I allowed character development to languish lately. It has been a bit chaotic in our little stone cottage in the urban wilds. Visitors coming. Visitors going. Visitors rescheduling. Visitors coming. News from afar, not all of it good. Children delighting Beloved for Father’s Day. Vegetables shouting “pick me now.” Garden beds either swamped by rain or dry as desert. New beds begging for flowers. My nerves took a whack when Beloved embarked on gutter cleaning and guards replacement—ladders and roof climbing always send me into a fret until he’s done.
One the writing front, two launches are looming. If any of my followers have not yet ordered The Wayward Son or The Price of Glory, please do. They will be worth your time. (You might try this excerpt as a teaser or look at any of my Wednesday Work in Progress posts as appetizers) In the meantime I have no idea how I will celebrate with my Fellow Travelers. I have a week to figure it out. The only thing I’m sure of is that the prize will be a made-to-order story. If you want to be the one to specify this year’s holiday short story, be sure to watch for it.
In between, I’ve been getting comments about The Defiant Daughter from beta readers. Things are looking good, but there will be some rewriting. It is due the end of July and will launch in October. I made a few tentative starts on The Forgotten Daughter, which is due in November. I realized during Belles’ Brunch on Saturday that I had neglected the basics. As is always the case when I hit a wall, I had failed to do an in-depth character sketch on my heroine. How can I write about a character unless I know her deeply, truly, and well. My goal for this week is to address that lapse. When I know who she is, the story will flow. It always does.
But first, coffee.
