Editing Advice: Over Describing

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character details, character development, interacting with scene, narrative telling, over describing, show don't tell, step-by-step action, The Writing Process, writing props, writing tips

Yes, I’m treading into dreaded territory again. Our favorite axiom as writers: show, don’t tell.

Well, I hate to make it more complicated, but sometimes, showing too much becomes telling.

I could show this to you in a lot of ways, but let’s hone in on one: dropping too many details all at once.

Now, it’s easy to admit that I have issues with scene development. I’m not a fan of dumping all of the spatial information right up front unless it directly connects with the tension. Instead, I like to suggest filtering details through a scene so that the characters can interact with what’s around them rather than being told what’s where.

This is part of stylistic preference, and I don’t want to tell anyone that theirs is wrong. It’s just the way I prefer to both write and interact with the story as a reader.

But let me delve even deeper to one of my giant pet peeves—something that affects the trifecta of writer, reader, and editor. I’m serious; I skim past this stuff when it’s in a book, and I hate the waste of words.

That’s the uber-detailed depiction of a character. Eye color, hair color, skin color, height, weight, clothes and the way they fit, shoes, nail color, their half-hearted smile and cupid lips, the button nose…are you getting sick of me listing details yet? I’m sure sick of it.

My feelings aside, I’ve read some interesting research and heard theories from countless writing professors that say the same thing. Too many details like this all at once creates a blank spot in our memories for the character because we can’t remember them all. They get jumbled together with all of the other characters and their giant lists of features.

The best way to circumvent this is to pick and choose which details set the character apart from the others.

A character with rainbow eyes? Sure, mention those. That’s not typical.

A scar on their lip. Go for it.

Are they always flipping their hair from their eyes to no avail?

Got a ring on their finger that they turn when they’re anxious or nervous?

Their height make them loom over everyone?

Always tugging at the cuffs on their shirt?

See how these create images, props as they were, to identify a character without the whole shebang? Pair these with their distinct attitude as described by their dialect and general actions, and this is an excellent way to develop character without relying on over description. But be sure to use them with purpose.

Besides, readers are smart and fill in a lot of the blanks themselves. The way I imagine Boden isn’t the same as the way every reader I’ve come in contact with does. And you know what, I’m okay with that. Their version involves them in my world. I’m honored they want to spend time there.

My last note, over description can happen in action as well. Something I often refer to as step-by-step action. The needless description of every movement a character makes to be sure we see it exactly as the writer does. Let’s just say, it becomes telling real quick.

Let me know if you want a full review of this in a future post. I’m sure I can go on about it for a while.

Got a way you love to identify your characters? Share them in the comments below!

Linda G. Hill, a Featured Spotlight

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book research, character development, good read, gothic, must read, Mystery, paranormal romance, stage magic, WIP, writer's block, writing motivation

If you haven’t heard of the On Fire anthology, this mini-interview and excerpt series will showcase the amazing authors I get to work with and their writing. Meet Linda.

What motivates you to write?

People motivate me to write. Human behavior fascinates me endlessly: I can spend hours writing scenarios in which characters react to their surroundings and one another, just to work through what makes them tick.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I deal with writer’s block by having a shower. I’m always amazed by how many other authors say they find inspiration there. Must have something to do with not having anything to look at but tiles…that’s my best guess anyway.

What interesting thing did you learn while writing your last story?

My current WIP, the third novel in my paranormal romance series, “The Great Dagmaru,” takes place, in part, in Ottawa, at the National Arts Centre. I was lucky enough to discover that they had an open house of sorts, where they allowed the general public access to the stage, the dressing rooms, the prop rooms and rehearsal halls – basically the entire building. During my self-guided tour, I had the opportunity to meet the stage manager and discuss a scene in my novel where my main character, a stage magician, has horses on stage. I was able to obtain the logistics of getting the animals into the building, and I had the chance to see the loading docks for reference. I found out they had an elephant on stage there once, so the horses weren’t as much of an issue as I imagined they’d be when I wrote the scene.

 

From “The Flame on Lick’s Island” by Linda G. Hill:

I wasn’t confident walking into Penny’s shop. Of the four ladies standing behind customers, talking to them in the mirrors, three were barely into their twenties. White-haired, Penny’s former beauty radiated past her wrinkles when she smiled at her client. At the jangling of my entrance, she dropped her comb, pausing on me a beat too long before she bent to pick it up and sink it into her jar of Barbicide.

“Can I help you?” She plucked another comb and ran it under the tap.

“I’m just here for a cut,” I said.

One of the other girls did my hair, but Penny’s attention made me uncomfortable. Before leaving, I asked for a word. I was surprised when she suggested a cup of coffee.

We sat in the familiar diner.

The staff eyed us.

“I heard Lick’s was passed on as an inheritance. Was Kristie a close relative?”

My turn to gawp. “We weren’t related at all. Hubert was my husband’s uncle.”

“You’re joking. You’re the spitting image.”

Unnerved, I twisted a napkin in my lap. “It must be a coincidence.”

Penny shook her head. “I’m guessing you want to know about her.”

“How did you know?”

“Because Kristie is still out there, on the island.”

My shoulders jarred against the metal seatback.

“I’m right, aren’t I? People like Kristie don’t just go away when they die. And after what Hubert did… He must have loved her, though.”

“What did he do?”

“Hubert had an affair. When Kristie found out, she had her third miscarriage. Nobody even knew she was pregnant that time. She lost all of them out on the island. Hubert took care of her body, but her mind…that was a different matter.”

“I understand you used to go out and do her hair.”

“Yeah. And she’d talk to me when I did. Then one day, I had an appointment. I got out of the boat on their dock—it was a hot day, just like this one.” Penny sipped of her coffee.

Out the window, the traffic stopped and started at the corner.

“She’d cut it all off. That wasn’t the worst of it. I can’t talk about the last time I saw her.”

I had the diary; I’d find out myself.

“It was a long time before I went out there again. Years.” She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and dabbed her eyes. “When I did, Hubert told me she was gone. I was the first in town to find out.”

“He didn’t hold a service or anything?” I asked.

“She had no family, and I was the closest thing she had to a friend. People asked the doc about her occasionally, but she kept to herself, so no one pried.”

That poor woman.

“So that’s it.” She looked me in the eye, her voice suddenly cold. “Was there anything else specific you wanted to know?”

“What do you know about the candles? Kristie seemed to like them. I keep finding puddles of dried wax everywhere.”

“She made them. The last time I was there, one was in the window by the front door of the house. Hubert had it lit like he was waiting for her to come home. Poor asshole.”

“Do you think she had anything to do with the fire in the apartment, here in town?”

The look in Penny’s eye made the temperature drop a degree, chilling my bones. “I have no idea.”

She paid for our coffees and left.

 

Linda G. Hill is a stay-at-home mom of three boys and the guardian of one beagle and two kitties. She concocts tales in her head 24/7 and blogs almost daily at lindaghill.com. Linda’s newest release, The Magician’s Curse, is the first in a series of Gothic paranormal romances. Also available on Amazon and Kobo is her romantic comedy novelette, All Good Stories. She lives in Southern Ontario, Canada.

ON FIRE is available now: Amazon, Nook, Kobo, and the Transmundane Press store.

Interview with Fannar Einarsson: the IMP

Tags

character development, character interview, element manipulation, faerie council, frost, IMP, internal affairs, legacy, magick, snowflakes

Welcome, Fannar. Thank you for coming in to answer some questions.

A pleasure. I live to serve.

Not used to that one, but I’m still glad to have you here. I hear you have an interesting power that takes a hefty toll.

Indeed. The manipulation of elements can be quite draining. I freeze water. It, in turn, freezes me. It wasn’t always that way, bit it is now.

A birdie told me that you and your brother have a bit of a feud. Can you tell me about that?

He’s the reason my powers hurt me as much as they do. Because he skirted his responsibilities and needed someone to save him.

What role do you play in the council?

I run the Northern Division of the Internal Magick Protection units. Checks and balances. Ensuring protocol is not only followed but fair.

Did you always want to be a part of the council?

<He laughs.> No. I messed up pretty badly when I was younger…had a lot of making up to do.

I hear you have an interesting collection, what’s it of?

You hear a lot of things.

I do. It’s like a magickal power.

I have a couple thousand preserved snowflakes. It’s a bit of a niche, took a lot of practice to perfect, but it helps to channel our most basic natures.

Can you tell me about Alvilda?

She was special, but she had a self-destruct button. Too much energy to contain. <Emotions warred through his face.> She changed the way our mound runs now, about what we prioritize, about how we teach our children.

I’m glad to hear she has a legacy.

Me, too.

What was the first bit of magick you learned?

Keeping my food from burning my mouth. Took a long time before I got to eat warm food again.

Samurai or Ninja?

Ninja. It’s better to be fast than strong, and every fairy will tell you the same.

If you could change something about yourself, what would it be and why?

I’d be able to feel warmth again.

I hope you do, someday. Well, that’s it. Thanks for placating me, and I hope you come back to visit soon.

 

Want to know more about Fannar? Check out his official character page or watch him work in “The Mark of the Phoenix.”

Megan Dorei, a Featured Spotlight

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character development, chase, flammable, heartbreak, insignia, marketing techniques, must read, on the run, triggered, writing advice

If you haven’t heard of my new project, the On Fire anthology over at Transmundane Press, this mini-interview and excerpt series will showcase the amazing authors I get to work with and their writing. Meet Megan Dorei.

How long have you been writing?

Since I could hold a pencil. Before I actually learned how to write I drew stick-figure stories with crayon, then stapled them together to look like books. Stacks and stacks of them. A third of the structure of our apartment was made of makeshift paperbacks.

How do you choose your character’s personalities and names?

Occasionally a character will come to me before the story, but most of the time it’s the opposite. Molding a character has a lot to do with the plot, what it will require of them, how it will push them. It’s probably my favorite part of the process.

What marketing techniques do you find most effective?

Unfortunately for me (a self-proclaimed hermit), networking is a great one. It always makes me nervous trying to find a balance between plugging and spamming… Plus, you know, the whole human interaction thing.

 

From “Chrysopoeia” by Megan Dorei

Holding her breath against the beef-thick air, she readied to head back to her booth when two men came in from outside. Familiar by their finely-tailored suits, though she didn’t recognize the faces. Bearing the insignia she’d helped create on their lapels. She stopped so suddenly, she bounced back a step.

Of course, they were looking for her. She was stupid for not thinking of this.

Her mind raced with the same bleak friction as one who runs despite an approaching dead end.

No way out the front entrance.

Assuming the back door was through the kitchen, she would have to make it past the men either way.

No windows in the women’s bathroom, and probably none in the men’s.

Saliva thickened to flammable jelly in her throat. The Flame burgeoned at the bottom of her belly, stretching to hook a claw into her esophagus. She shuddered with the fruitless effort it took to cage it.

As the men surveyed the diner, recognition lit their faces. Her heart slunk into her belly and was devoured by flames.

She knew of one way out.

Their hands twitched to their belts in synchrony, and the guns tucked there flashed like eager stars, the cold fire Ayden harbored in her own chest. But the rest of her was alive with heat, desert fumes that writhed just beneath her skin, and she ached to let it out, she burned.

“Ayden, get your hands up.”

Resentment sparked. They called her by her first name like they knew her, like they were old friends…

Her body clenched, and the men were too late to pull the trigger. The screams of the diners cut off in a nebula burst. Incineration. It rushed out of Ayden’s pores like volcanic spew, blistering, bittersweet agony that shook her to her bones.

Spent, she fell to her knees. The flames towered above her, triumphant beasts licking the ceiling. The bewildering heat didn’t burn her—a dire vessel with the coals set free. Too cold to burn.

 

Megan Dorei is a part-time housekeeper who spends her free time writing, thinking about writing, and listening to music to reinvigorate her writing. She is a horror devotee, beer enthusiast and lover of all things retro. She has been a contributing author to Sirens Call Publications’ Bellows of the Bone Box and Mental Ward: Stories From the Asylum, Storm Moon Press‘ Big Damn Heroines, Dark Moon Digest #14, Flame Tree Publishing’s Gothic Fantasy: Dystopia Utopia, and most recently in Mad Scientist Journal: Summer 2017. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas with her fiancée and a ghost that insists on hiding their remotes.

ON FIRE is available now: Amazon, Nook, Kobo, and the Transmundane Press store.

Alisha Costanzo, a Featured Spotlight

Tags

blood phoenix, Broken World, character development, developing dialogue, good read, must read, on fire, phoenix, writing advice, writing tips

If you haven’t heard of my new project, the On Fire anthology over at Transmundane Press, this mini-interview and excerpt series will showcase the amazing authors I get to work with and their writing, usually. This time, you get to meet me, Alisha Costanzo.

What advice do you have for beginning authors?

Just write. Don’t let anyone tell you what to write or that what you write isn’t worth writing. Just write.

Which of your characters was the hardest to write about and why?

In Loving Red, Kaia was my most difficult because of how different she and I are. She’s far more capable than I am in the wild, untrusting, and a faithful Christian. I asked the woman who created the character with me in role playing a lot of questions to be sure I did her justice.

What do you think your main strengths and weaknesses are as an author?

My main weakness as an author is scene set-up. I always feel as if I’m blathering on too long when I’m describing a setting. I’ve been working on this for years and am developing a style that allows me to give snippets of sensory detail rather than dumping it all at once. My strengths are character development and dialogue. I love to give my characters different voices that make them distinct, like Boden’s lack of articles and how he misuses prepositions. I also like that all of my characters are broken in various ways.

 

From “The Mark of the Phoenix” by Alisha Costanzo

Aderyn chased the headlights across the ceiling and the fleeting feeling of Tatiana’s touch along his skin. He ached. So badly.

Digging the pipe from his satchel, he broke and sprinkled a nugget and burnt it under his thumb. The smoke eased the ache in his shoulders and back, but his chest blistered inside from the fear of rebirth. Of disintegrating into ash and dust. Of painting the cosmos with fire and losing himself.

A long life without love meant little.

Another puff sank his elbows to his knees, numbing limbs and leaving that sucking blackness in the center of his chest.

He deserved the girl.

Another puff.

Didn’t he?

The herb knocked him backwards into the bed, drowning him the lack of attachment he had in this world. What would he leave behind? A vague memory for a woman and a child he would never meet? One that would be hunted down to live the same life as him, wandering alone to cleanse the world with fire?

A hard burden for anyone to carry.

But it was his, and he didn’t want to give it up.

 

Alisha Costanzo is from a Syracuse suburb. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she currently teaches English. She’s the author of the Blood Phoenix saga, Loving Red and is co-editor of Distorted, Underwater, and After the Happily Ever After. Lucifer’s Daughter, her new novel, is in its creation for a hopeful 2018 release. In the meantime, she will continue to corrupt young minds, rant about the government, and daydream about her all around nasty creatures.

ON FIRE is available now: Amazon, Nook, Kobo, and the Transmundane Press store.

Sean Padraic McCarthy, a Featured Spotlight

Tags

character development, dysfunctional family, mental health, On Fire anthology, twins, witchcraft, writer's block, writing, zombies

If you haven’t heard of my new project, the On Fire anthology over at Transmundane Press, this mini-interview and excerpt series will showcase the amazing authors I get to work with and their writing. Meet Sean Padraic McCarthy.

 

Are you a full-time author? If you have another job, what is it and would you like to become a full-time author if you could?

I’m not a full time author. I work in the mental health field as a human service coordinator. And yes, if I could support myself from writing, I would; although I would like to teach part time.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I’m always working on at least a few stories—and usually a novel—at the same time, so if one stalls, I just jump to another. I also find that writer’s block is much more torturous when thinking about writing; once you go into your writer’s mind—with either pen on paper or fingers on the keyboard—the answers are usually more accessible.

Who is your favorite character in your current story and why?

Both Sophie and Kinsley.  I love Sophie’s heart and innocence, and I love Kinsley’s alertness, practicality and wisdom, and I love the way the two of them look out for each other.

 

From “A Solstice Memory” by Sean McCarthy

Inside the house the twins stood waiting for me. They’re not identical, but they look alike. Sophie has darker hair, a slightly lazy eye, and freckles on her nose. A little taller. Kinsley is more compact, and more assured. An athlete.

“Dad,” she said.

“Yeah?’

“That wasn’t a dead cat you were burying this morning.”

“What do you mean?”

She beckoned for me to follow her, and slid open the door onto the back covered deck. Cheryl has always kept the back deck looking nice. A bar, and our grill, a teak dining table. More hanging plants, and potted herbs. And on the side wall of the house hangs a collections of faces. Masks. One, wooden, is a tree spirit, a bearded face in the bark. One is Pan, painted dark green, leaves in his hair. One is a gray stone cherub. And one is from Haiti. A tear drop shaped, with a bone through the nose, eyes in panic, and the mouth locked open in scream. Wild strands of hair, standing on end. My brother-in-law, a sociologist, game me that one. He told me it is very old, and one of kind, probably worth a lot of money, so we probably shouldn’t hang it out here, free to steal, but Cheryl insisted we do, insisted we hang it with the others, so she didn’t have to look at it every day.

Kinsley was already down on the lawn. “Come on.”

I looked at Sophie.

“I’m not going down there,” she said. “Not again.”

Kinsley stopped some twenty feet from the shed, from the pet cemetery.

I caught up.

“Look.” She pointed.

But she didn’t have to.

The hand stuck up from the earth. Rotten and gray. The yellow finger nails clawed at the soil.

“He wants out, Dad,” Kinsley said.

“Well, let’s see if we can stop that.”

“You can’t be burying dead guys in the yard. Mom’s gonna get really mad.”

 

Sean Padraic McCarthy’s short stories have been published or are forthcoming in Glimmer Train, The Hopkins Review, The Indianola Review, South Dakota Review, The Sewanee Review, 2 Bridges Review, Prole, Water~Stone Review,  Hayden’s Ferry Review, Shadowgraph Magazine, Fifth Wednesday Journal, and South Dakota Review among others. His story “Better Man”–originally published in december magazine—was  listed as a “Distinguished Story”  in The Best American Short Stories 2015, he was recently named a finalist for the Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction, and he is a 2016 recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Artist Fellowship in Fiction Award. 

Follow our Amazon page for On Fire’s release this December 1st!

April’s Top Ten YouTube Videos

Tags

agism, Amy Schumer, anti-consumerist, april, Bonus, book trailer, brainstorming, brownies, building a story, cardio, character development, chris baty, Comedy, creative process, cutting, de-clutter, defense, doodles, fight scenes, food, fuckable, gun to the face, Harry Potter, kickboxing, krav maga, KymNonStop, lip reading, low-carb, minimialism, NaNoWriMo, outlining, plot, rockin' and rollin', story, Top Ten List, Transmundane Press, Underwater, writing, yoda, YouTube

April has been full of bullet journaling, music, food, workouts, and writing stuffs – at least on YouTube. The rest of April…well…she’s been tough on me. However, May has opened her arms to welcome me warmly. I am excited to start this month.

So, anyways, here’s my strange list of YouTube videos.

 

1 hour of Yoda – Rockin’ and Rollin’

This video grew on me. My husband played it for its full hour, and I found myself bopping along, writing. It helps grading, too.

 

Chris Baty: “No Plot? No Problem” | Talks at Google

I’m prepping for my NanoWriMo July Camp (outlining currently), and Chris Baty is the creator of NanoWriMo. He makes some good points about the creative process.

 

Writing a Book in a Month (Filmed every day of Nov)

Again, NanoWriMo! I thought of tracking this – maybe via videos, maybe via blog posts, maybe even via instagram. Who knows.

 

AT-HOME KICKBOXING- A 15 or 30Min Cardio Workout – KymNonStop

I’ve featured her here on this blog before. I love her personality and her workouts.

 

BROWNIES WHILE CUTTING: Low-Carb Protein Brownies

These look so good. I seriously want to try them. I typically don’t watch male health YouTubers because…well…I’m a female, and we need different things, but this guy grew on me fast. I watched a slew of his videos after this one.

 

Inside Amy Schumer – Last F**kable Day – Uncensored

One of my students wrote her mammoth research paper on agism and the how they differed for males and females. This was spot on for her argument. Plus, these ladies are hilarious.

 

Doodles with Circles : Harry Potter (Part 1)

I love doodles. I love Harry Potter. Enough said.

 

5 Days of Minimalism | Try Living With Lucie

One of my goals for the summer is to clear out some of the clutter in my house. As an anti-consumerist (until I walk into a bookstore), I love the idea of minimalism. But I have a lot of stuff. This gave me some nice ideas on my de-cluttering mission.

 

How To Build A Story | Brainstorming (1 of 5)

I love this chick. I watched all five of her videos on outlining and brainstorming, and I even took notes! Because I’m a dork. I’ve found it helpful in developing my outline for that NanoWriMo project I’m working on.

 

How to Defend against a Gun to the Face | Krav Maga Defense

So…I write a lot of fight scenes, and although I have no gun fights in my books…currently…I found this helpful. Always good to know how to defend oneself, too.

 

BONUS:

My press, Transmundane Press, has their first YouTube video. Take a look!

Official Underwater Book Trailer

 

Well, there you are, my eleven videos this month. Enjoy! ❤

What do you think I am, a machine?

Tags

alisha costanzo, Ari, blood phoenix, Broken World, character development, connections, Imprinted, inferno, Mark, Nani, nude, Ria, simultaneous, sprite, The Rainbow Sprite, to-do list, Underwater, Untamed, Vincent, water

I write a lot of stories simultaneously. Many writers that I know say that this is crazy. Some others do the same. But with the number of books and stories on my to-do list, this seems to be the only way.

Don’t get me wrong, I tend to focus on one LONG work at a time because, otherwise, I’d never finish anything, but currently, my plots overlap quite a bit, which leans me toward shorter works, splitting up long stories, so that characters’ arcs don’t get jumbled or left out.

And that’s what “The Rainbow Sprite” does. Just as “Untamed,” (Mark and Ari’s first story) I felt it necessary to introduce hidden tensions within my major series. You know, the one that features Ria and her on-going struggles as a vampire/phoenix mix.

It seems that I’ve taken a liking to the serial nature of stories so that every one influences another…like in real life. And I like how it’s worked out for me so far.

So here’s what I’ve discovered. After writing about Vincent and his water sprite, he’s evolved as a character in BLOOD PHOENIX: IMPRINTED (which is also 4,000 words away from being finished. I’m behind. Yeah, I don’t know why either. I’ll get my ass in gear. Promise).

In fact, there’s one scene where Ria pulls a memory of her from him. It freaks him out to put it mildly.

It would me, too, if I had their queen breathing up all my free air. (One of my BIG pet peeves by the way. Don’t breathe my air).

Is the influence gigantic? Not really. Not yet at least, but it will be in book four (BLOOD PHOENIX: INFERNO—not started yet. What do you think I am, a machine?)

Any-what’s-it. There you have it. My world is way too complicated to fit it all in one character’s perspective. Serials will be the way I remedy that until I can find the place where their full stories sit.

Stay tuned for more sneak peeks from UNDERWATER, a video of me reading from “The Rainbow Sprite,” some teasers, and an uber inappropriate release day post.

Meet Vincent and Nani:

They’re my lovely main characters for “The Rainbow Sprite.” (Don’t mind Vincent, he has a tendency to go nude).

 

Writer’s Chatroom Interview, Part I

Tags

alisha costanzo, anthology, author, blood phoenix, Boden, bosex, Broken World, Celampresians, character development, Dev, editing, editor, faeries, fantasy, folklore, horror, inspiration, interview, kaia, kiss, leprachaun, leprechaun, life, lore, love, Loving Red, magick, mermaids, myth, mythical race, mythology, myths, NaNoWriMo, new release, novel, paranormal, paranormal romance, published, publishing, queen, Recipe, Roleplay, roleplaying, romance, satire, Sev, Shapeshifter, shapeshifters, shifters, students, teaching, Transmundane Press, Untamed, urban fantasy, vampire, vampires, vampyr, war, Watertown NY, were-creatures, werebears, weres, Werewolf, werewolves, wolves, writing, writing tips

Chatroom: Welcome, Alisha! Let’s start with your latest project, the urban fantasy novel in your Broken World Series, LOVING RED. How did Facebook play into the creation of this novel?

Alisha: Well, I am a former role-player addict with over 30 active profiles on facebook for a time. Severins Bouvier was literally made for Kaia, and he was based off of a Sherrilyn Kenyon character, Dev Peltier.

See, Kaia and Dev fell in love off screen, and that wasn’t allowed. So to fix it, I made Sev, hence the similar names, personas, and physical appearance.

The book doesn’t follow the post on facebook yet. Most of them are love-posts or snuggle-scenes. (I’ve been watching too much Simpsons).

But playing them on facebook first allowed me to dig deeper into their personalities before I wrote the novel. And well, it was fun.

 

Chatroom: So they both had profiles, run by you, and you played them like real people? Sorry, but I want to make sure I’m understanding this. 🙂

Alisha: Yes and no. I played Sev like he was a real person, and my friend, who I actually call Kaia even though her name is Laura, played Kaia in the same fashion.

It was interesting when time to write the novel.

Chatroom: Please introduce us to your heroine, Kaia.

Alisha: Kaia is a spunky red head that’s had her share of male attention, but she’s wanted none of it. Instead, Kaia craves adventure, bored sick of her accounting job and repeated conversations with her father about marriage and children.

Essentially, she perpetuates my ideals for strength: smart, resourceful, witty, and sensitive. She’s not afraid to cry, and she won’t break easy. Finally, her faith powers her through torture, a violent chase, and control over her own mind.

I envy her that, but she’s also a bit naive, sheltered by her Swedish heritage, customs, and wealth. Yet, exposure to Severins and his world (as a wolf)–his past–improves her keen awareness and clever mind.

Chatroom: Thank you. I probably should have started with this question, but better late than never! Please give us some background on your Broken World Series. What is it about, and what can we expect to find in your books?

Alisha: Well, the first two in the series are Urban Fantasy novels, and this third is a Paranormal Romance (different characters in the same world). Their world is one run by a vampire queen.

Her army is called the Celampresians. But there is another group, the Assetato, who oppose her. The first two novel follow a newborn’s entrance into this world with her human best friend and her maker.

I love playing the mythology and pop culture, so I make a lot of internal references to Buffy, Twilight, Dark Hunters, and others.

So there are a lot of laughs, but also, a lot of snark, dark times, and sex.

For LOVING RED, Sev is a member of the Assetato, so they drop into an on-going war at the start of the novel.

 

Chatroom: How did you research for your characters? Your descriptions are pretty detailed. You must have been thinking about them for a while before applying a pen to paper, so to speak.

Alisha: For Kaia and Sev, I had facebook for. (And I may have used facebook a bit for my other characters). However, I’ve been playing in this world for the past fifteen years before I put serious effort into their stories.

This was after graduate school as there were no vamps allowed in writing classes.

For Kaia, I asked a lot questions of my friend before I finally felt comfortable writing her on my own.

And Sev is partially based off of my husband, an Army Sgt.

He even makes a cameo in the novel.

Chatroom: Did you say Sev was a wolf? I almost missed that earlier. 🙂

Alisha: Yes, he is.

I call them bosex instead of weres or shifters.

Kaia is human.

 

Chatroom: Lines you will not cross as a writer?

Alisha: At this moment, I’m not sure that I have a clearly defined line. I can say I don’t like rape for titillation, although it has been a major part of one of my storylines. I enjoy writing death, torture, and sex with varying detail.

But my characters have done some heinous things in my novels—both on screen and off.

 

Chatroom: You have a lot of fun with character interviews – is it fair to say you have a LOT of voices bouncing around your head? 😀 How do you keep all your various character details straight?

Alisha: I have SOO many voices. Sometimes, they can be overwhelming and keep me from grading papers. But I’m often able to satisfy them all by giving them a few minutes during my week to show me things they feel the need to before I get back the grind.

Also, a character book helps.

Chatroom: On your blog, you’ve published a recipe related to the novel – do you actually have recipes listed in the book?

Alisha: I do not, which is why I posted it on my blog to share. My editor did suggest creating a cookbook for Sev, who is a trained cook.

I’m meddling with the idea.

 

Chatroom: Do your English students realize that their teacher has a dark side?

Alisha: Usually. I’m very open with them, some say I might share too much, but I enjoy connecting with them as people and adults rather than keeping that barrier between teacher and pupil.

So, I’ve mentioned my books and some of the material I’ve written, but I’m sure they don’t know just how dark it is inside my head.

 

Chatroom: Must be an interesting class.

Alisha: I try.

 

Chatroom: Do you think your interest in roleplay helps in creating characters? How so?

Alisha: I t does. That’s why I have so many. Kaia would often send me pictures of models that would spark a character’s voice for me. So, we’d set them up, give them lives, and explore them via interaction with each other on the page.

Most of them have ended as romances because that’s the type of writing chemistry we have.

But when we introduce new characters, they have secondary characters, and thus, we create more and more.

Since my character has to respond to hers, I find that I learn more about them than if I pushed them myself.

It’s strange, but a fun way to develop, and then I don’t have to make them all up myself. (It kind of feels like cheating).

 

Chatroom: So half the profiles on Facebook are really your fictional characters?

Alisha: Yes, they are! And my friends. I’ve made a lot of real life friends that way. By the way, I’m trying hard not to be a tangent queen, but sometimes I can’t help it.

And I can show you guys some profiles if you’re interested. They’re all inactive at the moment.

Severins.   Kaia.   Ria.

Alexandria (Ria) is my newbie vamp in the first two novels, but there are Sev’s and Kaia’s. And there are spoilers, so beware. 🙂

 

Chatroom: Do all the FB friends know that they are “friending” a fictional character?

Alisha: That I can’t be too sure about, but when I was in a big group, ran by a moderator with a heck of a lot more people, the majority of them knew because they’d read the books.

I wound up creating my own because I’m a control freak.

So, I’d say most of them knew.

I wish I could keep up with them as much as I’d like.

 

Come back for Part II in January 2016!

Excerpt from Chapter Nine of LOVING RED

Tags

alisha costanzo, andre, audrey hepburn, author, blood, book, bosex, breakfast at tiffany's, Broken World, character development, circus, Death, Dev, fae, faerie, fantasy, gypsies, horror, kaia, kidnapping, love, Loving Red, monsters, novel, paranormal, paranormal romance, power, revenge, romance, scarlet, Sev, Shapeshifter, shifters, sneak peek, torture, Transmundane Press, Travelers, urban fantasy, vampire, werebears, weres, Werewolf, werewolves

Kaia sat on the side of a bed as a small, dark-featured female sat in a chair across from her, her knees held together, reminding Kaia of Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Her round eyes condescending yet patient as she looked Kaia over. She took her time, carefully picking every bit of Kaia apart in silence. Fidgeting against her cuffs, adrenaline fought the post-anxiety-attack exhaustion.

The room glowed a gentle yellow, and the springs of the cheap bed creaked under she minute shifting. Finally, their gazes met.

“Two years ago, I watched my mate get his head torn off by a bear. His teeth…” Suppressed rage hastened her breath, “sliced right into his throat…and snapped his body in two. I didn’t believe it possible until that beast spit my lover’s head out and it rolled towards me.” Unfettered lust for revenge brightened her eyes, making them grow impossibly wider.

Kaia couldn’t create the image this woman painted. “I’m sorry. Who are you? If you want my family’s money, they’ll give it, but we’re not excessively rich.”

“I do not want your silly money. The male who killed my lover is what I want.” Rigid, gloved fingers squeezed together in her lap, shaking as if she held a snarling beast on a chain. She took a breath and layered on composure. “And you may call me Scarlet. Fitting, I would think.”

Quite. But not her real name. Dev called her Little Red from the moment they’d met, charming her with his flirtatious humor—the same humor the man captured with her had. They both seemed like such good men, in their presence and actions. Kaia had been wrong enough about the bear, and certainly, she needed no more proof that she was wrong about Sev.

“I can’t give you what you want.” Just the same, Dev didn’t deserve to die because he couldn’t love her enough. Not that she had much information for them, other than broken bits she kept sweeping away, left over from their relationship.

“You can and will by the time we’re through with you. Hopefully, before I lose my patience. I’d hate to mar that perfect skin of yours.” Scarlet straightened her gloves, up around her elbows like the thought of dirtying them with violence set her further on edge. “Why don’t I tell you the whole story? It might give you a smidgen of perspective.

“Two-and-a-half years ago, the bear made contact with Travelers, a mix of Irish and Asian decent, roaming the European and Asian landmass since long before they were called such, as they made their first pass through the Midwest. They’d formed a traveling circus when bartering fell out of favor. The bear weaseled his way into the group, coercing younger members to reform, like those Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“Half of the Travelers pledged to work with humans, to mean them no harm, to hide themselves in passivity. Unrest nestled its way into the pack, splitting families apart and breaking traditions.”

Scarlet pressed her hands into her knees, thumbing away invisible dirt. An ache started in Kaia’s shoulders, making her stretch in the break. This woman had real issues with change it seemed, something raised in Kaia that she had embraced whole-heartedly.

“When trust breaks down, peace becomes a scarce commodity and violence takes its place. Six months after that bear befriended the Travelers, the first death to their people occurred. A young feline murdered his father. Both sides were at each other’s throats, screaming and reaching for blood.

“Daniel, my lover, was called to come placate both sides, but we were not the only ones summoned. And neither side could compromise, especially not with that bear preaching about ethical treatment and ultimate elimination. He killed so many of us. And so many children died.” Scarlet shook her head, bringing her gloved finger to catch a tear before it smeared her mascara. Blinking it away, she took a breath and settled her gaze to her lap. After a few silent moments, she worked at peeling her right glove down her arm, pulling it from her fingertips to reveal dipped and discolored flesh, red and raw looking, mangled like a horse’s leg after a cougar attack. Her arm healed, although unlike the rest of her dark, creamy skin. “When he was done with my Daniel, he tried to take my arm, too. Your bear did this to me.”

The glove wrinkled in her hand, and she slammed her fist into her thigh, her voice soft and scary, whispering a curse. Her outburst subdued, and Scarlet slid the glove back in place. “So, tell me, Little Red, when is the last time you talked to your sweet Devere?”

“I haven’t talked to him since he broke my heart. Why would I want to?” Did they expect her to merely give up the man she loved? This woman needed to do more than tell her a story skewed by the hatred of equality and cooperation with humans. Dev didn’t tell her a lot about what he was and what he did, but Kaia learned enough by observation. And this Scarlet, as the bear would put it, wouldn’t be alive if he wanted her dead. He had a strict no women or children rule unless he had no other choice.

“Andre.” Scarlet rose a hand, signaling Ponytail forward to grab Kaia by the arm and pull her off the small bed to a corner of the room where a tub sat, filled with water.

Andre grabbed the mass of her hair and forced her to her knees in front of it. “We don’t take kindly to lies, Little Red.”

Fear grabbed Kaia’s heart as he forced her face into the water, making her struggle to hold her breath, her body jerking against the side of the tub, unable to lift herself. Burning lungs threatened to pull in the water as she came free to breathe. Andre dropped his sour face beside hers. She ate the air.

“You called him after I attacked you. Predictable.” He gave her a deviant grin before pushing her face back into the cold water.

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Learn more about the gypsies/travelers in my Did You Know… post.