World Building Wednesdays: Characters...

Where would your books be without characters? Boring, actually. Too much information tends to put people to sleep. I have issues with my own writing where I want to put in so much information because there is so much I want to share, that I bore the reader.

I actually bored myself once.

Just once.

Anyway, back story is best utilized through characters and dialogue. Lots of people have said it and I had to learn how to do this.

But everything still falls flat if you don't have interesting characters. Your characters have a story to tell. That is why you are writing!

But how do you get such diverse characters? How can you create well developed characters? How do you get the reader to love those characters?

Give them a voice. Give them a soul.

How many writers out there feel like their characters are a part of their family? Feel like they are literally your children. You did give birth to them and their idea, after all.

No, no. No need to call the men in the white coats. If you deny you have conversations with your character you are a liar. LIAR! Oh and your pants are on fire...

I talk to my characters all the time. Explains a lot, doesn't it? But this is how they tell me their story, this is how I learn what direction to take. When I get stuck, I can't keep writing something else because I'm distracted and can't focus on it because I am listening. I am waiting for the moment when said character whispers in my mind.

"Are you ready to listen?" they say. They remain quiet for so long because I get focused on their story and I just write it all out, listening in on their conversations, putting it all down on paper so I can share it with you, my reader. But they get real quiet once in awhile and suddenly, I've hit a brick wall. I stopped listening to the character tell their story and have gone off on my own tangent. I hit a road block and then they swagger up to me, all cocky and smirky.

"This is how it is supposed to go, got it?" they tell me. "I don't want it to go this way, because that isn't how it is supposed to go. This is my story after all, you're the intruder here. Just write down what I tell you."

That's a good way to get good characters. But diverse is something else altogether. I've said it dozens of times before. Go. Watch. People. But don't get arrested, for pity's sake! Stay in a public place, listen in without being a stalker. Watch people when they think no one is watching them. Oh, the things people do. Like pick their nose and wipe it off under a table in a restaurant.

I kid you not.

These are real people, your characters. You have to develop them, give them their personality. You have to give them their strengths and weaknesses, their skills, their flaws. Give them that eye twitch when they are stressed. Make them chew their nails. Make them grab a toothbrush to bite down on before their mom pulls out the peroxide to clean yet another one of their scrapes from falling off a bike. (Yes, I did that ALL the time.) Give them a sense of honor, purpose and above all, the sense of humor to deal with life. Give them passion, give them love and the hatred and jealousy that sometimes goes along with it. Make them petty, selfish people or make them compassionate givers. Make them hate life or love it, make them your best friends.

Seriously. Who better to pattern your characters off of then your friends and family? Aren't most characters an extension of ourselves? Of who we are right here and now in the physical realm and also who we most desire to be? What kind of person would you be if you were stuck in the Middle Ages or Ancient Greece? What kind of person would you be if you were rich beyond your dreams and didn't ever have to worry about money? What kind of people would your children be? Spoiled? Good-natured? Greedy? Killers or healers? What if you had nothing?

Think about all these aspects because the events in your life make you who you are. So once you know the ins and outs of the human psyche, you can begin to create stronger characters. What makes people do the things they do? What gives them their drive and motivation or their laziness? What events will affect your characters and how will they react? How would you react?

If your characters don't seem believable to you, don't feel like a part of you, then you need to go back and work on them again. Make them shine! They're going to tell you a great story if you give them half the chance.

Watching The Olympics?...

I used to love watching the Olympics. I've killed my television, so I can't watch them there. I can watch it online, though, apparently.

How many books are out there, do you think, that have to do with the Olympics? I'm not talking history, I'm simply talking about fiction books where there is an Olympic hopeful or athlete that has gone to the Olympics?

Well, I can suggest one. And it's by a very fun person here on the blogosphere! L. Diane Wolfe!

She has a blog page here.

And here is a bit about her book, 'Circle of Friends Book One: Lori' ~

Driven by Olympic dreams! 

To the outside world, Lori Anders has it all. The only child of affluent parents, she is a gifted swimmer with Olympic dreams. Armed with a winning attitude and genuine spirit, Lori appears destined for success. Yet despite her certainty in the pool, something inhibits Lori from achieving her full potential. Her focus on swimming has left little time for relationships. Lacking in confidence, Lori's light has few opportunities to shine. When an altercation with the school bullies brings her to the attention of the star quarterback, Lori finds herself in a unique position. Jason's affections renew her hope and force the shy swimmer out of her comfort zone. But, will it be enough to achieve her lifelong dream? Described as "encouragement personified", Wolfe's five-book Southern-based series portrays love and friendship overcoming all obstacles.

So what do you think? Something you may be interested in or know someone who would like to read this book? Follow the links to give it a try! Available in paperback and Kindle edition. Also available for the Nook.

Guest Post: Kiera Kroft...

Thank you so much Mel for letting me talk about the most exciting thing in my life...my books.

A quick little bio about me :)

Keira Kroft carries a vet assistance degree. Her love for animals is as great as her love of people. She gives a percentage of her personal book sale profits to the animal welfare league. Residing in a quiet suburb in the outskirts Chicago with her husband and daughter she spends any spare time she has working with her cats Scamper and Sawyer, to achieve total world domination, one shared Twinkie at a time. Her passions include Reading, Writing, Football, Comic Books and nature.

Keira’s Books  

Coming Very, Very Soon.

Have it all, do it all, and be it all! Do it now. Pick up this book and change your life forever. From someone who has been from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Coming Soon

Synopsis for Death’s Reject.

Driven with fear for her husband’s life, Constance seeks the aid of federal protection for Mafia Don, Carlo Conti. When she realizes that the FBI has used her, setting a trap to turn her against her husband, it’s already too late.

Carlo Conti is faced with no other choices than to murder the love of his life or disappear. He packs up his family and flees to the beautiful country of New Zealand. After realizing that the “family” that he left behind in Chicago is being wiped out in brutal mob war, he has another tough choice to make…

If he stays, he may lose it all. But if he goes back, he will lose the only love he has ever known…his wife.

Coming ~ Late summer

Inamorata is the first Novel in the “One Bloody Night Series”.

They are supposed to be low key and get their nightly fix from a bag. But what if they could spend a cozy evening eating an old fashioned meal and then when they were done they would simply set the place on fire and walk away—no one would be the wiser?

That’s the plan when a group of rogue Vampires has poisoned the entire security staff at a Christmas Eve party at a mall in Chicago and proceed to take over for the evening and feast upon their own kind of tradition, four house keepers, a maintenance man, a girl who lives in the mall, a lonely late night worker and a couple who have escaped to the department store where she works so their spouses wouldn’t be privy to their affair and some other delightfully unexpected guests.

Everything goes exactly as they expected until the group leader Lucius Sturdevant, and second oldest Vampire to date, realizes that the woman that lives in the Comic book store that is trying to figure out how to kill him is the reincarnation of Laura, the love of his life, that died in his arms of old age, because he didn’t have the heart to turn her.

On Sale Now

Did somebody call a fireman? What about a rugged, yet gentle and very good looking fireman…anybody call one of those? His name is Jake Gilroy and he is about to change Corey Nolan’s life.

Synopsis

Determined to be out from under her mother’s ruling and away from a no-good soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, Corey Nolan exercises her independence. With a place to call her own and a job that doesn’t pay well but makes her happy, her life is full and her young daughter is content. There is no room for distractions, until she meets a local firefighter—who stirs an immediate forbidden attraction. In need of control, she tries to ignore Jake Gilroy, but circumstances bring her closer to him when someone is hell-bent on destroying her.

Dutiful playboy Jake is known as the smoking hot fireman. The first time he sets eyes on Corey, he knows he wants her. But when threats and strange occurrences start to happen, he finds the need to protect her and give more than he’s ever given any other woman.

Being together becomes more than they bargained for when their desire for each other becomes a matter of life and death….

Excerpt

She is a toddler, right? Like four or five years old? Her jaw dropped. A chill overwhelmed Corey, and she knew it didn’t have to do with the night air from the open bar door. “How do you know that? Have you been watching me?”

On Sale Now http://www.amazon.com/Glow-in-the-Dark-ebook/

Synopsis

Auntie Em has made a deal with the devil. She gave up her niece, Dorothy’s soul in exchange for a plentiful harvest. Em was smart and worked a clause into the contract. Satan could only have Dorothy’s soul in death, but she must also agree to meet the dark lord himself and shake his hand. Everything is going splendid until…

Dorothy unaware of her untimely demise or any satanic contract embarks on a journey through the Land of Oz, seeking the great Wizard in hopes that he will return her safely home. As she unwittingly marches through hell, she begins to notice that nothing and no one is what it seems and there is no turning back…

There is indeed a bad moon rising over Oz.

Excerpt

As Dorothy walked away, unbeknownst to her, the flowers turned to ash, and the munchkins had turned into little demons with ugly, red faces. The road behind her was now paved with broken bones and crushed human skulls. The sun had turned to black.

Buy it Now! http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Moon-Rising-Over-ebook/

Also Available

This thrilling assortment of carefully hand selected horror can only found together in this fine collection. Each story can be purchased separately at other outlets. This features Bad Moon Rising Over Oz and three other spine tingling stories.

On sale now http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Reads-Collection-Volume-ebook

Hugs,

Keira Kroft

www.keirakroft.blogspot.com

Guest Post: Dawn Binkley, Hellfire Publishing...

Thank you so much Mel for letting me have the day on your blog to talk to other writers and
reader’s.

A quick little bio about me :)

Executive Editor, Dawn Binkley

Dawn Binkley, a writer since her late teens is driven by the written word. She believes, without
writers, the world as we know it would cease to exist. Books, scripts, advertisements, history, the
daily news reports, none of it would be possible without smart, articulate people to write it.

Mrs. Binkley is also a writer and is better known under her pen name Keira Kroft.

Dawn, co-owner of Hellfire Publishing and Hellfire Comics, also carries a vet assistance degree.
Her love for animals is as great as her love of people. She gives a percentage of her personal
book sale profits to the animal welfare league.

She was born and raised in Chicago and now resides in a quiet suburbs in the outskirts of the
city with her husband and her daughter. Dawn spends her spare time working with her cats
Scamper and Sawyer, to achieve total world domination, one shared Twinkie at a time. Her
passions include reading, writing, football and shopping.

Dawn will read anything you put in front of her. Whether she will like it, is another story. Her
preferences are vampires. If an author were to submit something with what she calls “real”
vampires, she will rip the hair out the head of any one that will try to take it from her. Also
amongst her preferences are ghost stories, werewolves and other paranormal beings. She looks
for creativity and wild imagination.

Direct quote from Dawn “Without great imagination, writing would simply be nothing more than
meaningless paper.”

She strives to bring the best fiction possible to the plate and has carefully staffed HP with like-
minded, smart, driven people in the editor positions. The entire foundation of Hellfire Publishing
is built upon community, love and trust.

I would like to talk about the fact that writing is not a one person career.

Who do you have to thank? As a writer, now that your or when your career takes off, who do
you have to thank? I mean sincerely, not just people you promised, whose egos you would puff
up by placing their name and kind words inside your novel. I mean the real people that actually
sacrifice themselves for your career.

My husband is number one. He always supports me and lets me take the time I need to write. He
is also not afraid to tell me if I come up with an idea, that he deems, stoopid? LOL He also gives

me the freedom to take his advice or not and most of the time he is right. But, don’t tell him that,
shhhhh.

My daughter. Yes our kids sacrifice themselves in their own way as well. In my daughters case
it’s giving up time IM’ing her boyfriend and believe me that’s a sacrifice for her!

My proofreader Jeanette, She had to read the first piece of crap I had ever written, God love her.
She was wonderful, very objective and not afraid to tell me like it was.

Books and internet, made it easy for me to look up info and get answers.

Decadent publishing, for taking a chance on a newbie. Because everybody has to start
somewhere, and without people that are willing to do that, we don’t stand a chance. They have
been so wonderful to me, I don’t consider them a starting point, I consider them a home where I
would love to reside as long as they will keep me.

Last, but not least my friends that simply just believed I could do it! Their trust and faith in me,
made a believer out of my toughest critic— myself.

Both of my businesses are both supportive environments to my writing career. Especially the
writers at Hellfire Publishing, they understand that on top of everything I do, that I have a career
as well and they make allowance for that. I am truly blessed.

So tell me, who do you have to thank, really?

Most of all I would like thank the reader’s. Out of the millions of books available nowadays you
chose mine, and that means everything to me. Thank you.

Writing is a career choice and a very tough business. Don’t be afraid to accept help. Writing is
hard work, however it’s the friendliest business :-D

So enjoy!

I would like to offer a free ecopy of Glow in the Dark to anyone who comments.

Dawn Binkley
Executive Editor
Hellfire Publishing
www.hellfirepublishing.com

Also known as:
Keira Kroft
www.keirakroft.blogspot.com

I'm Sorry?...

I'm a little stunned.

You guys know me, I don't always comment on your blogs, but when I see something you've posted and it hits me like a ton of bricks, I have to add my two cents.

So here it is.

First of all, let me just link you to this post here about an indie author who went on a review rant. This post will link to another where you can see the details of it all.

Second, let me state right here and now that if I offered up to review your book and haven't AND you have not heard from me about it. I'm sorry.

Last thing I need is someone listing me as their source of angst. I mean... I can be, but not in this instance!

Now for the rest of my two cents. It doesn't matter if you are an indie author or traditionally published author. If you ask me to review your book (because hey, I've reviewed books here) please keep in mind that I have stuff to do with my own book, my work, my family. Even with *gasp!* other books. If I can't finish your book, for whatever reason, I will try again. If I still can't, I will email you. Personally, I don't like to give a bad review. I'll give you my review in private if it comes to that point, not for all the world to see simply because I know how hard it is to shake off negativity.

I also am seeing a trend in some of the indie authors out there (not that any of them have contacted me personally) that have the frame of mind that they're somehow better than traditionally published authors. Writers as a whole are pretty humble creatures. We don't expect anything or think we're entitled to special treatment because we write. So why have that attitude? Are you so jaded by the publishing industry that you would turn on your readers and fellow authors? If that's the case, stop writing and find something else to do. Otherwise, stop whining and work on your book. Hire an editor, join a critique group, make your self published book the best it can be to avoid getting bad reviews.

I try to review books I read, whether asked to do the review or not. If I like the book, I am going to review it. There were a couple of reviews I did that were not glowing, rave reviews when I was helping another reviewer on their blog, but I didn't enjoy posting them. I did contact the person I was helping and said, "I can't do this anymore, some of these books are soooo bad!"

If indie authors want to maintain respect, let me suggest that you act in a professional manner. Act like a published author! Don't call people thieves or liars if they did not review your book. Not everyone will contact you if they don't like your work, they'll just drop it, ignore you and hope you'll go away. If you really want that bad review, it can be done. But why would you?

Tips on professionalism:

* Politely email the people and ask if they've had a chance to read your work, if not, when can they do so? If they have, but didn't like your material, either thank them for their time or ask for constructive criticism.

* Don't bad mouth people, their blogs, their books, etc. Karma will come back to you. People will see you acting petty and think, "Wow, I am NOT going to read their book if they're going to be like this..."

* What you post on the internet will find a way to remain on here FOREVER. So, with that in mind... THINK about what you post before you post it. I'm sure I have stuff out there I would LOVE to take down...

* Treat people how you want to be treated. The Golden Rule. If someone offers up a review of your book, offer one in return if they are a writer. If they're not a writer, link to their blog or website. Support the people that support YOU. However, if they don't follow through on their review promise, don't get pissy. Again, politely email them and say, "Hey, you promised a review for a review. If you are unable to review my book, I will not be able to uphold the deal we had." Of course... maybe try not to sound so rude... But people will read things online in their own voice and you may end up coming across snarky anyway. So begin with "I'm not trying to be rude."

Overall, no one is entitled to anything more than anyone else in this business. Yes, indie authors seem to have a harder time of it because of the route they choose. But I know several indie authors and respect the hell out of them because of taking this route. I also respect them because they ACT PROFESSIONALLY. No matter what route you take, this is a difficult enough of an industry as it is, why add to it? Writers have been pretty good about supporting their fellow writers. I really don't see a need for such competitiveness in this field because readers will choose what they like, no matter what. Not everyone is going to like your book to begin with and it isn't your job to force them to like it. Take it in stride.

And I hope everyone reminds me of this when I get my bad reviews. Hehe!

Do you have anything to add to this? Did I not review a book for you and contact you? By all means, leave comments. Not the best way to start off the week, but hope you all have a good week regardless.

Late To The Party...

Yesterday was Wednesday! (Yes, Mel, that was very good but we all know that. The calendar told us.) It was also the first posting from Alex's Insecure Writing Group.

First, let me just say, Alex. Pure Genius.

I'm finding that I want to leave a comment on everyone's post! But I was a bit late to the party.

I had plans for Wednesday, plans to get up, visit everyone's blog for the big event. But I was met with, "Need to get up early, I have plane reservations to make." That was from my mom. I don't want to see her visit end, but I dragged my butt out of bed after a bout of insomnia and went to the travel agency. I was so flipping tired, I took a nap. But it didn't end there. I've been promising her we'd go play Bingo before she left. So we went.

I won $7.50 because I had to split a $15 pot. But better than nothing at all!

By the time I got home, settled things for the night and fired up the laptop... I made it to 8 other blogs. Out of 125 people!

But that is okay, my plan got pushed back a day. So I will be visiting, commenting and following.

Now I just want to say: Awww! You guys are so cool. Thanks for the comments left by all of you wonderful, insecure writers! I haven't gotten around to leaving my own personal comment, but thanks everyone for dropping by!

I'll be seeing you soon unless of course I've already left you a comment.

Have an awesome rest of the week!