Shout Outs

I had been repeatedly warned that using contemporaries in my stories was skating on thin ice.  By doing so, I was leaving myself open to law suits, which in the United States is no trivial matter.  However like most of my impulsive endeavors, I failed to heed this sound advise.  In today's post, I chose to give shout-outs to three individuals whose names and likenesses became character models.  So far, neither they nor their descendants have initiated legal proceedings.  Probably, because they didn't believe I would actually finish my project.

Korin Meshanko

Korin Meshanko was a chemical engineer employed by my old organization.  She was the ultimate scripted female who could hold her own in a male dominated profession or remain unfazed in an Outback pub.  During a trip to Australia in 1988, I passed the arduous flight enthralling her for 36 hours outlining my ideas for a book based on my family story.  For a counterstroke, Korin regaled me with the history of grandmother's life as an immigrant from Lithuania.

Korin enjoying a brew with Mavis and Spuds in Pimba SA

Korin's physical attributes, personality, and stories inspired the framework upon which I constructed the fictional Korin and Marko's shipboard romance while transiting the Atlantic.

* * * 

Korin would stand alone by the rail watching the sea, her blond hair tangled from the wind.  She did not wear her hair braided as the others, nor did she keep it covered.  Instead, she wore the scarf over her shoulders and allowed her hair to flow free. 

* * * 

I never did get any feedback on her impressions of my Korin character.  My guess is she never read her complementary copy of Ikons: Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker.

Nicholas Troyan

In 1989 I was temporarily assigned to an OSIA (On Site Inspection Agency) team verifying the destruction of Soviet intermediate range, nuclear missiles. My team leader was LTC Nicholas Troyan, United States Army.  During our month long deployment to a Soviet missile facility,  Colonel Troyan and I discovered our mutual Russian heritage.  His grandfather had been an officer in the Tsar's Army and later fought for the White forces before escaping with Wrangel from Odessa.    

CFE Team Ruppert - Kosova, Belarus (Lt-Col Troyan First Row, Left)

Colonel Troyan was cut from the same cloth as Oliver North.  His brash attitude assured elimination procedures were completed by the book.  My character, who shares Troyan's name, attributes and rank, appeared in Banners: For God, Tsar and Country, and was one of my more colorful creations.

 * * *

The years had etched deep lines on his angular face, and his hair, although thinner and cut in the Prussian manner, still had the same sandy hue.  But instead of an eager, young pod-poruchik, Nikki now wore the three, five-pointed stars of a pod-polkovnik, a lieutenant colonel.

* * *

My Russian assignments introduced me to several Russians whose ancestors had remained.  Their tales were also incorporated into my saga.  During one of our chats, my Russian host pulled me aside and whispered, "When you return to America, kneel at your grandfather's grave and thank him for leaving his homeland."  I did.

Sheriff Joe Snedic

In a village like Rockdale, people were know by their occupations.  My father was "Steve the Barber" and my pal Buddy's father was "Bill the Bartender."  We also had "Tom the Grocer" and "Tony the Mayor."  The character I plucked from my childhood in the 50's and flung back thirty years was "Joe the Cop."

Sheriff Snedic inspecting the latest life-saving apparatus

Sheriff Joseph Snedic was Rockdale's law.  To us ten-year-olds, he was larger than life, patrolling the village and sometimes wailing his siren just to give us a start.  In Slogans: Our Children, Our Future, Joe got to play the part of a real detective.

* * *

Sheriff Joe Snedic entered the Rockdale mayor's office tapping the cover of his notebook.  “I got your answer, Tony.  That Pribish fella was right.”  The mayor's request was something quite different from the usual drunk and disorderly cases the sheriff normally pursued.  In fact, Joe was originally reluctant to even try his hand at a real police investigation based on Massey’s tip, but in the last few days he believed his results would have done Sherlock Holmes proud.

* * *

 Never underestimate the investigative prowess of a small town cop.  Thanks Joe.

Dead End Subplots

What adds more to an historic saga than a shipboard romance?  Just look at what it did for the blockbuster Titanic.  In Ikons: Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker, I wanted to add one, but I could not very well have Massey, a happily married man, engage in oceanic high jinxes.  So the amorous task is performed by the addition of two young Polish brothers, Marko and Roman Kozlowki.

* * *

"They both looked like barrels with heads attached.  Although the heads seemed ridiculously small for the bodies, the determined look emanating from the faces told Massey the heads knew exactly what to do with the strength on which they rest.  With arms thick as stovepipes the closest Pole picked up Massey's belongings swung them away from the bunk and let them fall to the deck."

* * *

Following this inglorious meeting, the three become fast friends.  Marko, the more outgoing of the two, is a real lady's man.  However, his random evening flings came to an end when he meets and falls in love with the alluring Korin Meshanko.

* * *

"She was attractive, blond, tall, and promised to wed another.  Marko had watched for her each day since they left Danzig.  Korin would stand alone by the rail watching the sea, her blond hair tangled from the wind.  She did not wear her hair braided as the others, nor did she keep it covered.  Instead, she wore the scarf over her shoulders and allowed her hair to flow free." (I would write this passage much different today, but I was just starting my writing career.)

* * *

Immigrant Women enjoying the fresh air topside

Marko's romance with Korin is ill-fated.  In my intended subplot, Korin's father is leader of a Lithuanian nationalist group conspiring against the Tsar.  In order to unify her father's power within the cabal, Korin agrees to marry her father's rival. I had plans to integrate her story into Ikon's plot, but found it was too complex.  Instead, I allowed Marko's romance to fizzle when the ship docks in New York.

* * *

"All the waiting women were dressed in their best clothes with colorful scarves adorning their heads.  All that is but one.   A tall blond woman stood off to the side with her head bare, as if in defiance to the rest.  Korin Meshanko waited for her name to be called.  Waited to see for the first time the man who would be her husband."

* * *

Korin just disappears into the crowd, never to be seen again.  I intended to reintroduce her later, but never did.  

A more seasoned writer probably would have rewritten the Atlantic passage chapters and deleted Korin.  But I liked her subplot and knowingly violated the rule about "killing your babies."  Several readers have inquired as to what became of Korin.  To  them, I can only shrug.