Character Study: George Greycloud Guess (Part 3)
The origins of the character George Greycloud Guess, in my book The World Ender , began sometime in the early 2000’s. To be honest, my memory of exactly when he became part of the story is hazy, but I can tell you that the influences behind his name and the design of his character came from a personal connection to the Cherokee tribe. Long before the days of genetic testing, when all we had were stories passed down from our grandparents, I was told that same tale that apparently so many others had also been told. A blood relative married a woman from a Cherokee tribe. We had such confidence in that story, that my father believed he was at least 1/16th Cherokee. That would make me at least 1/32nd. Far too minimal a relation to the tribe to be anything other than an interesting connection somewhere in the history of my lineage. But then a close relative submitted DNA to one of those services and we were all shocked to learn that there was no significant connection that we had been told....