The Making of a Preacher -Prep

The Ensemble of Players

In order to understand the ensemble of players or cast of characters, let's give a little background, regarding Matthew Marks. Matt is a 50-year-old preacher for the present-day portion of this novel. Since he is the main character, knowledge of his age and profession will give the reader a basis with which to relate the other characters to their place in the story. Matt is blond-haired, blue-eyed and 5'10" and at 175 pounds he has an athletic build.

The Allies

1. Artista Marks is Matt's wife of 25 years. She is 45-years-old, has been sporting dreadlocks for about four years, now. These brunette dreads compliment her job as a hair designer. She is highly in demand. About 5' 4" in height Artista is slender and athletic in build of 115 pounds, due to the fact that she walks or runs about 4-5 miles every day and uses stretching programs, extensively.

2. Straitway Marks is Matt's brother and has been for these past 46 years. Straitway is quite a bit like their father, Carlos Marks, in personality, in mentoring ability and in the strength of his preaching. Straitway is 6'3", which means that he towers over his older brother, who has not been able to call him "little brother" for a number of years now. Straitway is quite fair of complexion, dark brunette hair, hazel eyes and is a very muscular 270 pounds. Straightway is not only a great speaker, but he plays about half a dozen instruments with exceptional ease. These include the piano, guitar, and trumpet.

3. One of the twins, Pansie Marks, unlike her sister, is quite supportive of their dad, Matthew Marks. She may not want to preach like her dad, but she has been saved, since she was six-years-old, and wants to help the orphan children of ZoNed 4, who have so little and virtually no one to care for them. Pansie is 12-years-old with long brunette hair and dark blue eyes like her father. At 5'2" Pansie is a slightly heavy 130 pounds of laughter and joy. Pansie is a sixth-grade student.

4. Paul Letras is Matt's best friend in this new world, having boarded the plane in Atlanta with Matt, Artista and the children on the first leg of the trip to ZoNed4. (He enjoyed all the rest of the legs of that long journey with his adopted family as well.) Paul is a chunky 180 pounds on a 5' 6" frame. Balding as he is, Paul wears the "Chrome Dome" label like a good sport. His eyes are greenish. He gives Matt an ample amount of wisdom and advice for the journey from a wealth of experience in his 64 years. He doesn't look like much, but the old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover!" totally applies to Paul. Paul is a retired preacher/teacher from his seminary days on Earth.


The Frenemies

1. Andy Attelpate is Lazarus Watyudid's physical expression and mirror. He appears to be all of 30 years of age, but actual age is a little fluid with him. Quite honestly all of his features are a little fluid. Andy ranges from 5' 0" to 6' 5", depending on the level of mischievous intimidation he wants to inflict on any given day. He's never over-weight, but some days he appears to be gaunt, whereas other days he appears to have full features, especially in the limbs. Andy's eyes are light blue until he gets angry, then the red of his eyes pokes out from around the color contact lenses that he always wears. Andy has taken the job of treasurer at the church Matt pastors, so he can be close to his "friend."

2. The Mark's other twin, Aurora, says all the right things but doesn't seem to have the heart for Jesus that her sister does. Obviously, Aurora is a sixth-grade student like her sister. Since they are identical twins, she sports brunette hair, too, though hers is bobbed to make her "look different." Aurora, also, has dark blue eyes, like "dear ol' Dad." Aurora cares about her music and hopes to be in a rock band when she's older. Aurora is a great singer and even plays the guitar with ease like her uncle.

3. The one person, who has never made a pretense of liking Matt, is Diotrephes Broadway. Diotrephes was sent ahead to ZoNed4 by the world leaders, who wanted him to scope out the planet with his advance party of intrepid explorers. In other words, Diotrephes was the de facto "king" of this new world, and he liked it that way. He didn't want some preacher coming to "his planet," telling him how he ought to live. He was "doing quite well. Thank you very little." Diotrephes is 5' 5" and 150 pounds, so he had a bit of a short man complex. This often made him quite disagreeable in demeanor. The dusty blond hair was thinning on top of this 48-year-old "Man in Charge," who had a pointy finger. Or maybe I should say, he used his finger to point a lot. Diotrephes didn't make a pretense about much of anything. He liked to eat. He didn't like to exercise. And his body shape fit the part quite well.