Young Adult Paranormal Romance/ Sci-Fi
Date Published: 10/11/2013
Hidden powers. Otherworldly boyfriends. FORBIDDEN SECRETS.
For Aislinn Moore, attending college at seventeen isn’t a big deal. Not when compared to the difficulties associated with seeing ethereal beings and having prophetic dreams.
As Aislinn learns to surmount the obstacles of her talents, she awakens something inside herself—an ancient memory, long forgotten. She senses there are reasons for her gifts, but remains unable to understand them.
When Alexander Welch enters her life, she learns of the Ewlishash—the hope bringers—and thinks she may have found her answer. Alexander is sexy, sweet, and his talents are like something straight out of a Sci-Fi flick. Aislinn wonders if she may be like him, but the more she tries to fit his mold, the more her instincts scream that her destiny holds something even greater.
Alaina Ewing
Alaina Ewing lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two boys. She holds a degree in Multimedia Production and is the Assistant Chair for Cascade Writers, a nonprofit Milford-style workshop. She also makes jewelry, dream catchers, and enjoys working with herbs and essential oils. Her first novel, The Heart-Shaped Emblor, releases October 11, 2013 with Evil Girlfriend Media. The novel is the first in the Ewlishash Series. Read more about Alaina at www.alainayewing.com.
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Guest Post
Hardest Thing
About Character Development
I think the most challenging thing for me
has been finding the right amount of brokenness to give my characters. Some
people like to throw everything in the book at their them and make them squirm
in agony, but I don’t care for that method. Usually my characters’ weaknesses
have more to do with internal struggles, so the need to continually put
physical roadblocks before them isn’t necessary. I use a lot of emotional challenges
instead.
So far, I haven’t had a method of
developing a character, but now that I’m working on some new projects, I’m
using something that I learned from author Steven Barnes. I saw him on a panel
at Norwescon in 2013, and he told us how he uses the chakra to develop his characters.
There are seven points of the chakra, and he breaks two or three of those
points and has the character heal them by the end of the novel. This is a
really fast way to know what your characters’ flaws are right up front. So if I
want to create a character that is suffering in two areas, like communication
and spirituality, then I can create scenes to assist in showing those broken
aspects, then more scenes later on to show the changing of that character to
strengthen those weak parts of the personality.
The toughest thing I encountered in The
Heart-Shaped Emblor was the development of Aislinn. She is emotionally and
spiritually broken, doesn’t have any confidence, and has to overcome all of
that as well as her fear, in order to fulfill her destiny. So many people beta
read the novel for me because finding that balance between her being weaker in
the beginning, but then strong by the end, was difficult. Brokenness is
difficult. So much of what I put into Aislinn’s character came from things I
felt or thought at some point when I was not as sure of myself as I am now. This
is what makes her feel believable to me.
Bottom line, not everyone will always
connect with a character. I don’t connect with characters who are athletes
because I’m not competitive in that way. Keeping my characters’ challenges
aligned with things I know helps me stay on track and make them relatable.
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