Drillbooks – Behind the Scenes: Tawnee

I’ve been asked several times by readers if they were supposed to dislike the character of Tawnee. Often, they seem a bit hesitant, as if they’re afraid I will take offense to the question.

Then they relax when I tell them that yes, she is meant to be disliked. In fact, the more they hate her, the better I like it.

I don’t know why I wrote her the way that I did, except that so many of the dancers I knew were mercenary little things who would probably sell their mothers if the price was right. Calculating and cold hearted, their only loyalty was to themselves. And… I also thought it would be fun to have a lower-level nemesis to drive my boys crazy.

Like most of the characters in the Drill series, Tawnee is a compilation of people that I knew in my younger days. She is based predominantly on a girl that I worked with at a club called the Magnolia ThunderKitty, in Oklahoma City. I’ll call her Trish, and she had raised bitch to an art form. She had no friends, only coworkers who put up with her because it was in their best interest to do so. Coworkers who were given the cold shoulder as soon as they ceased to be useful to her.

Even the customers found that her affection for them vanished as soon as the credit card was maxed. She would start getting twitchy when the time between drink refills began to lengthen, and she would abruptly leave the table if one of her regulars walked through the door with a fresh Visa in his wallet.

I never understood why the men tolerated this, but I guess it’s not so hard to understand. She was the prettiest girl in the club, with the best figure and the brightest smile. The fact that her talented fingers could perform numerous under-the-table manipulations probably accounted for great deal of her popularity, but none of us were supposed to know that.

There are a couple of differences between Trish and Tawnee. One is that Tawnee, as I see her, is much prettier than Trish.

The other significant difference is that Tawnee has the potential to rise above her nastiness and join the human race. Trish…not so much.

Tawnee, deep down, is actually a nice person. Cynical, yes. Mercenary, absolutely! But deep down, she longs for the intimacy that comes with human connections. She wants love in her life, even if she won’t admit it, but she also wants someone she can connect to, even if just on a friendship level. I think that’s why she’s drawn to the innocence and naivete of Snowbunny. Bun is genuinely sweet, and not a game player. Tawnee knows that whatever piece of her heart is given to Snowbunny will he kept safe from harm.

Tawnee started out as a fairly disposable character, but I’ve grown quite fond of her. Because of this, I’ve decided to keep her around for a while. I’m working on an outline for a future book in the series where circumstances force her and Decker to take a road trip together for mutual benefit. Personally, I can’t think of anything much funnier then the two of them locked in a small car for an extended period of time, trying to accomplish their mission without killing each other along the way. Can you?

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading today’s post. Please join me again on Wednesday, when I will post another one of my favorite recipes.

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