Mary Jane Clark’s latest release, It Only Takes a Moment is a mystery I recommend. It’s about the popular news anchor, Eliza Blake. When Eliza moves back to her old morning TV slot, everyone wants to interview her because she left the night news to return. Unfortunately, Eliza shares a lot about her personal life with her seven-year-old daughter, Janie, while being interviewed. When kidnappers seize Janie, and Eliza’s Hispanic housekeeper on their way home from camp in New Jersey, Eliza’s comfortable life turns into a living nightmare.

I was glad one of my favorite characters, producer Annabelle Murphy, helped her friend Eliza during the whole media frenzy over Janie’s abduction.

The action never stops. Mary Jane Clark’s books are always filled with lots of short chapters with many characters and It Only Takes a Moment isn’t any different. The brief chapters give you the sense of a frantic pace all throughout her books. I was surprised by the shocking conclusion in this book.

Now I’ll have to wait until July 2009 for her next release.

~~~~
Sunday was lots of fun. Our son Bart’s birthday was on Saturday so we celebrated his and daughter Sara’s on Sunday with the whole family. Sara’s birthday is a week away. Bart bought a volleyball and net for the pool. Amanda and I played against Emily and April. I definitely shouldn’t have missed as many balls as I did, so was glad when Bart joined our side to help us out. Hopefully, we can play again on Labor Day. I can’t believe it will be time for another holiday so soon. It seems like we just celebrated the 4th of July.

How about the Olympics? It was very exciting to see Michael Phelps win 8 gold medals.

Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend.

Amanda didn’t get to draw for my earlier question contest related to chick-lit and based on book A Fiery Secret in July. She came into the room after I had drawn a name. I made sure she got to draw last night since she enjoys it! She drew Dina Stornello from Wisconsin. Thank you for all the great comments! I had a lot of them! I will have other contests soon so be sure to stop by.

Congratulations, Dina! I’ll get the signed copy of A Fiery Secret in the mail on Monday morning to you!

I am leaving soon to drive the truck with futon to Emily’s house on campus. I’m glad the weather is lovely for this road trip! Her friends will help her carry it up the stairs so that’s great!

I’ll be drawing a winner tonight for a signed copy of A Fiery Secret! I appreciate all the comments and your name is entered each time you’ve left a comment, starting with the July 1st post.

In case you haven’t viewed my trailer for A FIERY SECRET, here it is and hope you enjoy it!

CHAT TODAY: August 15th 12-6 CST 1-7 EST
Coffee Time Romance

If you visit during my hour chat today, I’ll also enter your name for the book drawing. I’m scheduled from 6 - 7 Eastern Time! I’ll have excerpts and maybe a recipe. It is the Sweeter Romantic Notions group so will be great authors each hour. I didn’t sign up right away for it because of a conflict. My high school class reunion is this evening in Findlay, Ohio. If it wasn’t a three hour drive one way, I might have gone. Since his surgery my husband hasn’t made any long trips yet. Also we’re celebrating two August birthdays this Sunday so need time to prepare food and get ready for it. Tomorrow I’m moving a futon for Emily’s room at college. I can’t complain about moving it because she’s already moved some stuff herself. I’m so thankful that Emily has a car now. It has helped me immensely.

WHAT I’M READING NOW: IT ONLY TAKES A MOMENT by Mary Jane Clark
WRITING PROGRESS: I started Chapter Sixteen of Mallory book.

Last Wednesday we talked about where story ideas come from and how to develop them. Today I’m going to talk about characterization and the art of creating unforgettable fictional characters for my second writing workshop! One of the hardest things to do in writing is to create characters that readers will care about, that will make them have to read on. You can have a well-written novel but if the editors, agents or readers don’t care that much about your characters, you won’t get very far.

A Memorable Character should have the following attributes:

1. A strong, independent personality.
2. Believable motivation.
3. Consistent behavior.
4. Imagination.
5. Courage to take the initiative.
6. A bigger-than-life image.
7. Human traits - good and bad.

The above traits will develop over the character’s life. In other words, a character usually doesn’t begin her or his novel life having all 7 attributes.

Don’t give generic character descriptions. Be specific. If you describe your characters as “thin,” your reader might see “skinny,” when you were thinking more of “lean.” Each writer has their own system in creating their characters. I jot down as much information about each main character as possible - eye color, hair color, and write down a goal for each one. Some authors are more detailed in their approach and use a chart method, filling in vital information. Mine is more a narrative approach. You need to know your characters very well so that you can make them real to the readers.

Character description shouldn’t stop the action so the writer needs to convey description without stopping the flow. Try not to convey description by saying the character stopped and looked in the mirror at his or her appearance. Boring!

Having five daughters inspired me to write about strong, intelligent, and independent women. For example, in my inspirational romance, NO GREATER LOSS, I thought it’d be interesting to write about a Christian psychologist with a Sunday radio show dealing with women’s topics. Because she’d lost her husband and baby son, she was afraid to get married again. I wanted the psychologist to be great at helping her patients with their problems, but she wouldn’t be able to help herself work through her own grief and guilt. My feisty, fun and intelligent investigative reporter, Catherine Steel, in A FIERY SECRET is based loosely on my daughter Christina. A secondary character Miranda was inspired by daughter Amanda. I wanted to show a person with disabilities (Miranda and Amanda both were born with Down syndrome and have hearing aids) in a positive light. Miranda is a wonderful character and full of surprises. Victoria Moorhead in NEVER THE SAME is a high school senior and has amazing athletic abilities and is at the top of her class. While I wrote her, I had April and Emily in mind since they excelled in school sports and also in academics.

NAMING THE CHARACTERS:

A pet peeve of mine is when a writer tries too hard to be different in naming their characters. If the names are hard to remember or I can’t pronounce them, I will become annoyed. But you don’t want to use Mary Doe or John Smith either. Poor usage of character names may signal an amateur writer. Switching between first and last names makes it hard for a reader to learn a new character. For example, referring to a character as “Mary Doe” in the first sentence, then “Mrs. Doe” in the second, then “Mary” in the third will confuse the reader, especially if there are many characters in the scene.

THINKING ABOUT BASIC HUMAN DRIVES:

There are drives, strong feelings, and motivations that are common to all of us. We all need to be loved, to get recognition, and to know who we are. When any one of these basic drives is blocked, there is conflict. When you have conflict, whether it is physical, psychological, or spiritual, you have one of the fundamental elements of all fiction. Conflict is what drives fiction. Without conflict, there is no action or reaction.

CAREER RESEARCH:

I love to research occupations for my characters because it’s fun to write about jobs I have never had. Although I was a teacher before starting our family, Mallory is the only teacher I have for a main character. I’ve used teaching careers for secondary characters. I’ve gone to the library to get books on occupations used for characters, but I also have used the internet for a lot of my background information. I did buy a used book from Amazon on broadcasting for my Whitney book. I enjoyed reading how a TV program is produced.

OPENING PAGES:

It’s not good to launch into the story without stopping to establish any of the characters. In many “high concept” novels, a heated scene occurs immediately without the readers knowing anything about the characters. Readers have to know something about the characters to care what happens to them before the exciting scene happens. The characters are the plot - their needs, wishes, developments. Their introduction and establishment should be the most important. I had this problem with my opening of NEVER THE SAME. I rewrote it several times because I thought the excitement of the plane crashing might be good for the beginning pages, but I realized readers had to know the characters before they got on the plane. I wanted the readers to be invested in the characters to the degree that they would care if they lived or died.

STAGGER CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS:

Introducing too many characters in the beginning pages will confuse the reader.

CLOSING THOUGHTS ABOUT CHARACTERIZATION: I pay close attention to those around me in my daily life. I remember any interesting or unusual traits or habits that I can use for my characters. Observation is important for a writer. Also what might be interesting to me may not be to someone else. I consider what makes a character intriguing to others. I try to avoid cliché traits and to create unique characters.

While reading or writing, what kind of characters do you enjoy the most?

~~~
Soon it will be time for my drawing on Friday night. Keep the comments coming.

First, a reminder about my blog contest which ends this Friday, August 15th. If you leave a comment this week or already have (July 1st - August 15th), your name is entered for each comment for the drawing. The prize is a signed copy of my chick-lit mystery, A FIERY SECRET. If you have read this book, then I’ll substitute my inspirational romance, NO GREATER LOSS for the prize! If you live outside the United States (Canada is fine), I’ll substitute the ebook format.

SHOPPING FOR SCHOOL: Amanda and I went shopping this morning. I found a blouse for $7 on the clearance rack and she looks cute in it. She liked a pair of jean capris so bought them. She has 4 new tops now and new pants for school. She goes back next week and can’t wait to start her senior year.

We went to a Reds game earlier in the season and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m not a big baseball fan but it’s fun to go to watch the game at the Great American Ball Park. I’m sharing a couple of photos taken when we went and the Reds played the Pirates. And the Reds won even! I’m posting a short excerpt from my unpublished book WHITNEY IN CHARGE because the scene takes place at the baseball stadium.

Blurb and Excerpt:

Whitney in Charge is about the youngest sister, Whitney Benson. She gave up her job as a producer of a successful New York Show, The Bold News, to return home to a small town in Ohio. She’s tired of her older sisters, Shannon Woodruff and Regan Dunn, telling her what to do. She knows they mean well but when they signed her up for skydiving to meet hot guys, they’ve gone too far. They want her to try a new adventure since she took care of their mother before she died. After Ben, a divorced man with a little boy moves into the neighborhood, she needs some encouragement from her sisters to go out with him. She still hasn’t gotten over the death of her husband. Just when it seems Ben might be Whitney’s romantic interest, another guy enters the picture. Whitney agrees to go hiking with Ben to check out a resort for a family business. She falls down a cliff and is unconscious. Ben calls 911 and Jack, a handsome paramedic, arrives on the scene.

***
She wore a Reds’ baseball cap with Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt. When Jack had invited her to go to a baseball game on Wednesday, she’d hesitated. They’d just gone out Saturday night. She wanted to take things slow and easy.

Who was she kidding? She wanted to wrap her arms around him and experience more of his hot kisses. But she couldn’t smother his lips with hers during a baseball game. She took a quick glance at Jack. Regan was right – he did look a lot like Matthew McConaughey. She wondered if McConaughey also loved baseball.

Jack tugged on her visor. “Hey, you look pretty cute in this cap.”

She took a bite of her nachos and cheese. “I like the eating part a lot at games.”

“I wish you hadn’t paid for the beer.”

“You bought the tickets. I wanted to pay for something.” She licked warm cheese off her finger. “So did you rescue anyone today who fell from a cliff?”

“Nope. I only rescue beautiful women on Tuesdays.”

“I’ll have to remember that. Since my stitches are gone, I can go swimming now. If it’s not too cold, we can go swimming after the game.” Why did she blurt that invitation out to him? Could she handle him if he got too intimate? She hated taking a step forward, then a step back again, but she was just confused about what she wanted from Jack.

“I’ll have to go home to get my trunks first.”

“I have several suits in different sizes.”

Jack smiled at her. “Do you collect them from your guests?”

She laughed. “No. Unless my mom did. People used to drop in a lot, and she’d invite them to go swimming with us. They didn’t have their suits. Mom bought a few girls’ suits and women’s and men’s in different sizes.”

“Bases are loaded. Bring them home.” Jack patted her knee. “Isn’t this fun? I love the Reds.”

“You’re right. This is fun. I’m glad you─”

“Hey, the kissing cam’s on us.” Jack moved closer to her, covering her mouth with his.

She’d forgotten how they had a kissing camera to zero in on couples and when it happened, the pair usually waved or kissed each other.

She enjoyed kissing Jack back and hated it when he stopped. “Hey, you didn’t need to stop because the camera’s no longer on us.”

“I don’t want to spoil you.”

It occurred to her why he wanted her to switch T-shirts before the game. “You gave me a Reds’ t-shirt to wear to increase our chances of getting on the kissing cam.”

He shrugged. “Hey, Ben already got you on TV when you fell. I had to get you on TV again. I didn’t want you to think I’m a slacker here. And I managed it without you falling out of your seat.”

“We can’t have you being a slacker.” She glanced down at her red shirt. “Do I get to keep this shirt?”

“Only if you get me a baseball cap like yours?”

“It was my dad’s but it’s a deal.”