Guest blogger Caryl McAdoo shares one component of fiction writing– the challenge of writing large casts of characters, and making them distinct personalities that sound different and are easy for readers to follow. She shares insights from her first novel (27 titles ago!) and her brand new release, Gone To Texas, that debuted today!
Authors’ ideas come from the strangest places. Here, I’ll share one rhetorical question and one brief bit of poetry, both published in USA Victorian-era newspapers (within 6 years of my title’s setting), that contributed to the writing of Isabella’s Calico Groom.
Weather can be a character in a book, just like a person or an animal. In the case of The Marshal’s Surrender, Winter is a setting and a villainous character, hiding clues, endangering lives, impacting nearly every scene as a sense of place and timing. Have you ever thought of weather in the role of character?
19th Century young ladies (and gentlemen) learned a great deal about etiquette from their mothers, finishing schools, and from the societal expectations around them. The true art of conversation was a significant skill taught and expected within society, whether Philadelphia’s Old Money or the rural frontier. After all, conversation was a key element of an evening’s entertainment, courtship, and the Victorian Era’s social expectations.
One of my favorite sources of inspiration is antique photographs. Who were these people? The possibilities seem endless. The images are unlabelled without so much as a year or a photographic studio imprint. That’s where imagination must take over.
