Bringing UMS to Life

One of the most amazing experiences on my crazy road to publication has been the opportunity to work closely with Val Cox, the graphic artist Leap Books commissioned to create several illustrations for Freaksville by Kitty Keswick, as well as my book (a la my pen name, Judith Graves) Under My Skin.

From the moment I saw Val’s work, I knew she would get my characters and the paranormally infested town of Redgrave. Her illustrations celebrate the magical, the supernatural and are a blend of contrasting colours and gothic sensibilities. Plus, she appreciates the quirky and offbeat.

We started the process with a phone call / brainstorming session. From there I went through the UMS manuscript and found key scenes which would translate well into visuals and those that held the most drama. We had the go ahead to create ten images in total, so I had to be selective.

Then came the fun part. Providing Val with enough physical and personality descriptions for her to bring the UMS cast to life. There were several incarnations of Eryn McCain, the main character. Ultimately we funked up her hair and gave her such a stellar look, that I had to go back and tweak the manuscript to reflect her new image. Here's a very cool illo, Val calls, The Three. Eryn with her two love interests (Wade on the left, Alec on the right). I'm thrilled with the devil/angel over her shoulder concept as these guys appeal to very different facets of Eryn's half human/half paranorm nature.




I'm crazy about the final images and can’t wait to work with Val again on book two, Second Skin. Hopefully we’ll be able to add a few more illos. ;) You can find out more about Val from this Leap Books interview, and on her website.

Winner for Freaksville ARC!

Kitty emailed me last night with the lucky winner of a brand new Freaksville ARC....and that would be.....

WENDY

Congrats Wendy! Please email Kitty at: kittykeswick@comcast.net Don't forget to include your address and Freaksville will be coming your way.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

YAedge Feature Author: Kitty Keswick

This is more than the usual promo for an up and coming YA author. Kitty has been a loyal critique partner for me and Tami for about two years. We've struggled through chapters together, supported each other through the dramas of the real world, and through it all we've grown to appreciate our unique writing skills and just who to Skype with to help fix the current plot crisis. So how cool it was to invite Kitty on YAedge as a featured author and help celebrate her debut novel? VERY. Onto the questions!

Kitty, you're a self-professed Anglophile, and recently went on a dream trip to the UK. What was the most unexpected thing you discovered?

Roundabouts are really confusing! I had my own Chevy Chase National Lampoon experience in Edinbourgh. We drove around and around and around before we figured out how to get off.




Best experience: Seeing Caeverlock Castle in Scotland was like going home. I’ve spent ten plus years researching the Maxwells and even used their story in Freaksville. But be careful--those castles had really small and steep stairs with no rails! If your middle name isn’t grace, like me, the winding spirals in stone can be dangerous.


Not only do you write about furry beasties, but also you live with one! Can you tell us about him? (perhaps a pic of Jensen, too?!)

Jensen’s my gray tabby. Yes, he’s named after Jensen Ackles from Supernatural. I’m shameless. No, I’ve never met his namesake. Dreamsville.

You're very good at building sexual tension between your characters - makes your writing steamy! lol...

I am? (Tracy and Tami are my critique partners so they’ve seen my stuff in the rough stages.)Wow, thanks. I like conflict and I like pairing opposites. But they have to have enough common ground—too different and you don’t get sparks, you get embers, as in crash and burn, baby.

You've often said you love House of Night, the PC Cast & Kristin Cast series. If you could ask the mother/daughter writing duo anything about the books, what would it be?

Well, I do write with another YA author, Judith Graves (Under My Skin). Do you know her? ;) So I guess I would want to know who wrote what part. LOL. Judith’s and my voice meld really well and so do PC and Kristin’s. It would be interesting to see how their internal plotting sessions work.

Have you bought a drum kit yet? Tami plays bass, I play guitar and sing..... Man, let's go on the road!

Nope. I’ve got my eye on a snare drum and stand. I’m saving for it. It has practice pads so I won’t tick off the neighbors. I hope to buy it as my Freaksville-finally-released-and-now-the-fun-starts present. But wouldn’t that be cool?? Three YA authors in a band. YA edge is even a great name.

We often discuss the backstory of our characters, things only we, the authors, know, but they often affect the choices our characters make. Can you share a few backstory secrets about your main characters: Kasey, Josh and Gillie?

Hmm… good question. Backstory is so important.



Josh Johnstone is always in his older brother’s shadow. He likes the outdoors and hates lifts because he was stuck in one when he was young. Tight spaces….not a good thing. He sometimes feels as if his wolf will rip out of him at any moment. You’ll learn more about Josh as the series progresses. (Illustration of Josh by artist Val Cox, as he appears in Freaksville.)

Gillie Godshall has to be prepared for everything, because failure isn’t an option in the Godshall household. She’s a pack rat and carries a massive amount of stuff in her bag; you never know when trouble will show its face. She has big shoes to fill, and she can’t tell her BFF Kasey. You’ll learn her secret in the next book, Furry & Freaked.

Kasey, the heroine, would rather be a fashion writer for Glamour than see visions. Unfortunately, her DNA is freaked.

Thanks for hanging with us, Kitty. Congrats again on your January 8th release and may you never be at a loss for words. ;)

Find out more about Kitty at her website. She's been all over the book blogging community lately, if you see another interview, be sure to say "hi". Kitty's also a member of the Class of 2k10, watch for announcements about New York appearences/group book signings during Book Expo America in May.

Kitty's publisher is giving away a copy of Freaksville on the Leap Books Blog. Read an excerpt - I'm warning you, it's HOT, then comment to win!


NEWSFLASH: Kitty has just informed us she'd love to do an ARC giveaway right here on YAedge. Sooooo....comment on this post to enter and she'll do a draw on Friday for a winner. That's two chances you now have to win Freaksville! Ain't you guys lucky? ;)

Character Cards

It’s interesting how characters develop from gnat-sized vague impressions to in-your-face personas that won’t let you sleep until you’ve got their story down on paper. They start off like:

Tall guy enters room. Looks angry.

And become something like:

Talon burst through the doorway, ready to knock a few skulls together.

Okay, maybe not a fantastic example - but still, you get the idea. Just who are these people? I mean, seriously…how do writers do what we do? Create worlds, lives, creatures? I, for one, am clueless. But I have a blast figuring out each newbie as they drive into the lot.

Sometimes they’ll arrive on the set fully formed, but often I’ll be a few chapters into a first draft before I can completely visualize them or understand their motives – and even then, plot twists might reveal a motive or talent I’d never suspected. Characters can be that way – closed mouthed until the weirdest moments. I’ve been totally blindsided … and I’m the one writing the damn book.

My new WIP, Witch’s Shadow is part of a series I’m writing with fellow YA paranormal fiction author, Kitty Keswick. We are individually writing books, but they take place in the same world, a pseudo-Salem town called, Origins. Our characters crossover – we have best friends, rivals, enemies and mythologies that mesh together from book to book.

OMG – the planning!

Not only do we have to have a handle on our character’s motives, appearance, goals, failings – we have to share that information with each other in a clear, precise way so that they remain consistent - no matter who created the character, or who is writing them into a scene.

To keep this large cast present in both our minds, we created character cards. These profiles have all the essential information a writer would need. We list: name, appearance, background, motives, goals, personality type, likes, dislike, fears, talents, friends, enemies, etc. We also search the net for images to depict, as closely as possible, how we envision our characters to look like and dress.
We do this with setting as well, naming buildings, creating a town map, sharing photos of interiors/exteriors.

Setting up a mutually shared world is a time consuming and strange process. We disagree, we compromise and we get frustrated, but we’d be so lost without it.

I’ve never had to work so hard at getting to know my characters, so quickly. To not be wishy-washy and constantly changing their traits – frankly, having them pegged down this well makes the writing go a lot smoother. Filling out our character cards was so fun, that we took it a step further and have started to create graphics containing key elements. Here’s mine for my main character, Bea Drake:


Want to really get into your character’s head? Then I suggest creating your own character cards and see what tidbits the process reveals.