National Boyfriends Day is October 3, 2019, so it’s a perfect time to clue readers in on the working character biography I wrote and used when constructing Ben Schmidt’s sexy boyfriend/spouse Jake Brosseau.
This morphed over time as I wrote the first book where he appeared as a sexy neighbor (Benediction) and then, they became a couple and time passed and as it is in real life, the fictional character changed a bit and grew. There is no real-life Jake in my life, though there was a sexy person in San Francisco that provided an initial “spark.”
Here’s what I used for Jake Brosseau:
Jake Brosseau Character Biography
Jake (Ben’s boyfriend) Sketch character biography:
- He wants to keep Ben as his life partner
- He wants to sell some of his paintings, gain some notoriety as an SF artist.
- Jake is 39, a few years younger than Ben. Afraid of turning 40. He’s HIV positive, and has been for 10 years or more. He’s about 5-10, reddish brown hair, green eyes, tan, hairy body, naturally muscular, very, very attractive. Family was French Canadian who came to California for Gold Rush, so he grew up in the foothill area, a very redneck area where his family still lives. He did not fit in. LAST NAME IS BROSSEAU.
His job is as a display and window dresser for a Wilkes Bashford type place (I call it Sloane & Bradford), the tony men’s store in Union Square. He’s also a freelance interior designer, and he hopes someday to have his own business doing that and stop the store work. He’s got a very interesting style, it’s unusual so he gets unusual clients.
Jake is quite artistic and has a really good sense of himself, which is what attracted Ben to him overall. He’s like a rock. Although at times, he too can be temperamental and just blow up, which always comes as a surprise.
He’s afraid of the HIV and that he may someday get really sick although the meds have worked so far. Sometimes he has reactions to his meds. Perhaps initial SIDE EFFECTS of protease inhibitors. (i.e., choose from lipodystrophy, nausea/vomiting/diarrhea, neuropathy, high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides)
His mother is dead. His father lives on a small farm and is an alcoholic. He doesn’t grow anything, he collects social security. He has two sisters, one lives in Santa Cruz, the other lives in the Philadelphia area. He talks to them on the phone a lot, he’s quite close to them. He’s the youngest.
Jake, being so attractive, has had many men in his life. He moved to the Castro when he was still a teenager and has really grown up there, through the AIDS crisis of the 80s and is a survivor (perhaps he heard the siren song of Harvey Milk, who famously said, that if you live in a homophobic area, you can “always move to San Francisco”). He also projects that survivor’s strength and wisdom through his quiet demeanor which attracts people to him.
On the street, he knows everybody. That both fascinates Ben and makes him jealous.
10 years later, for “Benefits” – Jake finally does have his own gallery. It’s called Jake Brosseau, just his name, because, you know, he does know everybody. It should be in SOMA, somewhere trendy. Let’s put it on Utah Street, near where Dolby was, near 16th and Utah. Where there are bow & truss buildings that house art galleries. He has a car now. It’s a black Prius.
So that’s what I worked from – obviously it’s a sketch, and didn’t use all of it but it’s there to mine if necessary. There’s a lot more to Jake, I hope to let that get out in another “Ben” book.
Goodreads Giveaway:
Goodreads Giveaway active until October 14, 2019. Enter here.
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