...and I totally mean that, and not just because I wrote it. How to tell a "real" author from a poser...if someone who's written ever talks about the characters running away with the story, or writing themselves into bigger parts, or how they wouldn't shut up until their story was written down, that's an author, not just someone trying to claim the title. There's just something about truly creating where the subject just kinda, takes over. I've seen it happen to my daughters who are artists...they sit down to create and the finished image isn't always what they initially intended because part way through inspiration takes over.
Don't get me wrong, a smart author has things written down - plot points, a timeline, rough draft...something. But when the creativity is allowed to just...happen...the subconscious just takes over and sometimes the characters veer off to the left when the whole purpose of the chapter was to make them go right. New ideas and plots appear out of no where, and bad guys sometimes just pop up when they're least expected.
More so than any of the other novellas, the characters of Jethro and Sarah Aleph just took over their own story and I just held on desperately for the ride. Believe me, I had NO intention of writing Jethro's death...from his point of view, and as it was happening...but Jethro disagreed. Loudly. It was so emotionally wracking to write those few pages that I wanted to curl up in my closet and hide for a few days to recover. I sometimes wonder if my characters enjoy seeing me squirm, knowing that I feel what they do when I write, as if it's happening to me.
(Did I mention that authors might be classic cases of multiple personalities because some of us can hear our characters in our heads. *snort* at least I don't have conversations with them.)
Jethro & Sarah: An Aleph Novella, is now available on Smashwords, as always, there are multiple eBook formats there.
Julie L. York