Interviewing a Character

Debra is gearing up for her blog tour.

The Vampire and the Vixen officially hits cyber shelves (although it's been available on Kindle for months now) next week, and I've been gearing up for my blog tour. For the most part it's the same old, same old...guest posts and/or promo information: blurbs, excerpts, cover art. But this time around I did a character interview, which was something new. At least for me. I've read them before on other blogs, but I've never done a character interview of my own.

It was a lot of fun. I chose to have my heroine, Kelsey, interviewed. Some of the questions I got to answer from her POV were story based, but others had me delving into a bit more of her background. Like why she chose her career. What she does to relax. It's those things that are probably already in our subconscious when we create a character, but never really get 'seen' by our readers. It's the stuff that fleshes out our characters and makes them more real and less two-dimensional.

I know some people actually do something like this before they start writing a book, so they can get a handle on their characters. During a critique session one night at my local RWA chapter meeting someone had us ask her questions as if she were the character. This really allows for some deep POV soul-searching. Next time I might try doing the interview with a new character before I even get started writing. But I think some of the questions won't be able to be answered at that point. For me, I know I need to get into the story and make some headway before I really get to know my characters.

I won't give any more away about Kelsey's interview, but I will post the link so you can read the entire thing when it goes live at the end of the month.

Have you ever interviewed one of your characters? What did you think of the process?

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Bare Chests and Bulging Muscles

Paula gives her personal opinion about bare chests on book covers.

Are bare male chests the ‘fashion’ these days on book covers? I seem to have seen a lot of them recently, sometimes with a female hand resting on them, other times with unclad (or scantily clad) female pressed against them.

 

I have to admit that kind of cover doesn’t attract me. Some of the bare chests seem almost grotesque with bulging muscles and veins –ugh! Add large tattoos to that, and it’s double ‘ugh’ from me. They’re no more appealing than thin white torsos!

 

All a bare-chested male on the front cover represents to me is that the book probably has erotic/sex scenes. If this kind of image is intended to attract women readers, it actually has the opposite effect on me, since it suggests that the sexy or ‘hot’ scenes are the most important part of the story.

 

I have no objection to sex scenes, I have them in my own novels, but those scenes are only a small part of the story. My characters spend far more time with their clothes ON, than with them off, and the 'bedroom' (or wherever) scene is only part of the development of their relationship. 

 

That’s the reason why, whenever I fill in a cover art form for my publisher and suggest what I would like to see on the cover, I also add, ‘No bare chests please!’

 

What about you? Do you like to see bare chests on book covers? What kind of covers attract you – and what turns you off?

Things I Learned From The Book Festival

This past Saturday, I participated in the Collingswood Book Festival. Collingswood, NJ shuts its main street down for the day and hosts six blocks of authors, entertainment and food.

It was my third year participating and each year I take away something new. Last year, I sat next to an author who had done this many times before and so I learned from him. One of the most important things I learned was that I needed better signage. With so many authors vying for attention, you need something to draw people to you.

So this year, I came prepared. First, I created a banner from the banner image on my website (http://www.jenniferwilck.com). This gave me a large sign with my name on it, as well as an image to provide a “feel” for the type of author I am. I hung it from my table.

I’ve always had pictures of my book covers hanging up, but this year I had them printed as large posters. One I placed on an easel, the other two I hung from the poles of my tent. Each one faced a slightly different direction, so that no matter what direction you walked, you could see at least one book cover.

I watched for people’s reactions, and I have to say that the signage definitely caused people to notice. Everyone looked at my book covers, even if they didn’t stop. One woman stopped because she recognized one of them—she’d bought it the year or two before and this year stopped to buy another one!

Another thing I’ve learned is the importance of getting people to stop at your tent and engage in conversation. The best way to do this was with dog treats. I know, crazy, right? But everyone there brings their dogs to walk through the festival. Humans may not want candy (and chocolate melts in the hot sun), and children will grab it by the handfuls and run off, but everyone wants to give their dog a treat. There were several of us offering and dog owners were thrilled. I spoke to them, got to know them a bit, and sold books.

The last thing I learned this year was to use a bit of judgment. Like most authors, I have postcards, bookmarks and magnets that advertise my books. The author next to me ran around before the festival opened and handed them out to all the participants. Then she stood outside her tent and tried to hand them to everyone as they passed. Great idea, except there was one problem. Most of the people she handed them to were not her target reader and I’ll guarantee that 90% of her recipients threw them out, as most looked annoyed to have paper flung at them.

Being less extroverted than she, I waited and handed my materials out to people who stopped at my tent. Sure, I handed out significantly less material than she did. But I think my recipients were better targeted, as they were the ones who like romance.

There’s no sure way to know this stuff, since I’m unable to track future sales by person or by how they heard of me (I wish!). But each year I learn something new and each year I sell books to people I might not have sold to otherwise.

My biggest disappointment is that I don’t get to walk around and browse. But I’m looking forward to next year, and if you’re in the area, stop by!

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander is coming to the small screen

I am a huge fan of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I enjoyed the first book in the series the most, confirming, perhaps, that one can only fall in love for the first time once. If you've not read it, put in on your to read list.

Cable channel Starz is adapting the story for television for 2014. Lead actors have been cast, prompting a flurry of comments on the selections among devotees. One concern is whether human actors will match or clash with their mental images of lovers Claire and Jaime.

Another is how true to the original story the episodes will stick. The show True Blood certainly deviated into unrecognizable territory after several seasons.

What's you feeling about screen adaptations of beloved stories? What makes or breaks an adaptation for you?

Promoting for a Friend

For better or worse, and I do have mixed feelings about it, Wild Rose has all of its authors participating in the Kindle Direct Publishing program over at Amazon. Basically this means Amazon gets exclusive rights to your book for three months and will offer it for free on Kindle for a period of five days.

This week a friend of mine (She's a chapter mate at Chicago-North and a fellow TWRP author.) has her book for free over at Amazon, so I thought I'd do some promo for her. If you have a Kindle or know someone who does, please download and/or spread the word. Thanks!

Operation Christmas by Barbara Weitz

Lieutenant Jess Grant is home from Afghanistan with a physical injury that has stripped away his confidence. Yet he hopes to reconnect with a young war widow he knew in high school. His "Operation Christmas" project is just the excuse he needs to visit her family's bakery.

Madeleine Belmar struggles with Christmas, works for Scrooge, and is nowhere near ready for a new relationship when she runs into Jess. Her rejection and his persistence create a confusing mix of attraction and fear she seems unable to navigate.

When Jess sees she won't budge, he leaves their fate up to Madeleine. Between her meddling family and angelic intervention, Jess will get a helping hand. This Christmas will be one they will never forget.


Download for FREE here!

Enjoy!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

'Downton Abbey' names

A recent post on Facebook suggested you could invent your ‘Downton Abbey’ name by combining your grandmother’s (or grandfather’s, if you’re male!) name with the name of your first school.

 

In my case, that led to Lucy Andrews or Catalina Andrews. Bet you’re now trying to work out your names, so do tell!

 

What proved fascinating with this exercise was how people stereotyped names as being ‘upstairs’ or ‘downstairs’ in Victorian/Edwardian times e.g. Lucy Andrews – downstairs; Catalina Andrews (or, even more accurately, Catalina St. Andrews) – upstairs. One friend did the same with hers: Edna Laurence (down) and Frances St. Laurence (up), and another friend had Ellen Joseph (down) or Amelia Joseph (up).

 

This perception of names is interesting, and makes me wonder why we define some names as being upper class and others as working class. My great-grandfather had 11 brothers and sisters, born between 1841 and 1865. All their names are ‘standard’ Victorian names – John, James, Robert, William, Henry, Richard, and Mary, Sarah, Hannah, Jane, Margaret, Alice. This was a family of cotton mill workers, but of course you can find these same names among the middle and upper class too.

 

After all, what defines Violet Crawley or Edith Crawley as upper class (which they are in Downton), and Charles Carson and Thomas Barrow as servant class? In fact, both sets of names could apply equally to upper or lower class. But, with the examples I cited above, Lucy, Edna and Ellen were confined to downstairs, and Catalina, Frances and Amelia to upstairs.

 

Having said all that, and quite apart from perceived class differences, do we stereotype our character names depending on where they live, or even their occupations? Are some names inevitably linked with e.g. Irish or Scots characters, like Patrick or Angus? Do we have a lawyer called Bronco, or a cowboy called Ronald? Do we have a model called Mabel, or a cleaning lady called Araminta? Probably not, but of course it’s possible.

 

Some people trawl through baby naming sites, looking for names that reflect their characters. I’ve never done that, simply because parents do not know their child’s character (or later occupation) when they choose a name for their baby. If I’m stuck for a name, I look at the popular names in the decade when a character was born and wait for a name to jump out at me, regardless of its meaning.

 

But maybe one day I’ll turn convention on its head, and my lower class hero will be called Clarence St. George and my upper class heroine Bessie Bloggs. I challenge you to think of some more examples!

Paula

I'm Hosting A Book Birthday!

I was at a loss for words yesterday. I know, those who know me will roll their eyes. I’m rarely at a loss for words and can usually be counted on the crack some snarky comment or two about something.

But yesterday, as I was preparing to write my personal blog entry, I had nothing to say. Actually, scratch that. I had a lot to say, but sometimes, silence is better. So I was scrambling for a topic to write and came across the writer’s prompt for a Facebook group I belong to.

The topic was “Birthdays.” As I sat staring at my blank computer screen, trying to figure out what to write and worrying about all my book activities I have to get done in the next few weeks (October is a really busy time for me), I realized that one of my books has a birthday coming up.

A book birthday. If you don’t believe your book is your baby, which I really don’t, it seems a bit odd to celebrate a book birthday. However, I know lots of writers who do just that. And as I started thinking about it, I started having some interesting ideas. Being the well-trained writer that I am, I started writing them down (I mean, I was sitting at my computer!).

And I think I’ve come up with a pretty good marketing idea for my book. This is a book I’ve gotten great feedback from, yet the sales are pretty weak. I wasn’t able to properly market it when it first came out, so the fault lies squarely with me. So having a book birthday for it seems like a good plan.

I’m going to do some giveaways—the book is about a makeup artist, so I’m thinking a basket of makeup goodies, maybe a massage gift card, and even perhaps a signed copy. I’m asking writer and reader friends with blogs to host me during the month of November, and for those with Facebook and Twitter accounts to share and re-tweet me as much as possible during that time. Hopefully, I’ll generate a lot of interest in the book. And, since the heroine is a survivor of domestic violence, I’m trying to work out a tie in to donate money to a local shelter.

Now all I need to do is come up with a way to incorporate birthday cake!

So, what do you think? Have you celebrated book birthdays before? I’d love to hear your thoughts. And of course, if you’d like to participate in mine, I’d love you to join me!