Another critique partner -- Allison

Allison is the newest of my critique partners and she always has good insights into what's right and wrong with what I've written.



1. For you, which comes first the characters or the plot? Usually, it's the plot: a situation or circumstance will pop into my head. I'll think "What if..."?" and then I'll create the characters to develop that situation into a full-blown story.
2. How do you create your characters? I've used character charts, I've used astrology signs, and I've sometimes based my characters on people I know. I don't have any one way I create characters. Usually I have a rough idea of who they are, and they develop themselves for me as the story goes along.

3. Do you plan ahead or go with the flow? Oh, I'm a big planner. I usually have a pretty specific outline before I begin a story. I can't start without having a general idea of the major conflicts and the black moment.

4. How much research do you do and how do you go about it? Since I write contemporary romance, I don't usually have to do a lot of research. Anything I need to look up, I do so on the Internet.

5. How do you select goals and the reasons your characters what to accomplish these goals? Sometimes I base my characters' goals and motivations on actual people and situations I've known; sometimes I draw them from things I read about in the news. It's amazing, the things that actually happen to people!

6. Tell us about your latest release. One Night in Memphis is a "twenty-four hour" romance that takes place over a single day and night. The hero and heroine meet up in the blues clubs of Beale Street, but she's trying to outrun a violent ex-boyfriend, and which means neither of them is safe. The reviewer from Literary Nymphs gave the book 5 Nymphs and commented, "Boniface conveys some real danger and tension in this fast-paced tale, but shows astonishing and realistic growth in her characters. This is an absorbing novel, nearly impossible to put down. It has coincidence, a car chase, corruption and cool piano music..."

7. What's on your backlist? Readers can check out my first twenty-four hour novel, One Night in Boston, about college sweethearts who meet up ten years after they broke up, or Lost in Paradise, a contemporary romance about a woman with the right name and the right connections who leaves entire her life behind and discovers a new life and love by moving to a place where no one knows who she is.

8. What are you working on now? I'm finishing up a third twenty-four hour novel, One Night in Napa, and also doing revisions on another contemporary novel, Summer's Song, about a woman who returns to her hometown after 10 years away and discovers not only a new love but old ghosts.

Thanks, Janet - this was fun!