Authors may tell you how characters seem to spring to life independently. This happened with Chrysalis (AKA Chryssie), whom I first met in a short story I wrote for my blog. I named her Chrysalis because I wanted to incorporate the symbolism of a caterpillar and a butterfly into the story. And since a chrysalis […]
Behind the Scenes: Author Julie Arduini and the book that fell into her lap(top)
I was about two-thirds done revising my first Adirondack romance. The heroine, Jenna Anderson, was a strong character with a great surrender message to tell about trusting God with fears about change and wanting to belong. Helping Jenna was her new best friend, Sheriff Carla Rowling. The more Jenna and Carla hung out, the more […]
Behind the Scenes: Author Sandra Orchard finds it takes a village to raise a character
It takes a real-life village to raise a child character. For my character Serena Jones, a plucky FBI agent on the trail of a hot painting in A Fool and His Monet, it took a couple of FBI agents; a friend who is single; a retired police officer; a longtime resident of St. Louis; and […]
Behind the Scenes: Author Jodie Bailey and the character who took over
When I pitched Smokescreen (which came out last year) to my agent, she said something I’d never considered: “The kidnapped soldier? Sean? Why not do a second book about him?” Hm. In my mind, he was a MacGuffin, driving the story forward without taking a part in it. I wrote a paragraph about him and […]