I would like to dedicate this post to my ‘pet’ Amazon troll, since one of the accusations made by this lovely individual was plagiarism. My co-authors and I refute this accusation. It says it all that the individual refuses to engage in any interaction other than leaving relatively anonymous reviews against my books.

First that accusation. The name of the first character created for the Diaries of the Cwn Annwn was Gavril Negrescu. In my original outline for him, he was born in North Wales, his identity was based on the Welsh legend of the Cwn Annwn. I had asked myself why there was a stereotype involved in some legends. For example, Hellhounds were all sired by the Devil, and are loners who exist only to kill. I will address Hellhounds in another post, since that is the basis of my second creation: Fane Anghelescu. Both of these characters were original, because I took the basic legend, and added my own twist.

Such is the way that I write that I needed a model, a picture to inspire me to create Gavril’s stories. I used the Hungarian model, Andrei Andrei. To my mind, the sheer range of facial expressions in his photographs gave me the emotional range which I felt was essential.

So, who was Gavril Negrescu? Born in ‘the shadow of Cadair Idris’ in North Wales, his birth name was Gabriel Black. In his youth, he knew such figures in history as King Henry VII of England, along with his sons, Prince Arthur and Prince Henry, who would become King Henry VIII. I retained the part of the legend which had the Cwn Annwn in service to the Celtic Goddess of the Underworld, Mallt-y-Nos, but then my early interest in Greek legend came into play.

In Greek legend, the Underworld has two distinct elements: the Elysian Fields to where the heroes received their rewards and Tartarus, where those who had committed evil acts where punished for eternity. To me, it seemed reasonable that there must be some way of determining who was a hero and who was evil. Egyptian legend has a similar approach. So, I created my version of the Cwn Annwn, where Gavril  leads a pack of ‘judges’, who serve the Goddess by determining the truth of the soul. Those who are guilty are ‘harvested’, a euphemism for ‘killed’ and their souls damned for eternity. The innocent, often the victims of the guilty, receive their reward in ‘Paradise’ bearing in mind that each individual’s idea of Paradise is slightly different.

But there was a twist, which was where my version of Hellhounds came into play. However, I shall address that later.

I like a good romance, so that had to be covered in how I designed the character of Gavril Negrescu. Yes, it may be a bit stereotypical, but I liked the fact that everything in life has balance, and that was where finding his Mate would come into play. By definition, Gavril would encounter some pretty nasty individuals, so he would need balance. He would need the light provided by his Mate. However, finding her, and it was a ‘her’ for Gavril, was the trick. Eventually, he found her in the Carpathians, and this is why he is known through the books as Gavril, rather than Gabriel, because his Mate used the Romanian version of his name, since it was her birth tongue. Again, there was picture inspiration, in a lovely series of photographs done by Andrei Andrei and Gabriela Iliescu in a shoot by Thomas Synnamon called ‘Tenderness’. I suggest you check out the link, because you will see what I mean about emotion: Tenderness by Thomas Synnamon

Then, I needed to develop the character of Gavril. I had come across too many instances where the Alpha of a ‘shifter’ pack was abusive in some way. But Gavril was born in a time when being a leader meant that the lives of your followers, in his case his Pack, were in his hands. Add to that his ability to read the souls of those around him, and the chances of him being abusive was remote in the extreme. But at the same time, he was not going to be a passive wimp either. This is a male who was capable of standing up to Kings. Thus we have the beginnings of what would become “Alpha”, the story of Gavril and Aaleahya, his Mate.

After legends, my other passion is history, courtesy of my late Latin teacher Teresa Kiersnowska. Again, though, I wanted to pick up the less well-known bits of history, hence Gavril and Aaleahya’s story being based largely in an area of Eastern Europe. Most assume that all the ‘Eastern Bloc’ countries were overrun by the Nazis in the Second World War, but after talking to a Romanian doctor at a business meeting, I realised that this wasn’t always the case. There was also the Nazi regime’s fascination with the paranormal and towards the closing stages of the war, in anything that might give them an advantage.

So, take a character who has the need to care for others almost bred into his DNA, and the ideas were spinning merrily. My day job also means that I drive a lot, and when I am out on the road is when my plotting mind takes over, so that driving 250 miles doesn’t seem so bad.

The key thing was that Gavril was an entirely original character, made up from my own take on several legends: Greek, Celtic and Egyptian, to name a few. A simple Google search reveals that no one else has used the idea of the Cwn Annwn. A search on Amazon demonstrates that there is a band of that name, but that’s all. So, my dear ‘pet’ troll. Take your accusation of plagiarism and place it where the sun don’t shine.

The next installment will be about another favourite character of mine: Bran Cadwgan, one of two Betas of the Cwn Annwn. And yes, there is another male model involved: Angel Macho.

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LINKS TO THE BOOKS IN THE DIARIES OF THE CWN ANNWN

“Bound”, Volume 1 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn
Amazon.com $0.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016TQFBNY
Amazon.co.uk £0.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016TQFBNY
Smashwords.com £0.00 (Free): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/589130