Loud Neighbors

I was kept awake last night by Nikki who is flirting with
her ex-boyfriend.  This is a problem that
I know Nikki is love with her current boyfriend – Z’ev.  Why is she behaving this way? What could
drive her into the arms of another man? How do you explain this kind of
behavior, young lady! The real problem, of course, is that writers are crazy
and we listen to all the voices in our head and sometimes the voices are quite
loud.  In this, case the edits for my
third Carrie Mae Mystery are demanding to be heard and dealt with.

In general, the edits are going quite well. Each edit is
adding the layer of depth and realism that really make a book sing.  It’s like adding jewelry to an outfit; a good
round of edits can make the entire thing sparkle.  Unfortunately, some edits can cause a chain
reaction changes through-out the book. 
Suddenly an author can find herself questioning the timeline (does this
scene need to be moved to Tuesday?), the continuity (were they eating peach or
blackberry pie before?), and worst of all – would the character really do that?

All of my characters are quite real to me. I have entire
dossiers about their past.  There are
pictures. There are idiosyncrasies and favorite swear words and moral codes and
lines that each character wouldn’t cross. But the gray areas, such as, “Would
you kiss your childhood sweetheart in the moonlight on a warm summer’s night?”
are sometimes harder to negotiate. 

But making the big decisions, like who gets to kiss who, is
why I get paid the not so big bucks. 
Although, if you want to find out if Nikki gives into temptation you’ll
just have to pick up a copy of High-Calber
Concealer in November 2015.

Bethany Maines is the
author of the Carrie Mae Mystery series and Tales from the City of Destiny. You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube
video or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.