Some of my Characters are Dicks

I have been told I do characters well. I tend to think that used to be true but I've lost the power somewhere along the line and now struggle a little. I've heard a few times recently that a couple of my characters are unlikeable and that makes me a little sad and a little happy at the same time. I mean, the characters in question are a bit dickish. And I like writing characters like that! Sometimes people are a bit dickish. And I don't mean the character's a dick as in, they're just a nasty douchebag – I mean, they're mostly a good person but have moments of twattishness.

And I think I've always done that. It's not published (yet) but I've had a couple of beta readers tell me that my vain manchild, Ambrose, in The Beautiful Man, is a bit of a tool. And he is, but he's a good guy beneath the swagger. Another beta told me how much she loved him and characters like him, so it may be more of a case of clashing personalities (between character and reader) rather than him being a shitty character.

Same thing with Liam in Otherworld. Some readers adore him. Others think he's a dick. And he is a bit of a dick.

See also Rowan, in Shuttered.

Most recently I've been hearing a couple of 'I just don't like him's from readers about Noah in Whitecott Manor. In fact, I was even warned by my editor that he was coming over as unlikeable in a couple of instances and I refuted the fact and carried on. Thing is, Noah is young – I don't mention his age but I imagine him to be early twenties – and he's probably been babied by his parents. He's been in a toxic controlling relationship and when he comes out of that, he does tend to act a bit bratty because he's free and he wants to do his own thing finally. He probably is a bit selfish, and high maintenance, and because we don't get to read anything from his POV we don't see any of his inner workings. But ultimately, he is a nice guy. He wouldn't hurt anybody and when he grows up, and he's allowed to grow up, he'll make a very good partner. Should I have toned him down? I'm not sure.

Then I have the characters who are dicks in the bad way. They're team evil. Like Max in the not-yet-published-I've-not-even-finished-writing-it-yet Locke & Co. He's a dick and he knows it. He's a demon so it's kinda his raison d'etre. But he has moments where he's almost, almost, a nice guy. I wonder what the reaction to him will be like – I've already had one beta warn me he's possibly too creepy.

Of course I want all my characters to be liked, even the ones who are meant to be bad guys, but when a character I thought was reasonably likeable is disliked by readers it can be a little disheartening. I mean, I know they're a dick, but why can't you see their cuddly inner core? This character's a good person, liiiiike them, pleeeease! *ahem* And there's the writer angst. Am I just not doing this as well as I thought I was?

Still, to get an emotional response from a reader, whether that emotion is love or hate, is pretty good anyway so I'll take it.  I'm a little bit happy and a little bit sad. And I'll carry on writing the dicks anyway.

2015 Rainbow Awards

Shuttered has received an 'Honorable Mention' in the 2015 Rainbow Awards. Very pleased.  :)

Take a look.

Rowan's Con

This is the very first of my video blogs. May also be the last, we'll see! But I promised my editors of Shuttered that I'd film myself doing the trick that the character Rowan does. It's taken me a while to get round to it, because I had neither a sherry glass, nor a brandy glass, but I found some in a charity shop the other week and bought both for about 75p. Bargain!

Please excuse the sound blip, I think I got a text. ;)

Win Goodies!

I've been extremely lax on my blog. I've been very busy in my life - just moved into my very own places, got pet snails, got diagnosed as a coeliac. More on all this later! I'm planning on doing some vid-blogs, so you'll get to see (and hear) me. But just a quickie for now... Visit: Joyfully Jay's blog leave a comment on the post before midnight on the 11th of June, and you could not only win a copy of Shuttered, but also a KINDLE and a load of other goodies. :)

Completion

I started The Kingdom of Malinas when I was seventeen and self-published it several years later in 2008. The second book in the trilogy, The Empress Graves, needed a rewrite and a whole sub-plot adding before it could be published on my birthday in 2010.

The third and final book in The Power of Malinas trilogy, The Barbarians' Key, has now finally been written. I started it years ago, after finishing the first draft of the second book, but I only got to chapter sixteen before I went on to do other things.

I picked it up after completing The Empress Graves and worked hard trying to remember what I had intended the resolution of the series to be! Luckily, I kept notes, so I looked through those - keeping some ideas, abandoning others, even deciding not to add in two new characters I'd created. The plot is far more complex than in the other two books, there is more happening and the action takes place throughout the country of Aldenland.

I have been through my first draft, tweaking and editing and correcting mistakes, and now the book is with a lovely beta reader who will let me know exactly which bits work and which don't.

I will then work on it again. And soon, I hope, I will release it on Lulu.

In the meantime, here is what the cover will look like:

The Barbarians' Key Progress!

Ok, so the goal of finishing The Barbarians' Key for my birthday has been missed. But, I'm now at 58 thousand words. I've written 8k in two months.


I kinda think that sounds okay. But then again, I completed the NaNo challenge of writing 50k in one month so... Probably not so good.

This manuscript is already longer than The Empress Graves and I think I'm about two thirds of the way through. This will probably end up being the longest book in the trilogy. It has so much more going on and a lot of the action takes place at two different parts of Aldenland. It's more complex too and I'm having to keep notes in my file so I know who's doing what, where, why and with who!

But, The Barbarians' Key will be finished this year. It will. :)