When
Kathy’s not writing, reading or putting in her forty hours a week as a computer
programmer for the Air Force, she enjoys baking, watching the Ciarán Hinds
version of Persuasion, and making
other people feel superior by letting them win at Scrabble.
She
lives in rural Virginia with a crowd of cats and her sweetie, who’s a fellow
book addict and an avid fly fisherman. Kathy lives in hope that one day he’ll
actually agree to use their passports
(before they expire again).
Kathy is a
member of Romance Writers of America (RWA) and Washington Romance Writers (WRW).
You can find her online at www.kathyaltman.com, or email her at kathy@kathyaltman.com—she’d enjoy hearing from you!
The Rockville 8 would like to give Kathy a warm welcome!
*~*~*
Every June, I spend a
fortune on strawberries. I buy them in 3-quart flats from a local berry farm,
and those 3 quarts don’t even last me a week.
Usually I enjoy them plain,
but I have been known to toss a few into a blender (just to keep the rum and/or
ice cream company). And every now and then I’ll top a bowl of the berries with
fresh whipped cream and toffee bits. Yum! Anyway, by the end of the season (and
of course it is already the end of the season), I’ll have spent easily a
couple hundred dollars on strawberries. And I spend another six weeks loudly
lamenting that the strawberry season is far too short.
So why don’t I just grow my
own? I’ll show you. This is one of my flowerbeds.
Need I say more? Yep. I’m a full-blown tragedy in the garden. Perennials quiver, tomato plants titter, and weeds greet me like old family friends whenever I venture outside. When God was handing out green thumbs, I thought He said “demon rum”, so I politely refused. I’m making up for it now, though. Take another look at that picture—can you blame me?!
This is why I chose to live
vicariously through my heroine Parker Dean. She nurtures not only three
greenhouses worth of thriving plants, but uses her strawberry brilliance to
produce juicy red morsels of home-grown joy. If I want strawberries from my own
yard, I’m stuck with the wild kind—the kind that god-knows-what-critter has
peed on. (It’s also called the mock strawberry—and yes, I choose to take that
personally.)
I also gave my heroine
gorgeous red hair, and her very own Army soldier to play with. Alas, two things
we don’t have in common. But we both
share less-than-stellar fashion sense, and our steadfast belief that a stack of
chocolate chip pancakes contains a lot of happy.
Why
haven’t I figured this out before, that I can live vicariously through my
heroines? Besides pairing her with my current Hollywood crush, I mean? I’ve
always been so concerned with making sure a reader could identify with my
protagonist that until The Other Soldier
I completely missed the opportunity to endow my heroine with one of the many
skills I’ve fantasized about cultivating. (Obviously I’m a late bloomer—and of course
I use the word “bloom” very loosely.)
Earn
a helicopter pilot’s license? My heroine could do that. Learn Arabic? No
sweat—heck, she could learn that and
Mandarin at the same time! Master the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira? Done.
Hang glide off a Hawaiian volcano? She is so
there. Become a firearms expert? Pastry chef? Private investigator? Check,
check and check. Guess I’d better get
busy dreaming up some plots to showcase all of those talents!
So
if you’re a writer, what super special skill have you bestowed on your hero or
heroine? Have you ever read or written a character that inspired you to learn how
to do something in particular? (Writing about Parker and her strawberries has
definitely made me determined to try growing my own again—though this time I’ll
make sure I have supervision. And my hero Reid knows how to rappel—that’s a
definite addition to my bucket list.)
Have
you ever written a character with whom you have nothing in common? Huh—is that even possible?
I have a copy of The Other Soldier I’d love to share with
someone, so please leave a comment. Once I’m done teaching my heroine how to
pick a lock I’ll pick a winner. :-)
Many
thanks to everyone for stopping in today! And a very special thanks to all of
the lovely and gifted Rockville 8 ladies for inviting me to blog! You never
fail to entertain and educate here—thank you for letting me be part of the fun!
Corporal Reid Macfarland has one mission: to make amends for the mistake he lives with every day. That friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan that killed a fellow soldier haunts him. Maybe if he can help the widow, he'll find some peace.
*~*~*
Corporal Reid Macfarland has one mission: to make amends for the mistake he lives with every day. That friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan that killed a fellow soldier haunts him. Maybe if he can help the widow, he'll find some peace.
But
amends are easier said than done. Just one meeting with the independent and
engaging Parker Dean makes it clear that forgiveness is a little more
complicated than offering money or an apology. If he really wants to help, Reid
has to stick around for a while. The more their daily lives intertwine, the
more he realizes her forgiveness isn't the only thing he needs—he needs her.
Mmmm...Strawberries...
ReplyDeleteOh! Sorry! Got distracted. Congratulations, Kathy, on your determination to try growing strawberries again, and on your release THE OTHER SOLDIER!
You're so right in that a character needs a skill. Everyone is good at something. (No really!) We admire friends and strangers for that special thing they do. A character who can do something very well makes can really come to life for readers. And as a reader, I know I can't wait for an author's next book when her characters read like old friends.
I make a mean chocolate-dipped strawberry. Just saying'.
ReplyDeleteI have your book (love it!) but I'll comment anyway:
My heroines have paranormal talents. They're not always reliable talents, and they make life interesting for her and the hero. As I kid I thought it would be cool to be psychic - telepathy and teleportation were my main wishes. No such luck. But in my books...well, I'm not specifically using those two talents, it's fun to live vicariously through my charters.
Kathy! I finished The Other Soldier on the treadmill this morning with tears in my eyes. The good kind of tears in my eyes, the kind you're supposed to get at the end of a good Superromance. :-) And man, The Other Soldier IS a good one.
ReplyDeleteBut as for living vicariously through my characters . . . my problem is I give my characters interesting jobs that I have no clue about. The sheer amount of research has stalled me out on more than one occasion! LOL.
You had me living vicariously through Parker, in TOS, right up until the slugfest. Right there, me and my lack of plant skills were outta there. :-)
Thank you so much, ladies! I'm so sorry I'm late to the party!! For some reason Blogger has picked today of all days to be grumpy to me. Hopefully by now it has gotten over itself. :-)
ReplyDeleteNichole! Thank you so very much for your congratulations! On the books and on the strawberry agenda. :-) I can only hope the book fares better than I fear the strawberry plants will, but you never know, right?!
ReplyDeleteAnd you're spot on about admiring people with skills! And maybe there's a touch of jealousy there, too, on our behalf? My sister and one of my brothers inherited the family gene for crafting things with yarn--they make beautiful crocheted afghans and scarves and hats and such--and it seems my talent lies only in enjoying them. Hmm. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, after all! :-) Thank you again so much for your encouragement!!
Oooh, Willa, you have my undivided attention, LOL!
ReplyDeleteAnd fun, cool fact about your characters! I knew that you wrote Scottish historicals but the paranormal part didn't register. Even better!! :-) That's a terrific example of giving your characters abilities we can only fantasize about--I bet you DO have fun with that! And I look forward to reading all about it!
I'm so glad you took the time to coment, Willa--it's always a great pleasure to see you!
Yvonne, I double <3 you!! :-) I can't tell you how much your kind words mean to me, and I am so, so thrilled to hear that you enjoyed my book. I'm also jealous of your discipline in getting on the treadmill. :-) *Really* need to pay some attention to mine.
ReplyDeleteLOL on giving your characters obscure jobs you need to research! I hadn't thought about that--the higher the cool factor, the more the research required. Definitely something to consider when we're handing out occupations. But that could work to our advantage, if we make our hero something along the lines of a male cover model...
And I agree, Parker is braver than I am! The things we put our characters through!
Thank you so much again for hosting me this week, and for your generous support! The Rockville 8 rocks!! :-)
Hey Kathy! So happy to have you on the R8 this week!
ReplyDeleteThe one skill I seem to give my characters consistently is the ability to fight, mano-a-mano. Guess that tells me something about myself!
I'm working on a short story now and you've got me thinking of how to shade my h/h with a skill other than "beats crap out of bad guys." Maybe one of them is a champion whistler? Or decorates a mean Christmas cookie? Hmm...Options! I love options!
LOL, Keely! Champion whistler, huh?! Definitely a unique talent! And that IS interesting about consistently giving your characters a particular quality--I do like how that reflects on the writer. I'll have to research what my heroines have in common. Therapy through character study--I like it!! Thank you for the warm welcome, Keely! :-)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of whistlers. I am not a champion, but I am a damn good whistler (if I say so myself) and that's one personal attribute I passed on to my shero.
ReplyDeleteAnd hello Kathy and thanks for that great blog. My mouth waters for strawberries but I will make do with fat, juicy blackberries.
I always think I know everything my heroine needs to know or how to do. I know just enough to get started and then I think: "Oh, I'll just brush up on that nuclear physicist thing one evening before I write that scene." Being a research junkie, I then end up spending days on a subject that is just back drop.
Sigh. I'm easily distracted. The one thing I want all my sheros to do, which I have not always done successfully, is pick the right guy. The guy that will love her, honor her, rub her feet, bring home the bacon, change diapers and who understands the importance of tiny velvet boxes with big price tags.
Thanks for sharing...
Shellie
Hi, Shellie! Blackberries will do the trick nicely, as well! Especially over ice cream. :-)
ReplyDeleteI love your term "shero!" Believe it or not, I've never heard that before. But I look forward to the chance to use it, now that I know it!
Yes, research is so important, but it's also such a time suck. :-) I like your wish list for your sheros (there! I did it!)--in fact, I'd like to have those things for myself. ;-) My current shero (did it again!) has an office job, so I'd like to give her a talent that's a little more unique than handling campaigns for clients.
Thank you so much for commenting, Shellie! Good luck with your story!