Monday, 29 January 2018

Character Interview: Gabriel Templar from Reluctant Angels by Dodie Hamilton




Today in our special character interview we meet, Gabriel Templar from Reluctant Angels by Dodie Hamilton


                             
1.              Introduce yourself and tell us where can we meet you?

‘Hi, there! I am Sergeant G H Templar United States Marine Corps. My full name is Gabriel Howarth Templar. I was named after my Great Granpappy who was named after his Granpappy and so on right the way down the line maybe even to the original Gabriel but you can call me Gabe, most folks do As for that I guess you could drop the Sergeant seein’ as I ain’t in the Corps now. I give it up in ’46 on account of the Love of my aching heart needing me more.
You’ll find me in two or three books now, the latest bein’ Reluctant Angels by Dodie Hamilton.’


2.       Why are you in this book?
‘In this book I am here for one thing and one thing only, to protect the woman I love,  Adelia Challoner, my Other Self, the woman I will love through this life and all before and all after.

3.       Would you describe yourself as a likeable person?
‘I don’t know about likeable.  I’ve been hurt in the past and not that easy to get on with. Can an Angel be likeable? When you start out an ignorant kind of guy, barely able to sign your name, it ain’t easy. You’re all the while watching your back thinking folks are laughin’ at you, and they mostly are, even your own Pa. Not all human beings are likeable. Some human beings are trash. Bobby Rourke for one, with his good looks and his quiff! I could never like him but then my remit is not to like or be likeable. It is to love.’


4.       What would you say are your strengths and your weaknesses?
My strengths as a man are my love of animals and most other creatures that walk the earth. My strengths as an angel are a mystery to me. I don’t dare think about that since I have seen that I can give life and I can take it away.
My weakness is the worst weakness of all, Pride. The Holy Book says it, ‘pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall.’ I am both of those things, Haughty and Proud, which when you think about it is a damned foolish way to be for an Angel to behave and I ain’t even a novice yet. I got a plenty lives to go through before I get my wings, but then maybe not, Charlie says it, ‘one act of selfless love is enough to give the wings of an eagle,’ which sounds okay, except I never wanted to be an angel. I wanted to be a man and to do what men do, to love, and laugh and be happy.’


5.       What would you say are your strengths and your weaknesses?
‘Dodie Hamilton did her best. Sometimes she got me, other times no, but then as I said, I am a Becoming Angel and I have to grow through four, maybe five books. She has to seek me out and learn about me just as I have to learn myself.  Semper Fi. I am tryin’. Tryin’ is all you can ever do.’



Also by Dodie Hamilton...




3 comments:

Eileen Schuh: said...

The voice of an angel... Gabriel's story sounds fascinating indeed.

Helen Hollick said...

the TBR mountain is growing....

Pauline Barclay said...

I met Gabriel in Second Chance and there is something very engaging about him.