Blog Tour: Angelina’s Secret: Guest Post

Jun •  6 •  2012

Yesterday I was over at:

Highjacked part 2

Hey everyone, yesterday I was over at_________talking about what can happen
when temperamental characters highjack your story. If you missed part one, please go
here to get caught up on the story.

Even though I’d learned to respect the wishes of my fictional characters, I still
inadvertently managed to make one of them very angry. When I was about half way
through my first draft, I realized I had several characters that had the same first letter
in their name. Knowing this was a no no and wanting to avoid confusion, I decided to
change the name of one of those characters. To my dismay, she immediately quit talking.
Every scene that she needed to be in, she simply clammed up and wouldn’t speak. This of
course was a problem, a huge problem to be exact.

I tried to sweet talk her, but it didn’t work. I tried to explain why I had changed her
name—still nothing. She stood in the corner of my office with her hands wrapped around
her waist and her lips sealed. Even though she didn’t have a large role in the book, her
character was very important to the storyline.

Growing tired of seeing the blinking cursor on the blank page, I finally relented and
changed her name back. She hadn’t completely forgiven me, but she did start talking
again and I was able to complete my manuscript.

With the book now finished, I sent it off to a couple of beta readers. As the suggestions
came in, one after the other, people complained about me having three characters with
names that started with the same letter.

Knowing how one of those characters felt about the situation, I thought about changing
one of the other two names, but I really, really liked their names and to be honest the
other two characters scared me just a little bit more than the first one did.
I took a deep breath and chose the edit function on my computer to replace the name
with another. I told myself it would be okay, after all, the book was done and some of my
characters needed to remember who had created them.

After finding a home for Angelina’s Secret with Spencer Hill Press, I discussed with my
publisher the possibility of doing a sequel. Now being half way through book two, the
character whose name was changed has not made an appearance. The book is coming
along fine without her, but I can’t help but feel that something or I should say someone is
missing.

Thanks for stopping by.
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And don’t forget the free downloadable prequel to Angelina’s Secret
Angelina’s Friend

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