Gil Allred - Grandfather of Devin, Trey, and Brady
Edna Burk Allred - Grandmother of the DTBs
Darrell Allred - Brady's father, the oldest of Gil and Edna Allred's five children
Doris Allred - Brady's mother
Lindsey Allred - Brady's sister, age 9
Jared Allred - Brady's brother, age 7
Christina Allred - Brady's youngest sister, age 2
Marvin Allred - Trey's father, the second of Gil and Edna's children
Sandy Allred - Trey's mother
Amber Allred - Trey's older sister, age 15
Liz Allred - Trey's younger sister, age 10
Arthur Allred - Devin's father, the third of Gil and Edna's children
Jen Allred - Devin's mother
Shane Allred - Devin's older brother, turns 14 (7/20)
Kendal Allred – Devin’s younger sister, age 8
Olivia and Emily Allred – Devin’s twin sisters, age 3
Shannon Clark - Fourth child of Gil and Edna
Rob Clark – Shannon's husband
Chantal Clark – Rob and Shannon's daughter, age 6
Wesley Clark – Rob and Shannon's son, age 4
Jimmy Clark – Rob and Shannon's son, age 7 mo.
Randy Allred - Fifth, and youngest child of Gil and Edna
Angie Allred – Randy’s wife
Melissa Allred – Randy and Angie's daughter, age 23 mo.
Although there are definite correlations between this fictional family, and the real Allred Family, those who are familiar with the family will notice that there are also some differences. I purposely didn't have a direct correlation between family members and fictional members for two reasons: 1) It is a fictional family, dealing with fictional events (despite loose connections to reality). I wanted the freedom of letting the characters develop their own personalities. 2) My extended family is huge. Even as it is, most family members never appear by name in the book so that readers don't get confused about who is who. By cutting the number of kids in each family, I was able to retain the essence of a large family, while still keeping the cast of characters somewhat manageable. Naturally, I hope nobody is offended by the omission of "their character" since the intent of the book was to focus on the DTB Cousins and their adventure, not give a family history.
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