Getting Inside Your Character's Skin by Betsy Ashton

Any of you who have read my work know I love writing in the first person singular. Why? Because I can get deeply inside a character and gaze out through her eyes. I can say "her," because so far all of my first-person works have had female main characters. I really like the narrowed lens of a singular point of view. I don't want to know more about what's going on beyond what my character sees, feels, smells, etc.

I've stayed with one character for a three-book series, the Mad Max Mystery series. Max is a grandmother, a youngish grandmother. She's smart, rich, sexy, and snarky when she needs to be. She's strong minded and strong willed, a force of nature not to be messed with, particularly when it comes to her family, extended and nuclear. She can go from mild-mannered to tiger mom in 3.5 seconds flat.

Max is as familiar to me as my own husband. I know what she thinks (not the I ever really know what my husband is thinking). I know what she carries in her Jimmy Choo handbag. I know what she keeps on her bedside table, on her bureau, in her medicine cabinet. I know what caliber of gun she carries.

Writing Max is as comfortable as sliding into a favorite bathrobe and pair of bunny slippers, until she does something that surprises me. As I said, writing from inside her head leads me places I hadn't anticipated. I can put her in a situation and get out of her way. Readers seem to like her, so I continue.

On a challenge, actually a dog-dog dare, I decided to leave the Max comfort zone and delve into the dark realities of a psychopath. At least, I think That Thing is a psychopath. She's not sure, and since she tells her own story in EYES WITHOUT A FACE, who am I to argue.

I had to do a ton of research into various personality disorders. She could have been a sociopath or a psychopath, except she denies she's either. She is a narcissist, because she thinks only she can get revenge for people who are victimized and can't stand up for themselves. She hates people who prey on the weak, women, children, the elderly. A compendium of our society. She thinks she's the only one who can get rid of the perpetrators, because justice is too slow for her liking. She might be a vigilante. She might not.

That Thing doesn't want you to put her in any kind of box, with or without bars. She refuses categorization. She acts with conviction and with a range of poisons, knives, and ice picks. She doesn't use guns. Too noisy. Harder to kill up close and personal. No exploding heads, either. Her kills are tidier.

How hard was it to write Mad Max and That Thing concurrently? Damned hard. One was easier. I took a break from dark personality disorders, until Max had to deal with a demented, delusional villain in UNSAFE HAVEN. Then, the personalities merged.

I've heard from readers of both books. They say I scared them with That Thing. Good. That means they got into the story and into her rationale. What they didn't like was rooting for the "bad guy." Actually rooted for That Thing.

Thank you. You got the book.

###

Betsy Ashton is the author of the Mad Max Mystery series. Her stand-alone serial killer novel, EYES WITHOUT A FACE, is a departure from her normal fare.

An Interview With An Author Part II by Betsy Ashton

Welcome back. I'm your Intrepid Reporter interviewing Betsy Ashton, author of the incredibly chilling EYES WITHOUT A FACE.

IR: I'm here with Betsy Ashton. Welcome back.

Me: Thanks. And thanks for the coffee.

IR: We've already talked about the cover and why you wrote the book. I want to talk now about the killer herself.

Me: I'm good with that. This killer got under my skin.

IR: She doesn't have a name.

Me: I think you mean she doesn't have a given or family name.

IR: Right.

Me. In her small town, most kids grew up with nicknames, Buddy, Bub, Junior, Princess. Her family nickname is a representation of how her family sees her.

IR: Did they really call her That Thing?

Me: Alas, they did. It shaped her worldview.

IR: I found I couldn't always believe her.

Me: Well, she is unreliable. She doesn't want you to believe everything she says, but she wants you to believe everything she does.

IR: That sounds contradictory.

Me: It is and isn't.

IR: I see, I think. Is she a sociopath?

Me: She doesn't think so.

IR: So, she's a psychopath?

Me: She doesn't think so.

IR: That's why she's called unreliable, isn't it?

Me: That's part of it.

IR: I may be foolish, but sometimes I found myself rooting for her.

Me: Good. That's what she wants you to do.

IR: I got a distinct Dexter vibe. Was that intentional?

Me: By no means. I have heard of Dexter, of course, but I've only seen one episode. I don't receive the channel it was on.

IR: Did you have any television show in mind?

Me: Criminal Minds. I think the episodes are perfect for that show.

IR: Do you see any of the actors playing That Thing? G-Man?

Me: Casting That Thing is for a different interview. If Joe Mantegna weren't so old, I'd like to see him play G-Man. That said, I wouldn't turn down Shemar Moore...

IR: Do you have any advice for a budding author trying to do what you did with this book?

Me: Humanize your character.

IR: How do you recommend doing that?

Me: Give her a cat.

IR: I'm afraid our time is up. I hope I can have you back to learn more about how you write and what you are working on now.

Me: It would be a pleasure.

An Interview With An Author Part I by Betsy Ashton

Recently, I sat down with an Intrepid Reporter who wanted to talk about my serial killer book, EYES WITHOUT A FACE.

Intrepid Reporter: I understand you recently wrote a book about a female serial killer. Do I have that right?

Me: Well, since you are reading from the press release, yes, you have that right.

IR: What ever possessed you to write about such a dark subject?

Me: Nothing possessed me, if you mean, was I taken over by a spirit or something like that?

IR: Huh?

Me. It was the result of a double-dog dare. You can never turn down a double-dog dare.

IR: Really? Who dared you?

Me. I took a course on writing mysteries a few years back. One of our challenges was to write the first sentence of a mystery. I wrote: "My sorority sisters were into sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but that wasn't enough for me. Then, I killed someone and found my true calling in life."

IR: Well, now.

Me: That's what the teacher said. She went on to double-dog dare me to turn the opening into a novel. I did.

IR: May I assume you are not a serial killer?

Me: You may.

IR: How were you able to get inside the head of such a, um, well different character?

Me (signing): It's called using the creative gene. I imagined what it would be like to be a killer and wrote about it. Simple as that.

IR: I think it would be very hard to write this book in first person.

Me: No harder than in third person or from the point of view of a dog.

IR: A dog?

Me: Never mind. It was a challenge, but one I was ready to take on. I'd never written anything with such an unlikable character. Strike that. Some people think she's likable.

IR: Eeuw! Really?

Me: Really.

IR (shaking her head): I couldn't, but then again I'm not you.

Me: And you should be glad you aren't. Imagine what my husband had to live with for the three years it took to shape and polish the book.

IR: I'd rather not. Let's move on. The cover is very chilling.

Me: It's supposed to be. I asked my son to put on a hoodie and ski mask that covered his lower face. I gave that picture to a cover designer who took out the rest of his skin, overlaid the eyes, and created a character without a face but with eyes that follow you.

IR: I can't imagine what your dinner table conversation is like.

Me: Pretty normal, actually, except talking about using KA-Bars or switchblades for killing.

IR: But you don't have a KA-Bar in the novel.

Me: Aha, you have read the book. I did, but I took the scene out. I may use it as a short story because I love one line in the section: "I don't use guns because you never have to reload a KA-Bar."

IR: I think it's time to take a little break.


The second part of this interview appears on this blog on January 27. Stay tuned.

Questions We Love From Readers by Betsy Ashton

Don't you just love the various questions we get from our readers? Where do you get your ideas? What is your favorite book? What is your favorite character? Are you in any of your books?

I think we are all in every character we create, don't you? Not all of us in each one, but a bit of us, to be sure.

Take my Mad Max character. I don't look anything like her. She's short, athletic, blond. She's much younger than I am. She's ever so much richer that I am. But, she's snarky. Anyone who knows me knows I love a good snark at the appropriate or inappropriate time. We're both strong-willed, brook no nonsense, stand true to our beliefs, and will fight to the death for our friends and family. Maybe a bit of me is in Mad Max, but more of her is a composite for several women I know, and several I want to know.

I had an actress in mind when Max came into her full-throated self. A strong actress who also puts up with no stuff from anyone. I won't tell you who she is, but she's been on television and in the movies for many years. Care to guess?

My latest book will be formally released on Halloween. It's called Eyes Without A Face. I hope to goodness I'm not the main character. Why? Because this is a girl you don't want living next door. You first meet her when she introduces herself:  "No matter what anyone says, I wasn't born a serial killer. I don't carry a sociopath gene, a psychopath gene, or even a serial killer gene. No such thing."

She is a serial killer, a most unreliable narrator. Unnamed and relatively faceless, she tells her story in first person singular. Before you ask, it was darned creepy getting into the head of a psychopath, who lived in my head on and off for three years. Not content with revealing her narcissistic personality disorder, she had to display psychopathic tendencies, only to rip them away and deny she is indeed a psychopath. See what I mean about being an unreliable narrator.

Unnamed, That Thing, her childhood name, leads the reader along a series of different paths. Just when the reader thinks she has That Thing figured out, That Thing does something to upset all assumptions. She lives by her own code of ethics. Yes, serial killers can have codes of ethics. Warped, maybe, but codes nonetheless.

I don't think That Thing is me. I haven't killed anyone, although there are a few people who might make it onto a wish list. I killed them in the pages of Eyes. That Thing is a feminist; so am I. She wants equal acknowledgment that a woman could be a serial killer, even though most are men. Why not a woman, she asks more than once, only to be dismissed by the men she works with.

That Thing is loyal to herself. And she doesn't tolerate people who take advantage of weaker people, particularly women, children, and the elderly. If they fall into her sights, well, they might meet a particularly gruesome and satisfactory ends. I've met people I'd like to see done in and meet a particularly gruesome and satisfactory ends. I haven't acted on my impulses; I left that to That Thing.

So, am I in my characters? Yeah, kinda. Are you in your characters, even those that are unsavory?

The Yin Side of Writing by Betsy Ashton

On March 17th, I wrote about the yang side of the yin-yang dichotomy. the hot female side of the equation. Today, I turn my schizophrenic brain to the yin side, the cold, calculating side of writing psychological mysteries. As I've said before, I listen to the voices in my head. I get inside the skin of my main characters. I get inside their brains.

Many writers counsel that you should write what you know. That won't work, because I have no firsthand knowledge about how to kill someone. Nor do I want to have it. David Baldacci counsels to write what you want to know. I like him. Good advice. I followed it.

Why the heck did I decide to write about a sociopathic serial killer?

I wanted to see if I could craft a story around a killer that's interesting, not likable, and who doesn't get caught. In first person. Singular. From a woman's point of view. About a female serial killer.

First, I had to craft a character who didn't fit the female serial killer stereotypes. She's not a black widow, killing her spouses for their money. She's not an angel of death, putting sufferers out of their misery. She doesn't fit any male stereotypes either. She's charming in her own way but not the way Ted Bundy was charming. She doesn't want to eat her victims. She thinks some people should not live. Period.

Okay, I have the character. I know what she looks like, where she grew up, what her profession other than killing is. I know where she lives, where she went to school, how smart she is. I now had to decide how she would kill.

I'm so tired of long-distance snipers who get off on pink mist. My character doesn't even own a gun. She's much more up front and personal. How about poisons? Exotic or common? I settled on common, things that you'd have in your house. How about sharp pointy weapons? Hmm, ice picks and K-Bar knives came to mind.

I started doing research on how poisons work in the body. Do you have any idea how much information there is out on the Internet about poisons. (NSA, you already know where to find me. Drop on by if you're in the neighborhood. I'll leave the laptop on.)

I developed a cadre of experts to advise me on how much rat poison can be mixed with cocaine without the user being any the wiser. I wanted to know how long snorting such a combination would take to make the user really sick or dead.

Is it scary to be in the head of a serial killer? Yes and no. It's not too bad because I know I can leave anytime I want. I think. Maybe I checked into Hotel California. The jury is still out.

Inside the Mind of a Killer by Jannine Gallant

Halloween is just around the corner, so I thought something scary and shivery might be in order... When I wrote A Deadly Love, I included two points of view in the story, those of the hero and heroine. My editor told me she wanted a glimpse into the mind of the serial killer stalking women in the town of Woodvale. She thought it would add a creepy element to the book. I agreed, but how could I do my killer justice without giving away his identity? It took some work, but the scenes were added, scattered here and there, giving readers a reason to leave their lights on at night. I hope! LOL

So, here's the prologue to A Deadly Love, the creepiest scene I've ever written. Enjoy!

           The sniveling creature crouched in the corner was a disappointment. Where was the stunning woman from the big screen who’d incited his lust no matter how hard he tried to repress it? This pathetic shell bore no resemblance to the sassy teen who’d starred in so many of his youthful sexual fantasies. Where was the girl who’d stolen a piece of his heart?

She’d given up completely, taking the fun out of the chase. Perhaps he’d made a mistake in keeping her here alone. If she had someone with her to offer support and encouragement… Not that he’d ever been on the receiving end of such basic human kindness. Until now.

            He set the lantern on the dirt floor and stared at her. Pathetic. Nearly made him want to end the game immediately and start over with the next one. But that would ruin his carefully constructed plan. Still, maybe a few adjustments were necessary. He couldn’t wait for another full moon, couldn’t stand another two weeks of cowering ineptitude. The new moon was tomorrow…

A smile slid across his face. Two at a time was the answer. It would add excitement and make the situation more interesting. In the meantime, a pep talk might motivate his current guest. He stepped forward and frowned as she shrank into a smaller ball. Nothing was visible but the top of her blonde hair and the billowing white nightgown tucked around her drawn knees.

“Maybe tonight will be the night you escape, Cybil. I’ll give you a bigger head start.” A mewling sound was his only answer. His breath whooshed out in a sigh. “Tell you what. Tomorrow I’ll bring you some company. Would you like that?”

Her head snapped up, and lusterless blue eyes stared at him. For a moment, there was a spark of animation.

Finally a reaction.

“No.” She shook her head from side to side. “No. No. No. Don’t do this to someone else.” Her voice rose in a shriek. “Just kill me and be done with it.”

“Where would be the fun in that?” he snapped. Stalking forward, he unlocked her shackles and jerked her off the cot. “Get up. It’s time to play.”

So, did I do my job? Were you a little creeped out by my killer? A Deadly Love and my other books are available on my website, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Chatting with Det. Ellie Fitzpatrick, Heroine of Resort to Murder!

By Glenys O'Connell  @GlenysOConnell

 

*Psst! Leave a Comment & You Could Win a Print Copy of Resort to Murder!*

 

 

I'm happy to have police Detective Ellie Fitzpatrick here to talk to us today. Ellie is the heroine of Resort to Murder, my romantic suspense set in Yorkshire, England.  I'd love to have a photo of Ellie to share with you, because she's gorgeous, but at times like this I'm forced to accept she's not actually real. I don't send my characters birthday cards, either. That way I can pretend to be hanging onto at least a shred of sanity...

Shhhh! She's here.

Me: Good morning, Detective - may I call you Ellie?

E.F: Of course. It's nice to be here. I haven't been out much since you wrote The End. <glares at writer>.

Me: Er, yes, well - all good things come to an end. Now, I understand you were the victim of a stalker...

E.F: Stop right there! I've never been a victim, and I don't like it when people like you say things that make it look like a woman is somehow to blame or helpless..

Me: Oh, Ellie, I didn't mean...

E.F: No, I'm sorry. I'm still pretty strung out after everything I went through. Everything you put me through.

Me (making shushing noises): Ellie, we'll talk about this later, in counselling. For now, I just want to tell the nice readers a little about your story.

E.F: You know, why don't you let me tell it. Then we might be out of here sooner - I've a great guy waiting for me with a bottle of wine and a massage.
See, folks, I was fast-tracked for promotion, partly because I have a university degree and mostly because I'm a bloody good cop. Sadly, that caused some resentment among my fellow officers. Being a woman in the police force means you have to work twice as hard as the guys, and still come have to cope with misogyny.
Anyway, I made a major breakthrough in arresting the Sunshine Slasher - a nastier piece of work you couldn't wish to meet. The jury convicted him in less than an hour, the evidence was so good.
Then this writer guy <disgusted snort> writes a book called Justice Denied, in which he claims that Sunshine is innocent.
Next thing, I'm asked to investigate claims that some of my fellow cops are taking bribes from a nasty bunch of slime sucking bottom dwellers. I so did not want to have to do that - investigating one's colleagues doesn't make you popular at all!
Suddenly, everything came crashing down in me - I was under suspicion myself for taking bribes after a huge sum of cash showed up in my bank account - money I couldn't account for. Believe me, now I know the pain of that, I'll be kinder to the next perp who claims he's being framed.

Me: I thought you said you could tell this faster than I could...?

EF: Yeah, well, I wasn't the one who had to cut 10,000 words out of this story when she was revising, am I?

Me: That was artistic...

E.F: Yeah, whatever.
Anyway, after a lot of smart detective work, being very kind to the sweetest stray dog on earth, and having to totally revise just about all my belief system, I finally got everything figured out.
Sunshine stayed in jail where he belonged, the sweetest stray dog on earth got to bite the psycho who was stalking me, and the man I really loved stormed in in the nick of time - I guess you had to leave it til the very last moment, didn't you? - to rescue me.

Me: Okay, okay - now, wouldn't it be fair to say that you were also being wooed by two delicious hunky guys - one dark and brooding and handsome, the other smart and rich with looks to die for?

EF: Yeah, and you took it into you head to make one of them a psycho creep. Worse, I hadn't got a clue. By the end of this story, I had to completely rework everything I believed about these two guys, about my ambitions - about so much that I'd taken for granted. I tell you, I doubted my own ability to make good judgements, both professionally and personally

Me: I am so sorry that you had to go through all that - but it was a happy ending, wasn't it?

EF: Sure it was, after one of those thugs beat me up and a psycho tried to kill me because he was obsessed with me. Sure it was a happy ending. At least I got this great guy and cute dog...

Me <deep sigh of relief> Well, thanks for coming in today and sharing your thoughts with us, Ellie, Maybe we'll see you again?

EF: Not bloody likely. I'm busy writing a novel about a mean, unfeeling writer who is made to pay the price for ill treating her characters. <slams out of interview room>

Well, friends, as you can see, sometimes a writer's characters can develop minds of their own and become a little too real.....

Glenys O'Connell is the author of four romantic suspense and comedy books. Resort to Murder was published by The Wild Rose Press, and you can see it on Amazon or read an excerpt here on my website.
Leave a comment about characters, romantic suspense, or this blog and your name will be entered in a draw to win a copy of Resort to Murder so that you can see what a nice person Ellie really is - when she's not under stress!