Your Morning Tidbit -- How real can characters be?

Happy Friday!!! I hope you all had a great week. Ours was full of weather and unexpected challenges including internet issues, which is how I missed this week's Beyond the Sample Teaser Tuesday! 

Ugh. Technology. It's so wonderful when it works as advertised but when it doesn't it is so frustrating. Did anyone else have any technology issues this last weekend too? We had four separate incidents, two internet related and two separate household appliance issues. In fact, I thought our router was toast but then it just miraculously began working again this past Tuesday all by itself. Puzzling. (I could come up with one heck of a fictional story about all sorts of possibilities on why it needed to be down for five days.🤔 )

Beyond that, did you catch the video ad for The Disruption of Forever last Friday? What'd you think of it? Did you like it? Does it make you wonder about the series? It's always difficult keeping those videos short because I'm a writer. I like to write. I love words. I'll try to keep them shorter as it seems attention spans are only like 5 seconds long on Facebook. I am learning as I go, which proves you're never too old to learn. 

This last weekend, I did a little video ad for my books in general, highlighting my Cedar Grove series, and released that last Sunday evening on Facebook. I'll post it here, just in case you are not on Facebook and missed it. 

For those of you who have been sharing my posts and leaving amazing reviews, I am grateful for you! Thank you! Here is an amazing review that I was humbled to read regarding my Portrait of an Unlikely Affair series: 

I appreciate every word of it as well as the sharing of the post! 

So, now that housekeeping is finished here, what are we going to talk about this week? I've been pondering that all week. It's been chilly this week, hanging out in the 30s and 40s all week with snow on the ground, dreaming of what I'm going to plant in my garden this year. There's a lot of time to think and consider as I do mundane tasks around the house. Sometimes my greatest thoughts come to me while I am washing dishes, cooking dinner, or trying to go to sleep. I've must've written 100s of masterpieces in my mind, never a pen or paper around when I do it of course, and I've must've planned my garden and all of the wonderful vegetables I'm going to grow at least as many times. But the other day, I was thinking about my characters and whether or not they could be real people. This came about as my husband was watching a "scripted reality show" in the living room while I was washing dishes. The characters on the show were acting so petty and ridiculous that it was very scripted and very much no reality a few episodes in. As a writer, I could tell no actual human willingly acts like these people were acting, except due to bad writing. Of course, human behavior really doesn't surprise me anymore. You also can't discount that real-life people become addicted to drama, strife, game playing, and petty things as they are stuck in one phase of their life. But, yeah, that "reality" show was completely scripted as people would be fired for what they were not doing. 

Still, when it comes to my own characters, I like to be consistent. Believable behavior is good whereas unbelievable behavior embarrasses me. I would be horrified to have my characters be as inconsistent as those characters were being. 

So, let's look at our characters. Are they believable as actual people? 

I'd like to start off with some of my 'secondary' characters in my Portrait of an Unlikely Affair series. Now, I'm re-reading my series all over again because I like to read, and it is actually amazing to read a book through as a reader. To be honest, I actually forget I've written it! But when I wrote these earlier books, I had no idea where they were going to end, so now that I do know, it does make it interesting. As I am 15 chapters into The Legend of CuSithGrim, book 2, I'm really enjoying seeing the progression. I've even stayed up wwwwwaaaaaayyyyyy past my bed time with these first two books because "just one more page!" 

Let's begin with Tom Ridley.

When we first meet Tom, we know that he has some skeletons in his closet. Guilt is his biggest demon. In the first book, the series namesake, we get some inklings that Tom and Brian have a fractured relationship. We learn that Brian's childhood wasn't the best and Tom is aware of it, however, Tom is trying to make up for whatever he did. Tom's relationship with his youngest son, Tommy, is a happy and healthy one. Tom makes sure he is there for Tommy is every way a father needs to be. Despite this, there is no jealousy between Tommy and Brian. There is no blame or rivalry between the two of them. Brian doesn't seem to be at all concerned that his relationship with Tom isn't as close as Tommy's relationship with their father. 

Tom's marriage to Jan isn't the healthiest, and they are only 'civil' to get Tommy through to graduation. I'm not saying that is a great reason to stay in a marriage, especially when both parties seem to have contempt for each other. Well, Jan actually has more contempt for Tom at that point of their life together. In the first book, we also learn that Tom lost the love of his life at a crucial point in the lives of all involved. It is something that Tom never got over and his love for her carries on over twenty-years later.  Perhaps Tom needs some grief counseling? 

Which brings us to the relationship of Tom and Maggie. I am well aware of the taboo of Tom, a married man, having Maggie as a mistress. Sure, Hollywood, politicians, and other high-profile people would love for us peasants to say that the dynamics of that is perfectly justifiable because Tom is in a toxic and loveless marriage. Then we learn that Jan is also having a long-term affair on the side with someone else as well. Yeah, not the best role models ever. They are obviously not sharing the same bedroom in the house and that's probably been for several years. But what about Tom and Maggie? Now, in The Legend of CuSithGrim, book 2, you do get to see how Maggie and Tom met. I honestly have no idea when their romance began, but it definitely wasn't right away. It probably developed gradually over the nine years they've known each other. 

Being in the position that Tom is in, he could technically delegate a lot of tasks to his assistants. Everybody would know him, but he doesn't have to know everyone. But Tom does like to be hands on, he knows the names of his drivers and those he is directly involved. He likes that 'small town' environment and getting to know everyone. Even when he is 'off' and out to dinner with his family, he still makes the rounds to say hello and take interest in those who are on his base. He does keep tabs on his son, Brian, as it has become a habit to him. Again, this is most likely due to guilt but also because a part of him knows what Brian is capable of. This becomes apparent, too, in book 2.  

Now, thinking of that 'reality' show that my husband was watching, I now ask myself, "Is Tom's behavior believable in real life? Is he handling situations befitting of his position?" 

Yeah, I do believe so. Sometimes the most "put together" people have some sort of internal chaos happening, just like the analogy of the duck -- you see a duck gliding smoothly across the water, but beneath him, unseen, are his feet, paddling like crazy. 

Having re-read these first two books, they are really enjoyable and fun. Pages just fly by. I do know that with book one, Portrait of an Unlikely Affair, there's a tipping point. It's like getting to know someone you just met -- they're strangers, you guardedly take your time getting to know them, and all of a sudden, you're best friends and hanging out because you totally get each other 100%, it's like you've known each other forever, and how did you ever live without knowing them? As it is, I'd rather be finishing reading book 2 than writing this because I can't wait to see how it turns out. (Wait, I wrote the book. I already know. But still, I want to see how well it flows!)

I see that you really get to know Tom better in book 2, The Legend of CuSithGrim, and there are some exchanges in there that will make you squirm while others will just be page turners. I do like getting to know the dynamics of the whole Ridley family in book 2 as well. They are a very functional family with one major dysfunction and a few smaller ones. Every family is like that, though, some with more dysfunctions than others, but we've all got some sort of dysfunction happening.

So, what is your take on Tom Ridley? What have you noticed about him? Do you like him as a character or do you dislike him due to his choices in life? 

 Well, on that note, I'll let you get about your day! Thank you for hanging out with me today, I really appreciate it! Keep those reviews coming and keep on sharing those posts! I appreciate it! One of my posts has crossed over 9,800 screens, being viewed over 2,400 times!!!😳 I was shocked when I saw those numbers!! Not sure how that happened but it did and I am truly grateful for it. 

If you have any comments or questions about any of my nine published books, please let me know! Remember to like, love, and share my posts! Find all of my books in one convenient location: amazon.com/author/EmBrooks

These are the two books discussed in the article above. Click on their picture to be taken to them on Amazon for a free sample or to purchase on Kindle or in paperback!

Enjoy! Thank you for hanging out with me today. I appreciate it. And yes, there are millions of books out there to read, and I am honored that you choose mine. Have a great weekend everyone! 💕