Read Around the Rainbow | Someone insults your main character, how do they react?

ReadAroundTheRainbow

It’s time for the monthly Read Around the Rainbow post. Every month we’re a group of authors who blog on the same topic, and this month we’re talking characters, more specifically:

Someone insults your main character, how do they react?

Had I been another kind of author, I’d written a bonus scene to show how one of my characters reacts, but I tend to forget them the moment I let them go. The little things that make them them disappear from my memory, and if I try to write them again, they’re flat, uncooperative people.

I’m also super stressed about Holly’s deadline that’s coming up, so I’m taking the easy way out 😆

I don’t really know how my characters react when insulted unless they’re insulted in the story, but the first character who popped into my mind when we decided on this topic was Thaddeus in Soul Eater.

Thaddeus is a mage, but a weak one. His favourite spell is reheating his coffee when it’s grown too cold. then one day, he happens to release a trapped spirit from a werewolf skull that he stole from the black market, and he realises that maybe he’s not a mage at all.

But for this topic, we don’t need to know what Thaddeus is other than him being a magic user. His go-to response when insulted, yelled at, attacked, accused, or anything really, is to throw blue sparks at people.

I’ll leave you with a little blue-sparkling snippet below, but before you go:

Check out what the others have to say on the topic!

Holly Day

A.L. Lester

Fiona Glass

Addison Albright

Ellie Thomas

K.L. Noone

Excerpt Soul Eater

Elora cleared her throat. “She was preparing wings to make the women pretty, but it’s their scents enticing her.”
“What?” Ric whirled around and glared at Elora. “What do you know about scents?”
“N-Nothing.” Elora glanced at Thad.
“Seriously, Ric—” Anger manifested itself in more tiny, blue sparks at Thad’s fingertips. “Get out of here. We’re trying to work. We have a few minutes before Elora crashes, and I want to hear what she has to say before she does, so if you could bury your massive ego for a couple of seconds, we’d appreciate it.”
Ric flashed sharp teeth at him, and Thad was tempted to throw a ball of fire at him.
Thad patted Elora’s knee and nodded for her to continue.
“It’s their scent, their magical scent.”
“Magic doesn’t have a scent.”
Thad didn’t so much as think, he flung a rain of blue sparks over Ric. They wouldn’t harm him, but they did sting. Ric hissed, but Thad spoke over it. “Magic has flavor. Every practitioner has a unique…taste.” He didn’t know how to explain so they understood. “As a psychic, Elora can’t sample it, so explaining it as scent makes sense. How can you be able to know what she’s thinking?”
They were running out of time. After Elora had touched something she—’fell asleep’ wasn’t the right expression and she wasn’t unconscious either, rather something in between.
“Not thinking. I saw the wings…sensed the hunger.”
“How?”

Soul-Eater

Read Around the Rainbow | How to Romance a Romance Writer

ReadAroundTheRainbow

The first Read Around the Rainbow post of the year!!! 🥳 On the last Friday of every month, we’re a group of authors who blog on the same topic and today’s topic is:

How to Romance a Romance Writer

Ha! We’re just a couple of days away from February, and soon the hysteria of Valentine’s Day will set in. It might already have, I don’t know. I hardly leave my home these days 😅

I’m one of the least romantic people you’ve ever come across. Obvious romantic gestures just make me uncomfortable, so I do my utter best to avoid them. I’d say that in our marriage, my husband is more romantic than I am. If we’re talking love language, I think both my husband and I are in the acts of service category. We suck at all the others. Though he might sneak me a bar of chocolate or a bag of Djungelvrål now and then, sometimes he even buys me a plant for the garden.

I’m bad at reciprocating, and I should do better.

But if you want to know how to romance a romance author – more specifically, how to romance this romance author, there is this game…

It’s called forget your wedding day, year after year.

Both my husband and I are pros of this game. We got married on January 9th, 2010. We didn’t want to get married but felt the pressure of society – bureaucracy can kill you. My son was born on December 9th, 2009, so it should be easy to remember, right? December 9th birthday, January 9th wedding day.

Well, it’s not.

Then some years later, we got our fourth child. She was born on January 8th, so it should make it easier to remember, right? Birthday on January 8th, wedding day on January 9th.

You’d think…

ValentinesI think the key to a happy marriage is to forget that you’re married. I love my husband, but to this day, the only wedding day we’ve ever celebrated was when we’d been married for ten years. Then we left the kids in Mum’s hands and stayed at a hotel for a weekend. But it was a mutual decision to acknowledge that we were in fact married that year 😆

I realise both Holly and I talk about marriage. Romance is so much more than marriage, but in my relationship, there are no candlelit dinners, romantic retreats, or love letters (though there were when he left me to go to Liberia for ten months). What there is, is that I can look across the room, over the chaos of kids and animals, toys and laundry, homework and dishes, and see the man I know will always have my back. No matter what.

If you want to read about ‘real’ romance, I’m sure the others (not Holly since she’s in the same relationship and has the same brain as I do) have something to say about it.

Follow the rose petals to:

Ally Lester
Nell Iris
Fiona Glass
Ellie Thomas
Holly Day
K. L. Noone
Addison Albright

Read Around the Rainbow | Do You Have a Writing Plan for Next Year?

ReadAroundTheRainbow

It’s Read Around the Rainbow Time!!! Every month, we’re a group of authors who blog on the same topic, and this month I picked the topic! 🥳 It sort of backfired, though. When I suggested it, I was sure I was gonna have a plan in place, but I haven’t.

Do you have a writing plan for next year?

That’s the question, and yes, of course, I have plans. It’s just… My main focus in 2023 is gonna be Holly, both because she’s fun and because she makes the most money, and I’m out of work. So while Ofelia is the name I’m more emotionally bound to, I’m gonna put on my business hat and make the best of the situation. And that is Holly.

That being said, I’m not gonna bury Ofelia. There will be a box set with some of the Up North stories coming out in February. And I have already signed up for next year’s advent calendar, so if everything goes according to plan, there will be a story in December.

Research

My goal is one release per quarter. Anything above that is a bonus, but it all depends a little on if there are any submission calls I want to do. Submission calls are always fun, and it’s not always they fit with Holly’s holidays.

It’s a bit lose and it’s a bit unfocused, and it’s not really me. I’m not comfortable not having everything planned out, but as Ofelia, I’m gonna try to roll with the punches during 2023. We’ll see how it goes!

Do you want to know what the others have planned for next year? I know I do. Below you find links to their posts.

See what the others have planned for 2023

Ellie Thomas

Holly Day

A.L. Lester

Nell Iris

Amy Spector

Addison Albright

K.L. Noone

Fiona Glass