Character Arcs to Warm the Heart
You could chalk it up to nostalgia: Re-watching a childhood classic to remember a loved one or a Christmas past. But often, I find turning to classic Christmas movies can be a way for me, my family and friends to…
Category: Character
Exploring Character Through Memoir
Fiction readers expect more of characters than they do of people in real life. In life you can have a person who does inexplicable self-destructive or transgressive shit, and friends and colleagues just shake their heads and say, “Oh, that’s…
So, what should our heroes look like now?
I admit it, I’ve fallen in love with my share of anti-heroes. Whether it is Lady MacBeth for her unapologetic ambition, Scarlett O’Hara’s vanity (and great taste in hoop skirts), or even the cruel seduction tactics of Lestat de Lioncourt…
Writing Who You Know
The novel discussed in this October, 2017, post was recently selected by Golden Antelope Press for publication this October, 2019. Instead of writing what you know, have you ever written who you know? My as yet unpublished novel, You Can…
Pinpricked Paper: What Happened When I Lived as My Protagonist for a Week
I recently returned from living as my protagonist. To match my novel of historical fiction about queer pirates, I sailed for a week on a wooden tall ship from Boston to New York City. It was my 30th birthday gift…
An Interview with Stephanie Gayle, Author of Idyll Fears
Stephanie Gayle is the author of the Thomas Lynch mystery series, which includes Idyll Threats and Idyll Fears, out today. Her first novel, My Summer of Southern Discomfort, was one of Redbook magazine’s Top Ten Summer Reads, and her short fiction…