Character Spotlight ~ Courtney Walsh's Campbell & Luke

Courtney Walsh's debut novel, A Sweethaven Summer, the first in the Sweethaven trilogy, is now available from Summerside Press.

Synopsis

Suzanne's daughter, Campbell, journeys there in search of answers to her questions about her mother's history.

Suzanne's three friends-Lila, Jane, and Meghan-were torn apart by long-buried secrets and heartbreak. Though they haven't spoken in years, each has pieces of a scrapbook they made together in Sweethaven.Suzanne's letters have lured them all back to the idyllic lakeside town, where they meet Campbell and begin to remember what was so special about their long Sweethaven summers. 

As the scrapbook reveals secrets one by one, old wounds are mended, lives are changed, and friendships are restored-just as Suzanne intended.

Enjoy meeting Campbell & Luke

Brief physical description

Campbell Carter is in her mid-20's. She's tall(ish) with cropped blonde hair. She's somewhat lanky, with long fingers which don't resemble her mother's. The differences between them contribute to
Campbell's need to find out who her father is. There's a naivete about Campbell. She's wide-eyed and doesn't expect Sweethaven to have the impact on her that it does.

Luke Barber is in his late-20's with dancing green eyes and a kind smile. He's tall, muscular and a little disheveled. Sandy blonde hair that's always perfectly mussed. Luke chose to come back to
Sweethaven because he'd learned to appreciate the peace of a simpler life.


Actor/famous person


It's so funny you ask this because the other night, I said to my husband "I can't think of a single actress who would play Campbell in a movie." When I was writing her, I dug around for a long time trying to find a photo of what she looked like in my head and came up empty! I wish I was a better artist, I'd draw her for you. Luke, on the other hand...this one is easy! He looks a lot like Scott Speedman did in the show "Felicity". I was always a huge fan of that show, and Ben Covington stole my heart. Luke is a little more outgoing than Ben was though. But the hair the smile...those are largely Ben-inspired. (Now I have to go break out the Felicity box set!)


Strengths and weaknesses

Campbell is very passionate, and a little bit stubborn. (I see those both as strengths.) Because she gets her mind set on something, she perseveres until she achieves it. However, she doesn't trust people easily. She makes her mind up about them quickly and tends to keep everyone at an arm's length. She walks through life expecting people to let her down. That's why the women (and men) of Sweethaven are so important to her. They show her she doesn't have to live that way.


Luke is, above all, kind. One of his greatest strengths is how much he cares for other people, especially Campbell (at least as the story goes on.) He's grounded and "safe", and people are naturally drawn to him. He is, however, a man. And men don't share their feelings as readily as women. Luke tends to keep some of his own issues bottled up, though you'll see that more in books two and three.


Quirk (if any) 

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Campbell cracks her knuckles when she gets nervous. (This is something I do.)


Your inspiration for the character

Well, I've already come clean about Ben Covington (swoony-Ben, I like to call him)...and Campbell is, I think, a younger version of me. The issues she has really are my issues (not the part about her father, but her weaknesses are mine and some of her strengths are mine.) I made her a photographer because it's something I'm interested in and I wanted her to have an artistic tie to her

mother, who was a painter.

Background to the story

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A couple of years ago, our family was given the gift of a weekend in a friends' cottage on Lake Michigan. They told us about the little community and how the cottages--some of them--had been there for generations, and they're often kept in the families. Houses passed down through the years like Downton Abbey on a smaller, beachier scale. I fell in love with that idea, and I've always wanted a spot where we go every year on vacation, with our "vacation friends". A place where families gather and do all the small town things that make a small town so wonderful--festivals and fireworks and parades.

My imagination really took off from there, and I wanted to integrate the scrapbook because scrapbooking is something that's always been so important to me. It was such a natural fit in a town with so much history.

If Sweethaven were a real place, I think I'd have a hard time not moving there!

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