Evermore Lane

The Rumors of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated….

Not only can I say that, but over the holidays, one of my characters found out SHE can say it too! Up until now, everybody (including myself) thought it was over for her. Not so! The House on Evermore Lane is building up to a grand finale and this news really put a kink in things for some of our nastier characters. I’m excited to be writing about it!

This does not, of course, explain why I have not been writing in my blog. I’d like to say it was because I was terribly busy with the holidays and working on my storyline. However, about the best I can do is say I was in a complete funk and not writing much of anything. And of course, with the New Year comes the resolution to do better.

Speaking of that, the thought occurred to me that our characters can also have resolutions, especially the main voices in our story, because we carry their complete lives in our heads. For example, here are some of mine.

Mina Drake: 1) Do not kill Toby. No matter what or how tempting. 2) Do not send Father’s Day card to insane serial-killer-fairy-king type father. 3) Convince the refrigerator that ice cream is a healthy and accepted part of a normal daily diet.

Toby McGillis: 1) Do not kill Mina. No matter what or how tempting. 2) Stay off of Vi, or Violent’s (as Mina calls her) radar, now that I’ve allowed a witch to best her. 3) Spend more time getting to know a certain bewitching waitress

Max: 1) Do not kill Mina or Toby. No matter what or how tempting. 2) Refrain from eating the small fae. They taste nasty and give you gas. 3) More sunbathing and less human-assisted bathing. Much less.

Bing: 1) Do not kill Max. No matter what or how tempting. 2) Remember what my real name is and how I ended up as a stone dragon. 3) Cut down on the brooding sullen bad boy act. It only works for James Dean and Charlie Sheen.

Can you name the top resolutions that the characters in your story would make? Knowing your characters inside and out (and what writer doesn’t, when they live in our heads 24/7?) is a huge part of making them easy for readers to love, hate or understand. Or some combination of the three.

Good writing!

Lola

Great Excitement in Who-ville Tonight!

I have had a problem with the storyline I’m currently mangling into a book.  One of my favorite characters, Mina’s aunt Rowan, who is by reputation a strong, spirited, feisty, independent woman… err, witch… dies before we get a chance to meet her.  And even as I have written the story and been amazed and entertained watching the characters of Mina, Toby, Bing and Max grow and develop right before my eyes… I’ve missed having Rowan in the mix.  She’s such a smart lady, and she’s waited so very long to see Mina again.  Rowan never had children of her own, and Mina was for the longest time, the daughter she never had.  To separate her and Mina now that Mina is finally coming out from under the forgetting spell seems… like cruel and unusual punishment.

I can’t just re-write the story and make Rowan live.  Too many factors hinge on Mina moving to Savannah, making the House on Evermore Lane her own, and finding her own way through to witchly strength.  Coming into your own is something done better without a helicopter parent… in this case, a helicopter aunt.  I don’t think that’s the type of person Rowan is — but the story is about Mina’s development, and it won’t be the same if she doesn’t have to be the own to create the story herself.

So my options seemed limited…. would finding and reading Rowan’s diary help make her a real character both in this story and to Mina?  would flashbacks do the trick?  What about having her come back as a spirit, like Esme (well, okay, nobody is like Esme, the low country voodoo queen)?  Bring her back to life?  Each way I came up with seemed alternately overdone, cheesy, too simple, too staid, too…. too NOT Rowan.

But I am pleased and excited to announce that I have found the perfect way to make Rowan a full-blown, card-carrying member of the cast of the House On Evermore Lane  — without taking anything away from Mina’s personal growth (and witchly growth) journey.  And I hope that you’re going to enjoy reading about it as much as I am going to enjoy writing about it…. Hey, Max!  put that down, I’m gonna need it later…. snarky kitty!!! (stops typing, chases a laughing Max into the other room to retrieve a piece of storyline from his little kitty paws)

Interview With A Werewolf: Toby Talks About Mina

Lola Lyons, ace reporter for the Savannah Supernatural Times here, with Toby McGillis — werewolf, private eye, and general befriender of witches in distress.

Lola:  Good evening, Toby.  How’s life been treating you lately?

Toby:  It’s been interesting, I gotta say, watching the hole that Rowan’s death left in the supernatural community slowly being filled back in.

Lola:  Had some hair-raising moments, eh?

Toby (grimaces):  Something like that.

Lola:  So tell us how Mina is really doing.  It looks like she got off to a bit of a rough start.

Toby:  She’s handling the shock well.  Her whole life was pretty much turned upside down by finding out she was a witch, and then inheriting the house on Evermore Lane.  She’s still feeling very torn about the decision to either stay here, or try to return to her old life.  Right now, her biggest focus is on dealing with her father, learning to handle her magic, and finding her place in the werewolf clan.

Lola:  You don’t mean she’s becoming a werewolf, too?  Is there… something going on between the two of you?  Are you withholding information, naughty boy?

Toby:  uuummm, no.  Mina is more like a sister to me than anything.  That could be because of all the yelling, though.  She’s not shown any interest in anything more (or less) than platonic.  I’m good with that.

Lola:  So, what’s happening with the clan then?

Toby:  When Rowan died, we lost our magnus — the pack member who is witch and helps deal with magical conflict, attack or protections —  Noah’s idea was to bring Mina in as Rowan’s replacement.  Things are a bit rocky with that right now, and I’m not sure how it will turn out.  Mina is becoming somebody who doesn’t back down much, and that’s not setting well with some of the more aggressive members of the pack.  Noah likes her just fine.

Lola:  When you say more aggressive members, are you talking about anybody in specific?  I mean, perhaps a certain female werewolf who is known to have control issues — and lots of pent up anger?

Toby:  If you mean Violetta, yeah, she’s been a bit of a problem in the transition.  I think things are starting to work out though.

Lola:  I heard that Mina nicknamed your girl Vi as Violent just a few minutes after meeting her.

Toby (laughing):  Don’t say that in front of Vi if you want to keep your head attached.  She hates it.  Noah has his second on a tight lease while waiting to see if things settle down.

Lola:  Vi does have a lot of friends a lot like herself.  Does this put Mina in any danger?

Toby:  If they catch her off guard right this minute, maybe.  Give her a little more time to get comfortable with her magic and no, they won’t be a problem for her.

Lola:  That means the time for a coup is now.

Toby (shaking his head):  They would have to take on Noah, and the entire alpha family.  It would get them killed or at the very least a pack exile.  It’s not impossible, but I wouldn’t want to be on their side in that battle. We’re not immortal… just really difficult to kill.

Lola:  So what do you think are Mina’s chances here?

Toby:  I think Mina will do just fine.  There may be bodies before she gets there, though.  As long as one of them isn’t mine or hers, I’m okay with that.

Lola:  Is she going to be strong enough to go head to head with her father, the fairy king?

Toby:  He’s only king of one of the courts, not all of them, so he’s not as powerful as the true Fairie King.  Besides, who says she’s going to go head to head with him?

Lola:  One hears things — Like that he’s got a bounty on her head… and doesn’t care if it’s attached to her body or not when he gets it.

Toby:  They would have to survive catching her first.

Lola:  So, is she going to let her father’s attitudes and behavior simply follow her around for the rest of her life?

Toby:  Doesn’t what our parents think or want of us haunt us all our lives anyway?

Lola:  You’re saying that she has no plans to confront him or put a stop to his mission to kill her?

Toby:  I’m just saying that the future hasn’t been determined quite yet.  Mina has a few surprises in her. You’ll just have to wait and see what happens, I guess.

Lola (frowning):  Well, folks, there you go, straight from the werewolf’s muzzle…. we’ll just have to wait and see what Mina does.  I imagine it’s guaranteed to be spectacular… but the jury is out over whether that’s spectacularly good or spectacularly bad.  Lola Lyons, bringing the supernatural to savannah, one haunt at a time.

From The Diary of Mina Graves

ROM THE DIARY OF MINA GRAVES:

I think, that if something is going to happen in your life that will totally flip it and you inside out, you should get a little warning, not be allowed to sail blithely into it. I mean, had I know than by the end of the day my house would be burned to the ground, the entire cast of the Big Bad would be chasing me and I would soon become the new Magnus of the local werewolf pack, well, at the very least I would have dressed differently. And possibly hidden under my bed refusing to come out.

But here I am in Savannah, living in a magic house that won’t give me ice cream, with a talking cat and the ghost of a voodoo queen, on ‘sabbatical’ from my job. I’ve just found out I’m not who I thought I was, and that the magic spell responsible for my memory loss is also what kept me alive and hidden from the Big Bad and my father… the ever-so-slightly-insane King of the Wild Hunt.

I’ve got a werewolf PI trying to keep me alive (when he’s not yelling at me), a vampiric lawyer who scares the heebie-jeebies out of me, and oh, yeah, did I mention that all those fairy tale creatures you’ve read about are REAL, and it seems like every last one of them is chasing the reward my father has out on my head — whether it’s attached to my body or not?