IWSG - Speaking Novels, Men in Tights and Voice Actresses

It's IWSG time!

Every first Wednesday of the month, this group of writers come together to offer support, advice, encouragement or simply to let out frustrations and woes. Writing is a tough journey, and we don't have to go it alone.

Thanks goes to the brain behind this group, Alex J. Cavanaugh! If you want to join in or find out more (because there is so much more to this group) then head on over here.

Special thanks goes to this month's co-hosts:  Erika Beebe, Natalie Aguirre, Jennifer Lane, MJ Fifield, Lisa Buie-Collard, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor!


I completely missed last month's IWSG, which speaks novels about my entire Summer. Now, if only these novels also happened to reflect the amount of writing I'm getting done.

Summer is so distracting! Luckily, my current project is co-authored, and that's been forcing me to keep up a half-decent writing pace. We've just started the third round of edits and will be searching for beta readers around September/October. Or so I hope.

Before I head off into this month's question, I do have a super-duper, extremely exciting announcement to make.

Ready????

MUSIC BOXES IS COMING OUT AS AN AUDIO BOOK!!!

I was so excited when my publisher decided to do this. She was sneaky too and kept it as a surprise until after the auditions had already started.

It's so strange to listen to others read my book, but I enjoyed listening to the voice auditions...I'm awed by people who can read so well!  I'm even more awed by the woman, who was chosen and accepted the offer.

I could listen to her for hours, and the way she expresses the characters is amazing! To say I'm excited is (obviously) an understatement, and I can't wait until the world has the chance to hear it.


And now, on to this month's question:

What personal traits have you written into your character(s)?

Hmmm...I think my characters all have a little bit of me in them, but I've never purposefully or knowingly given them any of my traits. I have used quirks from other people I've seen or met or know, though.

For example, Mr. Lagunov from Music Boxes is a burly bear in tights. My daughter had a ballet teacher like that once. This gentleman wasn't Mr. Lagunov; he wasn't Russian nor did he complain about posture and have a ton of hair (actually, he was heavily balding). But he was a larger gentleman and in his upper years. A jolly man, who loved the kids and whose presence simply warmed the heart.

And when he put on his ballet outfit...

Well, let's just say that when I wrote Music Boxes, he had to be included.



What about you? Do you feed some of your traits into your characters? Or how do you handle them?