Iris Stubfinger

Banqoloths Sirens

Iris Stubfinger

Names: Iris Pebbles Stubfinger

Species: Dwarf

Age: 24

Job: Junior healer / health activist / zombie thwarter

Appears In: Game of Plagues

Iris in her hospital robes holding her sanitised surgical mace

"Yeah, I know how to cure zombies." (see more at Instagram)

Iris's father is a tabloid editor and her mother the prime minister's press jockey. Despite this, she grew up giving a damn about other people. Her parents don't know how this happened, but they blame modern culture and/or soy milk.

Growing up, Iris went to the best private schools - the ones which coincidentally had all the worst people. To be fair, many of these turds would have been perfectly ordinary people if they'd gone to less prestigious venues of education. As things stood, most ended up working in murky fields like politics, corporate journalism, and offrealm banking.

Despite her parents' protests, Iris became what she'd always dreamed of - a healer - the sort of wizard who can un-break broken legs and reattach severed bits. Unfortunately for her, successive governments had a real love/hate relationship with the Universal Healers Service. What this means is they hated its existence but loved depriving it of money.

Like many healers, Iris warned whoever would listen that the UHS wouldn't cope if it found itself facing anything more malignant than the sniffles. Her warnings went unheeded right up until the ZINTER-19 plague hit.

You can buy Game of Plagues in eBook or paperback by clicking this link

Creation Notes

The name Iris means 'rainbow' - rainbows being the flag of LGBTQI+ people and the symbol of health workers (at least during the UK pandemic, anyway) . I gave her the name solely for the latter initially, but that changed when I wrote a scene with her and Ayesha and felt them vibing. This relationship went on to be a central part of the book.

Having a lockdown relationship allowed me to think about how a pandemic affects people dating, although at the same time I did largely side-step that by having them immediately move in together. This proved necessary as I needed the pair to actually do stuff together. I could have had them flout the lockdown, of course, but then it would have read like an anti-science screed, and there's enough of that in the papers.