Wednesday, May 15, 2013

HEROINE TOUR: WHEN SECONDARY CHARACTERS BECOME HEROINES IN ANOTHER STORY



This is the third stop in RWA/NYC's Heroine Blog Tour!
Join us again next Wednesday.



WHEN SECONDARY CHARACTERS BECOME HEROINES IN ANOTHER STORY
by Catherine Greenfeder



Some time ago, I wrote a book which remains in the revision stage. I shared it over several months with my critique group. For some reason, the ladies enjoyed the concept and the conflicts, the subplot, and the setting, but they had a hard time with the hero and heroine in that book. However, they so enjoyed the hero’s daughter, a child from a previous marriage, who was a feisty, rebellious teenager with psychic abilities, that they told me she should have her own story. Or, that’s the message which came through after awhile. So, I began to plot out ideas for a story for the teenager with an attitude.

I also teach in a middle school, and several of my students who knew I had been published in romance fiction written for adults asked when I would write something that they could read. With their encouragement and the challenge of my critique group, I decided to work on a draft for my first young adult paranormal novel during National Novel Writing Month or NANOWRIMO in November 2010. The book originally titled A PORTRAIT OF A GHOST went through several revisions in the next two years. I also changed the title based on an idea from events in the story and at the suggestion of a couple of teenage girls to A KISS OUT OF TIME.

So, Georgina Claythorne will get to tell her story about working during her seventeenth summer for her Grandma Bess in her grandmother’s Ocean Grove, New Jersey antique and consignment shop. Expecting a rather boring summer, recovering from a break-up with a boy she met the previous year in Italy, Georgina focuses on helping her aging grandmother who is more spry than frail, and she discovers that the shop has a lot more than vintage clothing and antiques. It’s haunted by the ghost of a young Confederate soldier who happens to be confused about his death and attracted to Georgina who is gifted or cursed with the ability to "see dead people". What ensues is the basis of the plot and the decisions Georgina must make when her best friend, Jake Hanlon, comes on the scene to help her out with another ghost bust situation.

I found it interesting in the writing process that a secondary character can become a heroine in another book. I’m not inclined to write series romances, but I’ve thought about Georgina a lot and whether or not to continue her story since there is another haunted house, the one in the original story. I’m going to gauge my readers’ reactions to the book when it’s released and my own feeling about the heroine. I’m glad I allowed her to tell her own story in this young adult paranormal. Yes, I wrote it, but Georgina took off once I started. Writers understand these things! So, maybe she’ll come on stage again for the next book. There’s another NANOWRIMO coming, and if not then, sometime soon. I have a feeling that Georgina has more than one story to tell!♥



Catherine Greenfeder is the published author of WILDFLOWERS, SACRED FIRES, ANGELS AMONG US, and the soon-to-be published A KISS OUT OF TIME. When not writing books, Catherine tries to inspire young writers as a language arts teacher in a middle school in New Jersey. Visit her at www.catherinegreenfeder.vpweb.com.


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JOIN US NEXT WEDNESDAY FOR "WRITING THE FLAWED HEROINE" BY KATANA COLLINS.



2 comments:

  1. I am impressed that this was a NaNoWriMo book. Congratulations! --maria

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! I hope to do another one this November, if I can.

    ReplyDelete