louise allen | Novels Now

So, this month’s topic is what glues me to the pages of a book and what hooks do I use to capture my readers.

It’s all about the characters and the choices they make. If I’ve fallen for the hero, want the heroine as my best friend and the older folks as my mentors, then the author’s got my unswerving attention and loyalty. Add some cuties (children, animals, wayward weather, great scenery) then I’m grateful, but truly it’s about the characters.

I used to write drama and I still have to hear the characters voices clearly. I am often hazy about their looks and am woefully bad at hair colour, eye colour and that sort of thing. Voices, on the other hand, are paramount.

Characters whose principal trait is demonstrated by fringe lunacy get up my nose big-time. I am out of patience with the female ‘tec who heads off without backing or even a functioning torch down a dark alley while saying something on the lines of, “I knew I should have waited for back-up/phoned the hero/charged my phone/cleaned my gun”.

I frequently skip to the final pages and leave the middle bits.

In my own work, I try for consistency of character and voice. I love to create dramatic scenes and I love to leave them just as the reader has heard something to make them wonder… If you scroll down, you’ll see a great offer currently running on my Edinburgh historical, Bella’s Betrothal. You could see for yourself.

In addition, I like to set my historicals in Edinburgh and London. I live in Edinburgh and can get out and walk the streets and pends my heroines get themselves lost in and I visit London fairly often so I can do some of that there, too. I recommend Louise Allen’s great walking tour books for doing this in London.

Fiona McGier follows me in this tour http://www.fionamcgier.com/ and the complete list is below. do visit. We love to meet you. Anne

Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/q
Ginger Simpson http://www.cowboykisses.blogspot.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/
Margaret Fieland http://www.margaretfieland.com/blog1/
Helena Fairfax http://helenafairfax.com/
Anne Stenhouse https://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Rachael Kosnski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.webs.com/
Lynn Crain http://www.awriterinvienna.blogspot.com
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/