My New Characters

I've been working ferociously on the new detective series (one story finished, two more started). It's been grueling because I'd like to get all of them written before the summer ends. Yeah, I'm a little crazy that way. (I also need to work on the new Regency series, but the new characters won't leave me alone.)

Anyway, I needed a break and decided to get some images for my characters. I'm a "visual" writer, meaning I can't write a character unless I have a picture of them in my head, and in my hard drive. I had several people in mind for the characters, but then I found two that are spot on.

Ed Harris

Meet Detective-Lieutenant Thomas Locke. He's tough, tender, has a loving relationship with his parents, has no baggage (except an old dog), and is polite, smart, funny, and sympathetic to the plight of the heroine's past issues. He's like the perfect man. Almost. He does have a few flaws, most notably his distaste for dressing in anything other than Levis and flannel shirts, and a propensity for making of fun of people who don't.

Dyan Cannon

And his sidekick, Mallory Pope. She's a stoner, hippie, has-been, who used to be a famous astrologer and psychic. She has a devastating past and severe physical limitations, which only lends to the anxiety Thomas has in working with her. He does like her, and she likes him, which leads to them both acting like they're 14 years old. It's kind of funny.

I'm having a blast writing this series, mostly because I get to go "home" again. I Google map Rhode Island and hit "street view" so I can get the feel of the place. I'm totally homesick these days because it's July and I'm not at the beach. I have some money saved up (for Monster's tuition) and it's eating at me because I could just as easily spend it on plane tickets and hotel/car reservations. What to do, what to do...

The beach where I used to live. 

Tell me -- Are you a "visual" writer? Do you have pictures of the people you want your characters to be? Do you wish you could go home again?

Anne Gallagher (c) 2015

Stumbling Blocks

Before we start, I'd just like to say this is my 501st post. I know it may not seem like much to some, and there are people with thousands of posts, but the number impresses me just the same. I've done this 500 times. Whew.

Anyway, I got this interesting little blurb from one of my critique partners last week. She said,

I'm so glad Penny and Will got to love each other from the beginning of this book. They didn't have to overcome their fear to find their way to each other, or stumble through so many personal obstacles. It's a refreshing change.

She was talking about THE LADY'S MASQUERADE and Penny and Will are the main characters.

I never thought about it quite like this before. Usually my books are character driven, and the obstacles they stumble through are interior. My characters are loaded with angst and just can't make up their minds whether or not to love the person I've put in front of them.

MASQUERADE is plot driven. That Penny and Will find their love almost from the beginning of the book was a no brainer for me. It was my first book and I didn't know any better. I had no clue how to write a story, or what it needed. That they loved each other at almost first sight seemed a good way to start.

What they have to overcome to finally be together is in the plot. Murder attempts, jealousy, misunderstandings, and an overprotective daddy. Hmmm...

Tell me -- Do you find yourself writing more character driven or plot driven books? If you write love stories, are your characters afraid of love, and their angst, or do they just jump in and see what happens?

Update On My Dad and Other Miscellany

Good Morning.

It's certainly been a long couple of weeks. We finally got my father on a breathing machine and a new bed that allows him to sleep sitting up. He's been in his chair in the living room for almost six months and although it helped, it didn't allow him to get the rest he needed. Now he's in bed again and feeling so much better. Not 100%, but at least 85, so that's a good thing.  He even cut the back meadow on Saturday. (Although I still had to push mow the front hill .)

I joined in the fun of the A-Z challenge, which some of you may know. I didn't sign up on the linky because I knew with everything I have going on I wouldn't be able to do it justice. But I had this crazy idea for it about a week before it went down, and if you want, you can find it here on my Anne Gallagher blog. My theme is my characters in pictures.

Also, I managed to get THE DUKE'S DIVORCE out in paperback. You can't find it on Amazon just quite yet, (they say it takes about 14 days for all the content to be uploaded) but you can find it here.  I'm hoping if you know someone who likes to read Regency in paper form, you'll tell them about it.

 I'm also working on another short story to e-publish. It involves Lord Greenleigh, (Letter G) spies, intrigue, and espionage with Russians. I'm up to Chapter 9 and I think it's pretty cool considering I don't know the first thing about espionage. (And I'm hoping MI6 and the CIA don't take my Google searches into consideration.)

AND, the biggest news of all, (which I'm still kind of reeling from) is we're moving. No, not back to the beach, (I wish) but to the house two doors down from my parents. It has 1200 more square feet than the house we're currently in, which translates to a proper living room, sunroom, private office, and a HUGE kitchen with a FIREPLACE! (I still can't believe that.) And another bonus, there's a garage. Unfortunately the yard does not have space for a pool (unless I want to sunbathe in the front yard). It's a win-win that we'll be within shouting distance of my parents. It's also a drawback in that there's no escape. But, I'm trying to stay positive with the fact it means so much more living and BREATHING space.

Also, I believe I have to cancel the big Earth Day party I planned for my Birthday. With so much craziness going on, (packing cleaning while still trying to write) I really am quite scatterbrained these days. I'm also trying to get LADY'S FATE out to paper, as well as get Greenleigh's story finished and pubbed in e-form all before we take possession of the new house. (Which will likely be by the end of April.) So I'm trying to keep my sanity and keep all the balls in the air. HA!

Anyway, that's my news. I've tried to be around as much as I can, but it's not the same. I miss you all terribly. Tell me what you've been up to so I can keep up.

Finding A Character

Good Morning Everyone. If you were here on Friday, you read the beginning of a story I "found" at the beach. Today I would like to show you just exactly HOW I found it. And if you haven't read it yet, (and if you want, no pressure) go now and take a gander. I'll wait.

Okay. Are you back? Good.

Now, most of you who have been reading me for awhile know that I call my daughter, The Monster Child. What you may not know about my Darling Monster is that she can make friends with anyone. Including inanimate objects.

On vacation at the beach, she made friends with any child under 4 feet tall. The second week we were there, she made friends with one child in particular, Sophie.

Sophie was beautiful, with huge blue eyes, very petite, and with a gor-ge-ous man, (who wore no wedding ring) as her companion. I watched carefully as Monster and she built a sand castle, and then played in the water. I warned Monster about going out too far in the surf because Sophie was smaller than her. The man, her dad, watched them, and me, all morning. Under the guise of my sunglasses, cowboy hat, and long sleeved shirt, I watched him right back.

(The first week there I gave my body to the Sun Gods. I ulitmately paid for that in sun poisoning. Even with SPF 85.)

That first day with Sophie, I waited for "the wife" to appear. She did not. The second day, Gorgeous Man and Sophie appeared with friends, several other children, and assorted adults. I assumed that one of these friends was G-man's brother (I mean, you could tell, they looked alike). However, no woman who would seem to be his wife or any kind of significant other. Gorgeous Man engaged with them, but sat to the side, watching Sophie and my Monster play. I went down to the kids on several occasions but he did not. However, I knew he watched me.

For the remainder of the week, while our kids played together, we played "undercover staring". You know, he looked my way, I looked away, I looked his way, he looked away. I felt like I was in my 20's again. Like I said, he was GOR-GE-OUS. Tall, 50-ish, sooo tan, Marine type haircut, and Paul Newman eyes. Very, may I repeat, very drool worthy.

On our next to last day at the beach, my mother came down and sat under the umbrella with me. However, she was blocking my view of Gorgeous Man so I moved my chair and faced away from the water and more toward the sand. Of course, she made a point to ask why I wasn't watching the Monster. So I nodded to Gorgeous Man and said, "I have something else I want to stare at for awhile."

Oh. My. God. You should have heard the lecture I got. I won't bore you with the haranguing, but even at almost fifty years old, why can mothers make you feel like you're ten years old again. Suffice it to say, she thought I was out of my mind for wasting my time staring at a man I would never meet.

I tried to explain to her the point wasn't in meeting him, the point was in memorizing him. To which she stared at me open-mouthed like I had sprung horns and breathed fire.

I'm a romance writer. I write about men and women and situations and circumstances that relate to love, the finding it, the losing it and everything in between. I also don't get out much back home, so seeing a real honest to God, bona fide hunk-and-a-half on the beach wearing nothing but a pair of orange surf shorts... well, yeah, I'm gonna stare at him. Especially as he was my age. (If he'd been 30, I'd have passed. I'm not a Cougar.)

That night, somehow the topic of G-man came up at dinner and Mary, (my mother's friend with whom we stayed) asked me if I'd introduced myself. I said no. She asked why not. And I said, "I don't want to meet him. I just want to look at him." Again, why not. To which I replied, "Because if I speak to him and he's a toad, then everything I've thought about him all week will be for naught. I've built him up to be something he's probably not and meeting him would only crush the fantasy."

The next day on the beach, (our last day on the beach) I had several opportunities to actually speak with Gorgeous Man. Several opportunities, my friends. And I did not take one of them.

Now, back home, I wonder if I did the right thing. I think I missed an opportunity, an important opportunity for my writing. But then again, did I?

In not speaking to him, I had a character already in my mind. I made up a whole backstory about who he was, why he was without wife, his background, his job, his compulsion for packing every single thing he might need for a few hours on the beach, even his family. Did I do him justice as a "character"? I don't know. Only you can be the judge of that.

Tell me -- If you had found an opportunity like that, would you have taken the time to speak to him? Or would you, like me, just stare and make stuff up? Do you take your characters from whole cloth, or do you piece them together to make them fit?

At The Grille

On Today's Menu -- Baby Grilled Pork Tenderloin sandwiches on Baguettes, New Red Potato Salad, Spinach Salad, and Sweet Iced Tea. Assorted Melon Slices for Dessert.

Don't I wish I could have that for lunch.

Thanks so much for all your enthusiasm for the last two little flash pieces I put up on the blog the last two weeks. Jim and Callie have been roaming around in my brain for the last couple of months, and I do have every intention of setting more of their story down, but I'm just not that into them yet. I made an outline, so I know where I'm going, and it's a pretty good plot about what happens when you find the 'right one' out of the clear blue. However, the twist is -- circumstances keep them apart. I'm not even sure if there will be a Happily Ever After with this. Women's fiction at its finest.

Question -- Has anyone else been having trouble logging onto Blogger? I can get into gmail, and I used to be able to jump from mail to blogger but now I can't. And so I sign out of mail, and go to Blogger to sign in and it says Page Not Found. So I have to jump to a post I have on my favorites bar (lucky it's there) and sign in from my post. I know a couple of you have had trouble with comments and you have to unsign in from stay signed in, but I never stay signed in. Is it just me?

The kitchen reno is complete. The painting is finished. YAY! However, my mother decided she wants to get the garden straightened out before the weather really gets nasty, and then I get to tile the buffet, and THEN, I get to paint the whole downstairs cave. Don't get me wrong, I love my mother, and would do anything for her, but I am just too old for this. Besides, I can't get any writing done. UGH!

School is out in 9 more days. I'd love to have Monster Child go to camp, even day camp, but I don't think it's fair for her to have to have a regimen during the summer. Last summer she stayed up until 10, and slept until 10, and I got some writing done. Having her at camp would free up my schedule so much, but I'm starting to feel soooo guilty. I do want to spend time with her, but it's just so hard not living at the beach anymore. There was always stuff to do. Clamming, swimming, searching for shells and crabs, exploring. Now the beach is 4 hours away. I'm starting to hate vacation.

And so ends another week here. Hope you all have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. I'll be working in the garden.

What Have You Done To Me Lately

Good Morning. In our stories, we're supposed to present our characters challenges. We're supposed to block their path at every turn allowing them to fight to get their end result. This provides the internal and external conflicts. And if that doesn't work, I usually light something on fire.

So far in my books I have:

shot three people
whipped a slave (remember I write historical romance)
thrown a woman, eight months pregnant, down the stairs
beat a man senseless
stabbed someone
given someone a heart attack
brought two ex-lovers back
concealed identities
given someone post traumatic stress syndrome
stolen a baby


And you thought I just wrote romance...

Tell me -- What have you done to your characters lately?

On Re-Visioning Part III

So here I am, trying to get as much done on the revisioning of MASQUERADE as I can before school gets out. I don't know if you remember, but I had to completely change the main characters. They still have their same names, but they've undergone a transformation -- like Clark Kent to Superman.

Penny used to be a bookish, sweet, shy young girl. Now she's intelligent, outspoken, and stubborn to a fault. William was just a happy-go-lucky guy, hanging out with his horses waiting for life to happen. Now he's a returning war hero, with wounds that go way deep.

I really didn't want to change them. It's actually taken me a long time to get a grip on the new aspects of their character. Like meeting someone you haven't seen in a really long time. You have to get to know them all over again.

Question -- If you haven't hung out with your characters for awhile, can you get right back into them, or do you flounder for a bit? How long does it take? Two pages? Two chapters? Do you like them more or less if you haven't seen them in awhile?

On Re-Visioning Part II

Good Morning. Lots of stuff going on in my little world lately. But the most important thing -- the re-vision of THE LADY'S MASQUERADE.

As you know, I said I had a totally new vision for that book. I was going to rip it apart and put it back together. Well, in the least possible painless way that I could. Guess what. I can't.

Well, not the way I thought I would be able to. Seems I miscalculated my ego. Yeah, my ego. I thought I would just go in, fix the POV's, make a few changes here and there, and it would be fine.

Not so much. It seems I have to completely change the main characters to whom I never would have imagined them to be. I've been taking the printed manuscript with me as I wait for Monster Child to get out of school. I nitpicked through the first 15 pages, sratching out, rewriting, moving things around, and then it finally dawned on me.

THIS IS GARBAGE. Pure and utter shite. Crappy, crap crap crap.

I guess this means I have grown as a writer. When I can look at something and realize -- this is just not going to work anymore. (Michelle, now I know exactly how you felt about Monarch. Which I didn't understand before, but now I do. Oh, I so do.)

And you know what, as much as I am potentially thrilled I have these great new ideas, I am just so damned depressed. Not for the work. Basically I know I have to write a whole new book (although I may be able to cadge some of the latter scenes to use.)

Depressed because the book I wrote and loved won't exist anymore. The people who I fell in love with won't be the same. And you know, as a Taurus, I hate change. With every fiber of my being.

However, I also know, as a writer, I have to do this. Otherwise, that book will sit under the bed with the bunnies for the rest of my life. And it can't. I won't do it to me or to them, Penny & William. (My main characters -- yeah, I think of them as real people. Hey, I'm a writer, can't help it.)

Question -- How depressed do you get when you realize your manuscript just won't work anymore? Do you put it away and work on something else, or do you bite the bullet and go with the flow?

Who Does Your Eyebrows?

Monster Child was watching me pluck my eyebrows the other day.
"Why do you that?" She asked.
I said, "So I don't look like a neanderthal."
"What's a neanderthal?"

After the discussion of cave men and dinosaurs, I thought about eyebrows, and how we use them in our work.

I'm sure you all have read at least one book where the hero 'quirks his eyebrow'. Or the heroine raises hers. Or someone knits them together.

I must confess I have used all three. In my latest book, each one of the major players does. But only once.

And therein lies my post for the day. Each of our characters are special to us. They become like family and with family we all have our own little quirky things that we do. Sometimes they drive other people nuts. Sometimes, they can be downright endearing.

When Monster Child was a baby she used to grab the bottom of my earlobe when she was feeding. (Very endearing and I miss it.) Now she sticks her cold feet down my bum before she goes to sleep. (Family bed, big mistake and not so endearing anymore.)

Genna in REMEMBERING YOU used to make this noise. I call it a snort, but it's not really. It's that noise in the back of your throat you make when someone does something incredibly stupid, yet funny at the same time. (We watch America's Funniest Videos every Sunday night so I am forever making that noise.)

Dr. Blakestock (in MisMATCHED) wipes his spectacles before he says something of importance. Lady Olivia (in MASQUERADE) thumps her cane on the floor to make people pay attention to her.

The key is to use them sparingly. If your hero is quirking his eyebrows on every other page we might think he has some kind of neurological disorder. If he rakes his hands through his hair during every chapter, I would think he needs a good shampoo. If your heroine dabs her eyes with a hankie more than twice, well, I think she should see an optition.

Don't get me wrong, character quirks are great to use but I recommend doing so only when it will really make a point. Otherwise it gets wasted, and the next time they do it, the reader will be saying, "Oh will you stop with the eyebrow already!"

Do you use character quirks? If so, what are they?

Friday's at the Piedmont Grille

And here it is once again, the lovely ending to a lovely week.

I've been working steadily on Genna & Tony this week. I've written a few more scenes. I had an amazing breakthrough and have just been going nuts. (Wait until you see what happens! Holy Crap sometimes I think I'm brilliant!) I'm also going to go back to the beginning and edit because I think it needs to be done before I write the big fight scene between Pete and Tony. Yep, you heard me, Pete and Tony will engage in fisticuffs outside Billy's Beach Bar the night of 4th of July. Oh what fun!

I also wanted to say, that I do apologize if I hurt anyone's feelings when I said I didn't think 2000 words a day was much for me. I don't mean to disparage anyone and how they write or what their word count is. For most of the summer I haven't written anything. So shame on me. If I had, I could have finished the book by now. I tend to write in scenes and can't stop until it's finished. That's why my word count is usually in the 2k arena. We all write differently and if I've made anyone feel less than, I am profoundly sorry.

Also, for those of you who are Jane Austen fans, I found this book THE THIRD SISTER by Julia Barret about Margaret Dashwood. I don't normally do book reviews or recommend anything other than writing craft books but I found this book to be so well conceived, and so authentically Austen-ish in its prose that I had to tout its glory. Margaret, as you all know, is the youngest of the three Dashwood sisters and has only minimal appearance in the book and movie. This story is just so delightful and tells so much about her life and what it was like to indeed, be the third sister, I couldn't put it down. Now, this also reads like Austen, which is heavy handed, and hard to get through, fighting all the language barriers, but well worth it if you ever wanted to know what happened to Margaret. Just a quick passage --

Could a circumstance prove more blissful for any mother? Not only had she seen her youngest escape the perfidy that threatened, but now this: the darling girl was ardently sought and won by her own preserver! In all of Devonshire, there might be encountered a no more complacent lady.

Huh? If I didn't know what had previously happened, I would have thought her new found beau was a jar of jam. Preserver indeed!

But oh happiness yesterday as I went shopping at the big Red Circle store with Monster Baby. I found a BBC/Masterpiece Classic DVD of Persuasion for $5-. I must confess I was giddy when I reverently took it out of its case and sat in rapture for 90 minutes (minus the constant interuption from MB and the feeding of the dogs). I will get to it again tonight. There is nothing like Jane Austen on film.

Summer is holding a contest for finishing her WIP. Go check it out.

Suzi McGowen had the most billiant idea about promoting books the other day. You must go now and read it. I think we could start a whole new trend.

And the best news of all!!! I have finally found pictures for all my characters in REMEMBERING YOU. the Genna & Tony story. I will post these next Wednesday in lieu of my regular something-something post. I am so excited and I hope you all stop by to see who will be playing them. I hope and pray my devoted fans will not be disappointed in my choices in Tony and Pete. As for Uncle Sally and Aunt Fortuna, you will be pleasantly surprised I think.

And so, that is my news for the week. If you haven't scrolled down to last Sunday's awards post to see if you're there, please do so. I'd hate for you to miss it.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I'll see you all on Monday! Get some writing done.

Calling All Men

Good morning gentle readers. Do you like my new lay-out? I thought it was highly appropriate since I'm a certified Coppertone Beach Baby. I only found it the other day and said, "Oh yes, this one is mine." I need to find an audio of a fog horn or ocean song to play while you read and then I'll be all set.

So onto other news. After my very unusual post on Saturday, Sunday I could barely move. I have to remember I'm not as young as I used to be and I can't do all the things that I used to. And that's so sad because I still think of myself as 32. Which I'm not. And with the birthday coming in 2 weeks, I'm reminded how old I will be and I don't want to be. You're only as young as you feel. Yesterday I felt 105. Today, maybe in my early 60's. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll be good as new.

Also, it was brought to my attention thrice, that I need to show pictures of all my hard work however I don't have a digital camera. Hopefully the birthday fairy will buy me one. We'll see what happens.

Any-hoo, it was also brought to my attention that Tony (my character from REMEMBERING YOU) would not cry in front of Genna when she tells him all she needed to tell him. I maintain,
1) Tony is Italian, and as we have all watched the Godfather numerous times, Italian men DO cry,
and 2) I think Tony would cry anyway just from the sheer exhaustion of finally relieving himself from the burden of carrying all that guilt around for the last ten years.

So, MEN, tell me, (and for those of you who haven't been following the entire story, I'll break it down for you) -- Your high school girlfriend whom you SAY you love more than life goes to Italy for a college graduation present for 6 weeks and when she comes back she finds out you've married someone else (because you're stupid and married this other girl for her money) and she (girlfriend) runs away for ten years. She finally comes back and you have the opportunity to tell her why you did what you did. You empty your heart and tell her everything, all your insecurities back then, your dreams, your love, and why you married this other woman (only for the money). And what happened to this other woman, she died of breast cancer. Would you cry when you told her?

After you tell her, she (ex-girlfriend) drops a bomb on you, saying she was pregnant when she ran away. You ask what happened to the baby, she tells you, "It didn't make it, just like us." Would you cry?

I know this isn't the best set-up and I'm sorry, I'm not going to re-run the scene (because I'm paranoid that way) but dig deep and think about it. Being stupid in our teenage years can cause untold grief and heartache (I know I've had my share but I'm a girl. I cry all the time.) Would you sob uncontrollably or would you let tears trickle down your face or your throat feel like you've swallowed acid? Be honest, I won't hold it against you. I happen to like men who cry. Makes them more human.

And okay, the women can chime in on this too. Do you think Tony should bawl like a baby, or be a man and suck it up?


I also have to start Act 2. I need to find something to post for Thursday. In Act 2 we find out a little bit more of Fortuna's illness, and Sally's surprise. We still have to deal with Angie's hysteria and Nana Rocco's bombshell (which you guys don't know about yet) and the working up to the 4th of July party. How much fun is that going to be? Oh and Genna meets a new man, actually an old friend from the neighborhood...what will happen at the Beach Bar I wonder????

If you don't hear from me over the course of the next couple of days, you'll know what I'm doing. However, you know how much I love you and can't stay away so I'll probably be around. Have a lovely week.

Researching Characters

I'd like to talk a little bit about my research for Richard & Amanda (I really have to come up with a title). Richard is a Captain with the Royal Navy (circa 1816). In my novel I have made him the person who captured Napoleon at Rochefort. I had to totally scope out how he could have done this at such an early age, he's only 36. I found a sight on Wikipedia (thank god for Wiki) who listed all the people who were in the Navy, on ships, at that time. I then had to go through that list and find men who were on boats at a particular time which corresponded with Richard's age and career track. Richard is now an amalgum of 9 different people with a career, that might be construed as totally fantastical. (That's why it's called fiction.)

Once I figured out how Richard could have his career, I made him chuck it. Once he captured Napoleon, what else was there? (Napoleon tried to sneak out the proverbial back door to get to the open sea, but the HMS Bellerophon received word he would try and escape from Bordeaux. The captain then sent two smaller craft to reconnoiter and watch the French coast at Bordeaux and Arcachon. The captain's suspicions were correct that Napoleon would try to leave from Rochefort. (Because he was a brilliant commander.) The HMS Bellerophon moved in and took Napoleon's craft, took Boney and his crew on board. The captain then spent a few days with Napoleon as his captive. They say, both the captain and Boney played chess and became sort of friends as they discussed Boney's attempted take-over of the world.) Just a little history lesson for ya'.

Any-hoo you may wonder why I spent so much time researching all that if I made Richard retire from the Navy right after it happened. And the answer is, to see if I could. The real captain of the Bellerophon did not retire, he went on to become a commodore and then an admiral. I wanted Richard to have had the conversations with Boney during those days/weeks about life, love and pursuit of the Empire's happiness. And guess what, after almost 20 years fighting for a cause, Richard found that he didn't need to fight anymore. Boney and the threat had been defeated. So why shouldn't he retire?

I felt I needed all that background to help flesh out more of Richard's character. I already knew he was going to be strong and decisive, used to handing out orders, and not being disobeyed, even-tempered, level-headed, a commanding presence. (no pun intended). Now I just needed a reason for him to be that way, hence a captain in the navy. Rather than the army, too much bloody battle.

The reason I made Richard retire was that I also needed him to be at odds with his life, now the war was over. His retirement was a disappointment to his father (who was an Admiral), his grandfather (who was Admiral of the Fleet), the Prince Regent -- (he and Richard and Robert were great friends at one time) but most importantly to himself. Having been hailed as the hero of the century for capturing Napoleon, where could he go from there? Richard is now loaded with angst. What could he ever do for the rest of his life that would compare to what he had already done? How could he ever live up to his own reputation? I suppose if you want to say, that is my character sketch for Richard. And truly the only one I've ever done. All of my other's I have pulled from the ether.

Now, most of this information won't be in the book. More than likely it will be alluded to, through dialogue and discourse, perhaps a dream, perhaps a memory, I don't know, I haven't gotten that far. I also have scores of information on the slave trade, South Carolina crops, what a full compliment means on a sailing vessel, the differences between a boatswain and a coxswain, geographic and ocean longitude and latitudes, and a whole boatload of other stuff that who knows if I'll use.

But I needed all this to make a believable book, to make Richard a believable character. I LOVE Richard. He is by far my most favorite character of all that I have in my head and in files. (In answer to a question Falen never asked.) He has the most sadness in his soul (until he meets Amanda). He has the most angst. He has the most incredible grey eyes. LOL

So I guess what I'm trying to say with this post, is that you CAN over research, you just need to know WHY you're researching it. I wanted Richard to be the best damn captain he could be, the best man he could be. I wanted Richard to be BELIEVABLE.

So tell me gentle readers, why do you do research? Or do you?

Characters (part deux)

Yesterday I talked about where your characters come from. Today I want to know where you get their motivation. Not necessarily the plot of the story, but the motivation for them to do the things they do.

For example, in my current WIP, Violet is trying to stay out of the spotlight with her sisters because of her...I'll just call it her *issue*. This issue is what motivates her to take the job as Ellis' nanny, (because she knows she'll never find a husband), motivates her to stop going to the balls, (because of what she overheard) motivates her to leave Ellis (because of Georgiana).(eventually) Her issue is tied up to everything she's feeling and doing. Pretty much. If I've written it correctly.

Ellis, on the other hand, has almost no motivation. His biggest concern is making sure his daughter Janie is happy and when he finds Violet to be his nanny, he feels he's pretty much all set. He cruises through the story with nary an angst, until he speaks to his father James. And then all hell breaks lose. Ellis' motivation through the rest of the story is not losing the woman he loves. Who is....???

Georgiana's motivation is to snag Ellis and separate him and Violet. Jealous bitch that she is. Her true motivation is the money, of course, I mean you could see that coming a mile away couldn't you.

But here's a question--what if I had made Georgiana a 'nice' character. What if she was just a delightful creature full of love and lollipops. What would her motivation be then? Of course to provide a loving stable home for Janie and Ellis, but then where would Violet be? Truthfully we wouldn't even have a story now would we.

Which is one of the reasons I love to write. I get to play god, like Aris, and put my characters in situations and see what happens. So gentle readers, where do you find your motivations? From the gods, or right down here on earth?

I Found It

Boy am I good, I should have been a detective...because it wasn't in my favorites and I had to do a lot of digging.

His name is Robert Gregory Brown, he is a mystery writer, his blog is called

Casting the Bones

The article is "Creating Characters That Jump Off the Page"

Fantastic!!!!!

Characters

Who are the characters in our stories? Are they people we know? Are they made up completely? Are they you, or parts of you? I once read somewhere (I really wish I had tagged it so I could link you to it, I'm so bad about that) that every character in this man's story was himself. The man, the woman, the bit players. Every single character was made from him, from some part of his ego, id, super ego.

I found that extremely interesting. I mean, really, every single character. But I can see his point. (Wait, I think he was a murder mystery writer and he is almost famous--I'll have to do a little digging.) I think we all put a little, or a lot, of ourselves into the characters we write.

Right now, Violet, my MC, is falling in love with a man who she knows is her social superior (remember we're in Regency England). Her main squeeze is stalwart and forthright and doesn't have a loving bone in his body. Which one is me? I guess I could honestly say both of them. I've been in both positions so it's not such a hard stretch for my imagination to come up with emotions and dialogue between them.

I know this is all very simplistic talk, I'm sure there are other writers out there who could do this justice, but hey, it's Monday morning.

I have other thoughts on this idea, I just have to have another cup of coffee. I'm also going to dig through my favorites and see if I did tag it somewhere.

The question for the day then, gentle readers is-- are you your characters?

Rainy Sunday Morning

I haven't been writing. I'm sort of stuck again. I have too much personal crap going on because of the holidays. I want them to be over so I can get my life back. My schedule. My child in playschool for 3 hours a day.

I fiddled around with my blog again this morning and added some more stuff to the content. More blogs I follow, an excuse for my books. I feel as long as my fingers are on the keyboard at some point, I can claim I'm working. I know how wrong that is but I have to convince myself I'm contributing.

So far in the story, Ellis has met Georgiana again, after all these years, and Violet is convinced Georgiana is the right woman for him. Violet knows she can't compete in the marriage mart and so decides to flee, from London, from her sisters, from the love she feels for Ellis. It's so tragic. I know, isn't it great. Now I've just got to figure out who Violet is going to marry. Boy Howdy, what a mess there will be at the church!!! Wait til Ellis hears about it and what he does. His father will have an apopolectic fit!

This is why I love writing. I get to create characters sort of like Aris in my daughter's Sinbad movie. She manipulates the mortals to her whim. It's fun.

Anyway, maybe I'll be able to write some more today but I'm not counting on it. I kind of promised I would put up the Christmas decorations. UGH!!! I am such a grinch.