A Man Worth Knowing
Creating Leviticus David Wolfe was a labor of love for me. I wanted to create a man worth getting to know because I hoped to center a series on him and his lady love Trudy Tucker.
I wanted a deeply flawed hero who was struggling to fix himself, even though a voice inside him insists that he is "unfixable." To make him believable, I created a backstory for him of an horrific childhood of abandonment and psychological torture. Only because of his tender heart, brilliant mind, and the support of a spirit guide was he able to become a functioning adult -- albeit a lonely and bitter one.
He believes he's on the right path -- one that he can travel the rest of his life and be perfectly okay with it -- until he joins forces with a auburn-haired, green-eyed, modern day witch. Trudy Tucker. She blows this notion to smithereens. Trudy chips away at his emotional armor and touches the heart of him -- the heart he tries so hard to hide.
I've read reviews of my Mind's Eye books where the readers had a hard time liking Levi (and even Trudy in some cases!), especially in the first book. That's okay with me. Although I fell madly in love with him in THROUGH HIS EYES, I can understand how some readers might be put off by his arrogance and moodiness. This is Levi before Trudy. Unhappy and unsettled, although that's not how he saw himself. He thought he had finally "got it together" and the years of being in therapy had paid off handsomely. But Trudy makes him begin to believe that he could actually love someone and be loved. Happiness is something Levi had stopped seeking or expecting, but Trudy makes him happy. She makes him laugh! It's a revelation for him. Even with her pestering him about his past and demanding more and more from him than he thinks is safe to give, he can't resist her. In her, he finds an open and giving heart and psychic powers that he didn't know were possible. Quite simply, he's in awe of her.
In the second book -- THOUGH HIS TOUCH -- there were fewer readers complaining about Levi. However, in a few cases, readers thought I spent too much time developing the relationship between Trudy and Levi and not enough on the psychic detective plot, but this is an error I embrace. These two are complicated people and they are embarking on a relationship neither one of them anticipated. In book #2 of the Mind's Eye series, they need to navigate the new course they've charted.
Hopefully, in the third book --THROUGH HIS HEART -- readers will love Levi like Trudy and I do. They will understand that he has a lot of issues to sort through, but that he's willing to do whatever it takes to "fix" himself and be the man he wants to be for Trudy. As for Trudy, I haven't even scratched the surface of her yet! If all goes well, I will give her the attention she deserves in the next two or three books.
For now, I'm happily in love with my hero -- every flawed part of him. And isn't that the way it should be?
