Writing begins with a can of worms.

Okay. Maybe not a can of actual worms, but I have found that some of my story ideas come from interactions I have within my own circle of acquaintances and said circle drew a collective gasp at my last post when I mentioned that I use them to flesh out my characters.

It really is one of the vital steps to bringing my characters to life.  Most characters in literature are one or two dimensional, predictable almost.  But by adding in traits of people I know and associate with, I hopefully make my characters more three dimensional. My goal is to make them seem more human.  Fallible.

There is nothing more enthralling to me as a reader than to find that the character I am following in a book is just as human as I am.  They may intend to do the right thing, but may not follow through.  They have fears and strengths and they may not always play to their strengths. They aren’t all bad or all good.  They are differing shades of grey just like you and I are.

I put a lot of thought into my characters and when they are faced with a situation where they must make a choice, I think of the person I am modeling the character after and ask myself, what would they do in this situation?  Would they rise to the challenge or cower and flee?  Sometimes they may even do both.  My intent is always to make them the type of characters that are relatable to my readers.  I want my readers to come away from the story with the thought that “Yes, I could very well make that choice if I were in that character’s shoes.”  To me, that is the sign of a well written story.

Fatal Compulsions is here

It’s finally here.  After two long and heartbreaking years, Fatal Compulsions has finally put in its appearance.  I hope you’ll buy a copy and let me know what you think.  I’d love to hear back from my readers.

To purchase, go to:   

http://huntpress.livejournal.com/60339.html

How often do you get invited…?

… To poke around inside the mind of another?  This blog is just that.  An invitation to see inside my mind and follow me as I write my novels.  Before you begin your exploration though, there are a few things you need to know.

1.  I have a very twisted sense of humor.  Some of the oddest, most sacrilegious, most absurd things strike me as funny.  That being said, I also possess a very strong and deep sense of who I am and my unshakable faith in my God and my relationship to Him as His daughter. Some part of that may come out in my writings.

2.  While I am pretty well educated and worldly (3 degrees and counting), I can be a little dense and naive sometimes.  I blame it on mental overload.  Wanna slip something by me?  Try to hold a conversation with me after I’ve been madly writing for a few hours.

3.  All of my characters are based on people I have known.  This is fair warning.  If you are a part of my life or have been in my life in the past, chances are pretty good that I will use you, or at least your personality to help people the characters in my books.  The good news is, I change the names to protect the not so innocent.  The bad news is, if you read one of my books, chances are you’ll find yourself among the pages and you may not necessarily be one of the good guys.  Consider yourself warned!

That’s pretty much all you need to know.  I hope you’ll enjoy the journey with me and come back often to visit.  I can guarantee you, I’ll never be boring.

So welcome to the mind of L.T. Bentley, author at large.  Shall we begin?