Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews: Conversation with paranormal fantasy romance author Debbie Peterson

Paranormal/fantasy romance author Debbie Peterson is here chatting about writing, and her new novel Bound by Oath and Honour.

During her virtual book tour, Debbie will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

A little bit about Debbie:

Debbie is an author of paranormal and fantasy romance because she has a soft spot for fairy tales, the joy of falling in love, making an impossible love possible, and happily ever after endings. She loves animals of every persuasion, music, art, beautiful sunrises, sunsets, the smell of rain, and thunder storms.

When she is not busy conjuring her latest novel, Debbie spends time with the members of her very large family in the lovely, arid deserts of southern Nevada, where some of those spectacular sunsets occur. She also pursues her interests in genealogy—which she also teaches—mythology, and history.

A little bit about Bound by Oath and Honour:

Fresh from her photo shoot in Northern England, wildlife photographer Tala Westbrook makes a promised stop at the family manor in Staffordshire, desperately in need of renovation. Though she didn’t plan to stay longer than it took to find a contractor, she is caught up in an ancient paranormal war. Despite the danger all around, she finds herself falling for the handsome, enigmatic man assigned to protect her.

Micah Berrington, elite guardian from the realm of the Bewitan Fierd, is used to protecting men of strength in the greatest of peril, not a female looking for someone to repair her home. Yet the assignment is far more than it seems and so is the beautiful woman destined to capture his heart, regardless of the cost.

Excerpt from Bound by Oath and Honour:

After he chambered a round in his rifle, he placed a finger against the trigger. He faced Tala with lifted hand and palm out. “Wait here while I check out the second floor.”

She gazed at him for several moments as if he had quite lost his mind. “I think not. In case you have forgotten, this house belongs to my family, Micah, not yours.”

“I will not debate the issue with you right now. Either you can wait here as directed, or I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you back to the cottage. I’ll then lock you inside for the remainder of the night. The choice is yours.”

She sucked in a breath while her mouth dropped another notch. “You wouldn’t—”

“Oh, but I would,” he whispered as he leaned in close to her face.

In evidence of his staunch determination, she gritted her teeth. She turned her head to the side. Once again, she refused to meet his gaze. “Fine.”

The dreaded “fine” escaped her lips for the second time in less than ten minutes. This one had a bit more oomph and resentment behind it than did the first. He ignored it. Instead, Micah turned his attention away from her little snit fit and focused on the task ahead.

Conversation:

Every now and again I’ll be reading a book or watching TV when out of the blue a character, minor or main, beloved or not, does something unbelievable. I mean really—as in the character I’ve come to know would never, ever say or do that—unbelievable. Has that ever happened to you? Were you puzzled like “where in the heck did that come from?” or just plain annoyed?

How about when in the beginning of a movie or book, a character says he’s an only child and then far later talks about an experience with a sister or brother? Movie goers are quick to pick out these flaws and inconsistencies. Once found, they gleefully list them on various websites. Book lovers are quick to do the same. In succinctly written reviews, they’ll happily mention such mistakes for all the world to see, and ridicule, never mind the story might be positively awesome.

Ouch…

In light of that fact, I believe creating a character bios is kind of an important part of writing a book. You wouldn’t want to say Richard has velvety brown eyes in the first few chapters of your book and then toward the end say his “emerald green eyes flashed with anger.” Believe me, readers notice the mistake.

So what’s important to know when creating each character besides name, age and gender? I’ll mention just a few.

A complete physical description which includes far more than the obvious height, build, eye, hair, and skin color. Does this character have dimples? Tattoos? Scruff, mustache or beard? Full face freckles or just a smattering across the nose? How about that nose? Sharp, rounded, bulbous?

Temperament. Is this character easy going or quick to anger? Patient or impatient? What are his or her qualities and weaknesses? Does he or she carry a grudge?

Where (location) and under what circumstances did your character come from? What about his or her family? What led this character to the here and now?

What are his or her values, beliefs and goals? Does he or she have any quirks either endearing or downright annoying?

What does your character feel about other characters he or she encounters? Why?

These are just a few things a writer should know about each created character, whether the information makes into the book or not and whether an editor edits it out or not. (I’ve had that plenty of times.) If you know, really know your character well, you won’t have to wonder how they’ll react in any given situation. If your characters are anything like mine, they’ll stubbornly veer off in an unplanned, unmapped direction. When they do, and they need to react, you’ve already got their back!

Thanks for being here today, Debbie.

Thanks for inviting me over Lisa! I’ve enjoyed every minute.

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