Meet Awesome Indies author Laurie Boris. I've heard that her books are really good. I’m a bit different from some authors. Instead of outlining and building a character from scratch, I let one fall into my head. I follow him or her around as we find the story together. So sometimes (oh, who am I kidding; it happens nearly all the time) I get to work with characters who are a little broken, a little damaged, or who don’t always make the choices I want them to. This means I often hear the same comment from my early readers: I wanted to SLAP her! If it’s any consolation to them, sometimes I want to slap her, too. Yet to write a book any other way, for me, would feel wrong. It would feel like I’m forcing a character to do something contrary to his or her nature. Readers can sense this. It can make the characters’ journeys feel fake, like the author is moving them around on a chessboard to suit the needs of the plot. When Sarah Cohen popped into my head for Sliding Past Vertical, oh … [Read more...]