Character Spotlight ~ Don Hoesel's Jack Hawthorne & Esperanza Habilla

Today the spotlight shines on....................................Jack Hawthorne & Espy Habilla


I loved every minute I spent reading Don Hoesel's debut novel, Elisha's Bones. Equally appealing to men and women, especially if you love adventure and like reading outside of the traditional box of many Christian novels.

Don is spot on in my opinion on who could play the roles for flippant Jack and feisty Espy. Enjoy the look behind the scenes and buy the book!

Thanks, Don:~

Jack Hawthorne

Brief physical description

Jack is 5'1” – 6’, dark-haired and perpetually scruffy. No matter what he wears, he always has that slightly rumpled look. At 37, he’s still in pretty good shape—maybe 180 lbs—but he has a bum knee that makes fieldwork a bit harder than it once was.

Actor/famous person who might resemble him

Paul Blackthorne

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: Jack is rarely ruffled—although that probably has more to do with his inability to take anything seriously than it does any real strength of character. He also has a pretty good sense of humor—although that’s likely another indicator that his chief coping mechanism is avoidance or deflection. In fact, when you get right down to it, most of Jack’s strengths are really well cultivated character flaws.

Weaknesses: Where to begin… His most fulfilling relationship is with his cactus. Some would say he drinks and smokes too much. He’s forgetful about paying his debts. He’s flippant. And when the present-day part of the book starts, he’s disengaged from just about everyone.

Quirk (if any)

He loves cigars and bourbon. The former, especially, seem to serve as markers for the most important events in his life. And he has this nasty habit of owing money to lots of people all over the world—although he prides himself in not owing money to more than one person in any general geographic region.

Your inspiration for the character

I've always been attracted to the skeptic—to someone who has a difficult time believing unless he can see it with his own eyes. Often, skeptics can be very driven people—driven to search for the answers themselves because they’re not content to let others do the legwork for them. But Jack is a skeptic in a holding pattern. After a tragic event in Egypt five years earlier he’s cut himself off from his past and has settled into a comfortable rut. Over the course of the book, we’re really watching Jack recover something he’s lost. It’s that journey toward restoration that I really wanted to tap with Jack.

Esperanza (Espy) Habilla

Brief physical description

Esperanza is 5’7, dark-haired and dark eyed, and light olive skinned. She seldom has a hair out of place, even when bullets are flying and car bombs are going off. She’s a year younger than Jack: 36. And she’s keeping her weight a secret.

Actor/famous person who might resemble her

Sofia Vergara

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: Esperanza is brilliant. She speaks more than a dozen languages and it’s possible she knows more about South American history than anyone in the world.

She's adventurous, comfortable in just about any environment, and can hold her liquor as well as anyone. Espy’s chief strength, though, is her ability to cross the globe with Jack despite the baggage between them. This is due in equal measure to both her determination to see this thing through and her ability to forgive (however grudgingly) the wrong he did to her years ago.

Weaknesses: Espy has a quick temper—and something of a violent streak, although most of that violence is aimed at Jack.

Quirk (if any)

She almost always slips back into Spanish when cursing. And she has to move her lips when reading Russian.

Your inspiration for the character

When I realized that I wanted to have Jack traveling with his ex-fiancée, I wanted to make her someone who could stand up to him—someone equal or superior to him in just about every way. She doesn’t put up with his sarcasm, nor does she let him redirect her when she wants to discuss something he’s uncomfortable with. She knows all of his tricks, which doesn’t let him get away with much. But Espy also knew Jack before he became the flippant, detached college professor—so she’s one of the things that forces Jack to deal with his past.

Background to the story

There were a number of factors that brought Elisha’s Bones into being:

1. I’m at the right age to have grown up with the Indiana Jones idea to write a book about a rough and tumble archaeologist was always there somewhere.

2. At the time that I was searching for my next book idea, it was with an eye toward finding something that was a better fit for the CBA than the other four books I’d written.

3. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (2003) had sold more than 60 million copies by 2006, with the movie coming out that year.

4. The fourth Indiana Jones movie came out in 2008

So what it comes down to is that I was able to indulge my inner child by writing a book geared toward the CBA and shamelessly riding the coattails of both a best-selling author and a popular movie series.

Fabulous, Don ~ I really enjoyed your insight to the characters. Hope we get to read more about Jack and Espy sometime down the track ;)

On Monday I will be spotlighting the delightful P J Sugar from Susan May Warren's newest release, Nothing But Trouble. Come and meet the heroine for Susie's next series!

Relz Reviewz Extras

Review of Elisha's Bones

Visit Don's website

Buy Don's books at Amazon or Koorong