Friday, June 27, 2014

Friday's How She Does It featuring Mary Marvella

I usually start with a character. What if a man or woman heard or saw...?
I try to find the thing that character least needs or wants and slam that character into that difficult situation.

I might envision a situation and ask myself who would hate that situation the most. Guess who gets to work around that situation?

In Haunting Refrain William, a psychologist, doesn't believe in love or magic or ghosts. So I make him realize he loves his next door neighbor as more than a friend and she thinks she has ghosts in her attic and that he was her husband in another life. AND, to be mean, I give him memories of his life as her husband and on battlefields during the War of Northern Agression. (The US Civil war! )

 In Protective Instincts I have a widow who is beginning to get back into like as she deals with her grief. What if someone is threatening her? What of someone wants to kill her? What if a man insists he needs to protect her?

Characters dive my plots, since I toss them into difficult situations. If a character is not ready for love, I make that person fall in love. I don't plot, but I know where each story begins and where I want it to end. Getting to the end is an adventure for me and for my characters. I write about the South and characters who believe the way I do, so I know what drives them.
Behavior which is normal and acceptable for a retired Marine would shock most other folks. So what if that Marine had to behave in a manner totally not his style? We love the "fish out of water" stories. 

3 comments:

Mary Marvella said...

Thanks for featuring me! Let me drag my peeps over!

Scarlet Pumpernickel said...

Hey, great interview. I'd never been to this blog. I'll besure to come back again!

Mary Ricksen said...

Love the cover!!!