Welcome lovelies! Today's visiting author is the fabulous Julie Lynn Hayes! And It's her BIRTHDAY!!! So as a prequel to the spotlight, let's all gather around and wish her a very
Now, read on to find out what she has to say about talking characters and how she manages to remember what they say. Oh, Leonardo DiCaprio also comes up and, did you know he's a vampire?
All yours birthday girl!
I hear voices in my head.
No, I’m not daft or certifiable—at least no
more than any other writer, I think. The voices that I hear are not the kind
that tell me to do strange things or incite me to desperate acts, rather they
belong to my characters, both those I know and those I’ve yet to meet. And I’ve
learned something in over forty years of writing—when they speak, I listen!
Carrying paper and pencil or pen is
wonderful advice for those moments when your characters begin to speak and you
want to capture them for posterity. It’s all well and good to say oh, I’ll
remember that, no problem, until you’re
sitting in front of your computer screen and your fingers are in place upon the
keyboard and suddenly you’ve forgotten every single word you were sure you’d
remember forever. As they talk, you should write, that much is just a given.
But sometimes you aren’t in a position to
write—for example, while you’re driving, or when you’re showering (bathing
isn’t quite so bad, at least you can take the paper and pen into the bathroom
and write while you soak), or even when you’re having sex. So what do you do?
If it’s just one line, you can keep repeating it to yourself until you’re in a
position to write it down, and that can work. But what if it’s more than that?
I have a little trick for those moments. At
least it works for me. I get a mental picture of the emotions involved, and
capture them visually, imprinting them with the words, almost like a hot key.
So that when I’m ready, I “press” the key, and then it comes out where I can
capture it. If I let the character ramble before I’m ready, I find that I lose
the words. But if I imprint them in this way, then they stay there, waiting for
me to access them.
For example, a couple of years ago my
daughter and I went to see Inception at the theatre, the Leonardo di Caprio
film. I wasn’t even sure at first that I wanted to see it, but she did so I
agreed to go. Before we went, I got to thinking about Leo and other films that
I’ve seen him in over the years, including Total Eclipse (Leo and David Thewlis
– totally hot! Kissing and nakedness, very delicious!), and I heard a voice
speak to me.
“Did you know that Leonardo di Caprio is a
vampire?”
Sounds like an odd beginning or
introduction even for a character. But I thought what the heck, let’s listen. I
realized that this was a new character, so I kept the line in my head, all
through Inception. Afterwards, I worked on the story, as I drove home. First, I
needed character names. In Inception, Cillian Murphy plays a guy named Robert
Fisher. He’s an important character, and his name stuck in my head, but I
reversed it and changed it slightly. So Robert Fisher became Fisher Roberts.
One character down, now for number two (I already knew this would be m/m, so I
needed another male name). As I was driving, I scanned everything around
me—billboards, businesses, vehicles, whatever—for the mate to Fisher Roberts. I
saw an ad for hunting, and suddenly I had it—Hunter, who became Hunter
Long. It wasn’t til long after I began
to write that I saw what I had inadvertently done – Fisher and Hunter. It might
seem contrived to some, but I swear to you it was totally accidental.
I knew nothing about these two guys, but I
began to write, using that first line, and I kept writing until some 35k later,
I was done. Or at least I thought it
was. After a brief stint with a publisher who shall remain nameless, I received
Leo back into my own hands and then I took the original story and added 5k to
it, in the form of Hunter’s POV, and then I sold it to Torquere. And now we
have a happy ending, as well as a new cover and more depth to the story of
Hunter and Fisher.
This isn’t the only time this has happened
to me, far from it. There once was a time when I was researching a non-fiction
book, a children’s book about composer Percy Granger, when a voice began to
speak, and he told me he was a gay werewolf. I could feel that he was a nice
man, so I politely told him to please wait til I was done with the other
book. But he kept talking, so to appease
him I thought I would just write down a few notes and hold onto them until I
was ready. Those few notes became the first chapter of To The Max. Which became
an entire book. And which now has a sequel. All because a voice wanted to be
heard. Oh,
that other book never got written yet. Guess Percy needs to speak
louder, eh?
.JPG)
Another time, it was Judas Iscariot that
spoke, and that book became Revelations (for which I’m still seeking a
publisher). Sometimes I only get to the first chapter, and then it sits as a
WIP until I get back to it. But at least it’s a start.
I hate to think about all of the characters
that I have lost or forgotten because I wasn’t able to keep their words in my
head. Perhaps they’ll come back again someday, but I’m not holding my breath.
That goes for the books I’ve written in my dreams, but forget the moment I wake
up. Since I started using my little mnemonic trick, I haven’t lost a thing, and
that’s a good feeling. I just hope my readers agree that it was worth it!
Do your characters talk to you? Do you have
any tricks you use for getting your characters down onto paper? I’d love to hear about it! Thanks for having me, Elyzabeth! Have a great
day, everyone!
Halloween is the night when the veil between the
worlds grows thin... Not that Fisher Roberts believes in Halloween or any other
holiday. Unlike his roommate and longtime best friend, Hunter Long. The trouble
is that Fisher’s feelings for Hunter are more than that of a friend, and it’s
getting harder and harder to hide those feelings from Hunter.
Fisher has promised
Hunter to attend a Halloween party with him on All Hallow’s eve, even though
he’d really rather not. Things start out badly and then take a decided turn for
the strange. Hunter confesses to being a vampire. Not that Fisher believes
that, of course—that’s just Hunter’s strange sense of humor. But the kiss in
the park... what’s that about? And at the Halloween party from Hell, nothing
and no one are what they seem to be... Halloween madness or something more?
Available at Torquere Press || Amazon
You know you want to read the Excerpt:
Fisher trembled, an expectant trembling, as if he were waiting for something to happen. He didn't have to wait long. Suddenly those beautiful lips were
Fisher trembled, an expectant trembling, as if he were waiting for something to happen. He didn't have to wait long. Suddenly those beautiful lips were
