A friend of mine started writing a blog highlighting her progress with her novel. I decided it would be a really great idea for me to start writing a blog about my novel considering it’s being published. It will give me a great way to keep in touch with fans — provided I end up having any, that is. haha.
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I recall picking up a pen and writing in notebooks when I was just seven years old. You can imagine how terrible those stories must have been, but it was the beginning of a lifelong passion. The older I got, the more intense that passion grew. When I was eleven, we got our first computer and the internet shortly after that. Life was never the same after that. I started writing stories with a friend in chatrooms. We created characters. Many of these characters lost steam and we have long forgotten about them; a few prevailed. As we got older, these characters grew with us. These handful of characters evolved and I started writing novels about them. They became my babies. I feel a strong, deep connection to these “people.” I’ve been writing some of these characters since 1997. Even the newest ones, since 2002 or so.
The first novel I wrote was 160,000 words of complete and total crap. I’m ashamed to admit that I attempted to send out query letters and get it published. Needless to say, nobody was biting. Once I took a good hard look at the novel and realized that everything they said was right, I knew it was time to revamp. So I broke the story in two. The first story, Echo of Silence, has gone through many title changes and numerous tweaks but the heart and soul of it has never changed. It’s told from the first person point of view of Rob Karlton, a brilliant but reckless FBI agent with the Cleveland division of the violent crimes unit who has a tendency to stick his foot in his mouth 90% of the time. Did I mention he’s kind of a smart ass? And chauvinistic? And a manwhore? And oh yeah, pretty much a total asshole? He’s definitely an anti-hero with more flaws than you can ever imagine. But for whatever reason you just can’t help but love him.
While Rob is the main character, the novel would be nothing without the deuteragonist — Lilah Matthews. She’s the violent crimes unit’s new supervisor and she takes shit from no one. She’s tough, strict, and not the least bit impressed by Rob’s charm. She sees right through his BS and cuts straight to the point every time. He’s not thrilled with the idea of having a female boss — he’s doubly not thrilled that she’s calling him out on things left and right.
These two characters, along with the supporting characters Luke and Jason who are Rob’s co-workers and friends, have been around for a very, very long time. I’ve written well over 600 short stories, most of them involving these characters.
So many female authors say they refuse to write from a guy’s point of view. They say they can’t get inside of a man’s head or they just don’t want to. Personally, I found it to be an absolute blast. I feel I was able to portray a guy pretty well. Rob is one of the most screwed up individuals I’ve ever written, but yet he’s my favorite to write. He’s brutally honest, impatient, temperamental, and spends half of his time either drinking or getting laid.
He has his redeeming qualities too. He takes care of his thirteen year old brother and whenever they’re together, you get to see a whole other side to Rob. While he’s never what one can call sappy or sentimental, he loves his brotherly dearly — whether he says it out loud or not.
Lilah is one of my favorite female characters to write. There’s not a lot I can say about Lilah without spoiling some of the story, but I will say this: you will not find a more strong, independent, take no prisoners kind of woman than Lilah Matthews. She proudly wears the title of bitch and she doesn’t really care if you don’t like her. She’s not easily charmed and she isn’t a bit impressed by Rob — which is very bad news for him.
I’ll write more tidbits about the story later. Give ya something to think about until it’s available on Kindle, which should be sometime next week. But for now, I have to work tomorrow morning and I’ve been up since 4:30 this morning, so it’s bedtime for me.
Until next time.
Crystal D. Budy's Writing Couch 