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A Constellation of Roses by Miranda Asebedo
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: November 5th 2019
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Synopsis:
Ever since her mother walked out, Trix McCabe has been determined to make it on her own. And with her near-magical gift for pulling valuables off unsuspecting strangers, Trix is confident she has what it takes to survive. Until she’s caught and given a choice: jail time, or go live with her long-lost family in the tiny town of Rocksaw, Kansas.
Trix doesn’t plan to stick around Rocksaw long, but there’s something special about her McCabe relatives that she is drawn to. Her aunt, Mia, bakes pies that seem tocure all ills. Her cousin, Ember, can tell a person’s deepest secret with the touch of a hand. And Trix’s great-aunt takes one look at Trix’s palm and tells her that if she doesn’t put down roots somewhere, she won’t have a future anywhere.
Before long, Trix feels like she might finally belong with this special group of women in this tiny town in Kansas. But when her past comes back to haunt her, she’ll have to decide whether to take a chance on this new life . . . or keep running from the one she’s always known.
With lovable and flawed characters, an evocative setting, and friendships to treasure, A Constellation of Roses is the perfect companion to Miranda Asebedo’s debut novel The Deepest Roots.
Book Links:
How
to Make Your Characters Believable
When
I start a story, I almost always begin with a main character that I
love. Because if I’m going to spend the next year working with
them, I want to absolutely adore this imaginary person. What makes a
character lovable? For me, it’s being believable. A believable
character has to have strengths and weaknesses, motivations, fears,
and dreams. In short, a believable character needs a backstory.
Anyone who’s read early drafts of my work will tell you how much I
love backstory. A lot of it ends up getting cut in final versions,
but it’s that backstory that really helps shape a character who is
well-rounded.
I
start with a notebook. Then I divide it up into sections, a few pages
for each character. I use these to keep track of character backstory,
description, personal timelines, etc. It sounds pretty basic and
low-tech, I know, but wait until you’re on page one hundred-ninety
in your first draft and you can’t remember if a character has a
scar on their right arm or their left. Then you’ll be glad you’ve
written it down in an easy-to-find notebook, and you don’t have to
sift through all those pages on the computer screen to find the last
time you mentioned it.
For
each character, I answer the following questions in my notebook:
This is so important! You can write a whole book about a protagonist
trying to reach their goal. What gets in their way? How do they deal
with it? Trix, the protagonist from my sophomore novel, A
Constellation of Roses, most wants to find a place where she
belongs and feels safe. This drives a lot of her behavior, because
the flip side of this is also her worst fear!
2. What does
this character fear most?
Again, you can write a story just by answering this question. What
happens when this character is forced to face their biggest fear? Can
they overcome it? Trix’s worse fear is being abandoned again, so
she has a habit of pushing people away when they get too close so
that she doesn’t have to feel the pain of loss. Her fear ends up
guiding a lot of her behavior.
3. What are
this character’s interests/passions?
Everyone has interests, and this just helps build a character with
some depth. Trix is an artist, so she’ll notice things like shading
and lighting in a room, where another character wouldn’t notice
those things at all.
Again, with the scar example! Trix’s big-dipper shaped scar is a
huge part of the story, and I had to make sure it was always right.
This is good for building a personality, but also so that you can go
back through during revisions and make sure your character isn’t
dramatically sighing or rolling their eyes two hundred times. For
example, Trix loves to cross her arms, and her favorite word is
“just.” I know, because I had to cut out both of those things in
revisions!
This will help you maintain your timelines. Trix’s first love gets
shot roughly eighteen months before the main story takes place, so I
had to keep track of ages and dates and seasons whenever I was
working on a flashback scene.
I hope these
tricks help you work on your own believable characters. Happy
writing!
About the Author
Miranda Asebedowas born and raised in rural Kansas with a love of fast cars, open skies, and books. She carried that love of books to college, where she got her B.A. and M.A. in English, with an emphasis in Creative Writing and Literature. A Seaton Fellowship recipient,her short fiction has appeared in Kansas Voices, Touchstone, and Midway Journal.
Miranda still lives on the prairie today with her husband, two kids, and two majestic bulldogs named Princess Jellybean and Captain Jack Wobbles. If Miranda's not writing or reading, she's most likely convinced everyone to load up in the family muscle car and hit the road.
Author Links:
Goodreads | Website | Twitter | Instagram
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Photo credit to Alexis Bestwick
I love stories that foster a feeling of family connections, and a bit of magic never hurts. This is definitely going on my list!
ReplyDeleteI love books about family too :)
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