Behind the Character: Valerie Tate

 

Many years ago, I had a nightmare about the Napoleonic Wars (if you have ever studied the Napoleonic Wars, you will understand. They were dreadful). One part of this nightmare was amazing, though. A dark woman, one full of secrets and violence, came into the tent where the generals were planning the Peninsular Campaign (Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Spain). She gave the best tactical advice but the men dismissed her. She left the tent, returned in men's clothing, and they thought she was a genius.

I knew this woman was Vlad Tepes, the vampire Dracula. This dream stuck with me. I was fascinated by this idea. Naturally, I did a little research. There are very few primary resources about Vlad (see here, here, and here). Most of the literature talked about the alleged atrocities she committed. If I looked at these stories through a feminist lens, I could see how these fictions could be seen as acts of a furious woman (impaling, especially. How Freudian of her!).

This began the long process of writing the Blood Wings series. Who was she? Why would her family hid her born gender? How could that be done? What motivated her? Did she have secret dreams? What were her wounds?

The series took many drafts and lots of brainstorming. I had to learn what kind of lovers she had, who she thought she was. 

I have been honored to share this journey with you. With the final revision being released on May 6, 2021, I feel like Valerie Tate has finally found a place of happiness.

The Dream Factory: Alice Kennedy

I realized that I told you all about Katrina, but I had never talked about the lady who kicked off The Dream Factory series, Alice Kennedy!

Many (many) years ago, as a teenager, my family frequented a local costume shop, as one does. I thought it was the most magical place I had ever been and I yearned to run a shop like that, full of fabric, color, makeup, and other creative tools.  The smell of clothing and high quality, theatrical makeup were balms to my young soul. These were the days before those cheap, nasty costumes in plastic bags, so everything looked gorgeous.

I had put that dream aside, but every so often, I would start a story about something amazing in a costume shop. It wasn't until I approached the magical Shea MacLeod to co-write it that I was able to find the real story.

Meet Alice Kennedy. My gorgeous young woman who needed to a chance to escape her family and discover what her real talents were. Last time, I talked about the keywords we use to get a feel for the theme and character of a new novel. Here are Alice's:

lavish, lush, color, adornment, whimsy. Beauty brings peace of mind, fashion makes a difference, fertility, creativity, conservation, fear, lush, fantasy, inner selves vs outer personas, dry, drought, depression, hard-time, care-worn, dusty, dry, clean, sparkling, rules, rebellion.

Her Motto: We need bread and roses.

Alice came into the sad town of Gold Coast, Illinois, and brought it to life. She is living her dream, and in many ways, she is living my dream, too. How wonderful is *that*?


 

 

The Cafe of Hopes and Dreams: Katrina Kennedy McPherson

When Shea MacLeod and I were writing The Dream Factory, the first book in this series, we knew that we wanted Alice's older sister, Katrina to be the heroine of the second book.

Poor Katrina, trapped by her own fears and the inertia of not living her dreams. We introduced her in Book One as the frustrated big sister. By the time she showed up at The Thing at the end of The Dream Factory, we knew she had to escape the trap she had built for herself. First thing, we had to know what her key words were (It's a librarian thing. It's hard to explain). It's a way
for us to decide on theme and what our focus will be. Here are Katrina's (and Book Two's) keywords:

Freedom, escape velocity, sweetness of life, rising, silky, lightness, savor, relax, focus, starvation, satiation, completion, contentment, delicious, delicate, scent, fruit, fortification, and strengthening.

We also searched for images of what we thought she looked like. This picture really caught her tender interior and her bruised soul.

Once we had her words, we could figure out what she really needed and what she wanted. Fortunately, figuring all that out took lots of delicious baked goods. :)

Also, it took a lot of going over and over practice LSATs. That absolutely proved to everyone that law school was NOT in the near future.

Writing Katrina's story really helped us cope with being stuck at home. Shea and I could imagine the scents of roses and freshly baked cake wafted over the small town of Gold Coast.

It was such a pleasure to get to know our heroine. I hope you enjoy Katrina's story too!

Behind the Character: Aunt Celeste from Keeping It Up

 

Celeste Barros was inspired by two amazing women: Auntie Mame and Mae West. Who better than a sexually liberated, intelligent, independent, fashionable, and powerful woman to teach not just Holly Barros, but me how to be fabulous and fearless?

Celeste is everything I ever wanted to become when I was a young woman and she is everything I wanted in someone who could show me the way to be fabulous and fearless!

Women need mentor figures to show us how to become what we want. Role models light the path to our dreams, dammit, I wanted Holly to have the best one ever. Someone who knew love and heartbreak as well as how to make herself heard AND someone who had the platform to make the world a better place.

My question for Celeste was, what were *her* struggles and wounds? In Keeping It Up, we learn how the early death of her beloved husband scarred Celeste. She had been able to create a wonderful life for herself afterward, full of love and intellectual pursuits. Like many women, though, Celeste had trouble receiving. She had become so skilled at giving and giving that she had forgotten to be vulnerable.

Which is why I was thrilled to discover who she really needed: Grayson Browne.

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Celeste is (much) older than Grayson. Do you like reading May/December stories? Let me know so I can write more of them!

 

 

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Behind the Character: Holly Barros from Keeping It Up

Sometimes, people ask me, "Where do you get your characters from?" Naturally, my first instinct is to say, "Why, from under the sofa cushions, of course!" Which makes me look like a jerk and nobody comes away happy. Rather than give in to my over-the-top Dad Joke impulses, I wanted to write a newsletter series about where characters come from.

The first character I want to talk about it Holly, from Vamping It Up and Keeping It Up. I really identify with Holly, because in my youth, I also made a man the center of my life, wearing what he liked and doing what he thought was fun (hint - it wasn't fun for me). I wanted to write a story about a woman discovering who she really was without him. Women's power is one of my favorite themes in my writing, and I come back to it frequently. I was desperate to write a story about a woman learning to love herself.

It took me a while to get to know Holly. I knew she was going to be of Latin descent (part Portuguese, part Central American). I wrote and wrote, trying to find a way to show that her parents loved her, but also wanted her to take the safe path in life. We deserve to choose our own adventures instead of having them chosen for us.

We also deserve to believe in ourselves and to use our voices about what matters to us. Holly needed to find her voice. And she sure was shy about telling me who she wanted to be. I got very excited when I realized that her secret desire was to go into politics. Women are woefully underrepresented in politics and that shy Holly wanted to break out of her cocoon and step onto the world stage made me so happy!

I also wanted her to have the world's greatest mentor to teach her confidence. Enter Holly Barros and Aunt Celeste.
 (To be continued....)

I made Pinterest boards for Vamping It Up and Keeping It Up!
Live Like Celeste
Vamping It Up
Keeping It Up

 

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Have you read Vamping It Up or Keeping It Up? Can you tell me what you liked about the books? What do you want to see more of in light-hearted erotica? Authors loooooooooooooove feedback. :)

Thank you!