What better way to get to know a person than through the books that shaped their imaginations, right? When I say I grew up with my nose in a book, I really mean it. I took home stacks of books from the library every week and invariably read my way through the whole pile before our next visit. Couple that with the fact that I lived in a small town…
This week the Debs are talking about how they torture their characters, make choices for them, or how their characters lead the way. One of the most wonderful things about writing is how the mind seems to unravel the story from a place hidden deep inside. I can’t tell you how many times I have stopped writing after a few hours and sat back to re-read the words and thought,…
Author Adria Cimino is the author of several novels, including her latest release, THE PERFUMER’S SECRET. The quest for a stolen perfume formula awakens passion, rivalry and family secrets in the fragrant flower fields of the South of France… Perfumer Zoe Flore travels to Grasse, perfume capital of the world, to collect a formula: her inheritance from the family she never knew existed. The scent matches the one worn by…
O character names, you are my nemesis and my one true love. When I find the right name, it can make an entire person come into focus, it can add new layers to the story, or it can simply amuse me. I’m still struggling with the perfect name for the husband in book 2. I’m using Danny for now, but I also have characters named Tammy and Tommy, so I need…
On the outside, writing in the perfect gig. We make our own hours, we don’t have a boss breathing down our necks, and in theory, we can get paid forever for one project (yay, royalties). Best part–no pants. But every dream job has its down side. Maybe you have to squeeze in your writing before the sun rises and you have to trot off to the day job, maybe you…
A very happy pub date to Lisa Alber! KILMOON is officially out in the world today, and is sure to intrigue, enlighten and engross readers everywhere. As one of the Debs said earlier, launch weeks are like Christmas around here…we couldn’t be more thrilled to celebrate Lisa’s big debut, and to have you celebrate with us! ::Natalia clears throat, puts down the confetti momentarily to switch gears into her topic::…
I’m a pantser*. I should get that out of the way right now, so you understand where I’m coming from when I say I build my characters in a very backwards way—sort of like building a brick wall from the top down. Which, of course, doesn’t make a lot of sense, nor is it the best way to do things. But it’s how I roll. Please bear with me. When…
One of the highest compliments I get talking to readers of The Weird Sisters is when they say something like, “The characters were so real!” or “Character X is just like me!” (though usually they use the name of the character and don’t call them Character X). I love that, and I love “the shock of recognition” when I see a character that’s so very real, or so like me…
I was about to write a whole piece on how I create characters… until I realized I just did that post a few weeks ago. My mind is clearly not working well. Instead, I will briefly wax rhapsodic about some of my favorite all-time characters… the whole cast of Harry Potter. The books, not the movies. I’m not against the movies, but I just saw Order of the Phoenix right…
Since this week is all about “Voice,” I thought I’d talk about my favorite voices… the ones I hear in my head. Don’t freak out; I’m sane… reasonably. The voices I hear are my characters, and I know I’m not alone. It’s practically a cliche for a writer to say he or she hears their characters speak to them, whispering their stories like ghosts to a medium. What’s interesting to…
