I read a post about this and it got me thinking. What works? How does it work? How to do it effectively? The only answer I can come up with is people watching.

Observation is a very necessary tool. How does a man/woman behave in a set circumstance? Part of this is observation of the different genders and another part is characterization. If a character is constructed correctly, then that pseudo person will run themselves if the writer can get into deep point of view.

What helps me is total immersion in the character. That pseudo person has to think, feel, hurt and have aspirations. If the character is of the opposite gender, this takes a lot more thinking through. Men do react to a situation differently to women, which is where the people watching comes into play. Just as an example, a man can almost be guaranteed never to read a set of instructions before he puts something together. A woman almost always will. It is the different wiring that is so fascinating.

BTW, this is not a dig at guys in their construction of DIY projects. Most women will tend to make themselves scarce when such is undertaken to allow the man to do what he thinks, turn the air blue with his thoughts on the thing not cooperating and then read the instructions when the woman is out of the way and can’t see him having to do this.

Word count today was 4,755, but not all on the same story. I like to flitter.  Housecleaning on twitter resulted in another 100 people being unfollowed.  Sorry about this folks, but if you don’t follow me, don’t expect me to host you. I would like an interactive twitter account and it won’t happen if it is cluttered with people promoting or whatever and not reciprocating.

Packaged up three stock books when my newly married daughter and son in law came around to store their canoe. One signed book to one of their friends and two signed books to another. Those guys rock. A fourth should be arriving at its destination in the next day or so, having been sent by snail mail, which probably wasn’t helped by the long weekend.

Yesterday we went up to walk around Fort Edmonton. Now that is a fascinating blast into the past with three time zones.  I think the thing I found most fascinating was the choice of yard plants. Feverfew was very prominent and would be regarded as a weed in modern times. There were quite a lot of the old herb remedies in those gardens. I guess it was all down to guesswork and self-doctoring when it came to sickness.

I think one of the things that surprised me was the living accommodation for the original fort, circa 1840. The married quarters were one room with an attic space above. The attic was for the kids, while the adults had beds in the one room, along with a wooden table and chairs. And no, that wasn’t a typo. Beds were for the THREE married couples who would occupy that one room with the attic above. EWEEEE.

Given the fort was established as a fur trading post, it was shocking how little each poor dead animal skin was worth. A skunk would score a thimble, or maybe a forth rate knife. Beavers were at a premium. Apparently, the stink caused by the hides and the meat was so acute that a person could locate the fort downwind from a goodly distance away. Double EWEEE.

Highlight? I got to ride on a steam train.  There really do make a chuff chuff noise. Cool.

In other news, I caught a glimpse of who I hope are the new neighbors, who appear to be an older couple. Good. Twill be quiet. Crosses fingers. I expect the moving truck will turn up some time tomorrow.

Go check it out. All Kritell Ink titles are now available.

http://www.wizardstowerbooks.com/collections/kristell-ink

One of worst things for a new author to encounter is negativity from sources a person would expect to be encouraging. Those dreaded words, ‘but its not’. Major downer that a person has to learn to ignore.

My stories were trashed, unread, by my parents because they were not detective/mystery or memoires. This meant they were trash and I was wasting my time when I could be doing something more productive, which meant so much to me.

No doubt, if they were still alive, there would be something to derogate in my professionally published works because they would still be trash, not being detective/mystery or memoires.  I let it go a long way back, knowing this was a battle I would never, ever win.

This brings me to an important point. Everyone likes something different in their reading choices. Thank the stars for that, or we would just have five or six published writers.  Also bear in mind the ordinary reader does not always know what genres will fit in with their preferences and will trawl hoping for a good hit. Sometimes this pans out and sometimes it doesn’t. It is regrettable when someone doesn’t read the blurb and the first few chapters before purchasing and then find they don’t like the genre. It happens. Most will cut their losses, but some will leave a scathing review. These only reflect on the reviewer, not the work. Other reviews of people who have liked the genre and enjoyed the story will show up the sour grapes for what they are. And no, I haven’t had one yet. I will bet I will.

Ok, so I am totally spinney now. There is something delicious on my plate and I am very excited about it. No, I can’t disclose what it is. You will all have to wait and see, as will I, if it comes to fruition. Stuff has to be sorted out and not by me. I am on the sidelines doing a happy dance and wearing a big grin.

Watch this space for more news.

Oh wow!

http://www.howto-publish-a-book.org/tips/darkspire-reaches-critical-book-review/

I like to have a firm background for my worlds so I do spend time doing serious research. The upcoming book, Shadow Over Avalon is a take on what happens when the king returns at the time of greatest need for humanity. So why the research? This is futuristic, right? Well it is still grounded in the past, so it has to be accurate and therein lies the problem as history is malleable according to politics and the socio-religious needs of the times.

King Arthur died at the hands of the son he had with his sister, right? Um no. This was actually an invention of a misogamist monk named Geoffrey of Monmouth.  Morgan le Fay was a high priestess of the old religion and as such, presented a threat to the Christian church by embodying the power of women. He had to put a stop to those concepts so came up with a smear campaign designed to horrify decent folks. Delving really deep into the old Welsh legends gives the true story. One has to wonder how a celibate monk managed to come up with those sort of thoughts, later reiterated by Mallory.

The whole idea behind the invention was to discredit women and present them as feeble persons incapable of knowing how to direct their own lives. Now this fitted in nicely with the perceived role of women at the time the monk wrote his fantasy.  Women were property, and not fit persons to make decisions.  See how far they had come from Boudicca?

How does this fit in with my book? It doesn’t. However, it did give me a good handle on who the real people were and how they would have interacted with each other.  My Arthur is true to his real self, as are his companions, so no weird and erroneous squinkies in this book. He is honorable and the ladies are valiant and strong, as they were portrayed in the first place by the Welsh bards.

Shadow Over Avalon upcoming from Kristell Ink in October 2013. Stay tuned for further snippets. This is the first of a series. The second book will be released in 2014 and is already with my publishers.