Edith writing from north of Boston, not sure if winter is coming or going.
Either way, I’m always happy to welcome Liz Milliron back to the blog, especially when she has a new Betty Ahearn Homefront historical mystery out! I love this series, and I know you will, too.
March 1943. As the Buffalo winter ends, the father of Betty Ahern’s friend, Lee Tillotson, disappears. At first his absence is a relief, providing Lee, his mother and sisters refuge from the man’s frequent drunken rages. But when Mr. Tillotson is discovered drowned in the Buffalo River and the police charge Lee with the murder, the family’s newfound peace shatters.
Worse, Lee becomes secretive and unwilling to cooperate with Betty or the police. Betty is certain of Lee’s innocence, but there she has very little time to investigate before he must enter his plea in court. To prove Lee’s innocence, Betty digs into Mr. Tillotson’s life, discovering a seamy and dangerous underside to Mr. Tillotson, and to Buffalo itself. With time running out, Betty soon learns who her friends really are, how much Lee loves his family and friends and is loved in return, and just how far the corruption leaking from Buffalo’s City Hall has reached. But can she prove Lee’s innocence before it’s too late?
As Maddie Day, I’m also delighted to be sharing a virtual launch event with Liz next week at Mystery Lovers Bookshop.
Register here. Now, take it away, Liz!
Thanks for having me back, Edith. It’s always great to visit the Wickeds.
As a reader, one of the things that brings me back to a beloved series is character. Once you spend three hundred pages, give or take, with a group of people (even if they are fictional), you can’t help having some opinions about them. It doesn’t matter if they are characters you love – or just love to hate.
I don’t think I’m alone in saying I want my characters to have some growth, too. Even the not-so-nice ones (well, usually). This is especially true of protagonists. I want to see her learn from her mistakes, take new roads, and do new things. Real people do this, at least ideally. Why not fictional ones?
At the same time, a character has to stay true to who she is. If one of her deeply held beliefs is in fairness, she can’t take a left turn and suddenly start thinking or doing things that violate that belief. It’s a change all right, but not a particularly good one.
I feel I know Betty Ahern pretty well. She’s still capable of surprising me, but they are generally good surprises. She and I have very firmly held beliefs. And we aren’t shy about expressing them, either.
You will not be surprised, therefore, when this comment came back from A Trusted Reader I was a bit taken aback: “Betty is being too disrespectful. I don’t like her here.”
(Okay, a “bit taken aback” is an understatement. I was actually quite upset.)
To me, Betty wasn’t being disrespectful at all. She was asserting herself. Standing her ground and not shying away from what was a potentially uncomfortable situation. How can you not like that? Too much has been written about the necessity of “likable” female characters, and I’m not going there in this post, but would the same comment have been made of Lee?
I fussed. I grumbled. I gnashed my teeth. How dare this person say that? Doesn’t she get it? Why does every woman have to be likable every moment? I wanted Betty to have her moment of brashness. After all, she’s not quite nineteen. How many young people are perfectly polished at that age?
I sure wasn’t.
But then I calmed down. Trusted Reader had my best interests at heart, after all. I’d be foolish to disregard the feedback just because I didn’t like it. After all, I’d rather hear it now than, heaven forbid, after publication in a reader review when it was too late to do anything.
I reworked the passage. Betty kept her boldness, but she chose a few different words. Used a different tone of voice, different body language. I adjusted the subtext.
If all of this sounds like hard work, it was. But the truth is, there are always at least two visions of a character: mine and the reader’s. It doesn’t do any good for me to insist that my vision is the only right one because readers own the story as much as I do. I may have written it, but it only really lives once someone picks up the book.
It’s a balancing act, really. How do I stay true to the character (because she is my creation and no one knows her better) and honor my contract with the reader? After all, after three books, readers feel they know Betty pretty well, too. They have expectations. Betty needs to make mistakes and grow – but not in such a way that her fans are disappointed.
Hopefully, Betty and I can meet them – and not lose what makes her a special person in her own right.
Readers, has a much-loved character ever let you down? Writers, how do you keep your characters “true to form” and still give them room for mistakes and change?
Liz Milliron is the author of The Laurel Highlands Mysteries series, set in the scenic Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and The Homefront Mysteries, set in Buffalo, NY during the early years of World War II. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Pennwriters, and International Thriller Writers. A recent empty-nester, Liz lives outside Pittsburgh with her husband and a retired-racer greyhound. Find Liz at her web site, http://lizmilliron.com