I thought I'd come back to What A Character by sharing a bit more about another Adjustments protagonist: Officer Troy McLaren.  Readers of In The Cards will remember Troy as the policeman who helps Beatrice and Ral uncover the truth behind a series of murders and disappearances in Aviario... but Troy is more than just your stereotypical small-city beat cop.  

Over the course of In The Cards, Troy discovers that he has a magical ability, himself: psychometry, the power to see the history of an object through touch.  These visions are not voluntary at first, and he must learn to control them in order to make them work for, not against him.   When we see him next in Adjustments, he'll be making some more progress toward that goal as he settles into his role as an Informer for the Organization.

But how did Troy come to be?  Like a handful of characters, I owe his existence to a friend.  When I was first drafting From the Desk of Buster Heywood, I was part of a club of tabletop and board game enthusiasts.  Some friends in this club encouraged me to use Aviario as the setting for a game, and I decided the best course of action was to have them create ordinary town residents and give them small supernatural mysteries to solve.  Over the course of a year or so, an assorted bunch of characters explored everything from strange phenomena at a town-wide yard sale to clues hidden in a corn maze.  Most of these players came and went simply out of curiosity, but a handful created characters who maintained a presence throughout the run of the game.  Troy was one such character, and his player built a wonderful history in to explain his role in the town, along with some fantastic character flaws that gave me a lot of room to play with as a storyteller.   When the club began to fade due to members moving away or having other committments, I asked Troy's player if he would allow me to write him into one of the books, and he heartily agreed.  

The trait Troy became most famous for in the game sessions is one which I absolutely needed to carry over into the books: he loves running the sirens on his cruiser in short bursts whenever he can get an opportunity ... like a trucker who will pull on the air horn when encouraged by children in passing cars.  (This may be the reason why his partner, Sam, insists on driving most of the time.)   I can't share all of Troy's history with you here: that's something he'll share with Buster when they meet in Adjustments.  But I can tell you that over the course of writing him, he's grown a lot.  He's an Eagle Scout, a trait I gave to him as an homage to his creator, and calls his cruiser "Felicia" as a reference to another game from the same club.  He's genuinely sympathetic toward everyone in his jurisdiction, and tries to see situations from both sides while still upholding the letter of the law.  His rural upbringing serves him well in Aviario, where he has quickly learned that everyone knows everyone ... and he cherishes those connections, proud to humbly uphold them and keep his community safe.  As his creator said to me recently:  

I have taken that foundation and built him into a character who - thankfully - that creator is still proud of and excited to see on the page.  So, today may seem like a spotlight on a part of my writing, but really, this blog post is my platonic love letter to Andrew ... thank you so much for giving me Troy.  I don't think Lines of Power would be anywhere near as fun as it is without him.  "Woop-woop!"

​Until next time,

It may have only been seven days (I haven't written yet today - this came first), but I already feel like this is my best NaNo in a few years.  I've stayed a day ahead of my word count goal almost consistently, and there are only three chapters left in Adjustments!   THREE!   ...  It was two, but then I realized that there would be a lot of things going on, and splitting the last chapter to allow my readers some breathing room was probably a good idea.    Earlier this week, I got to write a scene that I've been looking forward to ever since I published From the Desk of Buster Heywood ....  Buster, himself, was less than pleased, but don't worry, he'll be okay.   He's got a good support network when it comes to dealing with what I throw his way.

As any of you who are participating - or see participants around your social media of choice - may know, NaNoWriMo updated and overhauled their website over the course of the year, in honor of its 20th anniversary.  I'm still acclimating to it, and those looking for blogs about the pros and cons of the new layout will probably be able to find them with ease - this isn't one of those.  I do like the lighter color scheme, and the addition of clip art: it makes it a little more fun to check in and add to my word count.  I'm not a big user of the forums or other site features, because I signed up to write for an entire month, and it's far too easy to lose my focus and go clicking around to other people's projects (yeah, you know me) building my beta-reading wishlist. 

Right now, my word count is at 16,390 and today's benchmark is 13,336, so ... I'm rocking it.  1,667 words a day is turning out to equal about an hour of work if the words aren't fighting me, and since it's been so long since I felt able to really dive in here, they're not fighting me at all.  I still have a few worries about what, exactly, is going to go down in the climactic scene, but sometimes I have to treat writing as though I'm sitting in a theatre, writing the play script as it gets improvised in front of me, and trust the characters to do their work.   Usually, when I do this, they surprise me in some really great ways:  Buster's conversation with Cameron at Charlie's Bar in the first novel is a great example of this: it's how I ended up with the coconut rum anecdote ... something which comes up again here in Adjustments and really helped me learn a little more about my favorite anxious accountant.    So far this month, it's also given me a place for Troy to share a crucial story about how he got to Aviario, and is quietly driving an unexpected wedge between some of the villains.  Ambition is a dangerous thing - I just have to figure out how much it's going to cost them.

I'm keeping it short and sweet this time, so I can get back to things, but next time you can expect another update, and maybe a character or place feature.   I'll see you then! 

​Until then, I remain your hostess,

It may seem strange to highlight a protagonist here, particularly the reluctant hero of my first novel.  Buster Heywood is so very much in the spotlight already that he's even the only character to get name-dropped in a title.  But he's had a very, very, long journey to become the character you see on the page, and with Adjustments being his second appearance, I thought it fitting to give you a glimpse into that journey.

Long-time followers of this blog will know that I'm not shy about sharing his inspiration: comedic character actor James Urbaniak, primarily known for his voice work on Adult Swim veteran The Venture Brothers.  He's a little more widely known now for the Hulu series Difficult People, but he took a turn on the dark side for a single season of a show called Kidnapped... and that's where Buster's roots really took hold.  Originally, he was meant to be a villain, menacing June Slovich in a storyline that never completely fleshed out.  The more I tried to get to know him, the more he defined himself, as most of my characters do: and I got a clear picture of someone who wasn't creepy or awful, just extremely awkward and misunderstood.  I started to wonder how someone like Buster could wind up in a villainous role ... but before I could really start thinking about it, my own life kicked into overdrive.

I'd been working an office job for a year and a half: the longest position I'd held since college.  Without warning, the business closed because its owner had been involved in illegal activities 99% of his employees had no clue about.  I lost my job, then my apartment, and a decent amount of professional credibility.  Despite this, I knew how lucky I was to not have been involved.  In the aftermath, between looking for a new job and putting my life back together, I found Buster's story without much problem at all.  Mind you, Loren Jarvon isn't based on my former boss in any capacity, nor are Daniel and Jeremiah, or any of the victims of their collaboration.  But Buster's realization that he had to become his own advocate was a lesson I taught him so that I could teach myself.   

Like Buster, I live with anxiety and panic attacks.  My debut was a way to work through what happened when I lost that job, yes, but writing Buster now has a better purpose, a stronger one: to show that people who struggle with mental illness can still be heroes.  In Adjustments, Buster is a little older and wiser, but he's still got his anxiety, and a hefty dose of PTSD on top of it all (thanks, Loren).  In spite of these, he is still trying to be his best self and answer what he's realized is his calling: to use his uncanny knack for observation in service of the community he's come to adore.    ​

A friend on Twitter recently asked which character I thought resembled me the most, and there was no hesitation whatsover: I chose Buster.  I like to think I'm not quite as particular, awkward, or as much of a slave to my habits, but we both notice patterns, hate crowds, struggle with the spoken word, and prefer the familiar.  We also share a love for old books, puzzles, and diner food.  Buster's favorite restaurant, The Fountain, is based on a place I've loved since childhood ... and in an amusing case of life imitating art, I live within walking distance of it.   I didn't, when I started writing.   Funny how things turn out, sometimes, isn't it?  Either way, the muse is quite happy that stepping into his shoes is as easy as stepping out the door... which brings us to something we don't have in common: Buster's love of walking everywhere, or what he and his friends call Wandering. with a capital W.

A lot of events in From the Desk of Buster Heywood revolve around or begin with a Wander, and the origin of this habit was originally a flashback in the first chapter.  It slowed down the flow of the plot, though, and it is now a stand-alone story that you can find in "Finders Keepers", the free e-book I offer my readers.  I got the idea when I set out to take pictures of a local neighborhood that inspired Buster's, armed with my camera.   I didn't walk everywhere, but the more photographs I took, the more I got a clear picture of his favorite habit, and the sort of things he would notice.   Ideally, I'd share those pictures here, but an unfortunate hard drive failure in 2014 took them away from me.  They live on in words...

Please join me next week, when I'll share the inspiration behind The Fountain in my Sense of Place feature.  In the meantime, if you want a decent representation of how Buster gets squeaky when he's agitated, I invite you to enjoy a skit by the inspiration himself.  (Word to the wary: he does drop a couple of f-bombs.)

Until next week, I remain your hostess,