Guest Post: Elana Johnson and The Making of a Character (also MORE giveaways!)

Ahhh! Still excited. Last night's launch party was amazing and exciting and I can't wait to tell you all about it. But today I have a special guest. Author Elana Johnson is here to talk about my favorite character in Surrender. Also, she's giving MORE stuff away. (And it's not too late to enter to win one of the awesome prizes from the Never Surrender giveaway.)

The Making of a Character: Gunner Jameson

A guest post by Elana Johnson

Okay, so SURRENDER is one day old today, and usually you’re still in the hospital with your new babies. But not me. I did have my launch party last night, but I’m here today to talk about one of the MC’s in the novel, Gunner Jameson.

I wanted to take a couple of tour spots to introduce readers to the characters, because SURRENDER is not a traditional sequel to POSSESSION. It’s more of a companion, where the storyworld is the same, but the narrating characters are different. (You can find out all about Raine Hightower on Shannon’s blog today. Go check it out!)

So Gunner Jameson. Let’s start with his name. It is a requirement of mine that my MC has a name that can be shortened. I adore nicknames, and I’ve been trying to use the name “Gunn” for a while now. I actually started a different book with this name, and when it died, I took the name and transplanted it into this novel.

And it worked perfectly. Gunn is reluctant recruit for the Insiders, the underground rebel group in the Association’s capital city of Freedom. He’s never known his father, and he has no siblings, so it’s just been him and his mom for as long as he can remember. He doesn’t need to move into a student flat, and while he doesn’t really agree with the controlling government, he’s more than happy to fly under the radar.

Because the alternatives have always meant separation from his mom. But when he finds a hidden microchip with Director Hightower summoning him to Rise One, Gunn gets in touch with Raine, and joins the Insiders.

Gunner has voice talent—remind you of anyone? (Did you say Jag? You should have.) His voice is the reason he’s been summoned to Rise One. He doesn’t speak much, but when he does, it’s to say something important. He’s got that whole, strong silent thing going on. He’s fiercely loyal to his family and friends, and he’ll do whatever it takes to fight for what he believes in.

I wanted Gunner to be sort of like this skater-dude, except with a hoverboard, of course. I wanted him to be cool and confident on the outside, even when he was freaking out inside. Writing Gunn was harder than I thought, mostly because he’s a guy and I’m not. I liked writing his chapters, but I wasn’t sure if he was coming off too sensitive or too emotional.

You’ll have to tell me when you read the book! You can read the first two chapters of SURRENDER for free on my Facebook page.

And it’s giveaway time! You can win one of five SPECTACULAR SECOND books this week! It’s easy peasy lemon squeezy.All you have to do is fill out this rafflecopter widget with what you’ve done, and you can win a signed copy of either INSURGENT (by Veronia Roth), A MILLION SUNS (by Beth Revis), CROSSED (by Ally Condie), PERCEPTION (by Kim Harrington), and IN HONOR (by Jessi Kirby)—all spectacular second novels by some of today’s hottest YA authors.


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Also today for one day only, you can enter to win a swag package of exclusive character art—including Gunner Jameson—and stickers and bookmarks. No rafflecopter widget necessary – just leave a comment!

A Town Called Hell

Yes, really. It’s an actual place, and it’s here on earth. Don’t believe me? Google it.

A few years back, I visited this place. Imagine that? I’ve been to Hell and back, literally. *grins at the irony* In fact, there were vans full of people transported to Hell for the privilege of being able to say they’d been there.

Hell, the town, is located on Grand Cayman, an island in the Caribbean, and has a great deal of character thanks to the creative thinking of its founders and residents, who capitalize on the name daily.

In this case, the name of the town makes it not only memorable, but also an interesting place to visit.

I’ve also visited places like Death Valley, AZ. and Intercourse, PA. (which is doubly ironic because it is largely populated by people of the Amish faith). There are more. Wish I could remember them all. But I can think of one more. Forks, WA.

I think these real-life towns are a great example of why setting is important in fiction, and why naming our fictional towns require thought—a lot of it. In this way, the setting has an opportunity to become a character in itself. Basically, the place where a story takes place becomes as important as the characters in the story, with a personality all its own.

Do you agree with this theory? Have a story with a really amazing setting? Know of more towns or cities with really awesome names?


**This week I’m spotlighting the Dark C.A.R.M.A. books, which were released last Friday.

Today I’m sharing a little about Exiled by RaShelle Workman. I haven’t read this book yet, but it looks great, don’t you think?

The blurb:


Stubborn, sixteen-year-old Princess Venus of Kelari wants one thing, to become immortal, that is, until someone exiles her to Earth, kills her irrihunter and takes her family.


Now she wants revenge.


First she’s got to get home. But before she can return to Kelari, the Gods have commanded her to help an arrogant boy named Michael find his soul mate.


Only she doesn't know the first thing about love.


Rather quickly, her inexperience with human emotion is obscured by other matters—alien-controlled psychotic teens that are out to kill her, and a government group that is set on capturing and dissecting her.


Worst of all, Venus will suffer a painful death-by-poisoning, thanks to Earth’s atmosphere, if she remains on the planet longer than one week.


Still, Venus is a Princess and she's got a plan. Surely, with her help, Michael will fall in love with a human.


But time is running out and Michael is falling for the wrong girl—her.


You can get your copy of Exiled on Amazon.

Objects That Make Us People

After considering my chair (yep, still on the subject), I’ve decided that it IS normal, and not only that, having objects that are important to us is human nature. These are the human things that make our lives richer, make us real-live people.

Off the top of my head, I can think of two different semi-popular songs about chairs. CHAIRS! And stories, lots, and lots of stories, in which setting or certain objects are such an important element that they’re almost characters, too.

Consider the following songs:

Kenny Chesney's “Old Blue Chair” (How fitting is that?)
Rachel Proctor's “If That Chair Could Talk”

Also:
Martina McBride's “House of a Thousand Dreams” which isn’t about a chair, but a house that almost lives and breathes.
Sara Evans's “Rocking Horse” and “On the Backseat of a Greyhound Bus”

All these songs are about objects, vehicles, or homes that play an important part in the story of someone's life.

Okay, what about books? How about:

The town of Forks in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight
Macon Raven's house in Beautiful Creatures
The mortuary in Dan Wells's I Am Not a Serial Killer
The door in Lisa Mangum's The Hourglass Door
Katniss Everdeen's bow and arrows in The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
Hurricane Isadore, and any body of water in Angela Morrison's Taken by Storm 
The forest in Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Each of these stories contains one place or thing that gives readers a solid sense of solidarity. Place, time, and character.



What unnatural object makes your story (or life)richer?

Our Inanimate Family Member

When we got married, my husband gave me this really incredible chair. It’s this monstrous blue microfiber thing that reclines, and is wide enough to fit two people—or, well, my husband and I—side-by-side. The microfiber is the stuff they were making way back before it was popular like, twenty-years ago. Ultra-soft, durable, and still looks brand new after you’ve cleaned it a bazillion times.

We love this chair. Even though it’s almost nineteen-years-old, and ceased to match our home décor, colors and style what feels like eons ago. It’s one of those things you can never get rid of. That one piece of furniture that you wouldn’t ever even consider putting in a garage sale or giving to goodwill. So every time we rearrange the furniture, it ends up in the den, or the spare bedroom—somewhere out of the way—where it can’t be seen.

But we still use it. When one of us is sick or has an injury, or surgery, or a special need that requires a comforting place to curl up, we drag out the big, blue chair. (I cannot count the nights I slept in that thing when I was pregnant and couldn’t get comfortable in my bed. Nor the nights I rocked my fussy babies to sleep in it.)

More than a piece of furniture, it’s almost an important part of our family.

Is it normal to consider a chair—a piece of furniture, an inanimate object—as part of a human family unit? Do you have something like this in your life? What is it?

Characters We Love

My friend Elana Johnson is doing a blogging experiment, wherein a whole bunch of writing bloggers, or blogging writers, or, well, you know—we all get together and blog on one topic on a specific day. Last time I did one of these activities, it was a BLAST. So be sure to check out Elana’s blog for the master list of participants.

I’ve been a reader my whole life. Really. Well, okay, there were a few years when my kids were small when I didn’t allow myself much reading time. But it didn’t last long. And believe me when I say, I’ve more than made up for lost time with the books I’ve read since I started writing.

Because equally as much as I love to write, I LOVE to read. But why? Why do I feel so compelled to spend oodles of time living in a fictional world with people who don’t really exist except in my imagination? Because I love the characters, that’s why.

But how—and more, why—would I love people who don’t really exist? How or why would anyone? Because if the author did his or her job, the characters in their books become real for the readers. Real, live people you could almost reach out and touch. And we—the readers—feel like we know these characters inside and out. Intimately. So, it’s like our favorite characters are a long, lost friend.

I don’t have all the answers by any means, but I believe this is accomplished only when an author truly believes these characters are real. Knows them intimately, their likes and dislikes, their favorite colors, their favorite foods, their backgrounds and history, what they’re like inside and why, and especially their flaws. The things they like about themselves, and those they don’t. When an author writes a story—any story—about a character they know THAT well, the knowledge comes out on each page of the story.

Sometimes we don’t know our characters that well until after the story is drafted, and that’s okay. That’s a perfectly acceptable way to get to know your characters, and then those little details will—hopefully—come through in your revision.

For me, the characters that are real are also the most compelling. And compelling characters make good stories we all love to read. Right? Right. Okay.

Be sure to check the master list on Elana’s blog to read more about writing compelling characters.

It's a Throwdown!

You know how I’m always joking about how much I love watching the food network? Okay, well. It’s not really a joke. It’s like the best—and most useful—kind of reality TV, right? Right. (Have you ever seen Throwdown with Bobby Flay? If you haven’t, you can read the details at the Food Network website.)

I was watching Throwdown the other night, and got thinking about the protagonists of all my favorite books (yes, including my own) and their differences, as well as what they have in common.

Wouldn’t it be frawsome to have a throwdown match between our favorite fictional characters? Like…just for example, Jacob Black and Peeta Mellark. Jacob is a wolf-boy out to save the world—and the girl he loves—from vampires, but Peeta is a trained killer, forced to kill other kids his age and younger, including possibly the girl he loves, in order to survive.

But both are good, decent people who want to make the world a better place, and who will do anything to ensure the safety of their love-interest girl. And by the way, both of them are in love with a girl who kind of loves them back, but not enough. Not really.

So, who would win in a throwdown between them? Any ideas? Because I just don’t know. I don’t. I love to read, but am not sure I could be a judge in this particular match between heroes. This is why I need to hear your thoughts on the matter.

And also, what two characters would you like to see throw down?

My Roots Are Showing

Every once in a while I’ll be editing a scene and discover that my characters are experiencing things from my childhood. When I realize this, I generally end up rereading the scene numerous times, wondering if that’s really how it happened.

Of course, I’m writing fiction, so the scene can go however I want, but still. It makes me wonder. Ya know?

At that point, I have a few choices. I could ignore my curiosity and just write the scene the way I see it in my head, or I could dig into my memory and rewrite it fifteen or a hundred times trying to figure out which way it really happened, or…

I could call my mom and ask her how it happened. If she was there. And if she remembers. Which she probably doesn’t.

Why do I do this to myself? Honestly, I think all writers inadvertently use certain scenes from our lives—be it childhood or adulthood—in our writing. If we didn’t, we’d probably have nothing whatsoever to write about. Granted, we do hope to come up with original stories and characters, but on some level even those things come from a box of storage buried deep inside our brains. And I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not the most organized person. All my boxes are mixed up and muddled together.

Real life and fiction sometimes share the same box. And even though I know the difference, my characters don’t always get it. I guess I’m trying to say that the best way to be a good writer is to live life and experience lots of stuff. Let your characters borrow some of your roots and branches.

You can be sure that at some point, that helicopter ride over Lake Mead you took on a whim will come in handy for more than just the ability to say you did it. You’ll use it. I know I will.