Do you ever wonder why some books appeal to you and others don’t? Do you ever get a recommendation from a friend about a great book, then read two chapters and give up? Reading is a very subjective thing. What works for one person doesn’t always work for another. Some readers like mystery, some comedy, some suspense, some horror. For example, I don’t understand the fascination with zombies and the series, “The Walking Dead.”  To each his own.

I selected four books from my keeper shelf: Cry No More by Linda Howard, Rangoon by Christine Monson, A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux, and Timeline by Michael Crichton. At first glance, four very different books.   “Cry No More” is a contemporary suspense, “Rangoon” a historical, “A Knight in Shining Armor” is a historical time travel and “Timeline” is a historical time travel mixed with science fiction.

So why are such different books on my keeper shelf?

I’m not an emotional person. It takes a lot to make me cry, and you’ll never see me cry in public. It turns out that under my tough exterior, I’m just an emotional softy. With the exception of the Crichton novel, these books were an emotional read. I cried copious amounts of tears in the beginning, the middle and the end. So why would those novels appeal to me? A catharsis read? Maybe. A release from the stress of work and day to day life? Maybe. Whatever it was, it worked for me. I love science (my college major) so Crichton’s book is a little more understandable.

What works for you? What’s on your keep shelf and why?

As a reader, I remember the plots of many books, but only a handful of main male characters stick in my mind.

What makes a memorable hero? Is it his physical attributes? His height, coloring, or his…ah, shoe size? Is he alpha, beta or metro? For the writer, where does the inspiration for this character come from? Television, movies, books, or someone from your past?

How do you create a universal character who will appeal to a majority of readers? How do you, the writer, keep that reader thinking about that character long after the book is finished?

As a writer I like to start by picking a strong and or unusual name. As writers/readers in the 21^st century, we look for a man we can admire, one who will be as strong as we are, or stronger.

Karen Marie Moning’s main male character in the Fever series is Jericho Z. Barrons- (alluding to the wall of Jericho). In Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, she chose James (Jamie) Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser (a steadfast, noble Scot’s name-a warrior).

Once I choose a name, I add the attributes, height, coloring, and a psychological profile. Now this is where things vary. Some readers like their males to have a sense of humor (Billy Crystal) or be brooding (Mr. Darcy, Heathcliff or James Dean), cocky (Rhett Butler) or stoic (Mr. Spock).

What male character do you still think about and why?

 One commenter will win a PDF copy of my new YA, The Fifth Realm,available at  http://amzn.to/KqkmNn

Covert Art for The Fifth Realm

THE 5TH REALM-NEW ORLEANS VOODOO CHRONICLES

by:  Constance Gillam

Until a few years ago, I wrote only adult fiction. I’d had requests for fulls and partials, but they hadn’t netted me an agent or publishing contract. I needed to try something different.

Twilight was all the rage, so I made myself a promise. By the next December I would have completed a young adult novel.

Everything about writing this book was a first; first young adult, first paranormal, first time writing in first person. I finished the novel, but it wasn’t easy. Plagued by self doubt, I added and discarded the number of POV’s in the story, moved from first to third person and from past back to present tense. My opening changed a zillion times (I’m never satisfied with my openings for any of my novels).

My one certainty- I was excited about my characters and setting.

I love New Orleans. I’ve visited many times, have a brother who lives there, and both my daughters attended college in or near New Orleans. I’m a history buff, and I’m married to a history professor. I visit cities that ooze history; Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, and Boston. New Orleans is the only city where I walk the streets of the quarter and feel as though I’m transported back three hundred years. The city is so colorful and alive I wanted to bring that sense of history to my young adult contemporary paranormal novel.

In New Orleans different cultures come together, creating interesting and beautiful faces. Taking what I knew of the history, along with the different people who inhabited the region, I created my main character. Lisette is a fifteen year old girl of Spanish, French, Haitian and Choctaw Indian heritage- a Creole.

Because the book was set in N.O., Voodoo was a natural paranormal element to add, but I needed a twist. Lisette is orphaned and lives with her paternal Grand’mere, who doesn’t tell her about her mother’s Haitian family who are alive and well, practicing Voodoo in the bayou.

I had a lot of fun writing this story, even though I pulled my hair out at times. I especially enjoyed creating my secondary characters, Scooter, Eric and Hancock.

Scooter is Lisette’s best friend, a high school dropout and a street thug. Although he’s the youngest child in his single family home, he’s the man of the house. He cleans up his big brother’s scrapes with the law and keeps his mother grounded. He’s very protective of Lisette and doesn’t understand her attraction to the mysterious, preppy Eric from her high school.

Eric is an enigma, the bad boy that every girl wants to tame. He has a girlfriend, who happens to be Lisette’s arch enemy, but Lisette can’t help being attracted to him. He’s the only one in her high school that makes her feel less like a freak.

When strange things start happening to Lisette, it’s Eric, not Scooter, who comes to her rescue with some unusual skills of his own.

By the end of the book, Lisette has come to terms with who she is and has to save herself and her two friends, at the risk of losing her soul.

Excerpt:

The bayou at night is alive. I see very little in the darkness, but my hearing is heightened. Insects buzz, creatures call to each other, and fish splash in this byway cesspool. Like the kinky gray hair of an old lady, Spanish moss trails in the dirty water of the swamp, eerily beautiful. I shudder to think what is caught in the tangles of her hair.

My head jerks in the direction of a huge splash. Something large slithers into the water.

“Alligators,” my uncle says, piloting the pirogue with a long pole around another bend in the waterway.

Shivering, I strain to make out more, but can only see darkness behind us. I sit on my hands, more to still their trembling than for warmth. Long before the canoe reaches the spot, I feel the drums. The pounding travels through my nerve endings until my whole body is pulsating. I feel the same as I did several nights ago when I wandered the Quarter, restless and possessed.

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Connie, thank you so much for joining us today…and in addition, she would like to offer a $25.00 Amazon gift card to one of our lucky commenter today.  Just leave a comment to be in the drawing…..And GOOD LUCK !!!

The 5^th Realm is available in e-book and print format: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.            http://amzn.to/KqkmNn

Visit me at my website: www.constancegillam.com, or facebook: http://tinyurl.com/78x60hg  

Or twitter:@conniegillam