Today I have Leigh Evans here for a guest post. She's here to talk to us about mean writers and to highlight her upcoming release, The Thing About Weres.
Mean Writers—Why We Give our Heroines Such a Hard Time
A friend said to me recently that my heroine takes a heck of an emotional battering, and wondered how I could do it. It’s hard to be cruel to your darlings, but it’s a fair point and I wanted to explain just why it was so necessary.
Let me get it right out front—Yes. I am super-crazy-nasty-mean to my characters. I spend hours thinking of ways to torment them. Actually, that’s an understatement. I spend days, sometimes weeks, thinking of ways to put the screws to my main character, Hedi Peacock.
Why?
Because the Mystwalker books chart the coming of age story of one Hedi Peacock, Half Were, half Fae, which means that I (the evil happiness destroyer) must lead my would-be-heroine from where she was in the first book, THE TROUBLE WITH FATE, to where she must be in the fourth and final book of the series.
Talk about mileage. Talk about rough terrain.
Leaping lizards. I never anticipated having to be so cruel. The Mystwalker series was going to be such lighter fare…
That is, until the evening I was the luckless recipient of a gift from my ever-loving muse. It was around 9:40 on a weeknight. Let me state quite firmly that (a) there was absolutely no wine involved and (b) I was neither daydreaming or on the cusp of sleep. As a matter of fact, I was on the couch, fully engaged in one of those true-murder programs. We were finally—finally!—getting to the bad guy reveal.
Then, all of the sudden, my vision clouded and I ‘saw’ something. Like a video clip, except not. I hate to sound all airy-fairy but for want of a better descriptor, it was a vision. Vivid. Real. Impossible to forget.
I remember thinking, “Oh, shit. ”
This was not in the plan. Hedi wasn’t supposed to ‘walk’ in different realms. How could I write that? It was too complicated and dark. Maybe I could forget what I saw? (Go away muse. Go bother some other urban fantasist).
But, unfortunately, I’d witnessed a world-changing event through a tear in a curtain and I couldn’t erase what I’d seen. (No matter how hard I tried). In the three second snippet, Hedi’s hair was down. She was walking barefoot along a mist-shrouded avenue of ancient trees. There was something odd about her gait. I kept replaying it until I finally understood.
Ah. I was seeing Hedi all grown up. The way she was meant to be.
Harder. Tougher. Wiser.
And determined to be in control of her destiny.
How on earth would I be able to take my slacker girl to there? We’re talking some significant mileage. Everything she knew, everything she understood about herself and where she fit in life would have to be shook up. I’d have to take her on a ride that would toughen her hide and her heart.
Which brings us here, the second novel in the series—The THING ABOUT WERES. I took a chance here, crossing my fingers that my readers would follow me. Put bluntly, this book is the knee-capper. Every mistake, every seed not planted, will matter.
Because I believe heroes aren’t born; they’re made. And not all of us will pick up our bayonet and run willy-nilly through no man’s land, screaming a warrior’s cry—at least not at first prod. We might need to warm up to the idea. We might falter and make mistakes. Put bluntly, some of us need a damn good reason to scramble out of our foxhole.
Maybe a few of us need a hero’s quest tossed in our lap.
That being said, what’s some dark without some snark? There is comedy in this book and true love—sensual, demanding, provoking—that comes in the shape of a six-foot Were who is just too pretty for words. Also there is family—served two ways—in the form of a long lost brother and an entity trapped inside an amulet.
There is burgeoning hope. There is looming destiny. And ahead… yet another story still to come.
The Thing About Weres by Leigh Evans
Published: St. Martin's (July 30th, 2013)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Paperback: 464 pages
Series: Mystwalker, #2
Summary:
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER
In the never-ending saga that is my love-hate relationship with Robson Trowbridge, I, half-Were Hedi Peacock, have had a change of heart. Ever since I shoved Trowbridge through the Gates of Merenwyn, I’ve been the leader of the pack—hard to believe, right? The thing is: I’m half-Fae. So even though my Were side is ready to heed the call of the wild, the other part of me is desperate to take flight. And much as it pains me to admit it, life without Trowbridge is really starting to were me down…
I AM WERE, HEAR ME ROAR.
To make matters worse, the wolves of Creemore want my blood—and the North American Council of Weres wants me dead. So I’m just counting the days until Trowbridge returns from the other realm… and comes to my brave rescue… and becomes my alpha mate. Wishful thinking? Of course it is. But given all the mess I’ve been through already, what’s the harm in doing a little bit of daisy-plucking? Besides, Trowbridge owes me bigtime. A girl can dream.
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