Happy Days Were Here Again.

Natal-days are here, too: It’s also the birth date* of Irish Firebrands main character Dillon Carroll. He briefly relates the circumstances of his birth on VE-Day, in Chapter 3, and there’s a short, amplifying revelation about his advent, in Chapter 30. Because the story starts out in early May, 2007, he’s at the point of turning 62, at the beginning of the book. The date is not celebrated in the story, and it wasn’t always a pleasant day for Dillon, as he reflects on a past event recounted in Chapter 11, but I do know that he experiences many happy returns (God willin’, an’ the creek don’t rise, he’ll be in a sequel – about 6,000 words have been written – although he’s not a main character in that story).

Female main character Lana Pedersen doesn’t have an observed birth date. All we know is that she’s over 50, and that she guesstimates Dillon to be about ten years older than she is.

Paula Barron, the “baby sister” business partner of strong secondary character Frank Halligan, holds a birthday party for him that Lana attends, in Chapter 17. Prior and subsequent episodes in the book place the event on the first Saturday of September, and the story calendar shows that date’s the 1st. Frank is the second of eight siblings, and he refers to a “baby brother,” aged 49. In Chapter 8, Lana estimates that Frank is about 5 years younger than Dillon. We learn in Chapter 10 that Paula was age 4 when Frank was 14, in the year that their elder brother died, aged 16.

In answer to a question from Lana in Chapter 8, another strong secondary character, Medb McManus, says only that her birth date is at the end of December. Medb is in her late teens, and in Chapter 26, her birthday is one of her excuses for her behavior, which gets Lana into more trouble, later on.

Do your characters have birth dates?

* Characters’ birth dates have no relation to when these individuals first appeared in my writing. Dillon and Lana were there from Day One: sometime in mid-February, 2009. I’d have to look at the early archives of chapters to be sure, but offhand, I’d estimate that all of the important characters (named, and with speaking parts) had shown up by mid-August.