Just who is the 13-year-old boy at the center of my debut novel?

Corey Calhoun isn’t the type of person who demands attention. If you were with him in a crowded room, you might miss him entirely. If he was in your class, you’d probably forget his name. He is cloaked in invisibility as he himself put it. 

But he has defining characteristics that make him special. These are the things that have made him a perpetual part of my everyday thoughts. He is loyal in a way that borders on stubbornness. Once he cares for someone he refuses to let go. He is introspective. He has a vibrant, bustling interior life, while remaining vacuously solemn on the exterior. He is romantic. There are things he envisions for his life, an ideal version that he pursues. And deviations from that vision are incredibly disruptive. 

But, it might be the things that he’s not that make him such an endearing protagonist. He’s not fearless. Far from it, actually. He is ruled by anxiety and persistent concern. He doesn’t have everything figured out, but he also knows he doesn’t. He definitely isn’t the type of person that demands attention. He is just fine operating in the background. 

It’s what Corey wants more than anything that really defines him. He has an undying need to feel understood. That is the lifeblood that feeds his purpose. It is what he pursues throughout the novel with an unrelenting drive. With it, he is enlivened. Without it, he is incomplete. 

When I started writing Corey, I didn’t know him yet. It wasn’t until I was 25% of the way through my novel that he finally introduced himself to me. When I found out he was actually me, it floored me. Although I don’t know why as I look back. It couldn’t have been more painfully apparent. 

Corey Calhoun might not be your prototypical hero. He isn’t valiant, or lionhearted. He isn’t loved and admired by everyone. He is lonely and looking for connection. But this is exactly how Corey crawls into your heart and subtly warms it until you can’t help me adore him. At least that’s how I feel about him, but then again, I might be biased. 

If you’ve read Latchkey Lost, I’d love to know what you think about Corey? If you’ve haven’t, I’d suggest you allow Corey to introduce himself to you. He might surprise you.