Howdy, everyone! Today we have a guest blogger: Patti O’Shea, whose thrilling addition to the Crimson City saga in now on the shelves.
***
by
Patti O’Shea
It’s not easy working with demons!
Mika and Conor, the hero and heroine from Through a Crimson Veil, are both half human and half demon and they were a trial. If I needed them to zig, not only would they refuse, they’d zag just to be contrary. Okay, so maybe my favorite writing motto is “Torture the characters before they torture me,” but trust me, they get even. Always.
I tend to let my characters dictate the story to me, but these two were so fascinated by each other, that they didn’t want to do anything except spar and tease. Fortunately, I was able to prod them along�eventually. But I did start calling them my “demon children” early on because of just how difficult they were to work with.
Mika was the biggest handful, but I should have realized from the beginning how much trouble she would be. She arrived when I was working on another proposal, told me her name�nothing else�and then smirked when I asked her who she was and why she was in my head. Actually, she smirked at me quite a bit while I was writing Crimson Veil.
For instance, I would ask her what kind of magic she had and she’d refuse to tell me. Demons, she said, never reveal their powers. Great. Luckily, Conor was a bit more open to displaying his abilities. Not all of them, but a few. Eventually, the story forced the issue, and Mika had to show what she could do, otherwise I probably still wouldn’t know! But it made extra work for me on the revisions since I had to add and foreshadow some of her talents.
Then there were the hours Mika and Conor were willing to work. I’d arrive home from the day job, ready to write, but I’d end up spinning my wheels because my characters weren’t there to help me. Demons are nocturnal; they were ready to go when I was ready for bed. Who won this skirmish? They did, of course. I ended up keeping some really bizarre hours so that I could write their story.
Of course, now that the book is done, the pain Conor and Mika caused isn’t quite as fresh in my mind�I’ve got new characters torturing me�and I can look back and remember the fun stuff. Like I never knew what Mika was going to say or do next, and I loved that since it made writing an adventure! And Conor was so wounded, that watching him start to heal, to reach a point where he could take an emotional risk, was rewarding. Seeing the two of them grow and change till they reached a point where they could come together, well, that’s why I write. I live for this!
Praise for Through a Crimson Veil:
~”Paranormal adventure at its ultimate!” – RT BOOKclub Top Pick!
~”Vivid, spellbinding and impossible to put down.” – Fresh Fiction
~”Patti O’Shea proves once again why her books are some of the most highly anticipated of the year.” – A Romance Review
~”A thrilling and imaginative paranormal fantasy.” – Paranormal Romance Writers
Through a Crimson Veil Excerpt
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