Back on the Blog Chain: Paul's Greatest Blessing/Gift

The blog chain is undergoing a bit of restructuring. Instead of two chains per month, with each person posting on a set day, we're going down to a monthly topic that bloggers can discuss on their own schedule. I plan to post on the first Wednesday of each month. Also, anyone who is interested in the topic is welcome to discuss it on their own blog and link to it in the comments. Eventually we will set up a Facebook group for the blog chain; once that's ready, I hope you'll stop by and join it.

Anyway, Katrina proposed the following topic for this month:

In your latest book or work-in-progress, what is your main character's greatest blessing? Is it a person, an item, or a talent? Or something else? Where did this blessing come from, and how does your MC use it to conquer the villain or solve the problem in your book?

Paul Harrison in Twinned Universes has many gifts. He comes from a famous, rich family. He's smart, good-looking, and a talented actor. He also has a special "quantum quirk" which I won't describe here because I want people to read the book. However, his greatest blessings or gifts (his parents are non-religious) are his close relationships with his sister Cassandra and their friends Scott and Yvonne. All four of them spent most of their childhood on the spaceship Sagan, leaving it only when it returns to the 21st century Earth each year. While other families do travel briefly on the Sagan, Paul doesn't form any long-term friendships with those children. He spends most of his time with Scott, Yvonne, and Cass, studying, playing, and hanging out with each other. Although each member of the group has a different personality and different goals, they've learned to get along with each other and reconcile after arguments--a necessity if you're stuck with the same group of people for an extended period. In some ways, they are all closer to each other than they are to their parents. So when Paul loses his mother at the start of Twinned Universes and get pulled into additional crises, he naturally turns to his friends for help. Since he faces problems in two universes, he needs Scott's skill with computers, Yvonne's faith and knowledge of psychiatry, and Cass's insight to survive, let alone achieve his goals. They also provide the emotional support he needs to cope with the changes in his identity. Like Ringo, Paul gets by with a little help from his friends:



What would your characters consider their greatest blessings? Please share in the comments or link to your own posts on this topic.