Shh, I’m writing a romance

Another week has come and gone way too fast.  Sometimes I think that I’ve blinked and missed it but when I look back at my diary – I’ve been really busy. I did edits on three historical romances, critiqued some really great work from my writing sisters, and created another blog.

You’re probably wondering why I need another blog. I mean, despite my good intentions, I occasionally miss blog days here right. Well it’s not just my blog. My writing sisters have decided that we would like to blog together on one site so I’ve spent the latter half of this week setting up a pretty blogspot blog for us.

As you can imagine, there has been a huge amount of messages zinging between us all but the main subject was not related to the actual blog address, appearance, or content. No it was who got what title. Within our crit group we have affectionately nicknamed a few of our members and there has been great debate over rank. I kid you not, the competition was fierce. Me, I’m Viscountess Wicked, and there was an actual battle for Lady Crack Ho, but since we all like to be use period appropriate names that one was tossed aside.

Our plan with the blog is to create a site that can offer something more than the average blog – writer feedback.

With Friday night creeping up on me I think I might go grab a book, a glass of wine, and relax. Hope you’ve had a great week. What are your plans for Friday Night?

Characters that surprise

I’m not a regular viewer of the British TV series TORCHWOOD but this week I was glued. Why? Well, aside from spotting James Marsden (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) taking a turn as Captain John Hart, I happened to turn on at an interesting spot.

I could see a fight was coming – Captain Hart was drinking alone at a bar and then Captain Jack (the shows hero) comes through the bar doors. It had all the hallmarks of the westerns I endured as a kid. Except – the hero and villain kissed, and then they had the fight.

torchwood 1     torchwood 2     torchwood 3

That was definitely not what I expected to happen and the novelty of being surprised kept me glued for the remaining episode (apologies to the RWA Friday Night chatters). Even now, that scene has me grinning and I realise that the stories I love the most have complex characters acting outside the norm.

We all want to surprise our readers but can you think of the last book you read, or wrote, where a character did something that really threw you?

The last story I read that totally surprised me was an upcoming release from Jerrica Knight Catania, For the love of a Viscount, where the hero asked the wrong question. I think I yelled at him. *grin*

Shameless self promotion encouraged!

Building Character

My son played soccer this weekend. Not really an uncommon event but it was interesting game. I was particularly interested in how the boys interacted.

One boy has a habit of stealing the ball away from his own team members. Not really a nice trait in a player but I don’t think he means it. His focus is totally on the ball and the other kids seem to let it slide.

Another child, a frequent goal scorer, I heard him mutter “too easy” when he scored his third goal of the match. Yeah, I agree, his reaction is slightly scary but I’m hoping he’ll grow out of it. He’s a really sweet kid.

My son is not a consistent player and is easily distracted. Yet yesterday he was on fire, his best game of the year, but unfortunately the last of the season. He scored! And his reaction – the biggest, brightest smile I’ve ever seen on his face. Plus two thumbs up!

What I’ve been thinking about is how differently the boys react. How far will the traits they have now change as they age? What type of partner will grow to love them?

I know, at age seven, I might be getting a bit ahead of myself, but when we develop characters to write about, the experiences of childhood affect how they react to situations too.

How far back into your characters past do you imagine when crafting your story?