Hey guys,
I am three fact checks away from being done with the rewrite of A LICK OF FROST. Yea!
We are about two weeks away from the release of THE HARLEQUIN, Anita number 15.
I can't wait for you guys to read it and finally be able to talk about it. I think one of the hardest things about writing as fast as I do is that by the time I'm out doing publicity for a book, that it feels like I've been wanting to talk about it forever.
But I thought I might talk about some stuff from the newest book, and also answer one of my most asked questions. I would hazard that it's one of the most commonly asked questions of any writer. Right behind, where do you get your ideas, is; how do you come up with your characters. Frankly, I get the character question almost even with the idea question.
I can't answer it in a way that will magically allow another writer to use the same process and get great characters. Writing isn't hard science, it truly is an art, and as with all of the arts it's not easily dissected into a plan. There are always those moments of inspiration that come out of the most unlikely places. You can't plan for inspiration, but you can plan to be able to catch it when it comes by.
What do I mean by that?
When I was writing GUILTY PLEASURES, the very first Anita novel, I was struggling. I'd never read anything like what I was trying to do. It was hard-boiled detective fiction, yes, but it was also fantasy, and horror. I was afraid it wouldn't sell. I'd just had my second novel in my first series rejected. If this next book didn't work I was worried that my dream of being a writer would go down with one published book and nothing else. It happens more than you think. Check out the new novels in a given year, and then try to find a second book by that same author within a four year period. You'll find the numbers pretty depressing.
I'd finally managed to get Anita talking to me. My police had come on stage, and Dolph was a great character and a good cop. Very cool. But I was trying to add a new character. A character that had started life as a normal assassin (though the words normal and assassin sound like an oxymoron, don't they?), but he had found that killing humans was too easy. So, he began to specialize in killing only monsters, or humans so dangerous they were considered dangerous targets in their own right. Not dangerous because they would have security, but literally targets that could kill you first if you messed up. That was where this character lived. Who he was, but I was a small town girl from the mid-west. I was having fits getting inside this character's head. Why don't I give him his name, because at that point he didn't have one. I couldn't find a name that worked. I often find with characters that I'm having trouble with that I can't find a name. Once I name a character they just work better for me.
I had a frustrating morning writing session. Either after lunch, or just before, I went to the living room, and turned on the television. I never do that in the middle of a work day, unless I'm done or have a video or something I can pause to go back to work. I, like most writers, am easily distracted. It speaks to how high my frustration had gotten that I flopped down in front of the telly.
I was skipping through the channels when I came upon a movie I'd never seen. It was the original DAY OF THE JACKAL, from 1973, based on the Fredrick Forsyth book. The main character, or one of them, of the movie is an assassin who has agreed to a nearly impossible target. He goes about it very methodically, very coldly. He is part spy, part chameleon, and part stone, cold, killer. Oh, and charming, mustn't forget charming.
The assassin was played by Edward Fox. I gave Edward, my character, the same first name in tribute to that day when I should have been working, but instead watched a movie.
My Edward, doesn't really look that much like Mr. Fox in the movie. They are both blond, and charming, but there is something very English about Mr. Fox. My Edward is very American in his appearance. I would find it interesting to watch Edward in one of his more spylike assassination attempts, where he is pretending not to be American. I'm sure he pulls it off perfectly, but there is something about your nationality that stamps itself on you, somehow, unless you are an actor and can slip the skin of your background.
Notice that nothing changed about the character I was trying to write. Not his background. Not his job. Not even the way he does his job. In fact, if my Edward had been playing the character in DAY OF THE JACKAL he would have aborted the mission and driven to safety. Most real assassins will not risk themselves. I'm sure there is a reason, or character motivator that the book has, the movie did not have time to explore. I did not copy the character, but seeing the wonderful job that someone else had done with a similar character made me think I could do it.
I think part of my concern had been that no one would find Edward believable or sympathetic. I mean how sympathetic can a world-class assassin be? He threatens to torture Anita for information in the first book. Again, not very sympathetic. But watching the movie, let me see that I did sympathize with the assassin. I didn't want him to win. I never wanted him to kill his target, but I was caught up in both his attempt to do it, and the attempts of the authorities to catch him. It was thrilling, and I wasn't judging the assassin character so harshly that it ruined it for me.
It gave me the courage to think that I, too, could create an assassin character that people would believe in and maybe even like, at least a little.
Well, that was over a decade ago. Edward has become one of the most popular characters in the Anita Blake series. He's grown and changed since his inception, become much more than I envisioned. He was supposed to be a bit player, but Edward doesn't do anything small. He's either a major player or nothing.
I have been amazed at how much you guys love him. He's an assassin for heaven's sakes, but he is one of the characters most often requested for another guest appearance. He's actually only been in GUILTY PLEASURES, CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED, THE KILLING DANCE, and OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY. Out of the fourteen books so far he's only been in four of them. He hasn't been on screen, as it were, since book nine which is OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY. Yet, his popularity never seems to wain among you guys. In my head he is so vivid that I didn't realize it had been so very long since he had stepped on stage.
In THE HARLEQUIN Edward is back. He's back, and he brings back-up, and we get some answers to exactly what are his domestic arrangements. How is one of the most dangerous men in the world coping with fatherhood, or is he? One of the questions most often asked from you guys is has Edward dumped Donna, or are they married now? I've managed to keep my mouth shut so far, so I have to manage to keep mum until early June. The book is almost out, I need to not over share. I am sooo bad at not over sharing. So I'll just stop now before it's too late. I've rewritten this paragraph three or four times taking out bits of information.
But this book is Edward coming to help get Anita out of a something dangerous enough that only he can help. I guess it says something about just who and what Edward is, that with a master vampire, a werewolf Ulfric, a wereleopard Nimir-raj, and an assortment of other vampires, wereanimals, and bodyguards at her disposal, Anita still calls Edward when things get truly bad. It says a great deal about what a badass he is, and maybe, that we need some more professionals in our bodyguard. Supernatural strength and speed doesn't make you faster than a speeding bullet. Edward's made a career out of that little truth.
