Chapter 3 Page 1
Shankar and the General
By Peter
Chapter 3 brings us back to the virtual world and introduces two of my favorite characters: General Shay and Shankar Venkatagiri. One of the things I love to do is to write dialog for people who use the English language completely differently. The General’s style is clipped and crisp. Shankar’s style is fluid and sometimes academic.
I get a kick out of little things, like the fact that the General calls everyone by their last name to be clipped and crisp, but Shankar’s unwieldy last name causes the exact opposite effect. It also amuses me that for reasons beyond his control, the only tools available to the General to accomplish his current goal is silverware.
There really is a real-life Shankar Venkatagiri. I’ll tell you more about him next week.