Saturday's Excerpt from Christmas Wishes by Danica Winters

Excerpt for:

Christmas Wishes

By Danica Winters

Chapter One

 

A solitary snowflake landed on the pine wreath in Lee Llewellyn’s hands. Its lacy white edges curled around the warm boughs like melting fingers, dripping down the pin-point needles and falling unceremoniously to the frozen grass of the cemetery.

The grass crunched under her feet as she made her way to the familiar marble headstone with the bird inscribed in the black-inked stone. Last week’s roses lay at the base, their heads drooping in icy lamentation. The aged, brittle roses reminded her of the way she always seemed to feel—frozen in time, waiting for someone to pluck her from her stupor, only to be replaced.

Today the flowers would stay. Lee couldn’t bring herself to destroy their despondent beauty. They could stay one more week. Daniel wouldn’t mind—or at least, she hoped his spirit wouldn’t. In truth, he’d never been one for flowers anyway. If anything, the flowers were more for her, like the wreath in her hands. Curling the velvety red ribbon so it sat perfectly at the center, she laid the circular wreath next to the roses, careful to leave her son’s name legible.

She read each word as she had done a thousand times before. Daniel Edward Llewellyn. Born May 10^th, 1990. Died December 23, 2010.

The tear trickled down Lee’s cheek, unchecked by time or self-control. She couldn’t imagine a time when the deep pain of those words would leave her unaffected. Yes, they were only words, little letters etched into stone, but they signified so much pain and so many memories. They meant everything to her, just like Daniel.

Friday's How She Does It featuring Danica Winters

 

1.      How do you create your characters? Do you have a specific method?

I have heard so many ways to create characters, but what I find works best for me is a visual reference. I like to pick a picture of a woman or man and build a story around them. In some cases, I also do a basic character interview to learn about their pasts and the events that have come together to shape them. 

 

2. Do your characters come before the plot? Do you sketch out your plot or do you let the characters develop the route to the end?

 In the case of Christmas Wishes, I knew the plot line I wanted to develop before I had sketched the characters. This story was perpetuated by a close friend’s death in a tragic car accident. After the accident, I witnessed his mother’s life as she moved through the cycle of grief. Christmas Wishes takes place at the last step of that cycle, the moment of change.

 

3. Do you know how the story will end before you begin? In a general way or a specific one?

 I usually do know how the story will end, but I have found in other projects that things don’t always work out as I have planned.

 

4. Do you choose settings you know or do you have books of settings and plans of houses sitting around?

Christmas Wishes is based in Montana (where I live). Several of my other books are also set in Montana, but I find I enjoy learning about other locations. I just published another book Winter Swans that takes place in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and Las Vegas. It was fun research!

 

5. Where do you do your research? On line or from books?

I am an active researcher. For my book Montana Mustangs, I had to learn about horses so I went out into the wilds of Montana on a horseback trip to high-mountain lakes. It was an amazing experience that I look forward to doing again. For that same book, I also went on a police ride-along to learn about police procedures and terminology.

When I need a quick answer, I do use trusted internet sources. 

 

6. Are you a draft writer or do you revise as you go along and why?

 

I write the first draft and then go back and rework the story. I find it is easier to fix problems when I know the full story.

 

Thank you, Janet, for having me on your blog. This was a fun interview!

*Readers, if you have any questions I look forward to hearing them! I also have a question for you. When you read a book do you “see” a character based off the cover (i.e. the cover model is the main character) or do you find that your vision of the character is different?

Look forward to reading your great answers!

Happy Reading!

Danica Winters