The Spirit Cop takes charge in today's Walking Shadows

The always beautiful Finch
Linden inspired Alli's last name.
Image credit: Aaron Durand.

A new (albeit shorter) chapter takes off again over at Walking Shadows this time centering around our resident Spirit Cop, Alli Finch. She's still stuck towing around the mysterious Kaihime who is being none too forthcoming about her origins as they seek out the rest of the crew.

One of my goals when I created the initial six members of the Walking Shadows cast was to give them all different powers and origins. In the process, Alli turned out to be the one that doesn't really have super powers at all, just a deep connection to the mystic. She can communicate with ghosts and see into their realm on occasion. It is a power I have only used sparingly in previous chapters of Walking Shadows, but it will come into greater play as Book Three continues. The mysteries surrounding the cast will take a decidedly supernatural twist as the back stories of two more of our cast come out in the weeks ahead.

I conceived of my Spirit Cop long before an all female Ghostbusters reboot was announced, but now she seems almost obvious. But Alli was also my take on a fully realized female lead able to stand on her own far more than the much more vulnerable Marilyn or Rosa. Inspired by a handful of punky females I have met over the years, her last name came from the gorgeous model Finch Linden, just one of several beautiful women that inspired my creation of Alli. I am sure I will cover several more in the weeks ahead, especially as I debut the Casting Call feature on Walking Shadows in the near future.

So go check out Alli at Walking Shadows, or if you haven't been reading, go back to the beginning and get started on the entire saga.

Not celebrating Columbus Day

Let's be honest. We don't agree on a lot of things in this country. But pretty much everyone that isn't a member of the Knights of Columbus can agree that Christoforo Colombo, the man we call Christopher Columbus, wasn't a nice man. He may have discovered the New World and opened it up for trade, but he also was a known murderer, a slaver and a man more than willing to bend Biblical verse to encourage his sick desires. He was a man with a love of money, but who could never quite find it or the magical realm of gold he believed existing on Haiti or the surrounding islands. But we still celebrate him, rhyme about how "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue". And we have a whole day devoted to him.

Now honestly, Columbus Day is pretty much an excuse to give state and federal employees a day off and for businesses to throw sales. But that doesn't mean it is a good thing that we celebrate it. But despite a ton of people really not liking Columbus, his day doesn't change and few cities and states have made any effort to change it. (Seattle is a noted exception with the awfully-named Indigenous Peoples Day.) A lot of this is probably the influence of the two million members of the Knights of Columbus worldwide. While I consider the Catholic organization a great giver of time and money to many amazing causes, I also dislike their unending need to protect the good name of a slaver and murderer.