DEFINING CHARACTERS

It's my pleasure to have contemporary fiction author and fellow blogger, Helen Ginger, as my guest today. Helen leads a busy life as an author, teaching public speaking and workshops, works as an editor, and book consultant. She is also an incredible resource for writers and bloggers alike. 

Today she talks a bit about defining characters through actions.

How do you define characters without saying, this person is strong or this person is mean or this person is reliable? If you're the author of the book, you don't say these things. You show their personalities through their actions. If you're reading a book, you come to know what kind of people they are through those actions.  Like in life, actions speak louder than words.

Angel, the main character in my book, Angel Sometimes, shows who she is over the course of the book. If you read the back cover blurb then you know that when she was 12 she was taken 800 miles from home and left on the streets. She was just a child, alone. But the book is not about her at 12; it's about her at 22. She's grown. She's an advocate for the homeless. She has friends. And she still has the plan to go home and confront her parents.

The streets made her strong. When she was 16, she hitchhiked to Austin, and found a help wanted sign at a bar/restaurant. Every day she waited outside for the owner to show up. Every day she asked for a job. Every day he said no, she was too young. On her 18^th birthday, he hired her. He had no idea how close she was to dying.

Because of the life she had growing up, she's what I would call an "old soul." She doesn't remember a time when she didn't work - and scrounging for food is work, an even harder job than she has swimming as a mermaid in the bar/restaurant. She's built a life for herself and for others that she's helped. But she hasn't forgotten the past. Nor has she forgotten her plan to go home.  All she needs is a car, her G.E.D, and a gun.

As a reader of Angel Sometimes, you live her life as an adult. You find out what happened to her as a child. When she goes home, you go along with her.

I define Angel as a strong person. Someone told me they saw her as an old soul. I've had readers ask when the next Angel book will be out. I hadn't planned on a sequel, but the more I think about it, the more I'm wondering if she has another tale to tell. After all, she is a survivor.

BUY: AMAZON, B&N, POWELLS

ANGEL SOMETIMES

Just before her thirteenth birthday, Angel Sometimes' aunt took her 800 miles from her home in Oklahoma, gave her $50 and left Angel on South Padre Island, Texas. 

Four years later, Angel hitchhiked to Austin and got a job swimming as a mermaid in a bar in the music district. At twenty-two, she has friends and a place to live. When a homeless girl is beaten and a waitress killed, Angel realizes she will never be whole until she confronts her parents. 

She needs three things: her high school diploma, a car and a gun. She has a car. She's finished her final test for her GED. The only thing she needs is the gun and she knows where to get one. 

Preview (on Amazon)

Helen Ginger is the author of Angel Sometimes, three non-fiction books with TSTC Publishing, and a contributor to the short story anthology, The Corner Café. She's also the Coordinator of Story Circle Network's Editorial Services.  Her free ezine, Doing It Write, which goes out to subscribers around the globe, is now in its thirteenth year of publication.  She’s also an Owner/Partner and Webmistress for Legends In Our Own Minds®. 'Course, what she gets asked about most often are her three years as a mermaid at Aquarena Springs. Swimming with a shimmery tail, picnicking underwater, performing synchronized ballet, blowing air bubbles ... all year round, even in the winter.  

You can follow Helen on Twitter  or connect with her on Facebook, LinkedIn, and her blog, Straight FromHel .

BENJAMIN BERKLEY—BRIDGING THE PAST TO THE PRESENT

My guest is contemporary fiction author, Benjamin Berkley. Ben has written several legal non-fiction books but this is his fiction debut. He talks a bit about finding inspiration and weaving a story around factual happenings and fiction.

As for any novel, you need inspiration.  And that inspiration came many years ago when a beautiful, white haired older lady came into my office. Her name was Irene Opdyke and she had a story to tell. But as she spoke, I was mesmerized by her voice, her hand gestures and her eyes. She spoke so softly and calmly though I could feel the torture that she endured.

My Rabbi thought that I could assist Irene in negotiating a contract for her story about how she saved the lives of Jews while working as a housekeeper for a German commandant. Well, after a lot of legal wrangling, her book was published and the ABC show, 20/20 eventually did a story on Irene. And as a result of her story going public, Yard Vashem recognized her as a Righteous Gentile.   Several years ago, Irene passed away.  But her story survived.

  

And in 2010, shortly after the release of my last book, and wanting to transition from writing self-books to a novel, I began thinking about Irene.  Irene would be a character in my book and it would be her wisdom as one of the themes.

But I didn't want my book to be strictly historical.  I needed to make my story modern and contrast what happened in the concentration camps with a young person today who was going through her own struggles to survive.  And a few morning jogs later, the character of Danielle was born.

I love Danielle.  She is not based on anyone I know but I know her very well.  In my book, Danielle is raised by her grandmother and her Dad as her mother passed away when she was only three.  She is bright and opinionated and motivated to succeed.  But she always has to choose between herself and pleasing her father.

 

So now I had Irene whose story is told in the first person by her journal entries that she composed in the hospital where she convalesced after she was liberated from the Mauthausen Concentration Camp.  And Danielle is the young woman; closely approaching 30 and who has more bridesmaids dresses in her closet than diplomas on her wall.

 

But I needed a bridge.  A bridge between the past and the present.  And that character was Rose, Danielle’s maternal grandmother.  Rose lived around the corner from Danielle in a very similar looking apartment building in Jackson Heights, NY.  And when Danielle’s mother died, Rose was there to help her son in law raise Danielle.  As a result, a very special bond developed between Danielle and her Nana as Nana was always there.  And as a young girl, Danielle often turned to her Nana for comfort when she was scared.

 

So now you have the three main characters but I needed to weave a story, which took me about a year to research and write.  

 

My story is of survival, self-discovery, justice, and ultimately about love.

AGAINST MY WILL

Benjamin Berkley

Danielle Landau knows she should feel lucky, but she can't feel anything but dread. Not only did she pass the New York Bar, but she married the man her father says is just right for her and lives in a fashionable new loft in Queens. But the man who seems like the perfect catch is a perfect nightmare at home. Jacob tries to control her career, her daily routine, and even what she eats. He ignores her desires and belittles her every chance he gets. Soon, Danielle doesn't recognize her husband or herself, and she struggles to find a way out.

As we follow Danielle on her journey of terror and recovery, we see her story intersect with the diary entries of a young girl from more than fifty years ago, and the full weight of the family's secrets becomes clear. This is a story of survival, self-discovery, justice, and ultimately about love.

BUY: AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

Growing up in Long Beach, NY, young Ben Berkley was fascinated by daily black-and-white re-runs of the TV lawyer show Perry Mason. After getting a B.A. in Speech and Hearing from Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, Berkley earned his law degree from Western State University in Fullerton, CA.

Against My Will is Ben Berkley’s fifth book and debut novel. He is also the author of four self-help books: “My Wishes, Your Plan for Organizing Your Family’s Needs” (Sourcebooks, June, 2006) “The Complete Executor’s Guide” (Sourcebooks, June 2007) “Winning Your Social Security Disability Case” (Sourcebooks, February, 2008) and “Before You Say I Do Again, A Buyer’s Beware Guide to Remarriage.” (Frederick Fell Publishers, September 2009).

Berkley lives in southern California with his wife Phyllis and their cat Riley. He has two grown children and is always bragging about his most beautiful grandson and granddaughter. 

You find Ben on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, and Website.

A PUBLISHED BOOK IS LIKE A WEDDING GOWN

I'm pleased to have as my guest, debut fiction novelist, J.B. Chicoine, to Over Coffee. 

Bridget's topic compares her writing journey to creating a wedding gown. Creative skills become honed by deconstructing and reconstructing a piece of creative work.

Thanks Sia, for having me as a guest! I do believe this is my first guest post ever!

To start with, I’d like to share a little-known fact about myself: In a former life, I designed and constructed formal wear  specializing in wedding gowns. (Even now, I love to grab a handful of silk taffeta, give it a scrunch and see how it holds its shape like sculpted butter!) Just recently, a friend asked me to have a look at her wedding gown that was ‘doing something weird—the back wouldn't lay flat.’ The second I looked at it, I knew what the problem was and rattled off, “There’s more lining than shell, so it’s bunching.”

How on earth did I know what the problem was, let alone how to fix it? She asked, as if I were some sort of miracle worker. I just shrugged. I dunno—experience, I guess.

Later on, I thought about my learning process—about the first gown I made, when I was seventeen. I was so proud of it. Not only had I designed it, but I sewed it up and wore it to a formal dance in my senior year. *cringe* It was horrid. I mean the premise—the idea in my head was good, but in reality, it looked like a polyester sack hanging from two thin drawstrings. That undertaking reminds me of my first novel, written over twenty years ago. I was so proud of it. I actually made people read it *cringe again*. Sure, I had been writing since I was a little kid, just like I’d been sewing since I was old enough to thread a needle, but when it came to constructing something complex, I was just winging it.

So, with big aspirations, I attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan—oh yeah, I was going to be a big name designer! It took only one semester to realize that was not the career I wanted. I also learned classroom settings squashed my creativity. Just the same, in those few short months, I acquired some very important basic rules of design. I continued to sew for myself and, later, my children, but it wasn't until after I started doing alterations for a bridal shop that my skills improved exponentially. I had to muster the courage to deconstruct and reconstruct very expensive and elaborate formal wear  I figured out what worked and what didn't work by being methodical and taking my time.

Here’s the parallel with my writing. I persisted and wrote more novels, but it wasn't until I had to deconstruct and reconstruct them—because three years and over 200 rejections from agents told me my writing wasn't yet proficient enough—that I really figured out how to write a good novel. I read some helpful How To books (my favored way of learning) and figured out how to apply the basic rules and principles. I found a few good beta readers that helped me cut away ‘the unruly stuff that wouldn't behave.’ Then I put it all back together until everything fit just right.

Recently, I completed the phase of writing that is akin to adding the finishing touches to a wedding gown—final edits on my novel, Uncharted: Story for a Shipwright that has just been released by Rhemalda Publishing. It was like sewing on the last of thousands and thousands of beads, adorning luscious silk taffeta, awaiting its debut. It is complete and it’s breathtaking, finally out of my hands, out there for anyone to see.

Now, I’m off to ‘alter’ some earlier novels of mine that don’t ‘fit’ quite right.

BUY: AMAZON, B&N

UNCHARTED: STORY FOR A SHIPWRIGHT

J.B.Chicoine

When a peculiar young woman shows up at the Wesley House Bed and Breakfast with a battered suitcase and stories to tell, shipwright Sam Wesley isn't sure if she’s incredibly imaginative or just plain delusional. He soon realizes that Marlena is like no other woman he has ever met. Her strange behavior and far-fetched tales of shipwrecks and survival are a fresh breeze in Sam’s stagnant life.

Sam isn't the only one enchanted by Marlena. With his best friend putting the moves on her and a man from her past coming back into her life, the competition for Marlena’s heart is fierce. In the midst of it all, a misunderstanding sends Marlena running, and by the time Sam learns what his heart really wants, it may be too late to win her back. 

EXCERPT

Bridget Chicoine has been coming up with characters and stories since she was a child. She started writing seriously in 2006 and undertook educating herself on improving her craft and about the publishing industry. Working on her painting simultaneously with her writing, one creative outlet stimulates the other. Much of her inspiration comes from having lived near the ocean and in New Hampshire's Sunapee Lakes Region. Bridget has a contract for publication with Rhemalda Publishing and is currently working on several other writing projects.

Currently, Bridget live near Lake Huron in Michigan with her husband Todd, renovating yet another old house, and painting when she can clear away the debris and sawdust. When she’s not involved with a painting she’s working on various writing projects 

You can find Bridget: ART, BLOG, FACEBOOK, WEBSITE, and TWITTER.