For as long as I have been out of high school, approaching 16 years, I have written thousands of stories all connected in one big space opera serial. Characters have come and gone. I don't really ascribe loyalty to any character, as how many things can happen to one person in any given life?
Indisputably, the star of the space opera is a female named Ketheri.
She is tall, skinny, with light brown hair (in her elder days) as for most of her life, it was light yellow. She is a history and culture specialist, a military officer, and for the last 100 or so stories, an Admiral in the space navy she serves.
To me, she is as real as anyone. That is not to say I believe she is real, but I know her like I would know a real person. She has a distinct personality and I am comfortable writing about her. I created her almost 12 years ago while mopping the floor of the first store I worked in.
A long time ago, a girl was sweet on me. We were teenagers, but ew, I'm a small guy, I am not going to do it with a big girl. She used to call me every night. We'd talk about a lot of things but gosh, she was a drug counselor and described things I had never thought of before.
The things she told me gelled into how I developed Ketheri originally. She was an abandoned child who grew up in an alien orphanage. She went into the space navy to get away, but was into the club scene where she was introduced to drugs. She used an especially potent crystalline drug like a more powerful ecstasy.
She had her firstborn, a son, in that time, and two years later, at age 26, she overdosed almost fatally.
Her life was saved by naval doctors and she went through a brutal reform under another, earlier, star of my space opera. She grew to hate that person, and got away, establishing her own office dedicated to studying alien cultures and threats to their country.
A lot of things happened along the way. I cannot condense her post-reform life here, it's too long. She is of a race of people who live for a very long time.
She was killed at the beginning of her middle age, and thousands of years later, restored to life based on scan templates and advanced cell restoration. In the time after that she entered her elder days and became harder to write about. I didn't for most of 2009, focusing on Non-Serial Stories, but early this year, I returned to her.
I don't put her in physical situations so much anymore. She is too high up in military circles and she is not like old, but her spirit is. People don't age in my stories. They have cell regen treatments every so often. My own sadness leaches onto Ketheri.
I have future plans. I have never published my stories, mainly because I don't know where to begin in my serial space opera. I used to have a geocities site with many stories on it but I had no proof anyone read them. No interest.
I have two dedicated readers. They help me a lot.
In the future, I will write a far future battle between good and evil, and Ketheri was recruited for the 'good' side a while ago now. At one point, she will leave her human corporeality and join this crusade. I will publish those.
Ketheri is a brave fighter, wise commander, and experienced teacher. She occupies a place in my heart, my own character. She may fill in part of the guilt I feel in not having a great life.
Send me a message if you want to know more about her.
