Today I want to talk writing. About how I feel about writing, how I feel about my work and my characters. People often want to know who my favorite character is, and I’m often wonder if they’re hoping I’ll say it’s their favorite character. Or they’ll ask me which of my worlds I’d want to live in—and again, I have the feeling some of them want to know that their favorite series of mine is also my own favorite.
The truth is, each world has its pros and cons. And so does each character. But some series and characters just stand out in a way I can’t explain. It’s as though they come from deep inside my psyche. While I always maintain that there is a little of me in each character I write, some characters sparkle more than others for me. I can tell how tuned in I am to a world by how easily I write the books. The ones I’m fully connected with just flow. And, often, I begin dreaming about them—about the main world.
Right now, the world that sparkles most for me is Bewitching Bedlam. I’m already so involved in the world that I can’t wait to get back to Maddy’s next book.
When I started writing the short story BLOOD MUSIC, the story poured out. I totally hadn’t been expecting the world and characters that emerged, but it was fun and exciting and I realized quickly that I wanted to write more in Maddy’s world.
BEWITCHING BEDLAM soared—the book just flowed out and I sat back thinking, wow, I haven’t felt this much enthusiasm in years for a book. And I just finished writing MAUDLIN’S MAYHEM the other day and once again, it just flowed out of my fingers, my heart, and my subconscious and I knew…I knew this is my new “Otherworld” so to speak.
I have so much joy in these characters that they dance onto the page. I love writing about them, I love seeing what they’re up to, and I can’t wait to see where they go.
Maddy and Bubba, Aegis and Sandy…they’re all a delight to me, and the world they live in is growing in leaps and bounds. I love the deep connections between the characters. The friendship between Maddy and Sandy is very much a “we know where the bodies are buried” friendship.
And Bubba, well, he’s not just a prop, he’s snarky and cunning and yet, he’s got that innocent, cat-like devotion to Maddy that my kitties do for me. And she would do just about anything for him.
My assistant Andria pointed out to me, “The Bewitching Bedlam books are your version of a cozy.”
She’s right. Sure, they have explicit sex in them—hey, Aegis and Maddy are too steamy not to have a deep passion, but the books have that small town feel where everybody’s a little bit of a misfit, but they all fit together. The town and island of Bedlam is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to write about, with all the side characters, and all the wackiness that I remember enjoying early on in the Otherworld Series, and that the Chintz ‘n China books had. And the books have the paranormal characters that I love.
So I’ve found MY version of a cozy, where there’s some mystery and intrigue, hot steamy passion, and some madcap adventures, and where…at the end of the day…you know things will end up all right and so you can sit back and relax, even if parts of the books are spooky.
