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Interview of Fictional Character by Fictional Character – Part 6

18 Jul

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford's mystery short story collection

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford’s mystery short story collection

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.

–          Oprah Winfrey

In this week’s interview, Bast Overture, crime reporter turned PI, interviews Millie Browne, the driver of a car in peril in the short story “No Breaks,” from Beyond the Tripping Point. This requires Bast to time travel from 1999 to present time.

Bast: Millie, I understand you have a problem with your car.

Millie: You could say that. The brakes don’t work.

Bast: Not a good thing for travelling up Highway 11 into cottage country. Did this brake failure happen suddenly or were they acting up before you left?

Millie: Suddenly when Jessica and I were driving up the highway. You don’t think I’m stupid enough to head on a road trip with faulty brakes. Hey, I even got my mechanic, Eddie, to check out the car yesterday and he found everything working fine.

Bast: You sure of that. In light of what happens…

Millie: What are you saying? My mechanic missed something. Hey do you know something I don’t know?

A snort comes from the front passenger seat. Millie, glaring at Jessica: Hold on, your turn will come soon.

Bast (from the car’s back seat): It just seems a little strange that the brakes would suddenly start to fail. Did you have to brake anywhere before you noticed them not working?

Millie: Well, no.

Bast: So, what are you going to do about it? You obviously are continuing to drive to your destination.

Millie: We have to get to Jessica’s grandmother’s cottage.

Bast: Important business up there?

Millie (scowling, face turning red): None of your business.

Bast: Very well. I’ll repeat my question: What are you going to do about the brake situation?

Millie: I’m looking for a garage with a bay to fix the brakes.

Throat clearing from the passenger seat.

Millie: Okay, okay. We are looking for a garage with a bay. And I’m using the parking brake if I have to brake. Can we stop talking about the damn brakes?

Bast: Very well. Now in “No Breaks” you mention something about a deep dark secret. What…

Millie: Not mine.

Screeching from the passenger seat. The car swerves throwing Bast’s head forward against the back of the driver’s seat. The screaming from the front reaches a high pitch level as Millie pulls the parking brake.

You can read more about Millie, Jessica, and Eddie in my mystery short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point, (Blue Denim Press, 2012). Click on the book at the top and it takes you to my profile – including book reviews – at www.amazon.com. The book is available there in print and Kindle. For Kobo e-book  go to http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/search/?keywords=Beyond%20the%20Tripping%20Point or go to any bricks and mortar store and order in a print copy.

The video link to my thatchannel.com interview and reading from Beyond the Tripping Point on You Tube can now be accessed via the new page “Video” at the top of this blog.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 
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Posted by on July 18, 2013 in Beyond the Tripping Point, Blue Denim Press, Credible Fiction Characters, Fiction Characters, Interviewing fictional characters, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Short Story Collection

 

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Interview of Fictional Character by Fictional Character – Part 5

11 Jul

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford's mystery short story collection

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford’s mystery short story collection

“Live passionately, even if it kills you, because something is going to kill you anyway.”

– Webb Chiles

Starting with this week’s post, Bast Overture, crime reporter turned PI will be interviewing characters from the other stories in Beyond the Tripping Point. Some of them will require him to do a variation of time travel. This week’s interview is with Elsa Richards, the main character in “16 Dorsey St.” Elsa and Bast are in the same time frame (late 1990s).

Bast: You are a fashion designer who works from home?

Elsa:  Yes, I prefer that because my boss, Monsieur Louie is always breathing down my neck at his place. I’m a very creative person and I need solitude to create my best. It’s like I’m in another world with all senses, all areas of my mind focused on the current dress or skirt.

Bast: But your new home, an apartment in a former old Rosedale home doesn’t turn out to be so solitary. Could you elaborate?

Elsa: The other tenants were mad and scary old people. It makes me shudder to think about them.

Bast: I understand. But could you tell us something about them?

Elsa: (Takes a deep breath). Okay. Did you ever watch those old Frankenstein movies starring Boris Karloff? (Bast nods). Well, Harold Marchant has a face just like him. But believe me, he doesn’t move around stiffly like Frankenstein. And the old biddy, Winnifred Hoyle – her eyes just bulge out so far you’d think they would pop out. She says she’s a retired school teacher.

Bast: Probably scared her students into studying?

Elsa: (chuckles slightly). Probably. Don’t know when she was a teacher, maybe in the 1940s because that’s how she dresses, complete with padded suit jackets and nylons with seams. Who wears stockings with seams anymore?

Bast: Didn’t you think for a time that there was a third person living in the old house?

Elsa: Well, I suppose so.

Bast: Tell me about that.

Elsa: I’d go out to run errands and such and when I returned I’d find some of my things like my lipstick and hairbrush moved from where I put them. I’m very particular where I put my stuff. Then there was that wig. I couldn’t figure out where that came from until my sister, Sylvia, reminded me of a Halloween party costume I word a few years ago.

Bast: That brings up my next question. You tell your story through emails to your sister. Why is that?

Elsa: Because, Sylvia doesn’t live in Toronto. I know; there is the phone. But I’m like you a computer techie and then there is the privacy issue. Our mother keeps popping unannounced into Sylvia’s place and stays for a bit. So Sylvia and I don’t want her to know about all out conversations.

Bast: Your mother comes up with a cryptic revelation later on in “16 Dorsey St.” What do you think of that?

Elsa: I’d rather not say. I go through a harrowing experience…

Bast: That’s right. Life threatening, even.

Elsa: Sh. We don’t want to tell the readers all.

Bast: Right. Well, thank you Elsa for your time and I hope you, your sister and your mother can sort out all these, er, matters.

You can read more about Elsa, her sister and the scary oldsters in my mystery short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point, (Blue Denim Press, 2012). Click on the book at the top and it takes you to my profile – including books reviews – at www.amazon.com. The book is available there in print and Kindle. For Kobo e-book  go to http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/search/?keywords=Beyond%20the%20Tripping%20Point or go to any bricks and mortar store and order in a print copy.

The video link to my thatchannel.com interview and reading from Beyond the Tripping Point on You Tube can now be accessed via the new page “Video” at the top of this blog.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 
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Posted by on July 11, 2013 in Beyond the Tripping Point, Credible Fiction Characters, Fiction Characters, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Short Story Collection, Writing

 

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Interview of Fictional Characters by Fictional Character – Part 4

04 Jul

Be obscure clearly. – E.B. White

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford's mystery short story collection

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford’s mystery short story collection

 Bast interviews his fraternal twin, Dana Bowman. The twins were close when growing up but in their twenties drifted apart partly because Bast didn’t like Ron Bowman, Dana’s husband at the time. They reconnected a few years before the four linked stories in Beyond the Tripping Point, after Dana’s divorce when Bast helped Dana buy out her ex for the “family” home and moved in to help his sister raise David and meet expenses. Their backgrounds, personalities and looks are different (Fraternal twins don’t necessarily look alike) so all is not always smooth sailing.

Bast: Dana, you have a somewhat unusual approach when we are doing an investigation. Care to elaborate?

Dana: Well, little brother, (From her 4’11” height she looks up at Bast, standing tall at 6’ 3”) I suppose you mean my sketches?

Bast: Yes, in particular your caricatures of the people we interview.

Dana: I’ve always liked to sketch, particularly people and I like to get at what I see as the heart of the person, what makes them tick. And everybody has something they don’t tell the world. So, I look into their face, their body language and see what they aren’t saying. Often that helps with our investigation.

Bast: Yes, but sometimes it startles the person, like Anne Belcher in “Road Raging.”

Dana: Yes, but Anne was pretty upset already when she banged on our door. I guess if someone close to you, like your husband, had been seriously injured in a car collision, you’d be upset…unless it was all an act…and that’s what I am trying to find out when I sketch a person.

Bast: And was Anne all an act?

Dana: Now, Bast, I’m not telling. That would spoil it for our readers.

Bast: Okay. Let’s go to “Digging Up the Dirt” where you were actually doing caricatures of seniors and other guests at Mavis Crandock’s 100th anniversary celebration. Did any of them help solve the double murder here?

Dana: Thanks for not giving it all away. I think probably subconsciously although we did solve this one using other means.

Bast: I presume you mean Great Aunt Doris. She…

Dana: Don’t mention that woman and I’m surprised you do considering what she thinks of you…

Bast: And of you. The two of  you really got into it in “Saving Grace” with her criticising your parenting…

Dana: Don’t you start. You know we were having difficult times because of David being psychologically mute. Aunt Doris didn’t have to live with us day-by-day, thank God (Dana makes a mock sign of the cross).

Bast: Fair enough. But she did help you a lot in “Saving Grace?”

Dana: I suppose so. Without her intervention things might have been quite different for all of us.

Bast: Back to “Digging up the Dirt” which was a few months after “Saving Grace” – Aunt Doris did help you…

Dana: Inserted herself in the investigation was more like it. Bast you should have seen her get-up when we went out to interview people. I wish I had sketched that one although I suppose I could from memory. (She sits down, picks up her sketch pad and charcoal and starts sketching).

Bast: You are also not that fond of computers; how do you get around that?

Dana: Well, at first I wouldn’t touch the damn machines, but then I started a bit with the email.

Bast: Ah, the email will do it every time. (Note to readers: The Dana-Bast stories take place in the late 1990s before Facebook and Twitter and high speed Internet connection was just coming into use in late 1999 in Canada).

Dana (shaking her charcoal at Bast).Yeah, but I’m not glued to it like you are little brother.

Bast: Will you stop calling me that. Just because you are a few minutes older than me. (Clears his throat). Okay, Dana will you tell us what you actually use the computer for?

Dana: Okay, given that you taught me what I know. Besides email, I use that Word program occasionally to type up reports although I prefer to leave that to you. And I do some research on the Internet. But I still prefer my sketches and face-to-face contact. I mean if something goes wrong with the computer when I’m using it, well, I’m out of here. And speaking of that, I have to go pick up David from school. Here… (She stands up, walks over to Bast and hands him her sketch).

Bast: Hm. You’ve captured a good likeness of me, but two things. Why do I have a smirk on my face and why did you draw me with a beard? I shaved that off a few months ago. (He touches his chin).

Dana: Because little brother, that beard gives you some authority and dignity. And if you repeat that to anyone I’ll deny it.

Bast: Fair enough.

You can read more about David, Dana, Bast, Great Aunt Doris, Detective Sergeant Donald Fielding and the others in the four linked stories which are part of my mystery short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point, (Blue Denim Press, 2012. Click on the book at the top and it takes you to my profile – including books reviews – at www.amazon.com. The book is available there in print and Kindle. For Kobo e-book  go to http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/search/?keywords=Beyond%20the%20Tripping%20Point or go to any bricks and mortar store and order in a print copy.

The video link to my thatchannel.com interview and reading from Beyond the Tripping Point on You Tube can now be accessed via the new page “Video” at the top of this blog.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 
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Posted by on July 4, 2013 in Beyond the Tripping Point, Credible Fiction Characters, Interviewing fictional characters

 

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Interview with Fiction Characters By Fictional Character – Part 3

27 Jun

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford's mystery short story collection

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford’s mystery short story collection

Writing is a struggle against silence.

–          Carlos Fuentes

Bast takes on perhaps the most difficult interview so far – with his seven-year-old nephew David Bowman. David has become psychologically mute because of a traumatic experience in the pre-quel novel Beyond Blood. David appears in the four linked stories in Beyond the Tripping Point – “Gone Missing,” “Saving Grace,” “Digging Up the Dirt” and “Road Raging.”

Bast: David, let’s play private eye. Let’s pretend I’m the private investigator and I’m interviewing you. I know…

Dana (who has sneaked into the room and interrupts): You are a PI little brother and David knows this.

Bast: Sis, I’m trying to conduct an interview here. Your turn will come next week.

Dana: Okay then. Let’s see what David thinks about this.

Bast: Fine. David, do you want your mother present during this interview.

David shakes his head “no.”

Bast (smiling): Dana, your son has spoken.

Dana: Okay. (shrugs her shoulders and leaves the room).

Bast: Now David, is it okay if we play PI and I ask you questions.

David nods “yes.”

Bast: Good. Now I know you won’t speak, so I’ll keep most questions to “yes” and “no” answers, but here’s a pen and notepad for you to write your answers on.”

David pushes the pen and pad away and shakes his head “no” vigorously. He picks up his box of crayons, dumps the crayons out on the table, and grabs his sketch pad.

Bast (shrugs): Okay. In “Saving Grace” you kept pushing your mother to find the missing Grace. Was that because of what happened to you last year?

David picks up a red crayon and starts drawing a girl’s face. Then he picks up a black crayon and draws a boy’s face. He colours in the hair yellow. Underneath the girl’s face he prints “G” and underneath the boy’s face he draws  “?” He hands the picture to Bast.

Bast (pointing to the boy’s face in the picture). “Is this you David?”

David snatches the picture from Bast, then picks up a black crayon and starts scribbling on the paper. He hands it back to Bast.

Bast (looking at the picture). I see you have crossed out the “?” and put in a “D.” Okay, how did you know where to find Grace?

David picks up an orange crayon and starts drawing on another sheet of paper. When finished, he hands it to Bast.

Bast (looking at this picture). This looks like a doll.

David nods “yes.”

Bast: Would this be Grace’s Raggedy Anne doll?

David nods “yes” and starts wriggling in his seat.

Bast: So, the doll helped you?

David nods “yes” and then shakes his head “no.”

Bast: Which is it David – yes or no?

David grabs a purple crayon and starts scribbling on another piece of paper. When finished he throws the paper at Bast.

Bast: Hm. I don’t understand David. All these purple lines and circles. What do they represent? I mean.

David points to his head and moves his mouth as if trying to make a sound.

Bast: Okay, David. Let’s move on. Now in “Gone Missing,” at one point you are riding with your mother in her car and you drive to the dock at Snow Lake. You made a dramatic change here from complete silence. You…

David jumps up and starts moving around the room as if disoriented, then moves up to Bast and starts stomping his foot.

Dana (now back in the room). “That’s enough Bast. I don’t think David wants to play your game anymore, do you David?

David just continues his foot stomping. Dana goes over to him, crouches down to his level and puts her arm around him. David wiggles and tries to push her away, but eventually the feet and hands go still and he puts his head on Dana’s chest. Loud sobs are coming from him. Bast walks over to them and gets down on his knees.

Bast: Sorry David.

David looks up from Dana and over to Bast. And winks.

You can read more about David, Dana, Bast, Great Aunt Doris, Detective Sergeant Donald Fielding and the others in the four linked stories which are part of my mystery short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point, (Blue Denim Press, 2012. Click on the book at the top and it takes you to my profile – including books reviews – at www.amazon.com. The book is available there in print and Kindle. For Kobo e-book  go to http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/search/?keywords=Beyond%20the%20Tripping%20Point

 or go to any bricks and mortar store and order in a print copy.

Next week: Bast interviews his fraternal twin Dana Bowman.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 
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Posted by on June 27, 2013 in Beyond the Tripping Point, Fiction Characters, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Short Story Collection, Writing

 

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Interview with Fiction Characters by Fictional Character: Part 2

20 Jun

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford's mystery short story collection

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford’s mystery short story collection

The things that you know more about than you want to know are very useful.

            — Robert Stone

In this post, Bast Overture, crime reporter turned private investigator interviews Detective Sergeant Donald Fielding. Fielding appears in three of the four linked shorts stories in Beyond the Tripping Point (“Gone Missing,” “Digging up the Dirt,” and “Road Raging”). Note: Bast has encountered Fielding in his crime reporting days and the two are not best friends – forever or for any time.

Bast:  Now Detective Sergeant, you have been the lead investigator in several of the crimes that The Attic Investigative Agency has been involved in and…

Fielding (in his clipped British accent): Meddling might be more accurate…

Bast: Very well then but don’t you think that both you and our agency each came up with information that helped solve the cases and that  by cooperating and pooling our resources…

Fielding: The police do not cooperate with private investigators.

Bast: Yes, but didn’t you pass some information along to my sister, Dana, about some of the principals involved in “Road Raging.”

Fielding: That information was already in the press and I “passed it along” as you call it to your sister because when it was in the newspapers she was. shall we say, busy with trying to find her kidnapped son so she may have missed it (From the pre-quel novel, currently in rewrite stage).

Bast: And isn’t that another instance of you helping us?

Fielding: I said the police don’t cooperate with…

Bast: I know you said that but sometimes you do and don’t you think it helps solve the case?

Fielding: Listen here, Sebastian Overture. You and I go back to your crime reporting days, so I know your tricks to get information. What are you insinuating here? That the police act unprofessionally?

Bast: Of course not. (Bast clears his throat). I’m merely asking if the mutual info exchange helped. Hold on a minute before you say anything. If you remember in “Gone Missing,” Dana gave you some valuable information about the missing Rosemary – something we gleaned from our interview with her twin brother Robin – a blue text book. And that led to another person…

Fielding: (raising his hand). We were already talking to that person of interest.

Bast: Very well. Now, you are saying that the police don’t usually cooperate with private detectives. But what about when one of the PIs is shall we say more than a PI to you?

Fielding: (face going red). What are you insinuating Overture?

Bast: Come on Fielding. It’s no secret that you are attracted to my sister. So, I’m asking you – do your feelings for Dana have anything to do with the sharing of information.

Fielding (clipped British accent more pronounced): You’re making things up. That would be unprofessional.

Bast: But isn’t it true that you are attracted to my sister?

Fielding: That is none of your business. You leave D…D…Dana out of this.

Bast: Very well, then…

Fielding’s cell phone rings. He opens it.

Fielding: “Yes, Fielding here… Uh huh. Fine. What’s the address? Fine. I’ll be right there.” (He closes the cell). “Sorry, Overture. Duty calls.” (He stands up to leave)

Bast: Very well. Thanks for your time. I’ll catch you later for the rest…”

“Fielding: “No. This interview is finished.”

You can read more about Great Aunt Doris, Bast, Dana, David, Detective Sergeant Fielding and the others in the four linked stories which are part of my mystery short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point, Blue Denim Press, 2012. Click on the book at the top and it takes you to my profile – including books reviews – at www.amazon.com

Next week: Bast interviews his nephew David, which proves challenging as David is psychologically mute.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 
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Posted by on June 20, 2013 in Beyond the Tripping Point, Blue Denim Press, Credible Fiction Characters, Interviewing fictional characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Writing

 

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Interview with Great Aunt Doris from Beyond the Tripping Point

13 Jun

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford's mystery short story collection

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford’s mystery short story collection

We care what happens to people only in proportion as we know what people are.

— Henry James

A couple of weeks ago, my guest blogger Rosemary McCracken interviewed her novels’ main character, Pat Tierney.  In today’s post, Great Aunt Doris, the eccentric old family busybody from two of the linked stories – “Saving Grace” and “Digging Up the Dirt” in my short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point is interviewed by crime reporter turned private investigator, Bast Overture – one of the fraternal twins in the linked stories. A word of note – Great Aunt Doris doesn’t like Bast so she is totally unpredictable.

Bast: Now Aunt Doris, you have been a sort of patriarch of the Bowman family and so have a –

Aunt Doris: I am not your aunt. I’m not even your sister Dana’s aunt. Her husband, Ron Bowman whom she had the stupidity to divorce, is my family and so is his son, David.

Bast: Yes, well, it is your family and its roots I want to talk to you about, especially in relation to this house. How did the Bowman family obtain this house?

Aunt Doris: You got that right. My late father, bless his soul (she crosses herself) bought this house when I was only five and my older  brother George and I lived in it even after Dad died. George got it in his will and he and his wife Ellen lived in it and so did their son, Ronald Bowman who got the house when my brother died. So this house is really his, not yours and Dana’s. Ron should be living here with David, not you and Dana. It…

Bast: Yes, thank you Aunt Doris for this background. I’d like to talk a little bit about your involvement in two of our stories in Beyond the Tripping Point. First, “Digging up the Dirt” where I understand you helped with the investigation. Could you tell us why, especially when you are so against Dana being a PI?

Aunt Doris: Well Dana is the mother of David –

Bast: So you are acknowledging Dana Bowman as the mother of your nephew’s son.

Aunt Doris: Don’t interrupt me young man. Yes, Dana is David’s mother but she sure doesn’t act like one, chasing all over for criminals. But it should be Ron living here to help raise David and keep Dana in line not somebody like you, a queer.

Bast: Ah yes, well I am gay but lots of gay men raise children.

Aunt Doris: But David is not your son.

Bast: True. Now back to my original question – why did you help with the investigation in Digging Up the Dirt?”

Aunt Doris: Because a childhood friend, Douglas Crandock and his mother were murdered during his mother’s 100th birthday celebration and I had to do something. So, I donned my PI gear (Note: slacks, sweater, cap, large magnifying glass and even bigger mouth) and went out and asked questions.

Bast: But my sis…Dana was with you and…?

Aunt Doris: I let her come along but I took a lot of control of the interviews.

Bast: Why is that?

Aunt Doris: Someone had to be blunt and ask the important questions, not skirt around it as Dana does.

Bast: But it was both of you who figured out who and why?

Aunt Doris: Hm…I suppose. But it was my knowledge of my childhood and early adult life and friends that was crucial.

Bast: Very well. Now let’s switch to “Saving Grace” where you, Dana and David went on a holiday to Goderich, Ontario. You also became involved in…

Aunt Doris: It would have been a good holiday if Dana hadn’t meddled in finding that missing girl, Grace what’s her name.

Bast: Milhop, Grace Milhop. But wasn’t it David who drew Dana into looking for Grace?

Aunt Doris: Young man, don’t you point the finger at David – he’s family, blood family.

Bast: True. But David’s situation (Note: mute from the trauma of his own kidnapping the previous year – in the prequel novel) was instrumental in getting him involved and therefore Dana and you, of course. Would you say you were instrumental in getting this case solved well, safely – for Dana and David?

Aunt Doris:  I guess so. I suppose if I hadn’t been there things could have gone much differently. But that doesn’t make it right that Dana is always meddling in these cases, as you call them. She’s a mother first and she should be acting like one. What is David going to grow up as with his mother and you (She glares) raising him?

Bast: Perhaps a private investigator.

Aunt Doris: Not as long as I’m around. I may be 71 but I plan to be around for another 20 years at least.

End of interview:

You can read more about Great Aunt Doris, Bast, Dana, David and the others in the four linked stories which are part of my mystery short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point. Click on the book at the top and it takes you to my profile – including books reviews – at www.amazon.com

Next week: Bast interviews Detective Sergeant Donald Fielding.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2013 in Beyond the Tripping Point, Fiction Characters, Interviewing fictional characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Short Story Collection, Uncategorized, Writing

 

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Getting inside your nasty fiction characters

18 Apr

Click on the book cover to go to amazon.com

Click on the book cover to go to amazon.com

If you write fiction you are, in a sense, corrupted. There’s a tremendous corruptibility for the fiction writer because you’re dealing mainly with sex and violence. These remain the basic themes, they’re the basic themes of Shakespeare whether you like it or not.

– Anthony Burgess

We’ve talked about character development in previous posts and how you have to get inside your characters’ heads to see what makes them tick. That can be a pleasure if the character is basically a good person with some flaws. But what if one of your major fiction characters – such as a serial killer – is a nasty piece of goods and so unlikeable you cringe.

If you just skim the surface of Mr. Nastiness, that is all your readers will see. Worse, they may think he and his actions are superfluous, perhaps somewhat unbelievable, and maybe he comes across as merely thrown into the plot as a solution for a crime.

You need to get under Mr. (or Ms.) Nastiness’s skin – even if they don’t appear in many scenes but are pivotal to your plot and to the reaction of your major characters.

Or the nasty character can be the main character.

In my short story “Missing in Action,” the main character, Chrissie, has a middle-aged uncle who left his family and ran away with his secretary and the secretary’s son, 15 years ago. Unlike most of these scenarios, this secretary was not a sexpot half the uncle’s age. Instead, as this news report states:

One is led to wonder why Roger Stuart ran off with Anita Perez. The name sounds exotic but Perez was not a Mexican beauty. She was on the heavy side, about six inches taller than Stuart’s five foot eight inch slim build. She had been previously married and had a son, Anthony. She was also two years older than Stuart. Stuart’s wife, Sheila, 47, on the other hand, is a petite blonde, slim, with a heart-shaped face. (Copyright 2012 Sharon A. Crawford. Excerpted from Beyond the Tripping Point, Blue Denim Press, 2012).

From this description you can tell that there is something “off” about Ms. Perez. She is taller than her lover and on the heavy side. That could convey that she might have control over Roger Stuart, perhaps even abuse him. Add in she is older, not younger than Stuart’s wife and the reader may wonder what the attraction is…and if it has something to do with Stuart almost emptying his bank account (that’s in the same news story Chrissie finds archived online) and running off with her. Ugly people fall in love, too.

Of course, Ms. Perez appears later in the story and when she does and has a violent confrontation with Chrissie with her son Anthony present, the reader finds out she is a controlling bitch. There are other instances in the story that show Ms. Perez as being Ms. Nastiness. But no more story details. You’ll have to read the book to find out.

If I hadn’t gotten inside Ms. Perez’s head and “dissected” her, she might have come across as a “so what?” character, i.e., what is her relevance?

Then there are the serial killers. I have one in my pre-quel novel (still in rewriting stages) and I had to get inside his head. How do you do this without turning violent yourself?

Here are a few tips for getting inside the head of your nasty characters.

1.      Read about other nasty characters for information and yes, to help get you in the mood.

2.      Pull in any nastiness from what has happened in your life, and the lives of your family, friends and colleagues. But don’t create a character just like them.

3.      For serial killers it does help to watch Criminal Minds if only to see a variety of backgrounds and motivations for serial killers. But don’t copy.

4.      Get inside your nasty character’s head and feel their emotions – rage, anger, unhappiness, resentment, etc. Get a sense of what they look like and speak like.

5.      To help with 4. create a full character outline of Mr. or Ms. Nastiness – their background (for example were they bullied as a child, where they went to school and were they a good student, how they interacted with their parents, siblings, friends, where they work now; are they married or not, gay, heterosexual). Also their physical appearance, traits, likes and dislikes, etc.

6.      Then take a break from Mr. or Ms. Nastiness.

7.      When you write your short story or novel, the nasty character may change from your character outline. Go with that flow. Mr. or Ms. Nastiness is evolving.

8.      When not writing about your nasty character, try not to constantly think about him or her. He or she is not you…or is he? Maybe you are basing your nasty person on you.

For my upcoming events with Beyond the Tripping Point, go to my BTTP page on my website – http://www.samcraw.com/Articles/BeyondtheTrippingPoint.html I continually update it. In particular:

This evening, Thursday, April 18, 2013, 7 p.m.

Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Awards Short List Party Toronto http://crimewriterscanada.com/awards/annual-awards-events/shortlist-events

I’m reading a short suspenseful excerpt from Beyond the Tripping Point. Eleven other CWC readers are reading excerpts from their books as we anxiously await the names of who made the short list. Our books are for sale, too.

Location: Indigo Chapters in the Manulife Centre, Bay St. at Bloor St. W., Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 
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Posted by on April 18, 2013 in Beyond the Tripping Point, Credible Fiction Characters, Fiction Characters, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Writing

 

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Putting yourself into your fiction

07 Feb
Cover of Sharon A. Crawford's mystery short story collection

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford’s mystery short story collection

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.

–          André Gide

If you write horror stories does that mean you have to run around with a chain saw chopping up people? If you write mysteries with serial killers does that mean you have to be a serial killer? What about romance writers? Children’s authors? How much of who you are factors in with what you write?

I’ve wondered about that lately because many of my short stories and the prequel novel are on the dark side – both in content and the humour sometimes used to tell them. But my stories also go to the other side of the creativity fence – I use emotions such as hope, love, gratitude, joy, generosity, empathy, even happiness (usually at the story’s end). In other words I make my characters human, characters who often have to overcome great odds to get some sort of hold back on their life and the lives of their family and friends.

For example, in my short story “Unfinished Business” from Beyond the Tripping Point (Blue Denim Press, 2012), the main character Lilly, has something traumatic happens when she is 12 years old. The consequences force her to run away from home at 15 and her life becomes one of too many men and never staying in one place for long. During that time she gives birth to a daughter, Trish, and her motherly instincts kick in, especially when Trish turns 12 and wants to see where Mom was born. The journey back holds bad memories for Lilly and when they arrive at her old home and the cause of the trauma shows up, mistaking Trish for Lilly, Lilly changes. She has to save her daughter from the same fate she had, and in doing so, she can get rid of the albatross she’s carried around on her shoulder, and change her life and her attitude. Besides the dark side of what happened to Lilly (and for the record, did not happen to me), the story shows hope and the indomitable spirit living somewhere in most humans. Lilly just needed strong motivation and mother love was it.

So, if you aren’t a serial killer or a sex fiend, how do you write about these areas and others you haven’t lived through yourself?

  1. Read, read, read on the topic. For serial killers, I’m reading Peter Vronsky’s book Serial Killers and I admit I watch Criminal Minds on TV. I do find the latter is more inventive in their serial killers and motives than some of those in real life. I say “some” because as the saying goes “truth is often stranger than fiction.”
  2. Other Research – interview experts. I’m not saying interview a serial killer but perhaps a profiler or a police officer familiar with catching serial killers.
  3. Put yourself (mentally and emotionally, not actually) in the mind of your character. How would they react to such and such? What is their story? Their background?
  4. Go inside yourself and draw out what is there that you can use? For example, did your parents die suddenly from, say a car crash, when you were a child? Did your father desert the family? Were you bullied in school? Did you grow up in poverty or do you live in poverty now?  Do you have a disability that affects your life? Do you have an affinity for certain people or types of people? For me, it’s the underdog – the one who has a lot of bad going on in their life. In other words, someone who has to overcome much and has a hard time doing so. Will he or she do so? That is what you have to figure out in your story.

The bottom line is this: what you write encompasses you, your life, your feelings – but it doesn’t mean you have to be a serial killer or even a mom. For the record, I am a mom, although my son is now in his mid-thirties; I was a single parent but had lots of parenting help from my ex; I was bullied as a child; my dad died after a long bout with cancer when I was 16; I suffered from depression some 30 years ago, and poverty is no stranger to me. But I don’t wield a chain saw – too heavy to hold and I’ve tried – but to trim trees and shrubs.

How much of you is in your fiction?

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 
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Posted by on February 7, 2013 in Beyond the Tripping Point, Blue Denim Press, Credible Fiction Characters, Fiction Characters, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Short Story Collection, Writing

 

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What motivates your characters?

17 Jan
Click on the book cover to go to amazon.com

Click on the book cover to go to amazon.com

A novelist is a person who lives in other people’s skins.

–           EL Doctorow

Why do your fiction characters do what they do? Are they acting/reacting in character or way out of character? How do you “make” your characters behave?

First of all, you only have some control over your characters. As you are writing, often a character will “take over” and “decide” just what they are going to do. Fine, but you still need to make sure they aren’t acting outside of who they are. Or that you, as the author, aren’t manipulating what they are doing, especially having them do something just to move your story along or worse, just to write something.

Let me give an example.

Take Dana, the PI In “Gone Missing” and “Saving Grace,” two of the four linked short stories in my short story collection, Beyond the Tripping Point. Dana is also the mother of a seven-year old boy. So her dual role must factor in what her character thinks and does. Add to that the fact that her son is psychologically mute because of something that happened to him in the prequel novel (more on that shortly) and my work was cut out for me. In a critique of “Gone Missing” a few years back, I was chastised for not making Dana more professional. But with her problems with David, she wouldn’t be operating as a PI only – all professionalism –unless she is a “bad” mother – finds her son an impediment to her life, etc. Dana is not that and is always torn between her two roles, something readers can identify with in real life. So I have her wrestling with David and helping him as well as trying to solve the missing persons’ cases in those two stories. In “Saving Grace” she has a bit of a meltdown at one point chastising herself for being a bad mother. And to add insult to injury, another character Great Aunt Doris, who is a traditionalist where mothers are concerned, calls her a bad mother.

What is a mother/PI to do? Be human. Act in character.

In the prequel novel which I am rewriting for my publisher to look at, the actual occurrence which causes David’s muteness and all its implications has Dana roller-coasting a lot more than in the short stories. She does some stupid things, briefly goes into a catatonic state and sometimes gets more aggressive than usual. But – and it’s a large “but” all this change, all these actions and reactions come from her basic character and who she is. I don’t pull them out of the air. She is acting in character and characters have to deal with hurdles and change. So do people in real life and maybe that is a bottom line.

Make your characters real. What motivates them? Are they acting in character even when they don’t seem to be?

And go to my publisher’s page for a link to my interview with Hugh Reilly on thatchannel.com where I talk about some of these characters and where they and the plots originated. Eventually I’ll get that video up in the main part of this blog.. For now go to http://www.bluedenimpress.com/sharon-crawford.php and click on the link at the bottom of my bio.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

 
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Posted by on January 17, 2013 in Beyond the Tripping Point, Credible Fiction Characters, Fiction Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Writing

 

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How do fiction characters act in a snowstorm?

27 Dec
Amazon.com link to Sharon A. Crawford's book

Amazon.com link to Sharon A. Crawford’s book

As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.

–          William Shakespeare

Toronto and other parts of Ontario as well as Quebec and the Maritimes got blasted with the first big snowfall of the season overnight. So I thought it might be interesting to dump some of our fiction characters into a snowstorm and see how they could behave.

My obvious choice of characters are the two friends, Millie and Jessica, from my short story “No Breaks” in my short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point. The story is set on a hot and humid August day but what would happen if the duo were driving up Ontario’s Highway 11 to the Muskoka cottage during a snow storm? This area gets lots of snow on the highway and with the brakes in Millie’s car failing, would Millie’s work-around that even be feasible in a snow storm? Perhaps the storm itself stalls traffic. So setting is changed but the reason for their trip up to Jessica’s family cottage wouldn’t be summer and beach related. Perhaps they are headed up there for Christmas. If you take all the other factors in the story (and I’m not telling all; you have to read the book to find out – book available on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca – link to the former on the book above and to the latter on the book at the end of this post), things will change.

Think about it. The two friends will be stuck in the car on a continuous basis. Millie is already fed up with the way her life isn’t going and Jessica, a non-driver, is scared they won’t get out of their situation. Millie is a control freak and Jessica hangs onto her Blackberry like it’s her lifeline – even when there is no reception. In the actual story, the relationship between the two friends changes as Millie learns some hard facts which hurl her over her personal tripping point. This could intensify and Millie’s actions could happen much faster and maybe being stuck in the snow with Jessica might bring out new terrifying traits and changes in the two women.

In your fiction – short story or novel – put your main characters, preferably the antagonist and protagonist, stuck in a snowstorm – if not in a car, maybe at a pub, a hotel, a meeting, a resort. How would they react? Would their conflict get worse or would it give them time to pause and do something about it? And remember, these are two idnividual characters here, so one may want to sort out their differences and the other one might not. One might get nastier; one might have a fear of being trapped and how would that affect his or her character? The possibilities are endless.

Put your characters in a snowstorm – even if only as a writing exercise. It will show you different sides of your characters and perhaps give you some insights into their development that you can use in your story – snowstorm or not, for example, how do your characters deal with unexpected adversity, especially of the severe weather kind?

Now, I better psyche myself out to shovel all that snow. I don’t dream of a White Christmas season. I dream of summer and my garden. Meantime, I have a guest blog post appearing on another Crime Writers of Canada member’s blog, December 28, 2012. Check it out at http://sweatercursed.blogspot.ca/

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

Link to amazon.ca for Sharon A. Crawford's book

Link to amazon.ca for Sharon A. Crawford’s book

 
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Posted by on December 27, 2012 in Beyond the Tripping Point, Credible Fiction Characters, Fiction Characters, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Short Story Collection, Writing

 

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