Chantal Boudreau's Blog, page 4

Guest Blogger: Adrienne Garvin Dellwo

[image error]I”m happy to host a fellow writer who delves into the realm of the superhero story.  She has a few things to share about character development:

Some characters come to life in just a few words while others remain as thin as the paper they’re printed on. What makes the difference?

You can analyze the writing and learn a lot about description, dialogue, etc., but a key element of creating great characters is something you don’t see on the page. It has to do with how well the author knows the character.

In my upcoming superhero novel, The Hero Academy, I had to create a lot of characters and find effective and efficient ways to communicate them to the reader. Going over notes from someone who read an early draft for me, I noticed she kept commenting on a particular character. She loved the way he talked, his mannerisms, his attitude. He wasn’t even one of the primary characters, just a classmate of the protagonist. I knew right away why he seemed so vivid to her—he’s based on my son. I’ve known that guy for 16 years.

That proves a point you hear authors make a lot: you have to know far more about what you’re writing than ends up in the book. Building a world? You may never talk about the economy, the history of a region, or the particular lilt of the local dialect, but if you don’t know those things yourself, the world will be less believable. The reader feels a writer’s lack of knowledge and enjoys the story less because of it.

No matter your approach to creating characters, before the manuscript is anywhere near ready for an audience, you’ve got to know who those people are. Some writers get in-depth with their main characters before they start writing, creating character profiles, building backstory, even creating inspiration boards. I don’t do any of that. It’s not wrong, it’s just not what works for me. I prefer to start out with a rough idea and then let the characters take shape as I write.

My method does lead to more work in the second draft, but it also gives me some flexibility. Some of my best characters start out incidental, such as Misty Michaels, an intern in The Hero Academy. I needed someone for the brilliant neuropsychologist to bounce ideas off of, and at the beginning, I believed the doctor was the important character.

Before long, though, I found Misty more interesting and realized she could play a significant role in the story’s climax. As important as she became, though, she’s still in relatively few scenes and I knew she was underdeveloped.

Then came a call for stories. A group I’m part of, the Pen & Cape Society, was putting out its fourth themed superhero anthology, The Good Fight 4: The Homefront. It didn’t take long for me to decide I wanted to write Misty’s backstory. I had a vague idea about some deep, dark secret in her past, and I wanted to know more about it and see how it played into who she became later on[image error].

I wrote Misty’s story, “Impulses,” and it made it to publication before the book. Homefront, which explores the day-to-day life of superheroes, came out May 1. (It’s full of great stories—you want to read it!)

After “Impulses,” when I revisited Misty’s scenes in The Hero Academy, I found it easy to add all kinds of new depth to her character because I know her better. I know why she hid her powers. I know why she went into medicine. I know the struggles that shaped her. I even know why she always carries too much stuff, which leads to lots of jostling medical charts and spilling coffee. It’s not all in the book. It’s not all in “Impulses,” either, and it doesn’t need to be. I know her better, so the reader will understand and, I hope, relate to her better.

A full 90 percent of an iceberg is under water, and you don’t need to go scuba diving to appreciate the beauty of what you see above the surface. So when creating characters (or worlds, or whatever), remember that what you put on the page is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Much more is beneath the surface, and that’s the foundation. Without all that down there as support, nothing floats.

Many thanks to Adrienne for sharing her wisdom.  You can find out more about Adrienne and her books at her website.

The Blurb on Other People’s Words – Kat and More

[image error]I recently completed 6th Turn: Kat, my latest read in Ren Garcia’s League of Elder series. I’m a big fan of his writing, and I enjoyed this book because it was a particularly dark story line but followed the action with a consistent thread of hope (I felt the same way Mentralysis, my previous read.)

This was another world-building win from Ren, and was definitely a favourite so far. The story ventures into the realm of the Black Hats – we get to see their creation process with all of its cruelty and suffering, and then follow four shadowtech females sent out on their first mission where success will mean new status. One stands out amongst the others, and when things take a turn for the worse, she manages to overcome adversity with the help of her “angels”. Her quest takes its own turn and she abandons her original mission for a completely new goal.

I loved following her transformation, the budding romance that matures into something stronger and how she deals with all of the obstacles she must face while trying to achieve her higher [image error]purpose as the Covus. She’s no fragile flower, fighting, even killing when necessary to protect the ones she cares about.

I liked some of the scenes so much I went back and reread them after I finished the book. I especially enjoyed their startling trip to Vain (with its air of a post-apocalyptic dystopia) and their encounters at Xandarr that ventured into the surreal.

This one was a big thumbs up for me. More like this one please.

I was happy to hear that Ren has now released an Omnibus collection. This is a great way of getting three of his books in one: The Dead Held Hands, The Machine, and The Temple of the Exploding Head, books that follow the adventures of Lord Kabyl, the lovely Sam and their companions.

His space operas, with their mixture of sci-fi, steampunk and strange, dark magic, maintain the high adventure flavour of old cliffhangers.  When you read them, you can count on masterful world-building, diverse characters and moving story lines. I enjoyed these books immensely individually, so its a great opportunity to be able to get them as a set.

Book Review: Calen Dark The Infernal Almanac

HorrorAddicts.net

CalenDark: The Infernal Almanac

Harvested by Stephanie Ellis and David Shakes

by Chantal Boudreau

Some anthologies are a mixed-bag with a few stand out stories, some are mindless entertainment without much depth, but I consider this creepy anthology an enjoyable learning experience where I can honestly say I at least liked every one of the stories within (and in some cases loved them).  The lessons learned?  It taught me a little about several obscure, dark holidays with strange rituals or ceremonies that I hadn’t heard of before reading this.  It also changed my opinion about expected quality from “for-the-love” anthologies.

Like them or lump them, calls for submissions where authors aren’t being paid won’t typically attract professional authors with a solid track record, and often the editing leaves a lot to be desired.  This is where CalenDark very much took me by surprise.  The stories and editing were high quality…

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Train to Busan (2016) – Just get on board and hang on tight!

A zombie movie worth enduring subtitles. I have a strong love for Korean horror – this one, The Wailing and The Host have made me a real fan. Here’s Steve Vernon’s take (we don’t often agree on movies but we agree on this one.)

YOURS IN STORYTELLING...

Okay, so it was a long old week and I decided to take my wife out for supper.


 

We started out by walking over to Fries & Company on Chebucto, right across from The European Pantry where I bought myself and my wife a wonderful supper of fish and chips. She had a Coors and I had a Rickard’s Red and she ordered a bowl of curry dipping sauce, which is GREAT on french fries.

 

Then we went across the street to the European Pantry where she picked up fancy cookies and I grabbed a couple of steak and mushroom pies for my breakfast this morning.

 

Then, after a leisurely walk home, we sat down to watch a movie. A freaking no-holds barred zombie movie – from Korea. It’s called TRAIN TO BUSAN and it is available on Netflix and it blew our minds.

 

I know…

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Science Fiction and Fantasy Day

East Hants Writers

Join the Box of Delights Bookshop in an exploration that spans from a land far, far away, to a galaxy out of this world! We will be hosting local science fiction and fantasy authors for a reading, Q&A and signing.

Represent your sci fi/fantasy fandom and come meet some authors whose imaginations create the worlds you love!

Authors


Peter Foote
Steve Vernon
Michelle Bryan
Chantal Boudreau
A. F. Stewart

Date: Saturday April 21, 2018

Time: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Location: The Box of Delights Bookshop, 466 Main Street, Wolfville, NS

To learn more, visit the Facebook Event page.

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Book Review: Arithmophobia by Ruschelle Dillon

HorrorAddicts.net

Review – Arithmophobia by Ruschelle Dillon

By Chantal Boudreau

I jumped on the opportunity to review this horror short story collection because I love themed collections and anthologies.  The title and cover image also wowed me.  Perhaps as a result, I may have started in on this with unfair expectations.

While the first story had an interesting premise, I found it a little hard to follow.  Not that the descriptions were faulty, but not everything made sense and I had some difficulty figuring out why certain things were happening.  I was still scratching my head at the end.

I enjoyed the second story more.  The author has a plucky, abrupt tone that works with this tale because of the nature of the main character.  I didn’t exactly feel sorry for the self-centered and selfish woman, but I stll wouldn’t have wished her nasty fate upon her.  The stories varied from…

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Book Review: Red by D.J. Doyle

HorrorAddicts.net

Book Review: Red by D.J. Doyle

Review by Chantal Boudreau

I have to start this review by clarifying that I’m a horror fan, but I’m not normally inclined to extreme horror. I have read and written it in the past, but it’s not my preferred sub-genre, tending more towards less graphic, psychological horror. That being said, if you’re a reader who loves stories with intense shock value, you’ll probably love this novella. It has character depth, a multi-layer plotline and does not rely strictly on standard tropes (I appreciate the fact that the narrator’s latest target, Amanda, is not a doormat damsel in distress.) It also offers up plenty of graphic sex and violence.

You also might enjoy the intro to the story. For a hook, it gives the reader a taste of the kind of extreme horror you can expect through the rest of the novella, and a glimpse…

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March News – Chillers and More

[image error]February was a busy month, and I’ve been tackling some short story and editing deadlines.  Normally I try to offer up something for Women in Horror month, but it got away from me.  I’m hoping to make up for that a little in March – not that things look like they’ll be any less busy.

I’m happy to announce the upcoming release of my horror tale “Territory” in the Engen anthology Chillers from the Rock. The contributing authors hail from Atlantic Canada and the cover showcases some eerie artwork.  It is currently available for pre-order (links posted below) and actually made it to bestselling status in a few categories before release!

I’ll be back at prepping a couple of items for submission (and then I have to work on my taxes) and I have a couple of reviews to write up, but I hope to get at least one more post in before month’s end.

Here are those links:

Canada

Kindle

US

Kindle

Paperback

 

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Staying Motivated

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My January submission blitz is going exceptionally well and I’m meeting my monthly editing goals. Only a week into the month, I had already completed 17 submissions (now 18) out of 31 and completed 8 chapters of editing. The only thing I haven’t met yet are my writing goals for the month.  I can thank a genre writers group for getting this far already and they may have also offered up a writing challenge to serve as a motivator for my writing.

I’m going to try completing the Ray Bradbury 52 stories in 52 weeks challenge.  I’m a week behind because I just found out about it, but I fully intend to make that up at some point in the 52 weeks.  In any week that time might be an issue, I’ll shoot for some micro-fiction.  Since I’ve had successful sales with them in the past, they seem like a worthy endeavour.  If anyone wants to suggest themes, I will add writing the micro-fiction to those themes as part of the challenge.

I should have an anthology announcement for you soon as the editor e-mailed they will be sending along edits for review shortly.  I’m pretty excited about this one and look forward to the anthology’s release.  I’ll let you know more as soon as I can.

Endorsement for ‘The Malaise’ from author Chantal Boudreau

David Turton - Author

My post-apocalyptic novel The Malaise has received its first endorsement from a fellow horror author.

Chantal Boudreau, a Canadian author based in Nova Scotia, received a copy of the final manuscript and said:

“The Malaise is a cautionary tale with all of the shocking and chilling moments you expect from a proper horror story.  Fiction with a futuristic bent, it provides a “what if” that is both fascinating and disturbing.  It will have you gripping your chair as you read and provides an ending that leaves you wanting more.”

Chantal Boudreau

It’s a huge endorsement for a writer of Chantal’s stature to comment on this novel, particularly one who has been successful in a similar science fiction/dystopia genre.

Chantal and I shared a contents page in the Year’s Best Body Horror 2017 Anthology – her story Wrigglers is suitably disturbing and leaves you with a bit of…

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