It's a Very Merry Christmas Release! #scifi #mystery

 While my fellow crew members are taking much deserved seasonal shore leave, I have one last Christmas treat for you. Today sees the release of my scifi mystery Solstice on Vintro - the story that took me a stonking seven years to finish. And it's not even that long a story! But it's finally done and releases today in time for the winter solstice around which it's set.

A Science Fiction Mystery novella.

   

​

Vintro. The planet that had stolen all her dreams.

 

Melandria Solei has always dreamed of commanding a starship and exploring the universe. When her own dark-eyed older lover steals the position she's worked for, she never expects to go chasing after him in a stolen ship to a world colder than revenge...

Just click the cover to be taken to the buy links (y'know, if you feel like it). And while on the subject of new releases long overdue, there's also the next Keir and Quin book up for pre-order too! Due for release on the 20th March (spring equinox in the UK), when it might not be quite so chilly. I'm hoping that this little novella in the series will keep you busy while I work on the full length book three in the hope of releasing that before the end of next year. No promises, though. I don't exactly have a good track record, now do I?

A Science Fiction Adventure novella

and a side story in the Redemption series.

 

How can one moment of anger destroy so much happiness?

​

It is a question that will haunt him. When an old enemy comes to Kasha-Asor to kidnap their daughter, armed with a weapon that could end everything, Keir is forced to leave an injured Quin on Lyagnius. But his quest for a cure and their missing daughter will come at a terrible cost. 

Book #2.5 of the Redemption series.
Trigger warning: the loss of a child.

***

I will leave you with a seasonal picture of my Star Wars Christmas tree. Happy holidays!

Secret Babies, Hidden Legacies, and Big Twists You Never See Coming

You all probably remember the surprise scene from Star Wars. The one where Luke Skywalker confronts his arch enemy, Darth Vader, who says, "Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father."

And Luke, bruised, bloodied and missing both a hand and a lightsaber he lost in the fight with Vader declares, "He told me enough. He told me you killed him."

And then Darth drops his bombshell. "No. I am your father."

To which Luke shouts, "No. No. That's not true! That's impossible!"

Sorry, Luke, you just discovered a popular trope in storytelling. You were a secret baby, just like your twin sister, Leia.

In the more recent Star Wars trilogy, Rey finally discovered the secrets behind who she is and that she, too, was a secret baby. Maybe Luke should have warned her she had one heck of a plot twist coming. (And you all probably thought Luke was her dad, like I did, right?) 

And though it's not sci-fi, Game of Thrones threw a similar curve ball at its fans. 

Jon Snow, the bastard son of Lord Ned Stark of Winterfell, a child unwanted by his stepmother, Lady Stark, is banished even from sharing meals at the family's table. 

Though his siblings consider him a brother, as a teenager he's shuffled off to the Night's Watch where he vows his life to the service of defending the Wall against the dangers that lurk to the north. He's mistreated by his taskmasters, but in spite of it all, he eventually rises to lead the Night's Watch. And later to be horribly betrayed by them. 

Yet, in spite of it all, his destiny is to unite the people of the North, survive all the bloody wars and betrayals that leave most of his family dead, and through a series of unlikely events, ends up being declared the King of the North at Winterfell, his childhood home. He accomplishes all this largely due to the strengths and convictions he developed on his long and troubled journey.

But he had a big surprise twist coming, too. As the battle of all battles with the forces of darkness draws near, he learns Ned Stark wasn't his real father. The Lord of Winterfell was his uncle. He was really the son of Ned's sister and the late prince of the seven kingdoms. The man he'd known as his father all his life had lied to him--to everyone--about his true identity to protect him. Jon Snow wasn't a bastard. He'd never been a bastard. He was the heir to the Iron Throne. 

Jon Snow was a secret baby, too.

But not all secret baby stories involve finding out you're the offspring of a king or an arch enemy. Sometimes the legacy isn't known. And may never be fully known.

My story in Pets in Space 5, Juggernaut, has a similar twist, in that the hero, Sno Telon, never knew his father. (I didn't borrow the "Sno" from Jon--there's a bit of a tragic reason Sno was given his name.) He also has no idea who his father is...or was. He knows only his father's subspecies and the general circumstances behind his conception, but the rest of that history is a mystery. 

Sno Telon was a secret baby, too. 

I wrote Juggernaut in 2020, and Sno's backstory was one that seemed to manifest from something I'd been struggling with for well over a year. You see, the week before Father's Day 2019, I discovered that I was a secret baby, too.

It all started with a DNA test, one I mentioned here in a blog shortly after I got my results back and while I was still trying to work out why a bunch of people I'd never heard of -- all from the same family -- were showing up as close DNA matches. It took time and a bit of help from another who understood DNA findings a whole lot better than I did at that point to explain what it all meant. I'd just discovered my DNA had revealed a "NPE event." That's DNA community slang for Not Parent Expected.

My dad -- the man I'd always known as my dad and who was recorded on my birth certificate -- was not my real father. Not genetically. And I was a secret that my mother had kept all her life.

That was the big twist in my life I certainly never saw coming.

Even as a writer, it's difficult to explain how much of an impact this had on me emotionally. How many tears I shed. How I felt like a rug had just been jerked out from under my life to leave me lying in a heap on the floor. Everything had changed....yet really, nothing had. I was still the same person I'd always been. Nothing about my childhood had changed and my family was still my family. Relatives may change due to a DNA test, but not the family you've always known. 

I don't know the circumstances of how I came to be. I don't know if my genetic father ever knew I existed. I had--and still have--so many questions that will probably never be answered. There were people who knew the answers to my questions once, but they're all gone now.

I do know the name of my "DNA dad" (as I've come to call him), and I've learned many things about his life through research--that he was a war vet, combat medic, businessman, pilot, commodore of a yacht club, and very involved in a group with remote-operated model aircraft later in life--I assume probably after he could no longer pilot. His enlistment papers state he was 6' 2" and blonde-haired at the time he entered the military. That probably explains why I grew up to be the tallest one in my family and why I was born a towhead. 

From what I know of him, he was a good man. But I don't--and will never--know him. And how much of who I am may have come from him. 

In well-plotted fiction, the reader eventually discovers the secrets of a character's backstory as the writer reveals them. Not always so in real life.

My journey continues...

Have a great week, and this being my last blog of 2020, have a great holiday!

 

BUILDING CHARACTER: Bringing People (And Aliens) to Life Through Words - Part 2

In Part 1 of my Building Character blog posts, we discussed how a character’s unique traits will determine how they react to anything and everything in the story. I gave a list of 14 things that make a character unique. You can read that post here. In Part 2, I want to dive deeper into three of them: experiences, perspective, and beliefs.

 

EXPERIENCES (Backstory) 

Many factors, including physical attributes, cause people to experience life differently. You can start imagining what impacts sex, color, and body measurements (height, weight, musculature, body fat, etc.) may have on a person, real or imaginary. These experiences aren’t just based on the strengths or limitations of their body, but by the way others who see them treat them. Were they treated differently because of their sex or their skin color? Were they unable to play a sport they loved because they didn’t have the correct body type? Do they have a physical deformity, disability, or illness that affected their life? The attributes that make a character unique on the outside could very well affect how they experience life on the inside.

Physical attributes can affect a person’s daily experiences as well as those bigger life-defining moments. If the life-defining moment is negative, emotional trauma can result. Emotional trauma is an emotionally painful event in the character's life. For example, getting rejected by the boy you like for being overweight can cause emotional trauma. 

Emotional trauma—which can come from anywhere, not just physical attributes—is key to character creation. Your characters’ fears, wounds, and emotional needs all stem from their emotional traumas. Screenwriter Michael Hague discusses this in depth in his books, his workshops, and on his website. I urge you to check them out. Here is the short version:

Wound: An emotional trauma. An emotionally painful event in the character’s life.

Fear: Painful emotions the character wants to avoid. Fear stems from the wound and creates an emotional need.

Emotional Need: This is the character’s true goal; the internal goal. The character’s emotional need drives his behavior. A character may not even realize he has an emotional need in the beginning of the story, usually because he lies to himself about his fears and needs.

Lie: In order to cope with his wound, the character believes lies about himself. I call this the negative coping skill.

I’ve included 2 sample character charts showing wounds, fears, lies, and emotional needs from my SciFi Romance Renegade (The Survival Race #3) at the end of the blog.

Your character’s experiences shape his point of view and perspective. 

 

POV (POINT OF VIEW) or PERSPECTIVE 

If you remember from Part 1, POV or perspective is the way your character views life. Perspective plays a HUGE part in what makes a person unique. It shapes their views of the the world and of themselves. Their POV stems from their background. Their history. Their wounds and fears. What is their true motivation? What do they really want? What do they really need?

POV/ perspective shapes the lies our characters believes about themselves. This is where their poor coping mechanisms come from.

Going back to Michael Hague’s teachings, your character’s fear creates his identity.

Identity: Emotional armor (facade) worn to protect your character from his wound. It’s the lie he believes about himself. It’s the negative coping skill. This is where you give your character flaws.

Essence: Who the character is when the emotional armor is stripped. The true self. Who they are when they overcome their flaws. Who they are with better coping skills. Who they are when they are balanced.

Michael Hague says a character arcs when he moves from his identity (the flawed coping skill in the beginning of the story) to essence (true self) by obtaining the emotional need (internal goal).

The end reward (the true internal goal) must satisfy the emotional need that the fear prevents.

 

BELIEFS 

Your experiences and perceptions in life create your beliefs. What you believe is what you perceive to be true based on your experiences. You character may have religious, cultural, and political beliefs. Beliefs about what’s right/ wrong. Beliefs about the world, other people, and themselves.

Beliefs can change over time due to new/ changing experiences and perceptions. It’s our job to make our characters change their flawed beliefs as they arc into a better version of themselves. Remember: a character arcs when he moves from identity (the flawed self) to essence (the true self) by obtaining the emotional need (internal goal).

We talked earlier about the lie the character believes about himself. This lie should center on one of the 5 basic human needs.

1) The need to secure one’s biological and physiological needs.
    Air, Water, Food, Clothing, Shelter

Related lie: I’m not worthy of providing for myself or anyone else.

2) The need to keep oneself and one’s family safe.
    Protection of life, liberty, or property, and emotions (bullying). Financial security. Protection of health.

Related lie: I don’t deserve to feel safe.

3) The need to feel connected to and be loved by others.
    Friendship, Romance, Intimacy, Family

Related lie: I’m not worthy of love or affection.

4) The need to gain esteem and recognition, both by others and from oneself (self-esteem).
    Independence, Compensation, Respect, Promotion, Credit, Gratitude, Appreciation

Related lie: I can’t do anything right.

5) To realize one’s full potential. Self-actualization
    Higher education, Spiritual enlightenment, Artistic pursuits, Travel and experience, Altruistic and charitable contributions to others.

Related lie: I’ll never be a good enough…(parent, friend, employee, etc.)

I’d wager some of these lies spoke to you. That’s because we all have wounds and fears that we can relate to. When you show this in your story, your characters will be relatable, and they will come to life for your readers.  

 

CHARACTER CHART

This is the character chart I use. You can fill in any part of this character chart first and then work backwards and forward to fill in the rest. You can do this chart at any time in your writing process. You can do it before you start writing your book, which can help you plot the story or fill it in during revisions to be sure you arced your characters properly. Be sure to read Building Character Parts 1 and 2 to understand the chart. The resources I use when completing my charts:
    Archetype Cards - Caroline Myss
    Goal, Motivation, and Conflict - Deb Dixon
    Five Stage Plot Structure - Michael Hague
    Negative Trait Thesaurus - Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi

KATANA [Dominant Impression = Female Gladiator]

Archetype:  Warrior
Light attribute - Strength, skill, discipline, toughness of will. Heroism, stoicism, self-sacrifice.
Shadow attribute - Trading ethical principles for victory at any cost. Indifference to the suffering inflicted on others.

Wound: Years of abuse (physical, emotional, sexual) left her feeling unworthy.  

Fears:
1) Unworthiness/ Her life is meaningless
2) Disapproval, humiliation
3) Failure
4) Loneliness

Lies: The lies a character tells himself gives rise to his identity or emotional armor, what I like to call the negative coping skill. I put the negative coping skill in parenthesis after each lie.  

1) I am only worthy/ have value if I win. (subservient)
2) If I mask my true feelings, I won’t get hurt. (guarded)
     
Emotional Need (True Goal):        Emotional Motivation:
1) Realize her full potential           b/c living in her identity is unfulfilling.
2) Unconditional love                    b/c tying love to worth is tiresome and demoralizing.
3) Emotional vulnerability             b/c emotionless relationships are unsatisfying.

Emotional conflict
1) Doesn’t know how to reach her full potential without winning.
2) Believes no one will love her unless she has worth.
3) Fears vulnerability will lead to hurt and pain

Physical Goal:            Physical Motivation:                     Physical Conflict:
To capture escapees    to prove worth & get reward        Regan, Griffin, and injury prevent her            

***
 

GRIFFIN [Dominant Impression = Prejudiced Scientist] 

Archetype:  Pioneer
Light attribute - Passion for doing and creating what has not been done before
Dark attribute - compulsive need to keep moving on

Wound: Failed to stop abusive gladiator father. Failed to protect Mother from abusive father.

Fears:
1) Becoming his father
2) Losing those he cares about
3) Failure, inadequacy
4) Isolation

Lies: (poor coping mechanisms)
1) All gladiators are abusive. (prejudiced)
    The world is better off without gladiators. (prejudiced)
2) I’m better than gladiators. (haughty)
3) Happiness is somewhere else. (escapism)
4) I have to keep working in order to leave this planet. (workaholic)

Emotional Need (True Goal):    Emotional Motivation:
1) Forgiveness                           b/c he blames self for mother’s death/ failure to protect her
2) Peace                                     b/c he failed his mother and is haunted by her death.
3) Belonging                              b/c his prejudice had kept him from fitting in.
3) Self-acceptance                     b/c father didn’t love him for who he was.  

Emotional conflict:
Guilt and fear prevent him from attaining forgiveness, peace, belonging, and self-acceptance.

Physical Goal:             Physical Motivation:     Physical Conflict:
Procure a spacecraft    to get to the moon         has to work with & become a the thing he hates most (a gladiator) to win it.

Positive Attributes:
Idealistic, visionary, bold, curious, observant, sensitive, intelligent

***

Who your characters are at the beginning of the story should not be the same as who they are at the end. They should be unable to attain their goals in the beginning of the book because they haven’t changed or arced yet. Only when they learn to reach their full potential, only when they arc, can they achieve their goal.

If you'd like to see how the characters arc in Renegade, you can buy your copy here. 

The last man alive wins. But what if your competitor is the woman you love?

When a scientist and a genetically engineered female gladiator team-up in the Survival Race, passions ignite…and a game-changing secret is revealed. But the race masters demand a single champion in this bloodsport, and the rivals-turned-lovers must choose between winning their freedom and losing each other forever.

**This Science Fiction Romance is a stand alone book in a series in which each book's hero and heroine find their happily ever after.**

Stay safe out there!

K.M. Fawcett
Author and martial artist
Romance for the Rebel Heart
www.kmfawcett.com

Spacefreighters Lounge Announces Changes

Greeting, readers. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you celebrate, or a long and relaxing weekend, if you didn't.

We have a couple of blog news items to announce.

New Blog Schedule

After much discussion, the co-bloggers of Spacefreighters Lounge have decided that, going forward, we will have one scheduled post per week which will be on Fridays. We may also post on other days of the week, especially to announce new releases or other news, but Fridays will be our regular blogging day. 

We five co-bloggers will rotate the Friday blogs beginning this Friday, December 4th, with a post from KM Fawcett. 

Going forward, this blog will be focusing primarily on science fiction romance, science fiction, writing, writing-related, books, book culture and book industry topics. 

This will allow us five authors to devote time to both writing quality blogs...and more books!

Holiday Schedule

Spacefreighters Lounge will be taking our annual Holiday Break between December 18th through January 1st. If we have any news during that time, we may still be posting, but our scheduled Friday blogs will be suspended during these dates

If You Enjoy Our Content, Please Help Spread the Word

We'd like to make a suggestion so it's easier to follow our blogs and not miss our posts. 

You can use the "Follow by Email" widget that can be found on the right sidebar to subscribe to our posts. This will deliver posts directly to the email inbox you provide.

We invite you to interact and share. As the reading public becomes more focused on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) it's important to us to know our blogs are still relevant and of value to our readers. You can interact in a number of quick and easy ways:

1. Comment. We always enjoy hearing from our readers. Though few people take the time to leave comments, even a quick response will helps us to know if our blogs are being read. We do try to respond to questions and acknowledge those who comment. 

We understand not everyone has been able to leave a comment. It's been brought to our attention that this may be due to changes that Blogspot implemented some time ago related to OpenID and this is, unfortunately, beyond our control. If you are unable to respond via comment, we apologize for the inconvenience. 

2. If you don't have time to comment, you can also use the boxes below each post to check your reaction. The choices are:

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It helps to know how readers react to our blog.

3. If you think others might enjoy a particular blog, please share the content to social media to help circulate the post. 

There are several fast and easy options to share blogs that can be found below the reaction buttons. These shortcuts let you quickly add a blog to your various feeds. Look for the small boxes with icons (located just above the blog tags) at the bottom of the post. In order from left to right, they are: 

M (Email this), B (blog this), T (share to Twitter), F (share to Facebook), P (share to Pinterest). 

We'd like to thank you for visiting Spacefreighters Lounge over the course of the last thirteen years. Spacefreighters was established in 2007 and is the sole survivor of several original science fiction romance-focused blogs that began in the late 2000s. We hope to continue to provide you with valuable content as we start our 14th year of operation. Thank you for your continued support.

Viva la Spacefreighters Lounge!

 

For Thanksgiving Week

 

If you celebrate the holiday

we're wishing you all the best--

great food, fun times and creating lasting memories

with family and friends.

~~~~~

BUILDING CHARACTER: Bringing People (and Aliens) to Life Through Words - Part 1

Characterization is more than physical appearance and word choice. When I give my Building Character workshop to writer’s groups, I discuss ways to use motivation, fear, conflict, flaws, backstory, belief systems, and more to write vivid, unforgettable characters that will come alive for readers.

Characterization is an entire representation of a being, whether person, vampire, or alien. As a writer, your number one goal is to make the reader fall in love with your characters! If you succeed at this, your story will be a success. If your reader doesn’t like your character, they won’t care about anything else in the book. That’s not to say your characters must be likable. They need to be interesting. Perfect characters are boring and one-dimensional. Give your characters flaws to add dimensions to them. Multidimensional characters keeps the reader guessing. Your readers will want to read more to find out what the character will do, say, or think next. Make your characters relatable, make them suffer (or at least sweat), and make them unique. Even if you write the same type of characters in your books—tough alien gladiators for example—you need to make each tough alien gladiator unique. Why? Because…

A character’s unique traits will determine how they react to anything in the story.  

(Read that sentence again.)

Unique characters can keep a series with the same types of protagonists fresh. You don’t want readers saying, “If you've read one XYZ Author's book, you've read them all.”

If you’re familiar with Debra Dixon’s book Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, you know about the 4 Ws: who, what, why, and why not.

Who: Character
What: Goal
Why: Motivation
Why not: Conflict/ Obstacle standing in the way of obtaining the goal.

Deb Dixon defines GMC (Goal, Motivation, and Conflict) as follows…

Goal - desire, want, need, ambition, purpose. What your character wants.
Motivation - drive, backstory, impetus, incentive. Why your character wants to achieve the goal.
Conflict - trouble, tension, friction, villain, roadblock. Why your character can’t have it.

Characters should have external (physical) goals and conflicts as well as internal (emotional) goals and roadblocks that keeps them from learning their life lesson. The external G,M,C causes the big black moment while the internal G,M,C resolves it. In other words, a character shouldn’t be able to attain the physical goal until he changes emotionally, or arcs by attaining the inner goal, in the story.

But goals, motivations, and conflicts aren’t enough to make a character unique. For example, every writer reading this could have the same personal G,M,C.

Goal - to make six figures from our books.
Motivation - We have to pay the bills.
Conflict - We don’t have enough readers buying our books.

Therefore, the G,M,C in and of itself doesn’t make each writer unique. And it doesn’t make our characters unique either.

Deb Dixon (who cites Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the selling writer) says your characters need a dominant impression to show who we are writing about. Use an adjective and a descriptive noun to give your character a dominant impression. For example…

Cocky Smuggler (Han Solo)
Royal Rebel (Princess Leia)
Innocent Fugitive (Richard Kimball)
Unhappy Teenager (Dorothy)

[Side Note: I like to use Caroline Myss’ Archetype Cards to help me figure out the noun and Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi’s Negative Trait Thesaurus and Positive Trait Thesaurus books for help with the adjectives.]

The dominant impression gives us a good start to characterization, but what makes one unhappy teenager like Dorothy unique from another unhappy teenager like Katniss Everdeen?

Remember a character’s unique traits will determine how they react to anything in the story.

So what really makes a character unique? The same things that make real people unique…

1) PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES
Many times authors start with a physical description of their characters: sex, color (skin, hair, eyes), body (height, weight, body fat, muscle, bone structure), facial features, etc. Physical attributes may or may not be as important in the beginning of character creation as determining a character’s internal attributes…unless, of course, the physical attribute affected your character’s experiences growing up.

Were they treated differently because of their sex or their skin color? Were they teased because of their weight (whether too fat or too thin)? Has their height affected the way they perceive the world? Perhaps they were unable to play a sport because they were too short, or they always slouched to make themselves look smaller if too tall, or perhaps they owned their height and were proud of it. Does your character have a physical deformity, disability, or illness that affected their life? Any of these things can make a character unique on the outside and the inside.

Sometimes determining the physical attributes first can limit us later because they can affect our character’s experiences. We can always flesh out the physical attributes later. I believe experiences are more important when creating a character.

2) EXPERIENCES (Backstory)
Everyone experiences things differently. Many times this is due to the physical attributes we have as mentioned above. We experience things differently in our daily lives and those bigger life-defining moments that can cause emotional trauma. These events are where your characters’ fears and wounds stem from.

In Building Character (Part 2), I will go into much more detail about this. We’ll have an in-depth discussion about wounds, flaws, emotional needs, negative coping skills, character arcs, and more.  

3) POINT OF VIEW (POV) or PERSPECTIVE
Point of view or perspective is the way your character views life. Perspective plays a HUGE part in what makes a person unique. It shapes their views of the the world and of themselves. Their POV stems from their background. Their history. Their wounds and fears. This is where their coping mechanisms come from. See Building Character (Part 2) for more on this.

4) BELIEFS
Your experiences and perceptions in life create your beliefs. What you believe is what you perceive to be true based on what you have experienced. You character may have religious, cultural, and political beliefs. Beliefs about what’s right/ wrong. Beliefs about the world, other people, and themselves. See Building Character (Part 2) for more on this.

5) ATTRIBUTES
Attributes are traits that will help the character achieve the story goals. It’s easy giving our main characters positive traits because we want our heroes and heroines to be awesome people, but it’s important to also give them flaws. I like to use Negative Trait Thesaurus to help me come up with their flaws.

6) PERSONALITY
Personality is made up of your temperament, attitude, thoughts, beliefs, behavior, and character. A character can be bubbly, brooding, quiet, annoying, etc… Again this stems from their backstory.

7) QUIRKS, IDIOSYNCRASIES, & HABITS
Unique habits and mannerisms can make your characters distinct and memorable. Some of the best quirks are those that end up aiding the character or contributing to the plot in some major way. In Legally Blonde, Elle Woods’ quirky knowledge of fashion and haircare (specifically perms) enables her to solve the case and make the real killer confess on the witness stand.  

8) SENSING THE WORLD
People sense the world differently based on the five basic senses, sight hearing, smell, taste and touch. I will expand on these and other senses in Building Character (Part 3).

9) COMMUNICATION HABITS
The way people communicate reflects their thoughts, beliefs, and personality. Some people are loud and say what is on their mind, while others are more withdrawn and like to keep personal things to themselves. Some people are excellent at reading body language and using their body language to communicate, while others don’t see anything past the words coming out and don’t understated how their body language is affecting a conversation.

10) JOBS/ HOBBIES
What do your characters do for a living? Are they royalty, a billionaire, military, a caregiver, a baker, a vampire slayer, a starship captain?  Do they play an instrument, a sport, or practice marital arts? Your characters will view the world through the eyes of their job or hobbies. They will use vernacular from their areas of expertise.

Look up your character’s particular hobby or job and write down the words unique to these jobs. For example medical words, military words, martial arts words, cooking words, theater words. When writing, try to use these words when in your characters point of view. Use these words to help you change up cliches. Instead of my female warrior (who doesn’t cook) using the saying,” That’s the pot calling the kettle black.” She might say, “That’s the blade calling the cutlass sharp.”  

When making comparisons use words that your character would think or use. Read the following smilies, and see if you can tell something about the different characters saying them:

His warmth covered her like a flannel blanket.
His warmth covered her like a mink coat.
His warmth covered her like a faux mink coat.

Talk to people who have your character’s career or hobbies. Read their blogs. Visit social media groups. I like to google, Top ten things only a (marine) (a chef) (a mountain climber ) would know. Or You know you’re (from NJ) (a cowboy) (a cat person) when… and see what comes up.

11) HUMOR
Everyone’s humor is different due to what we’ve experienced and how we perceive life. I don’t write comedy because it seems what I find funny, others don’t and vice versa. Oh well. Everyone is different. My characters are much wittier than I am. What took them a moment to say on the page probably took me hours or days to come up with.

12) INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence stems from many things including our beliefs, social aptitude, emotional awareness, experience, and brain health. Is your character book smart, street smart, emotionally smart…or perhaps an evil genius?

13) CREATIVITY
Everyone has different creative talents like writing, art, music, cooking/baking, etc.. Creativity gives the world thinkers, adventurers, and visionaries. Is your character creative?

14) RELATIONSHIPS
How our characters interact and the relationships they form depends on their backstory, perspective, and beliefs which I’ll discuss more in Part 2.

Once you decide who your characters are—either before you start writing or in the revision stage—make sure they are consistent throughout the book with their backstory, POV, beliefs, and personalities. If not, they will come across as unbelievable to the reader and the reader will be thrown out of your story. If a character is going to do something inconsistent with the person you built, then he needs a good reason or motivation for being inconsistent. For example, a cop who doesn’t run in to a situation to help someone because the last person he helped got hurt. Make sure you show the character struggling to change or arc throughout the story. More on how to do this in Building Character Part 2, which will be available on the blog on Wednesday, December 2.

Remember, how a character reacts to anything in the story will be determined by the traits that make them unique.

Stay safe out there!

K.M. Fawcett
Author & martial artist
Romance for the Rebel Heart
www.kmfawcett.com

 

THE VIVIAN LAUNCHES!

There is, of course, big news this week that affects every aspect of our lives as Americans and citizens of the interconnected world. But I won’t go on at length about that except to congratulate President-elect Joseph Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris on their electoral win. I have more to say about it on my personal blog here, if you’re inclined to check it out.

For a more narrow, writerly bit of news, this week (November 10) marked the opening of the completely revamped and renamed Vivian Contest for both published and unpublished romance, sponsored by the Romance Writers of America®. According to the RWA® website, “The Vivian recognizes excellence in romance writing and showcases author talent and creativity. We celebrate the power of the romance genre with its central message of hope--because happily ever afters are for everyone.”

The new Vivian Contest needs YOU!

You may remember from my earlier post that the old RITA contest went through an extensive overhaul after many years of nominees and winners that too often reflected a single, exclusive romantic perspective—that of white, cis-gendered, heterosexual and able-bodied authors and protagonists. There were no objective criteria for judging, which only reinforced these stereotypes, and categories were limited, too, discouraging participation from writers in our own science fiction romance world, who were consistently forced to compete in the Paranormal category. The old Golden Heart contest for unpublished writers had been eliminated altogether, leaving newbies with nowhere to go.

In the new Vivian Contest, judges will undergo mandatory training both for diversity and equity issues and to learn the new objective criteria for judging. They will be required to adhere to the rubrics for judging established by the contest committee (which were arrived at by a thorough and lengthy process with the RWA® membership). They will have more freedom to choose the subgenres and sensuality levels across the spectrum they feel comfortable judging and will be matched with entries based on the information about those sensuality levels provided by the authors themselves. (So, no outraged “Did Not Finish” scores from judges who unwittingly got spicy novels in their packets when they secretly preferred cozy contemporaries. And it’s more likely judges with some familiarity with SFR will judge SFR.)

The Paranormal category has been renamed to the more inclusive Speculative Romance category and will accept entries in three lengths (Long, Mid, and Short), as Historical and Contemporary categories have for years. This will not only give authors in this category more opportunities to win but will also expand the welcome for digital-only authors, who tend to write at the shorter lengths.

Unpublished manuscripts (and authors) will be judged under the new Most Anticipated Romance category. This is meant to replace the Golden Heart contest, and though it’s a compromise that leaves many veterans of the Golden Heart disappointed, at least there is some acknowledgement of the role of RWA® in nurturing newbie writers. It should be noted that there is an option for finalists in this category to have their entries made available to editors and agents on RWA®’s Qualifying Markets or Eligible Agents lists. So that’s something.

Currently there are no fees for the first book entered in the Vivian Contest! What have you got to lose? The initial cap for entries is set at 750. Once that cap has been met, second entries may be accepted. Those second books will be charged a fee of $50 for RWA® members, $100 for nonmembers. A final cap for entries will be set on November 23. Click here for more details.

Note that if you are interested in judging, you do not have to be an RWA® member to do so. Nonmember authors, critics, reviewers, librarians and booksellers are all eligible with certain restrictions. Deadline for judge signup is November 20. Click here for more information.

Cheers, Donna

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Last Hurrah for Hero Dogs!

Just a short post today to make one final plea that if you haven't yet purchased a copy of Pets in Space® 5, you can still do so on or before November 11th--Veterans Day--and have 10% of your purchase count toward our donation to Hero-Dogs this year.

Tell you again about Hero-Dogs? Gladly!

Hero-Dogs raises and trains service dogs for veterans and first responders who need them for assistance to improve their quality of life! And Hero-Dogs does this all free of charge to recipients! 

As proud supporters of Hero-Dogs.org, Pets in Space® authors have donated over $15,300 in the past four years to help place these specially trained dogs with veterans and first responders. To continue our cause this year, 10% of all pre-orders and the first month’s royalties of Pets in Space® 5 will again go to Hero-Dogs.org.

Want to know more about this great organization? 

View the Hero-Dogs site here.

Together we can continue to assist this worthy charity!

Pets in Space® 5 is widely available. See all vendors here! https://www.petsinspaceantho.com

To date Pets in Space® 5 has garnered over 200 reviews and has a current average rating of 4.5 stars on Amazon! This is a substantial collection of twelve never-before-published works, with many novel or novella length, making all twelve stories together one huge volume. The average price per story is less than 42 cents--and each of them are new offerings in an ongoing science fiction romance series! 

My story, Juggernaut, in Pets in Space® 5 is a new book in my Inherited Stars series that has already received some wonderful kudos in reviews. (You can read a few on my book page here.) 

 

Though it may be back in individual book form at some time in the future, you can read Juggernaut now and get it at a great price as part of this collection! 

But you're bound to find other stories--and series--you'll love. It's sort of like a reader's treasure hunt!

You'll not only get a whole lot of great reading for a fantastic price, you'll get an escape from the here and now. But as with all Pets in Space® 5 volumes, it won't be around forever, so if you're planning to grab your copy before it goes *POOF!* then NOW would be a great time to do it.

If you've already purchased a copy of Pets in Space® 5, we are so very grateful for your support in helping us to help Hero-Dogs. 

If you decide to make your purchase on or before November 11th, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for getting your copy to assist this fantastic charity.

Have a great reading week.

COVID STRIKES CLOSE TO HOME

Last week the coronavirus pandemic in the United States claimed another victim. And, this time, the loss was intensely personal to me and my family. My father-in-law, Paul Frelick, age 95, contracted the disease as part of an outbreak in his assisted living center here in North Carolina, despite all the precautions the staff had taken to prevent such a health disaster. He was taken from us in little more than a week. Our only consolation was that, given Paul’s advanced health directives, the fight was brief and the end peaceful.

Paul Frelick, right, in better days with son Graeme.

One of the often-told stories in our family is that I knew my father-in-law long before I ever met my husband. Paul was my faculty advisor at Beloit College in Wisconsin, as part of his duties as professor and head of the World Affairs Center there. He often invited students over to his house just off campus for get-togethers, so I’d met most of his family before I ever met my future husband. Paul always joked that he regretted he never got the chance to play matchmaker for his son and his independent-minded student. We found our way to each other on our own.

As an ordained Presbyterian minister, though, he did serve as pastor at our wedding in 1976, a year after we graduated. He did the same for my daughter Jessie and her husband in 2005 and for lots of other family members in the years in between. He was always glad to perform that service, bringing people together on a joyous occasion.

Before and after his position at Beloit, most of Paul’s work life was spent in a similar kind of service, bringing different groups together in a mutual effort to build social justice. He worked with factory labor in post-WWII Paris; directed the John Knox Ecumenical Conference/Student Center in Geneva; was a local chapter director of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in Louisville, Kentucky; served as a Presbyterian mission educator in Cameroon and Lesotho; and finally as an educator at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.

Even after he had stopped working, he was active in his Black Mountain retirement community, interviewing new residents for articles in the newsletter and meeting with a men’s group. He liked to say—and it was certainly true from my observation—that he had “failed retirement” several times.

Paul leaves behind his beloved wife of 53 years, Ellenor, and three children from an earlier marriage (my husband Graeme, brother Andy and sister Nancy). His family legacy also includes six grandchildren (including our two daughters) and six great-grandchildren (including our three grandchildren). We will all miss him profoundly.

Sadly, Donna

Purse-sonal Safety

It's 2:00 in the afternoon NJ time and I realized I forgot to blog today. Ugh! My apologies. In the interest of time, I'm leaving this little Self-Defense for You or Your Character article about "Purse"sonal safety here for you. 

My monthly K.M. Fawcett newsletter includes a self defense article. This one was from the October newsletter. If you'd like to receive more self-defense tips you can use for yourself or for your characters, please subscribe here. 

SELF DEFENSE FOR YOU OR YOUR CHARACTER!
Purse-sonal Safety
 

Follow these tips to keep your purse and wallet safe from theft!

Don’t leave your purse or wallet in your car, in your shopping cart, or in your coat when using a coat check or a coat rack. 

 

When trying on clothes or testing products, never leave or set down your purse. 

 

When dining, keep your purse on your lap or on the ground between your feet.

Avoid carrying large purses, as they are easier to snatch.

Avoid keeping your wallet in your back pocket, especially in crowds.

Keep your purse held tightly against your body with the flap facing toward you. Keep it zipped closed. If you can’t close your purse, it’s time to clean it out.

Carry as little cash as possible. If you must carry a large amount of money, be careful not to let others see it.

You may want to carry a diversionary money fold with several singles covered by one larger bill, such as a twenty. If someone tries to rob you, throw your diversionary money in one direction and run the other way (toward people if possible).

If you have any other tips, be sure to leave them in the comments section.

Stay safe out there!

K.M. Fawcett
Author and Martial Arts Instructor
 

No, I'm not doing Nano

 

I recall about a decade ago asking a fellow author who'd been doing the rounds longer than me what this Nanowrimo thing was all about? She patted me gently on the head and explained that it was a thing one did in November, writing as a kind of group activity - inasmuch as writing can ever be a group activity. The aim is fifty thousand words in a month. Spit it out as fast as you can, then edit your little heart out in December.

I tried it once. I tried Camp Nano, too. Camp Nano was useful because I had a good start to a novel but I'd been busy practicing procrastination - and I was good at it. Being in a group, having to report in on daily progress was an incentive and I finished that book. Yay Me.

But really, the way I write doesn't suit the Nano process. I'm not one of these people who writes fast, gets it all down and edits later. I'll write one thousand or so words in a day and the next day, I go back over what I've written and fix it up before proceeding. And in order to be able to proceed, I need a clear vision of what I'm going to write. Sort of practiced the words in my head. So I might not write every day because the words haven't spoken to me.

Actually, in this year of plague I haven't been terribly motivated to write. Some people have shut the real world out and lived in their own creation. I envy them. However, I have made a start on a project, title unknown. And I did a little course in plotting a romance which was great because it forced me to produce detailed outlines of the characters in the book. It was amazing how that brought out ideas and coalesced the plot. So, after I get a little milestone out of the way, I'll go back to it and have a novel out next year.

2021. It's got to be better, doesn't it? 

The book I finished in Camp Nano? That was Retribution.

Tensions simmer on a world where Humans blame Yrmaks for their defeat in a recent war. For Celia Whitley, former head of Imperial Security and director of Humans First, it’s a great place to incite an interspecies war. All it takes is money and weapons – and she can organize both. Revenge over the Yrmaks who murdered her husband will be hers.

Imperial agent Tian Axmar wants Whitley dead – but her boss insists the woman be brought back to face justice. Whitley’s trail had gone cold until Tian, partner Brent Walker, and auralfang, Puss, learn of a stolen cargo of heavy weapons.

Tian and Brent scramble to prevent a war on one world from spilling over to engulf the Empire. But interspecies war is not the only vengeance Whitley wants. Tian, Brent and Puss will need all of their cyborg abilities to prevent the cruelest blow of all.

This novel is the third story starring Brent Walker and Tian Axmar. Like the other Dryden books, it’s a space opera full of action and adventure. And of course it includes Puss.

If you’d like to read a bit more about Princess Amira and Admiral Ul-Mellor, take a look at A Matter of Trust. How Tian and Brent got together is the story in Eye of the Mother. And we first meet Puss in For the Greater Good.

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