Today, my guest is Jennifer Eaton. I met Jennifer through the Still Moments Publishing author group.
First, tell us a
little about yourself. Well, like most writers I have a day job. I’m an office professional. After work I put on my mommy hat. I have three great boys under 12 and a
wonderfully supportive husband. Around 9:00 every night I tuck everyone into
bed, close myself in my office, and become a writer.
As writers, we often
become emotionally attached to our characters. Who is your favorite hero you’ve
ever written? Probably Harris Stanton. He’s a very tragic hero, a boy with a big heart striving to
do the right thing, but being pushed in the wrong direction because of “who” he
is. He is a character in an Si-Fi
Fantasy novel I wrote a few years ago.
For now, Harris has been shelved, but I hope to bring him back to life
in a year or so.
Have you ever fallen
in love with or had a crush on one of your heroes? Tell us about him. To an extent, I
have a soft spot for all of my characters. A year ago I would have said Harris. Right now, I am crushing on David, the
hero from my current work in progress Fire in the Woods. He is a wonderfully lost and sweet
teenager who has a huge responsibility that he’s not quite sure if he is ready
for.
How do you develop
your heroes? Do you imagine their personality or their physical appearance
first? Do they grow as personalities as you write or do you do a character
sketch before you type the first word? For David, I had
a picture image in my head before anything. I knew exactly what he looked like in great detail. When I started writing him, he was a
little “flat” to be honest. It was
somewhere in the second draft where he really started to come alive with
emotion and personality. I did do a character sketch for him, but I kind of
just let him “happen” within the constraints of his background and current
setting. I’m really pleased with
who he’s become.
I like to give my
heroes a personality quirk, just so they aren’t too perfect. Have you ever written a quirk for one of your heroes
and what was it? Well let’s flip over to a different “hero”. Jack in Connect the Dots is a
complicated guy, but very real. He
has a temper, and can be easily blinded when he makes a decision. He’s far from “perfect” but I wanted
him that way to keep the story centered and believable. As far as silly quirks, he has pet
names for everyone. “Slugger” for
the female lead in the story, and “Nicky Bomb” for her daughter.
How do you name your
hero? I’d love to say that I have this big, complicated
algorithm for naming my characters, but that would be a big old fat lie. When I
write Science Fiction, I tend to scope through the dictionary and look for
interesting words that sound neat, and have a meaning that suits the character. At the same time though, the names must
be easy to remember. I find it
distracting in novels if I can’t remember a character’s name because it is too
complicated.
In Connect the Dots, the name “Jack” just flew
out of my fingers as I typed. I’m
not really sure where it came from.
“Jill” followed soon after.
I figured I’d change the names later, but Jack and Jill just seemed so
completely right for them.
Who is your favorite
hero in books, movies, or television? Oh wow, this is a
tough one. In my mind, when I think of hero I think of big and epic, not an
everyday person. I don’t really
watch television, and I can’t
think of anyone particular in a book, so I guess I’ll shoot to a movie.
Recently I saw Thor and just loved it. The character of Thor was wonderfully
portrayed. He’s this big almighty
god, thrown off his pedestal and having to come to grips with being like
everyone else. His reactions to me
were very believable. I love the journey he takes that leads him to
understanding that he is not the most important thing in the universe. And he kicks butt, too, which is always
fun. [Grins]
Who is your hero in
real life? I had to stop and think this over. This is a tough question, isn’t
it? As a writer… my hero at the
moment is author Claire Gillian. I
read her novel the P.U.R.E. recently, and it was the first novel written in
first person that I really enjoyed.
Actually, the voice is what made the novel awesome. I contacted her, and she agreed to talk
about “voice” for a day on my blog.
A few months after, I decided to give first
person a try for myself. It was
hard, and I was convinced I was flubbing it up. On a hunch, I contacted her and asked her to read the first
ten pages. She was nice enough to
do so, and gave me some pointers.
I thought that was really nice of her, and my writing became stronger
because of it. She really
encouraged me. I thought that was
great.
Tell us about your
most recent release and where we can find it. Who is the hero and what do you
like about him the most?
I am lucky enough to have two
winter releases coming out this month.
Connect the Dots is part of Still Moments For the Love of Christmas anthology. The hero, Jack, is a very unlikely
romantic lead. Yes, he is tall
handsome with broad shoulders, but he is not the stereotypical perfect dream
guy. That’s what I like about Jack… that he has faults and he is normal. Jack is just the guy in the next cubicle that you overlook
everyday… until someone else goes after him and you realize what you missed out
on. [Smiles]
Also just released this month is Last Winter Red in J.Taylor
Publishing’s Make Believe anthology.
The Hero in this story is Paul, who is struggling with the grief of
losing his wife, and trying to raise a daughter on his own in a Dystopian world. What I like about Paul is how devoted
he is. He will do anything to
protect his daughter, and will even risk his own life to save a friend. He is another essentially “real” person
facing real problems that I think people will be able to identify with.
The Make Believe Anthology containing Last Winter Red is
available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and
J Taylor Publishing.
I really enjoyed having Jennifer as my guest today. You can find her at the following sites.
Twitter
@jennifermeaton
