Chatper Eight... Almost.

This section has been removed, but you can still read the comments.  :-)

The First Review

Changeling has had its first review.  It comes from Betty Carlton, who writes erotic romance.  Betty doesn't like horror, so I'll let her explain how she came to be reviewing my book!  You can find her blog here, and you can sample her work and buy it, here.
.....

A  review of " The Changeling " by Morgan Gallagher.

I don't read this stuff

I don't read this stuff

Not until I discovered, Morgan Gallagher. I found her on Sample Sunday.*

After opening her blog page I was just about to skip reading when a sentence caught my eye. Then another and another, I read the complete section and now had questions. Why was Joanne hurt, and who would have inflicted such bruises?

I read everything on her blog and could not find the answer. Her release wasn't until April 10^th. So when an opportunity to read a pre-release copy of her book came my way I jumped at it.

It took me two sittings to read it. Why two, because I started reading it at 8pm. If I had started earlier, this would have been one of those books you don't put down until the last page and you read that twice not wanting the adventure to be over.

Morgan has mastered the emotional ride. From who cares about a cat. To I hope the cat is, Ok. From silly young woman to cheering her on to survive and onto that's it--show him, show them, show the world.

What can you say about Jonathan Dreyfuss? Miss Gallagher straps us into the roller coaster as she makes you dislike him, understand him, pity him, and then almost hoping for him.

Her ways with words will have you not only seeing the scenes before your eyes, but you will swear you're smelling what she wants you to. Whether the scent of cologne, sweat, blood, (yes blood) and the back streets of London at night, your senses will reel.

****

Dreyfuss is on the hunt. Joanne becomes his latest victim, then his prisoner. Her will to live will surprise him, and together a long arduous journey begins. He will take everything from her he can, until the day he decides to withhold nothing from her.

Joanne will not go willing in the direction he has set out for her. The day will come when she understands his weakness, and she discovers the inner strength to use it against him. Will she still want to?

Who will win the day? No spoilers here. Release date April 10^th .

Check it out at: http://thedreyfusstrilogy.blogspot.com/

* Sample Sunday many independent writers offer on their blogs free reading from their latest work. On Sunday many links can be found on Twitter #ss or #samplesunday.

Just in case you think I'm warped...

Torture Your Protagonist

The writer is both a sadist and a masochist. We create people we love, and then we torture them. The more we love them, and the more cleverly we torture them along the lines of their greatest vulnerability and fear, the better the story. Sometimes we try to protect them from getting booboos that are too big. Don’t. This is your protagonist, not your kid.

JANET FITCH

See, it's not just me.  Others see the world, in the way we show the world, to our character... no matter how painful that world is.  It is.

Also:

"The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say." 

Anaïs Nin

Chapter 7... Scouting for Survival

This section of sample removed, although you can still read the comments.  :-)

How I Write - Naming Characters

I was up 'til 6am this morning, driving myself wild with a new character.  This vampire doesn't show up until book 3, Moonchild, and I didn't know anything about him, until 4am this morning, when someone I'd thought was this character, turned out not to be.  A new character completely, was needed.

This drove me daft.  For the entire third book suddenly changed shape and emphasis.  In a good way, but in an overhaul and refit fashion.  My characters lead my writing.  Scenes where they are appear, and are doing or saying something, or an expression on their face as someone else does or says something.... these are my clues to the narrative.

Imagine a writer, sitting at a desk, scribbling.  Behind them a ghost of a character, stands, impatiently tapping their foot, and awaiting their birth on the page below.  That's me and my characters.

Now imagine the poor writer scribbling away, with several full formed characters standing behind them, arguing amongst themselves as to WHO GOES FIRST.  With several minor ghosts whispering about on the edges, trying to get noticed.  Writer constantly being poked in the back, for them to pay attention to the character that made it to the head of the queue.  Writer trying to ignore them and write sequentially....

Welcome to my life!

So anyhows... last night a new character popped up.  Which means that today, I've been obsessed with name meaning searches.  I can't hold this vampire in my head, until he has a name.  I can't slot him into the narrative, until I know what his name is.  Names, and their meanings, are fundamental to my writing.  Sometimes a character is named for a person I've met, and trait that person has.  Joanne, my main character in Changeling, was named for a Joanne I knew, who was the most selfish, self obsessed, and destructive person alive.  No, Joanne in the book is not like that.... but... the selfishness of the Joanne in real life, was driven by her need to keep alive, no matter the huge burden of pain she was carrying.  You could look at her behaviour, and be repelled by it... but she was driven.  Driven by needs unmet, from early childhood, that slowly destroyed her. That she fought to overcome at all costs.  She was anorectic, and was driven by hunger and longing, and was ridden hard by her disease.  In fact, the selfishness was an aspect of her illness.  She was not a close friend, so I have no idea what her true personality was, I only saw the one distorted by hunger and pain, and the one fighting for attention whilst at the same time locked in a battle no one else could understand.