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,

I've always felt that the hallmark of good, strong fiction was a cast of characters who felt real, no matter who or what they were.  By the time I've finished a book, if I wanted to know more about them, or felt like I had made friends, it's a good one.  I feel particularly fortunate and grateful that so many readers have told me that Lines of Power is full of such characters ... and I decided it might be fun to let you get to know them a little more, one by one.   So now, once a month or so, I'll be starting a new feature here on Between The Lines ...

Given my recent blog about hopepunk as a genre and what it represents, it seemed only natural to start with the character who embodies it most, and who has been in every single novel so far: Crowley.  Some of you who have only read From the Desk of Buster Heywood know him as The Spanner, and in The Proper Bearing, he goes by another nickname for a while: Topper.   But none of these are his real name, which remains to be disclosed (sorry, no spoilers here - yet).  Crowley is, however, his favorite of his nicknames, and the one his friends and colleagues in the Organization know him by.  

That image was how Crowley first appeared to me, fully formed and full of attitude.   The only difference is that when he's out and about as The Spanner, he sports a leather jacket instead of his usual denim vest - formerly a jacket, with the sleeves cut off, just as covered in buttons.  Each one of the buttons is either sarcastic, political, or punk in nature, and anyone who looks close will note that some of those political buttons date all the way back to the 60s, right along with the yellow smiley face he keeps front and center amid all that punk, right over his heart.   

While I was filling out the Organization, I knew that I'd need someone who kept to the darker side of its balance, someone who did the deeds nobler people would balk at doing.  A punk fit the bill nicely, but someone young wouldn't understand why it needed to be done: they'd only do trouble for trouble's sake.  I live in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, where we have an annual tradition called Motorcycle Week(end).  Every June, the town next to mine is flooded with bikers who gather to participate in rides, races, and a myriad of other events, and a sea of vendor tents, entertainment pavillions, and leather and denim consumes us.   As such, I've seen more than my share of aging dudes with 'tudes, people who have had their inner anarchy tempered by time.  I knew that was exactly the sort of person the Organization needed, but I still lacked a face and a name ... until I picked up a Greatest Hits CD of a certain musician on a whim.   Listening to it in the car, a particular line struck me like a bolt from the blue, and with it, came not only the face, but Crowley's singular name. 

Crowley - a name that instantly evokes the darker side of magic: occult secrets, meetings in the dead of night, rituals with daggers, all the negative aspects of modern new age witchcraft.  It's the sort of name someone slated to cause trouble would use to his absolute advantage.  And just like that, I could picture im lounging in my passenger seat, hanging an arm out the window to flick his cigarette ashes out into the road.  And we had a nice little conversation about where he was from, and what he did for Janus, and what some of his favorite moments were.  I won't spoil them all - they're bound to make their way into future Lines of Power installments - but I will say that he was among the bikers at Altamont, and that the mining story he tells Miles in The Proper Bearing was prior to his joining the Organization.   Also, a fun fact for those who've read In The Cards: he wasn't Ral's original trainer!  That honor first belonged to Felicia Sabrien, the Enforcer who becomes Janus' right-hand-woman.  See one of the stories in "Finders Keepers" for the details...   

Clearly, there's a lot more to Crowley than just his attitude and his penchant for showing up to annoy the heroes of my tales.  He has his own story to tell, and it will likely come out in small pieces over the course of everyone else's.  As much as I'd love to give him his own novel, it doesn't really seem his style.  The devil is in the details, and he's content to stay there.  In the meantime, I take comfort and pleasure in knowing that he's out there, somewhere, no matter what I'm writing, making sure things don't go too well.  I have to be able to give my heroes something to fix, after all.  It's a good working relationship, and one I'm glad to have.  

Want more Crowley?  You can find him in everything on the Novels & Short Stories page, with the exception of Times of Trouble: try as I might, I couldn't find an easy spot for him there.   Got a favorite Crowley scene?  Or maybe you've got a question about him I didn't address?   Hit up the comments section, let's talk!  I love character chats.  

Until next time, I remain your hostess,

Before I delve into this week's blog post proper, I have some amazing news: the official results of Metamorph Publishing's Summer Indie Book Awards are in!  I'm proud to announce that From the Desk of Buster Heywood ultimately won 2nd place in the Thriller category!  My sincere thanks to each and every one of you who voted ... I couldn't have done it without you!

Music is always an integral part of my writing ... I construct a soundtrack for each novel as I go along, with a little help from music cloud sites like Pandora and Google Play.  They help me set a mood, and then as I refine the novel, I also refine the list, choosing songs to fit characters and scenes.  Last year, I shared my list for From the Desk of Buster Heywood, so it seemed only fitting to celebrate In The Cards' release with its own soundtrack.   If you haven't yet grabbed a copy, it's $0.99 on Kindle until September 25th!  The reviews on Amazon are already phenomenal... but you're here for the music.  Go ahead, punch play and follow along ... 

1. Fall Out Boy - Fourth of July
This is one of my favorite songs for Ral, and his failed relationship with Natalie.  He can't deny that he's still attracted to her, and there are a lot of regrets ... but there's a lot of anger surrounding how it all ended, too.
​
2. Nina Gordon - Horses In The City
A great, lovely, lonely song that captures Beatrice's mood on her first few weeks in Aviario perfectly.

3. The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian
This has been June's theme for many, many years, ever since I came up with the concept of a perky goth with a love for all things 1980s.  It's what's playing in the Balefires the first time Beatrice sets foot inside.

4. John Mellencamp - Small Town
This is the Weldyns' theme, and the perfect music for writing Ral's visit to their house for dinner and conversation.  I have always had this song as part of a generic Aviario playlist, and it's likely to stay there.

5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Messiah Ward
The Bad Seeds are my go-to music for writing Dr. Feistus in any stripe, but this serves his therapy sessions with Troy almost too well.

6. Oingo Boingo - No One Lives Forever (Live, Farewell Tour)
Dr. Jon Knight is filled, heart and soul, with the essence of Danny Elfman in the '80s.  It's only fitting that this is what he's rocking out to when Sam comes to visit him in the morgue.

7. Peter Gabriel - Sky Blue
I had this song on loop while writing Beatrice's visit to Louise's house.  For me, it has always been a song connected with magic and serenity.

8. Christophe Beck - Suite from Restless
Ral's nightmare about his initiation was inspired by this piece from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and as such it was constantly playing as I wrote.  It captures the sacred, ancient nature of the ritual along with the frenzied, wild panic which ensues as it all begins to go wrong.

9. Rasputina - The Olde Headboard
Melora Creager's violin-infused goth rock is my go-to music for writing Natalie ... her signature tune is "Things That I'm Gonna Do", but this one seemed to fit a little more with what happens to her during In The Cards.  I put this one on while writing her breakfast date with Ral at Somethin' Brewin'.

10. Peter Gabriel - Cloudless
A song without words for the loss of a lovely character.

11. John Fogerty - Premonition
I was at a loss for any music for Troy until I heard this gem.  It has a rustic soul like Troy's, and ties down into everything that's plaguing him by the time the plot really begins to gain ground.

12. Collective Soul - Where The River Flows
I wrote Troy's premonition at the bank of the Housatonic to Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain", but Pandora fed me this song one day while I was editing, and it seemed so much more gritty and visceral.  (Besides, this was already a pretty Gabriel-heavy soundtrack.)

13. Florence & the Machine - Shake It Out
Ral lets go of his hang-ups, and it's about damn time.

14. Team Fat - Funky Tubes
What better music for the novel's final confrontation than a piece from something that inspired it all?

15. Cher - Heart of Stone
Just because Ral's decided what's best doesn't mean he's happy about it.  I wrote his visit to St. Dymphna's with this playing ... in fact, it was the very first song I ever chose for him.

16. MGMT - Kids
As all-out terrifying and trippy as the video for this song may be, its bouncy, upbeat tune is a perfect match for the Fire Gang's gathering at Madie's in the final chapter. 

17. The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want
It may be a little cliche, as final songs go, but I can't think of a better fit for Troy's last few moments on the page ... and for the man who sets him on the next branch of his path. 

BONUS: Linkin Park - Waiting For The End
Heart of Stone may have been Ral's first song, but this was the song that helped me really get under his skin and connect with him.  It got me through a very difficult part of my life, and I tapped into that to find his feelings and his thoughts about his uncle, Duncan.  I'd be doing both of us a disservice if I didn't give it some form of mention.  

That's all for this week, folks!  I hope you enjoy the soundtrack and will come back next week, when I'll have a review of indie author L.M. Bryski's spectacular debut novel, Book of Birds!  Until then, I remain your hostess,

Since this week's theme is "First Line of a Scene or Chapter", I have two pieces to share, simply because I couldn't make up my mind.  Both are from In the Cards, coming in September.  

This week's excerpt from In The Cards takes place during a reading for its heroine, Beatrice, as she's trying to find her footing in her new hometown.  The image to the right is from Peter Pracownik's "Dragon Tarot", which is the deck I chose for her new friend and mentor, Louise Mullein.  ​