Character Study - and 20,000 hits!!!
Okay, so maybe 20,000 isn't so big in the scheme of things, but that averages out to over 400 a week! Which averages to about 60 a day!
Beautiful sunrise this morning, all pink and purple when I look out the window to the right of my computer. Very Eastery.
Plumber is coming at 8:30. My brother and dh are both convinced it will be fixed today. Please, God! I've almost - almost - gotten to the point where I don't care what it costs, ya know? Except I do.
Remember the other day when I was talking about writing series and I don't, that when I'm done with a book, I'm done with it?
I lied.
I have this secondary character in DLB who is starting to flex his muscles and look around - ya know, come to life on his own. And I'm thinking, this guy would be perfect for this other story idea I have that I may someday get to write if I ever finish revisions. So I'm thinking I need to beef him up a bit in DLB (not too much, I don't want an arrow pointing at his head saying "Future Hero") and I need to change his name. I want this guy to be a rule follower, and he uses the hero in DLB as a reason WHY he should follow rules. When he gets his own book, he'll have to break rules, see, and then maybe in the end following rules saves him or something. I've only been playing with this a couple of days on the drive to school.
But here's the thing...I started going farther back into his history and I'm wondering why he's a rule follower.
See, one of the teachers in my unit's husband is in vice (nice segue, huh?) and the other day he was staking out this woman getting meth through the mail. While he was staking her out, she left the house, and he made the decision to let her leave, since they knew where she lived and they didn't want to spook her.
Well, she was in a car accident and died. (I know what you're thinking, but that's not the story I'm looking at.)
In her car was her ten year old son. He's fine. Only he's never been to school because his mother used him to sell drugs for her. He was a prisoner to her, essentially.
THAT'S the story I'm looking at.
What do you think that child will become? My first thought when I heard the story was that he'd be a cop (in romance world, anyway). BUT, could he possibly grow up to be a rule following soldier? What do you think?
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13 comments:
Wow, what a sad story for that child. I'm not sure what ten years of that sort of emotional abuse would do to a person (and what else could it be, when you use your child as a mule?), but it would be a fascinating character study.
As a reader, I generally do like reading stories about characters I've met in earlier books, so I heartily approve. :)
Mary!! Just saw on the PRO loops that you got first place in the Valley of the Sun contest!! Is that right?? Huge congratulations!!! :)
Sarah, is that the Hot Prospects contest? Yeah, I did. Brenda Chin liked it, and recommended I send it to Patience Smith at SIM or Victoria Curran at Super, but by then it was already ST length.
Plumbers just left....$326. Sooooo, not as much as we thought, but not really cheap. Still, we can flush and shower and run the dishwasher and the washing machine.....
20,000 hits! Very impressive--I get a bit over a quarter of that, and sometimes I suspect that most of those hits are me checking the SiteMeter....
Anyway, glad you got your water turned back on, congrats on the contest (!!!!), and good luck with the spinoff!
A kid like that, who started late in school, could also have insecurities about his education - like, worried he wasn't smart enough, and that would help him love soldier's rules...
Or, he could go the other way and become overachieving...
Have a great Easter!
Mar, congrats! You need to post this news on the loops!!!!!!!!!
This kind of life can go many ways..but one way is to grow up and say, "That will never be me", and become the total opposite of what you grew up with. At times to the extreme. I think your premise makes sense, Mar.
Hugs,
J
JoAnn, I did. I found out awhile back. I don't remember when. February? January? Maybe even December. Glad you like my premise!
Paula, most of the reason I want to write it is to kind of delve into why....
Sarah, I love the idea of him being insecure about his intelligence. He's a non-com in this book, so that would fit, I think. Will have to do more research, of course.
Tracy, thanks!
Sounds like a great story, Mary. But then I'm not surprised. :)
Congrats on having flushable toilets again!
What a horrible life for the child! I'd say he'd be street-smart, very cautious, and a loner in school. His grades might be terrible, and he'd either be over-eager to please or would have the don't-care attitude. I've seen both in abused children who are being rehabilitated. There are so many scars.
YAY on the plumbing being fixed.
SAD story. In the real world, it's going to take everything, including a miracle, for that kid not to end up in prison at 18. I mean everything.
In the romance world, we play God every day. Give the kid the miracle.
Congrats on the big numbers.
Aw, thanks, Trish!
Michelle and Mary Beth, I'm thinking his big miracle will be his foster family. Maybe. If it's not too cliche. My dh said the army might be the only place to take him, and once he's in he'll want to excel. Or maybe he could get in trouble with the law and the army will be his alternative to jail, and he'll find love of the structure there.
He would probably have realized as a child that his life wasn't normal, right, if he watched TV, so that will impact him. I'm not sure how a kid would be a drug mule, though.
Mary, I just love that history!! What great hero material! Of course, I'm always one to love a damaged man. When they finally love, they give themselves over to it heart and soul.
Good point about him giving himself heart and soul, Sela! Especially after not feeling worthy. He's going to be so interesting to crack.
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