Making a new major character for Rat in the Shadows.

Sandy Middleton was a fun character to create and her creation illustrates techniques you may not actually need but might find useful. She predates the storyline of Rat in the Shadows and I wasn't even considering her for a part in a sequel to Let Sleeping Dogs Lie. I liked her character but had trouble coming up with a storyline where she was the sole star of the show. An idea for a first chapter for a sequel came to me during a brainstorming session with my children. I thought it was a good start and wrote down the first chapter to avoid forgetting the feel of it. A friend immediately spotted it on writing.com and egged me on until there were eight chapters. While Camp NaNoWriMo is not a smashing success for me this time around due to personal time constraints, I do have a rough outline in my head to the end of the story and another four and a half chapters written so far. That's a lot more than I started the month with.

This young heroine started out as an assignment for a children's book writing course through The Children's Literature Institute. I needed to observe a young person in action doing some activity and write a complete profile of my new character. I later had to put her in a short story. Our family had just moved a couple of times in rapid fire succession. We didn't know anyone where this could be accomplished easily. Especially considering we didn't have transportation besides our feet. Took me some real creative thought as to where to go for this. Robert J Ray in his book The Weekend Novelist recommends a similar exercise for creating new characters by the way that he calls "stranger in a room". I decided the best place to go would be the local arena. Maybe write about some young hockey player. The little outing turned out to be golden. For appearances sake I dragged the whole family along. Random middle aged men lurking around youth activities might attract unwanted attention. We stumbled on a figure skating class of children about the right age for my assignment.

I don't think we'd settled our rear ends on the wooden seats for more than five minutes before I spotted my character. Some boys but mostly girls skated around taking turns at different stations on the ice practicing various figure skating skills. Sandy was hanging out with a friend enthusiastically going through the different routines. The two girls were a complete contrast. Her friend was dressed in a special figure skating outfit and looked like she was having a difficult time staying warm. "Sandy" was wearing black ski pants, a purple sweatshirt and a purple scrunching holding her blonde hair in a medium length ponytail. She didn't look like a rich kid but she looked comfortable. She executed most of the skills without trouble. By the way she put her hands on her head after spins though it was obvious she was struggling with dizziness.

My children were into the process right along with me. We chatted back and forth while I made my notes. We had plenty of time to get all the material I needed to complete my assignment. It turned out to be a fun outing.

Once the assignments were done Sandy ended up filed away for future use. I think she ends up being a great fit for Rat in the Shadows

Related Articles and Links

Sneak Peek: Rat in the Shadows Chapter I
LSDL Character Development Part I
LSDL Character Development Part II
LSDL Character Development Part III
LSDL Character Development Part IV

Heavy Duty Week

Got my first installment of edits from InknBeans Press early in the week. For that reason I temporarily abandoned Camp NaNoWriMo. Can only do one thing at a time. Doesn't help that I've been feeling a little ill all week. Haven't given up. Just trying to keep my priorities in the right order. First priority is to see "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" in print. Working on the sequel is definitely important. Meanwhile I still have to live in the real world.

The other three members of the family are on pace to complete their Camp NaNoWriMo novels. Kudos to all of them. If I can get rolling again, there is still time to get it done before the final bell. Another installment of edits are supposed to get here this weekend though so I not expecting to be standing in the winners circle at the end of the month. I am three more chapters closer to a sequel though. Word count puts me only a bit short of half a novel.

Making A Banner Ad For Advertising My Blog

I had a great deal of fun creating a banner to put on my profile on MyLot. I can use it elsewhere. It was actually fun and simple to do. For anyone interested in doing the same the website I used is advertised with the banner because I'm broke and only worked with the free tools. I like how it turned out.


Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!

Granted I am incapable of leaving well enough alone, so I wasted a great deal of time trying to create one for one of the artists on my Friends and Family page tearing my hair out in the process. Using your own images is not that simple. I'm sure it's not that difficult for someone who knows what they are doing. I of course don't have a clue.

Please don't click on it. That could potentially mess with my websites stats. It'll bring you right where you already are.

Gearing Up For Camp NaNoWriMo

Last November we had four successful participants in NaNoWriMo in the family. April marks the beginning of Camp NaNoWriMo http://www.campnanowrimo.org and four of us have signed up and a fifth possible. My goal is not to write a completely new book, but rather turn "Rat in the Shadows" into a complete manuscript. I have eight chapters written. That's a really good start but it is not a novel. I think the story line is a winner in the same realm as my first book. People who like "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" will likely like the new story. For me completing the camp will be a success as long as it doesn't interfere with getting the first book out there.

I am a little jealous of my daughter who can put a full manuscript in a month in her sleep. She finished NaNoWriMo last November in ten days. There was a write in late in the month at the local library and she sat there twiddling her thumbs because she was already done. One of my twin boys is going for his first manuscript (he's not in the picture but looks almost exactly like the blond young man next to me). His genre this time out will be steampunk. That should prove interesting. Great to have so many family members pulling for each other.

Added Link For eBook Software

I am grateful to my friend "An Indian" from my Book Junkies friends for leading me to this free software. I thought it would be useful to any of my readers. I have found it to be quite easy to use and have had no trouble with it. The website link should appear on the right hand side of this page underneath the list of pages for this blog. The page I have linked to should allow you to select the appropriate format and then download from there. Happy reading.

LSDL Character Development Part IV

There are a whole raft of secondary characters and they all got developed to one degree or another. I started off writing out complete profiles for all my characters before putting them in action in my book. At the start it did help especially with the main characters. I used a basic form which I saw in Robert J Ray's book The Weekend Novelist. Doing the background work helped. In all honesty for the minor characters of the book this process was over thinking things a little. A character who is going to be on the stage for short period of time doesn't really need hours of preparation before going on. NaNoWriMo style writing got me through a lot of the over thinking. Some of those lesser characters just got tossed in and I think they turned out just fine.

Related Articles and Links

Sneak Peek: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie Chapter I
Making a new major character for Rat in the Shadows
LSDL Character Development Part I
LSDL Character Development Part II
LSDL Character Development Part III

Odds and Ends

Got my first group email from InknBeans Press. It was exciting to see me and my book welcomed in the first paragraph. I've been describing my book as an action/adventure book with a strong romantic subplot. They described it as a noir mystery there. I start off with hero on the path for vengeance and justice and a heroine who is lured to a job which isn't quite what it was advertised to be. My bad guys are working together as organized criminals. I can see this. Guess the story has a little something in it for everyone.

I downloaded a copy of Kitty Sutton's latest book through Smashwords called Wheezer and the Shy Coyote. When I'm done reviewing it, there will be a new review written up here and submitted to some of the online bookstores. I do like her historical fiction built around Native American history. I'm also grateful for the work she put in to get me noticed by her publisher. I thought it was cool to get a mention in her acknowledgements at the beginning of the book.

InknBeans did get a picture of me for their website so it is probably only a matter of time before I post a picture of myself here as well. It's great to be a Bean.