Building a Character Part 1

I've started working on my first holiday novel, A Christmas Dream. At first, I was having trouble coming up with ideas for the plot, but I think I've figured out the problem. It was hard for me to connect with my characters until I actually sat down and forced myself to write the first chapter. All I knew about my hero, Cayden, is that he's a Sandman, charged with delivering dreams to people. Well, how was I supposed to take that and expand it into an entire story? How did he meet the heroine? What were his intentions, interests, and goals?

I know plenty of authors prefer to sit down and map out every aspect of each character's personality, but I've never been able to work that way. Often, that means inconsistencies pop up during the first draft that I have to alleviate during re-writes, but I've never found plotting things out to be successful. For me, writing is very fluid. Things change from one moment to the next. Even if I decide I want my character to behave a certain way, that's really up to him in the end.

So I sat down and hammered out the first chapter, focusing on what I wanted to introduce in the story. Cayden's character would fall into place, and it has. I can see him clearly now, when I couldn't before. The boots helped. I wanted a distinguishing look for him, something Noelle would notice right away, something that would make her think Who is this guy?

The boots are a bit much for my taste, but they're unique and set Cayden apart. They'll also serve to give Noelle pause. After all, any guy that wears spikes on his boots could be automatically classified as a bad boy. (His black clothes and leather jacket don't help.) Such things make it hard for Noelle to trust Cayden, which is fine with him, since it makes it easier to keep his distance.

Once I had Cayden figured out, it was much easier to come up with Noelle's characteristics. In the first chapter, we're in Cayden's viewpoint, so we see Noelle through his eyes, which might be a bit biased. In the second, which is almost finished, the story takes on a bit of a horror spin, with Noelle fighting for her life. Now I'm looking forward to working on the rest. While Demon's Torment had horror-themed elements to it, it wasn't really as scary as I wanted it to be, since I focused so much on the romance. Hopefully things will balance out nicely in A Christmas Dream.

New Contest

Life for me has been crazy busy lately, since my husband and I have been house-hunting. That still isn't resolved, so I'm not on the computer as much as I'd like to be. This makes writing a bit difficult, but hopefully things will be ironed out no later than the end of November. Fingers crossed.

I've signed on to be a part of LASR's Halloween Scavenger Hunt. The Hunt will last for two days, Oct. 30th & 31st, and one lucky winner will receive a free copy of Tied to a Demon. Visit their site for more details by clicking on the banner below:

I admit I'm struggling on writing anything right now. I'd like to get a Christmas story completed for my publisher by the end of November, but it's been hard for me to find the right motivation. I've never been a big fan of Christmas stories in the first place, and this could be a part of the problem, but as long as the story has strong paranormal elements to it, I should be able to cope. I've settled on telling the story of a Sandman, someone who travels the world, bringing people good dreams. He's become fixated on Noelle, a woman who literally doesn't even know he exists. He can tell she hasn't enjoyed an easy life, but he's determined to show her the meaning of Christmas, a holiday he's always enjoyed.

The Prince's Knight

Royal Guard Book 1: The Prince's Knight is now available at Purple Sword!
Genre: Fantasy Erotic Romance
Price: $4.99
Warning: Book contains m/m erotic scenes and one m/m/f scene


Blurb:


Becoming the prince’s bodyguard was supposed to be easy. No one warned him to guard his heart...


After receiving a crippling injury, Sir Aric finds himself reassigned to the crown prince’s royal guard. He thinks it will be an easy job, but Prince Matthew turns out to be a spoiled brat, too used to getting his own way. Within the first week, the prince disappears and almost gets himself killed in his desire to be a part of the ongoing war effort at the southern edge of the kingdom. Matthew’s brief taste of battle is more than enough, making him ready to settle down and attend to matters of state. Marriage tops the list of those, but in the meantime, Matthew and Aric find themselves drawn together by irresistible forces. Until Matthew’s chosen bride arrives.

Excerpt:


He scanned the visible windows, not seeing anyone. One little kiss couldn’t hurt, could it? He’d given her the ring, asked her to marry him. There was no taboo against one little kiss. Besides, he’d already kissed her once. This wasn’t much different; there were just more potential witnesses.


“All right,” he agreed. His hands rose to grasp her upper arms.


Before he could change his mind, he leaned forward, his lips brushing against hers. So soft! He deepened the kiss, pulling her closer, dragging her against his suddenly hard length. He was attracted to her—there was no doubt about that.


“Am I going to have to pry you two apart?” a deep voice asked.


Matthew released Jessa abruptly. She stumbled against him before regaining her balance.


Aric stared at them from two feet away. Every muscle was taut with anger. Or jealousy. He took two quick steps forward. “I know your decision,” he hissed. “You don’t have to taunt me with it.”


“Aric,” Matthew said with a clear warning in his voice.


“What? Afraid Jessa might guess your dirty little secret?” The knight sheathed his sword and turned away to pull his shirt on.


“Shut up! You will respect your king!”


The cold look Aric gave him sent shivers down Matthew’s spine. The knight stepped closer, his tone dropping to a dangerous level. “The same way you respect your lover?” He shot a glance at Jessa.


“Actually, I already g-guessed.”


“Ah.” Aric leaned back. “Well, let’s get everything in the open then. Your groom is a jackass.”


“You’re the jackass right now,” Matthew sniped back.


“S-stop it!” Jessa’s raised voice stopping them both in their tracks. Both men stared at her, wide-eyed. “You’re both behaving l-like children.”


Matthew sighed and ran a hand over his face, taking a step back to gather himself. “Aric, you know how I feel about you. What will it take to make this easier on you?”


A sly look appeared on the knight’s face, and Matthew knew he was in trouble.


“I think it’s only fair I get a kiss, too.” Aric’s gaze slid from Jessa to Matthew.


“Absolutely not!” Matthew exploded. “That’s completely inappropriate.”


“Not from her.” Aric sidled closer. Now his expression could only be considered smoldering. “From you.”


Matthew retreated from the knight’s advance. “You’ve kissed me plenty of times,” he mumbled.


“Then it shouldn’t be a big deal.”


Matthew glanced at Jessa, but there was no help to be found there. “I th-think you should. I don’t want to come between you two.”


A triumphant smile lit Aric’s handsome face. He reached out, his hands fisting into the fabric of Matthew’s tunic. Displaying his strength, the knight dragged him back into a corner created by one wall of the castle and a towering turret.


“Prove to me you don’t want me,” Aric challenged, and then his lips descended on the king’s. Matthew’s thoughts dissolved. No longer did he worry about their audience, or whether or not anyone could see them from a castle window. The kiss was rough, bruising, but he only wanted more. His wilting erection grew hard and firm, pressing against the thin leather of his trousers.


He took over, pushing Aric hard against the unforgiving stones of the castle wall. Had he thought he could live without this passion? He’d been so wrong.


Finally, Aric pushed him away with a smirk on those beautiful lips. Matthew was breathing hard, and when he glanced at Jessa, ashamed that he’d lost control so easily, he saw that she didn’t look entirely unaffected by the display.


“I want love like that,” she said, breathless.


Aric turned away from Matthew to throw a companionable arm around her shoulders, steering her towards the front of the castle. “Then you’d better hurry along those wedding plans, my dear. It’s inappropriate for Matthew to kiss you like that.”


“And doubly so for you.” She ducked under his arm and skipped to the front door, laughter trailing behind her.


Both men stared after her for a moment, perplexed.

Tied to a Demon review

Romance Junkies has given Tied to a Demon 4 blue ribbons.

"Rachel D. Thompson creates delightful characters."

Read the full review.

Contest and Contract

It's August already! That means LASR's scavenger hunt has started. Three lucky winners will win Nooks at the end of the month, and all you have to do to enter is find the hidden Nook on a participating author's website. Easy. Check out LASR for full rules and details.

I've also signed a contract for my next book, a gay erotica fantasy romance. Yeah, it has a lot of labels. (I feel the need to warn people that it's not strictly gay romance, as it contains one menage scene.) It's called Royal Guard Book 1: The Prince's Knight, and it's releasing Sept. 1st at Purple Sword. Hopefully people will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here's the official blurb:

Becoming the prince’s bodyguard was supposed to be easy. No one warned him to guard his heart...
After receiving a crippling injury, Sir Aric finds himself reassigned to the crown prince’s royal guard. He thinks it will be an easy job, but Prince Matthew turns out to be a spoiled brat, too used to getting his own way. Within the first week, the prince disappears and almost gets himself killed in his desire to be a part of the ongoing war effort at the southern edge of the kingdom. Matthew’s brief taste of battle is more than enough, making him ready to settle down and attend to matters of state. Marriage tops the list of those, but in the meantime, Matthew and Aric find themselves drawn together by irresistible forces. Until Matthew’s chosen bride arrives.

Oh! And the cover art:

I plan on penning the sequel in November, but in the meantime, I'm working on a vampire book, tentatively titled Demon's Tattoo. I'm three chapters in so far, but I think I've just started hammering out some of the plot, and I'm pretty excited to get more work done on it once I've got that all figured out.

New Submission

I've submitted my latest completed novel to Purple Sword. While I'm waiting to hear back, I've started working on an untitled vampire book. I'm currently two chapters in. I expect this one to hit around the 30,000 word mark, as most of my recent interest has been in creating enjoyable novellas. But I don't really have the details of the book worked out yet. Generally, when I start something new, I jump right into the first chapter and think about plot later, as the book comes together.

I look at each chapter as having a plot itself, so by the time I reach the end of a chapter, I know how I want it to end. I settled on the last line of the first chapter before I had completely gotten to that point. I like crafting hooks that make the reader want to stay with the story rather than putting it down and moving on to other things. This is very important to me, so I hope that in most cases I succeed. Now, I've got a tentative plan in place for chapter 3, which I hope to sit down and write within the next few days. Progress has been good so far, though I also plan on working on Immortal Book 1: Blood Rage, when I'm not working on this new book.

I want to wait until I hear from my publisher to mention more about my latest submission (I'm a little superstitious like that). But if it's accepted, I plan on tackling the sequel during November, as part of National Novel Writing Month. After last November, I had decided I wouldn't participate this year. The stress always wears me out, especially during the holidays. By the time July rolls around though, I'm usually ready to gear up for the challenge. I'm not sure I'll be shooting for 50,000 words this year. I will be happy if I hit 30,000, which I expect will be enough to finish the planned sequel. We'll see what happens after that.

My Coffee Corner

I've just opened my own forum over at Coffee Time Romance, to more easily communicate news, announcements, and contests with readers. Click on the graphic to go check it out.