Dedications

  Hello all! Just wanted to give a quick update, and to preface the next chapter I’m posting later this evening.

I’ve written a few chapters now that have been dedicated to people who have passed away. They’re always the hardest to write, and take the longest for me, and I generally shut myself away for a long while when I do them. Even though the characters aren’t always an exact representation of them specifically, I always want the stories to reflect something about them. Something they loved, or maybe a little bit of their personality somewhere.

In this instance, my husband’s grandmother and I used to watch Ghost Hunters and The Dead Files together. We wanted to eventually take a ghost tour together. So I wanted to do something with ghosts, but I didn’t know what. She asked to be in my books as a ghost, but her character doesn’t show up until book 4 (tentatively) in the timeline.

So I thought about it, and tried to figure out a way to bring it all together. And I made a plan that I thought would work, and I got started.

Related side note: I went to the Ohioana Book Festival a few months ago, and several authors on different panels said similar things when asked if they write from an outline: “When my characters let me” was the basic gist of it.

Lol, and that’s where this comedy of errors begins.

I had good intentions. I (sort of) made an outline for once. I truly meant to follow said outline.

My main character said otherwise.

So here’s a dramatic retelling (assisted by anime characters, Hocus Pocus, and Ace Ventura) of how it went down inside the break room in my head, where all my characters like to hang out between stories.

Me: Kronen, you’re up! Here’s the plan! Sort of! More like a suggestion of a vague direction! But let’s run with it anyway!

Kronen:

Me: No, but I did the whole outline thing for once. You *have* to do the thing.

Kronen:

Me: But… Why?

Kronen: I have decided it is time to talk about a different subject.

Me: Wait… *flips through outline* What other subject is there?

Kronen: *raises an eyebrow, as he has seen others do in similar situations where the person asking them a question already knows the answer*

Me: Wait, but I thought we weren’t going to talk about that yet? That’s, like, a book 7 thing! (tentatively)

Kronen:

Me: It was Triaris, wasn’t it? He put you up to this.

Triaris: *smirks* Why do you insist on blaming me all the time? *Laughs* I mean, you’re usually right. But this time it truly wasn’t me for once.

Ashriel: *tries to sneak out of the break room unnoticed*

Me:

Kronen:

Me:

Ashriel:

So, there’s not as much ghosts as I would have liked, but it has the right feel I think, and I can still save her character for book 4 (tentatively).

Dammit, Ashriel – stop provoking my other characters with your bad influence!

Lol, but I think she’d get a kick out of the chaos anyway, so it’s all good. XD

So, here’s to you, Ms S. ❤

Until next time, Take Care and Happy Writing! 😀

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