30 Day Writing Meme: Day #21.

21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?

Mark & Karrie have a son...he was born in "In Blackest Night" and is one year old in "Switched". He really isn't in either much, so I haven't really developed him. Yet. ;) Who knows what could happen if I continue the series! Anywho, that's the only kid I've given any of my characters...mainly because most of my characters are young adults and not married. I have written many stories for kids about kids though, so I know I'm capable of writing kids. ;) And I believe I write them pretty darn well. My children's lit. instructor seemed to think so. ;)

30 Day Writing Meme: Day #20.

20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?

I can't help it. I LOVE writing the wackiest conversations/interactions between Mark & Karrie. Just ridiculous stuff. Especially one's I've had in real life...ones with my sis and girl friends...ones that guys just don't seem to "get". They may not always seem to make much sense in my stories, but every single one of them has me laughing...partially cuz they're inside jokes. So to the reader they may just seem ridiculous, but to me, they're hysterical, cuz they bring back memories and cuz they're so like me and my sis and friends. For example:

“Fairies?” Mark was confused.

Karrie looked over at him, her eyebrows raised in amusement.

“She believes in fairies?” he asked.

“Of course she believes in fairies. Everyone does.” Karrie murmured. “Don't tell me you don't?” she said.

“What? Of course not!” Mark said into the phone.

Karrie tsked, “Really, Mark, you shouldn't say that. Not out loud, at least. Every time you say fairies aren't real, a fairy dies. Oops, there I go. Another one down. How many left?”

Mark frowned in her direction, motioning for her to be quiet.

“She has a fairy collection, if I'm not mistaken.” Mr. Downing was saying.

“A fairy collection?” Mark asked.

“She collects fairies? How fascinating! Ask him if she has the water kind...I would so like to see the water kind!” Karrie smiled angelically.

“What sort of fairy collection?” Mark continued.

“Statues, fairy furniture, all sorts of fairy things. She was obsessed with fairies. It was the most important thing in her life. She got all excited just last week because she said she discovered a fairy ring out in Breckton Woods.”

“So you say she disappeared two nights ago?” Mark said.

“Most likely the fairies took her.” Karrie murmured.

Mark glared at her.

“Yes, that's right,” Mr. Downing continued.

Just then another knock came at the door. Mark rolled his eyes in exasperation.

“Could you hold a moment, Mr. Downing?”

“Absolutely.”

“Now, WHO is that?”Mark said in frustration.

“Probably Santa Claus.” Karrie struggled to her feet to answer the door.

(Excerpt from "Switched"...)

Or:

"You've never seen it?" Karrie gasped.
She turned to Hayley, "He's never seen
it!"
"You've never seen it?" Hayley gasped.
"He HASN'T seen it!" she shrieked to
Karrie. Both gasped at the same time,
placing their hands over their hearts.

(Excerpt from "Pearls in Her Hair"...)

I like drama. :D

30 Day Writing Meme: Day #19.

19. Favorite minor character that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!



Easy...William Holbrook of "Pearls in Her Hair". He may not have stolen the spotlight from Mark & Karrie, but he certainly pushed himself into the story! He was supposed to be an idiot police sergeant, who only causes problems for Mark! Instead, he turned out to be his best friend, an important factor to the case, and he ends up marrying Hayley.

William (or more commonly known as Will) Holbrook starts out as desk sergeant on the police force, while Mark is detective sergeant. However, he gets promoted to detective sergeant, when Mark becomes detective chief. He's around twenty-six (or twenty-five) and a very easy-going kind of guy. A jokester. He immediately makes friends with Karrie when she first starts working at the station. When Mark takes on the case at the senator's home, William tags along as his right-hand man. He not only takes orders though...but he also advises Mark as a friend...helping him in anything and everything.

He's a caring dude...funny, great with people...


WARNING: SPOILERS OF "PEARLS IN HER HAIR" BELOW:

When Mark is accused of false testimony and accepting bribes, and taken off the case, Will is placed in charge of the case. It was his first case on his own and he rose to the occassion, working it out with the help of Hayley. As a non-Christian, it is when faced with the GH38 (Great Hurricane of '38), that he sees what life is like without God, which makes him begin to question what he really does and does not believe.
When Mark resigns from the force, Will is made Detective Chief...and at the end of the novel, he asks Hayley to wait for him while he considers following God. :P

He wears glasses too. lol. Just an odd tidbit there. :D Anywho, I loved him to bits. Not as much as Mark, but he was just fab. :D

30 Day Writing Meme: Day #18.

18. Favorite antagonist and why!

Okay, first off....MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!! IF YOU HAVEN'T READ "SWITCHED" AND ARE PLANNING TO, THEN DO NOT READ BELOW THIS!!!!

You were warned. :P













Leighton Armstrong is my favorite antagonist. Why? Because she was so evil...lol. That sounds great doesn't it...liking someone because they're so evil. What I mean is, she was interesting to write...
The thing that makes her so interestingly evil, is that she has the ability to be a good person. She has it in her to choose a better path, but instead shoves all that away to follow a cause that was brainwashed into her. So...it's like she has the ability to be a good person...even seems to have genuine qualities of a better person...but she doesn't even know it because she was brainwashed by evil morals and lies. She is the wolf in sheep's clothing. She is pretty and puts on a sheep's skin of sweetness and naivety and helplessness. She seeks out the protection of two strangers, slipping past their guards and taking their trust and honest, caring friendship to use for her advantage. Under all her sheep skins, she is hardened to anything but the cause she believes in. She murders with no regret and appears to have no conscience. She murders her own accomplice when she has no other need for her. She acts on command, without thought to right or wrong. She proves that looks are deceiving.


(And just in case you were wondering...I always have to have a picture of my characters...just the way I work. I have to have something to look at...a visual of my character. The pictures are not always exactly how I pictured my character in my head, but the ones I use are the closest that I could find.)

More Random

Another random post from moi, your random author of this random blog. I like the word random, okay? Deal. Prepare yourselves for more randomity.

- I forgot how much fun it is to bike.
- I started to sit in the sun today...going to get a tan this summer or die in the attempt.
- Listened to Ludovico Einaudi and the Batman soundtrack til I had my fill of epicness.
- I love summer. Why can't it last longer?
- I need new sheet music. I'm dying for something new to learn. *sigh* Bored of playing the same pieces over and over.
- I worked on my River Davies novel tonight. One and a half chapters done.
- I read "Emily of New Moon" today. Been ages since I read it. L. M. Montgomery writes magic. Plain and simple.
- I had real coffee today. Well...it was half caf. and half decaf. So not fair. Did barely anything to me and certainly didn't last that long.
- Plans for at least three different possible NaNoWriMo novels are being jotted down.
- I've decided. Writing keeps me sane...it helps stop breakdowns.

30 Day Writing Meme: Day #17.

17. Favorite protagonist and why!

Well, we all know that Mark is my favorite protagonist...then Karrie, but I've done posts on both of them in the past, so I'll just choose another protagonist that I love. And that would be...

River Davies.
Her story hasn't been finished yet...and needs a new title...but I suppose it won't hurt to talk about her.

She is nineteen years old and in her second year of college. River's mother had married and become pregnant with a boy...then her husband died and she was left alone to raise her son, Storm. A year later, she married again, to Mr. Davies. And soon they had a baby girl...River. Mrs. Davies died when River was only thirteen years old, and she and her brother were raised mainly by their father. River and Storm are very close, though they do not look anything like each other. Storm looks like his own father with dark hair and eyes. Meanwhile, River looks like her father with her blond hair and blue eyes.

River grew up to a young woman with a quiet and rather serious nature. She has an enormous chip on her shoulder, blocking out everyone but her father and brother from her life. She feels no need to make friends or accept anyone else into their little circle.

Her personal bubble is jolted quite suddenly with the appearance of her brother's best friend, Logan, who comes to stay with the family until he can find his own apartment. Logan is the opposite of River in every way...extrovert, friendly, joking, easy-going compared to her introvert, silent, unexcitable, and hard-to-read nature. She resents his presence and argues with him constantly.

Her father is wrapped up in his work and is suddenly called away on a business trip out of the country. It is while he's gone that her brother, Storm, goes missing. He has vanished into thin air. And if that wasn't suspicious enough, someone has broken into their house, evidently searching for something. As suspicious and unrelenting as ever, River refuses to go to the police...not trusting them to find her brother. Instead, she goes off on her own to find him...Logan tagging along behind (to River's GREAT annoyance).

So to sum River up: she is an obnoxious, uptight, non-fun-loving, resentful sort of gal, who doesn't trust anybody and wants to be in control of her own life. At the same time...deep down, she wants to be a different person, wants to change, and hates feeling so angry all the time. She knows it stems from something traumatic from when she was younger. She just doesn't know how to deal with it. Nor with the thing that she struggles with the most.

Doesn't sound like a lovable character does she? I suppose she isn't in some ways...but I am finding her absolutely fascinating to write about. I rarely write about a protagonist who is so angry and introverted...it's an interesting change. :D Which is why I love her.

30 Day Writing Meme: Day #16

16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing? ;)

I have the romantic relationship between Mark & Karrie...but that's the only one I've done...so far. I'm working on getting into another...but, no, I shan't tell you which book that's in! :P
How do I do with those? Well, for one thing...I don't particularly like writing a romance because I know I'd do it horribly. lol. So with like Mark & Karrie, I kept it very simple. They meet...she aggravates him, she admires him. Then they're forced to work together and slowly discover more and more about each other. And by the end, he realizes he loves her, blah blah blah. He proposes, she accepts, they kiss. See? Simple. ;) Then for the rest of the books, they're married...lol. And how "far" am I willing to go? Hugging and kissing. :P Flirting...that's about it. :P