Before I even began to outline THE CONCLAVE, I had a few new characters in mind. Jian Zhao was one of those early creations.

Here are his stats:

Name/Age: Jian Zhao, 24

Origin: Hong Kong

Occupation: Mercenary. With his looks, multilingual knowledge, and intelligence, he goes wherever money (or excitement) can be found.

Abilities: Jian is an incredibly talented external converter…he’s also an incredibly talented seducer.

Desiree’s take: “Everything about him screams pretension: his perfectly gelled jet-black hair, his piercing almond-shaped eyes, his too-tight designer shirt, his muscles flexing under lightly tanned skin, his smile twisting across perfectly shaped lips.”

Trivia: Jian means ‘double-edged sword’ in Chinese. It also mean ‘to build’ or ‘naturally strong’.

Inspiration: I wanted an anti-Blake. When I ran this idea by a couple of my beta readers, I realized we had some very different ideas of Blake. Or his alter ego. So I used both. Jian is my idea of Blake gone wrong.

Character Challenge: To make Jian as outrageous and full of innuendos as I felt he need to be in a clean, YA book.

…And that’s our first character intro! Next week, I’ll introduce you to Kerrill Ryker…my beta reader’s idea of an anti-Blake and the most disturbed character I’ve ever written. Until then!