Published March 23, 2023 by Brigids Gate Press, LLC

A family's relocation looked like a chance to relax and regroup—but as they settle into their new home, teenage Kimmie Barnes’ special senses make her the target of something primordial, evil, and utterly malign.

Darkness…

Golden Oaks, California is a sleepy town on the shores of Oro Lake,

and the residents have no idea what horrors lurk below the glittering waters.

Beneath the waves…

One by one, as people begin to disappear,

the once quiet town is soon in the grips of a waking nightmare.

An unimaginable horror consuming everything before it.

Hungry…

All while echoes of an ancient evil spread out like malignant spider webs,

like dead hands reaching, grasping…

SEETHING…

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Making A Setting Feel Real (Even If It’s Not) by ben Monroe

When I wrote The Seething, one of the things I really wanted to do was make the small town setting of Oro Lake, California seem real. While the town is completely a figment of my imagination (though inspired by a few real towns), I felt it was vital to the story to make it seem like a real place, like somewhere readers could visit. Somewhere that felt like it had existed in that place for a long time, and had a history of its own, and that The Seething was perhaps only one of the stories taking place there. As the characters are traveling there, I gave pretty specific directions about their drive, noting the highway numbers, side streets, road signs, etc. Of course, it was all completely made up.

This is something I often consider when writing any of my stories, honestly. Most of what I write is set in the modern world, rather than a strange fantasy kingdom, or a science fiction galaxy far, far away. And while it might seem relatively easy to create a sense of place in the familiar confines of the here and now, there’s still a bit of thinking that must be done to get that feeling across to the reader.

In order to create the sense of a real place, I think are the three key elements to include in a setting: Names, Backstories, and Connections.

Name Everything You Can

This is pretty simple, but really helps to sell a setting as real. Characters don’t just drive along the road looking for a place to eat. They drive down “Hawford Lane, on the way to Farley’s Diner.” Any time you have the opportunity to give something a name, do it (and for goodness sake, make a note of it somewhere so you don’t forget!). This is especially helpful when making up locations for your story. Naming streets, stores, buildings, etc., gives the reader a sense that they’re reading about real places.

And don’t just reserve this for places; naming objects also helps. Don’t be generic if you can get away with it. Tell the readers that the maniac is chasing the teenagers with a Stihl chainsaw, or a Craftsman hammer. 

What Happened Here Before?

This is the Backstory of a place I mentioned earlier. Not every named location in a story needs to have a fully-detailed backstory. But whenever possible, enough of them should have anecdotes applied to them that the reader gets the sense that the setting has been around for a while. People might remember stories about a thing that happened in a specific place, even if it’s not immediately relevant to the overall plot of the story. 

Maybe the movie theater in town used to be a bingo parlor 50 years ago, and some of the older folks in town have fond memories of it. Or the grocery store changed owners recently, and people still sometimes call it by the original name. Or maybe just something as simple as a character mentioning having a fond or funny memory of a specific place (“It’s down past the liquor store on East 14th. You remember? The one where Frank tripped that one time when we was kids, and dumped a slushee all down the front of his shirt.”)

Make Some Connections

Connecting places to each other via characters or character dialogue is another way to make your setting feel like a real place. In The Seething, I have a scene where a character is talking to a waitress at the Get Up & Go Diner downtown. He’s asking about somewhere in town to get his phone repaired, and she happened to know that the local hardware store recently hired a guy to do small tech repairs.

In making this simple connection I was able to move the plot forward, as well as reinforce the feeling of a small town atmosphere. The “everybody knows everyone” sort of feeling I was going for in the setting.

One last thing...

I also like to blend real-world elements and the fabrications together. There’s a lot of stuff about Oro Lake (and the nearby town of Golden Oaks) which was completely made up. But I connected some of those elements to real world things like Roosevelt’s WPA projects, which readers will recognize. Thus blending the real with the false I blurred the lines between the two, helping to make the town seem like a real place.

Ben Monroe has spent most of his life in Northern California, where he lives in the East Bay Area with his wife and two children. He is the author of In the Belly of the Beast and Other Tales of Cthulhu Wars, The Seething (coming in 2023 from Brigids Gate

Press), the graphic novel Planet Apocalypse, and short stories in several anthologies.

His latest story “the Patchwork Man” appears in Blood In the Soil, Terror On the Wind from Brigids Gate Press. You can find more information about him and his work at www.benmonroe.com.

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Published September 6, 2022 by Skyhorse

A scientific discovery of witches in fiction—Chilled Adventures of Sabrina, Sleeping Beauty, Wicked and so many more!

 

Kelly Florence and Meg Hafdahl, authors of The Science of Women in Horror and co-hosts of the Horror Rewind podcast called “the best horror film podcast out there” by Film Daddy, present a guide to the history of witchcraft through the stories and characters we all know and love. Reveal the spellbinding science behind the legends and lore surrounding fiction’s most iconic witches, answering such questions as: 

What is the science behind divination and spellcraft?

When did witchcraft begin to show up in literature and media?

Has science made it possible to uncover the truth behind the powers of necromancy and employing familiars?

How has witchcraft been thought of throughout the world?

Through interviews, film and literary analysis, and bone-chilling discoveries, join Kelly and Meg as they learn about the complicated and rich science of witchcraft throughout the centuries and discover why now is the season of the witch!

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Winter Horror/Thrillers That Will Give You Chills

by meg hafdahl

As a horror author in both fiction and nonfiction, I consider it a vital piece of my job to

read within my genre. This is quite a clever way I’ve fashioned my favorite hobby into a

necessary part of my day. (If I do say so myself…) And while beach reading has its appeal, the

true season for bookworms like me is when the outdoors is less than hospitable. Winter. We can curl up under a comfy blanket, drink something hot, and if we’re feeling particularly drawn to aesthetic coziness; add in a furry pet or a crackling fire.

This is a list of some of my favorite wintery horror/thriller books that will make you even

more grateful to be inside, tucked away from the blizzard. Oh, and away from the creatures who lurk in the cold, darkened shadows, waiting for you to put down that book.

Snowblind (2014) by Christopher Golden

A recent read for me, Snowblind takes place in the idyllic town of Coventry, Vermont

where twelve years earlier a curious number of townspeople died in a brutal blizzard. Now, those who lost loved ones come to realize that the storm is coming back their way.

What I loved most about this novel is that there is a diverse array of characters, similar to

the Castle Rock novels of Stephen King. It also reminded me of one of my favorite small town, supernatural novels; The Missing by Sarah Langan. I am such a fan of the small town horror, I wrote a three-part novel series starting with Her Dark Inheritance (2018) that takes place in ALL the seasons!

In Snowblind, every person in Coventry is well drawn by Golden, making me care

whether they survive through this monstrous storm. Emphasis on monster. I also recommend the winter in Siberia folk-horror written by Golden, Road of Bones (2022), if you want to feel even colder!

Dead of Winter (2018) by Kealan Patrick Burke

Burke is one of my favorite contemporary horror authors. He has written some of my

recent favorites like the depraved though poignant novel, Kin (2012), and he’s taken on other seasons like in his short-story collection Dead Leaves (2018). Also a book of short stories, Dead of Winter is a great way to become accompanied with Burke’s work. His vivid prose makes you feel like you are in the snow with his doomed characters. With Christmas-themed stories you will surely feel the holiday spirit. (Though that spirit might be less jolly and more a manifestation of evil hiding beneath your twinkling tree!)

The Winter People (2013) by Jennifer McMahon

Okay, I have to admit it. I read this book at the height of summer, on a family trip to

Disney World no less! But, McMahon’s talent for creating that chilling, pervading sense of dread made for a thrilling experience, even when I was sweating from Florida’s humidity.

In The Winter People there is yet another small town in Vermont plagued with mysterious deaths. My favorite aspect of the novel is that we jump from 1908 to present day and back again, creating a fascinating world punctuated with violence, madness, and shocking twists.

I’m a big fan of historical horror, and even wrote a short story collection that focuses on

“antique” tales. All stories take place throughout history, before the 1950s. Check out my book Twisted Reveries III: More Tales of the Macabre (2021) if you like your horror old and dusty!

Rock, Paper, Scissors (2021) by Alice Feeney

Set in rural Scotland in a snow storm, a troubled couple comes to realize that someone is

creeping into their cabin to leave clues from their past.

Popular on “BookTok” Rock, Paper, Scissors found its way to me after I watched dozens

of TikToks singing its praises. I knew before reading it that the novel had a shocking twist. So, from the first page I was already working my best Hercule Poirot skills, trying to basically ruin the experience for myself by figuring out the twist. The joke was on me, because try as I might, I didn’t figure it out, or any of the other twists, and had to admit Feeney did a masterful job of planning out a macabre story that, prolific reader that I am, bested me! I would recommend this book to readers who are less horror more domestic thriller fans. It’s a must read that will make you grab your snuggly blanket closer and wonder if you even know that person you’re married to…

There are so many more wintery horror and thriller books you can binge on this season.

And binge you must, as this nasty weather basically forces us to read. If you’re going to brave the cold outdoors (to a local independent bookstore, or a library) just make sure you keep an eye out for hazards. I’ve learned a lot from these books and others about what could be waiting for you in the snow.

And, no…I’m not talking about ice on the road.

Horror and suspense author Meg Hafdahl is the creator of numerous stories and books. Her fiction has appeared in anthologies such as Eve’s Requiem: Tales of Women, Mystery and Horror and Eclectically Criminal. Her work has been produced for audio by The Wicked Library and The Lift, and she is the author of two popular short story collections including Twisted Reveries: Thirteen Tales of the Macabre. Meg is also the author of the two novels; Daughters of Darkness and Her Dark Inheritance called “an intricate tale of betrayal, murder, and small town intrigue” by Horror Addicts and “every bit as page turning as any King novel” by RW Magazine. Meg, also the co-host of the podcast Horror Rewind and co-author of The Science of Monsters, The Science of Women in Horror, The Science of Stephen King and upcoming The Science of Serial Killers, lives in the snowy bluffs of Minnesota.

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Published February 26th 2022 by Tangled Tree Publishing

What happens in Vegas just might kill you.

When divorcee Justin Gray wakes up next to a beautiful stranger in Vegas on his birthday weekend, he assumes it’s just a drunken mistake. When he discovers that he’s married to said stranger in her early twenties, he insists on an annulment and assumes his life will return to normal once he gets back home.

He assumes wrong.

As the shapely blonde refuses to give him an annulment and insists the marriage continue, what was a wild weekend turns into a deadly mistake.

Murder is only the beginning.

Get ready for a tale of greed so twisted you won’t know what’s on the next page or who anyone really is until the…

very…

last…

page. 

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Mental illness in fiction

by rachel tamayo

We love our crazy, don’t we? Books like the You series by Caroline Kepnes, The Shining by Stephen King, and the umpteen other psychological thrillers that line shelves as far as the eye can see in bookstores both digital and physical. 

We love these characters. They grip us. Like in The Shining, Jack Torrence and his slow maddening decent into a paranormal induced psychotic break. Or Joe, who becomes rapidly obsessed with one woman after the next, every female is “the one.”  Or how about this classic, the little talked about The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G Wells in which the mad scientist Dr. Moreau moves to an island and performs extreme and horrifying experiments creating a mass of animal-human hybrid creatures? 

These characters have all got one thing in common. Insanity of one form or another. History proves that little to nothing was known about the general craziness perceived in the population, and anything that was perceived as out of the norm led to people being locked away for the rest of their natural lives in deplorable conditions. Now we are left with reminders of these actions in abandoned asylums and story after story of once horrendous hospitals haunted by the long dead spirits of the abused and mishandled. This brings to mind characters like the wife in the attic in the classic romance, Jane Eyre. 

But now, in the year of our lord 2022, things are a bit different, or so we like to think, anyway. Now we have the Movement for Mental Health, we have the National Alliance on Mental illness, numerous hashtags, and so many more.  There is an attempt to understand, treat, and accept mental health disorders for what they are, diseases of the mind. 

So this bids the question, has this changed how we perceive and create our crazed characters? In the past these sorts of characters were easy additions to tales meant to shock and frighten readers. There was no reason to explain, or even humanize these characters. They were all just “crazy” bad guys. 

Now, authors like myself, tend to do things differently. Researching legitimate mental problems, reaching out for history, truth, facts about treatment and the effects such things have on others around them. All these things create reality, truth-based fiction around real illnesses that need attention. Things these people have to deal with, the uphill battle their disease creates while they and their loved ones try to seek help.  It generates an entirely new form of psychological fiction. The harsh reality being that there generally is little to no treatment, very little help, and sometimes things go very wrong, and get very bad. As someone that has years of experience dealing with the law enforcement side if this issue, and has training to do so, I see both sides of this coin. Terrifying things happen due to mental disease. 

Books like Jane Eyre were written 175 years ago. In the nineteenth century, they were painted as dangerous lunatics and the only solution to their dangerous lunacy was imprisonment. In the Twenty-first century, we like to think we paint them in a different light. 

But have we?

Rachael Tamayo is the bestselling author of the award-winning Deadly Sins series, and the bestselling award winner (soon to be re-released) Crazy Love. Before she started her writing career, she was a highly awarded 911 emergency services dispatcher with twelve years of experience and many commendations under her belt. Upon exiting law enforcement, she’s focused her writing on the dark, suspenseful, and psychological. Now Rachael uses her dark thriller as a sort of self-therapy after all those years answering 911, and works what she knows into frighteningly realistic and layers characters her readers love her for. Rachael lives on the Texas Gulf Coast near Houston with her husband of eighteen years and their two children.


author email: rtamayo@rachaeltamayowrites.com
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Publication date: February 22nd, 2021

Her Grandfather took her father’s life, and now Jess wants revenge.

Heir to a multi-verse kingdom Jess should be the most powerful woman in the world, able to keep her loved ones safe and bring peace to the realms. But with her newfound powers, came newfound dangers.

Jess is determined to protect the people she loves. To keep her sister, mother and boyfriend Peter safe, she sends them away, where her enemies can’t find them. When, Peter’s parents find out she’s the offspring of their mortal enemy, they are determined to keep them apart forever.

Going alone is perilous, and it’s hard to tell the difference between friend and foe. Determined to bring down her maniacal Grandfather, Jess is just beginning to realize the depth of her ties to those around her and the strength they bring to her.

Will she become the great protector or is she more like her Grandfather than she wants to admit?

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the inspiration of cats

by VK Tritschler

Recently I received an emergency phone call from a lady I know locally who helps rescue cats. She had picked up two barely born kittens, one with an injured leg, and since I was one of the few people she knew who had bottled fed newborns before, and she wanted to know if I would help out. Of course, I replied instantly. Who doesn’t want to help a small creature in need?

I had forgotten how hard work they are. The two hourly feed, the unenviable task of wiping their wriggling backside, and the replacement of bedding to keep it clean and warm. There were moments in the small hours of the night when I am warming up the bottle yet again, I wondered about my sanity. It was similar to when I get a story stuck in my mind keeping me awake at night.

Unfortunately, due to the injuries of her sibling only she survived, so we name her Uno. As I write this, she is chasing her tail across the lounge floor in the later afternoon sunshine. She has escaped the tragedy of growing up as a feral and will never know how lucky she was.

She is a beautiful black cat, which through the sunlight you can see the flecks of her true tiger self. And watching her at play I begin to daydream of another of my great entertainments. Magical creatures.

Last year I wrote a couple books (with the third due out next year) about werepanthers in Australia. There was a show on local television about people who believed they had seen these big cats in various locations and held grainy photos or imagery to prove their point. Fascinated with the idea, I wrote a series in which werepanthers are a set of shifter packs who reside here and are occasionally spotted by accident. The beauty of these creatures is they had blended capabilities, part human and part beast. Which allowed me as an author to explore beyond the mere human capacity of my characters.

More recently I expanded on magical worlds, with idea of a multiverse. My characters now not only held extraordinary abilities, but they could move through worlds which were limitless. And I just loved writing it! There are mermaids, and royalty, scientists, and adventures. It was one of the most freeing stories I have ever written because the only boundary was my imagination. I remember at one point almost losing myself in the pleasure of a new world and the creatures that could exist there.

As an author allowing your imagination free reign is both rewarding and challenging. Uno is now sleeping through the night, curled into a little back ball with tiger sized dreams rushing through her head. But sadly, I cannot join her, for my own mind is drawn into the next great adventure already,

the twists and turns unravelling in my mind before they join together on the page.

Perhaps a new world will emerge that is ruled by cats?

However, I feel like perhaps I have seen that firsthand already.

VK Tritschler is the definition of very busy. Having both a fulltime job, a growing family and a career as an author she has a lot going on both around her and in her imagination. She lives on the amazing Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, having moved there from her hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand. Her family consists of a very patient husband, two rampant boys, and too many pets to mention.
She has a wonderful set of amazing writers who support her in the form of Eyre Writers, and in return, she offers crowd control services for the Youth section who are the future best-selling Australian authors.
Her first book “The Secret Life of Sarah Meads” was released in 2018 and since then she has participated in the NYC Writing Challenge, the Clunes Booktown, and helped organise and run the Eyre Writers Festival. Next came the paranormal anthology of "Magic & Mischief" with her story "Vital Impetus" which came out in July 2020.
After this, "The Risky Business of Romance" was released in October 2020 - a romantic suspense set in rural South Australia, and Trade Secrets is a rom-com based in Adelaide came out in December 2020. "A Town Called Nowhere" a paranormal romance about were-panthers set in rural Australia, was released in April 2021, with the second book out in October 2021.


Ever available to her readership you can find her at:

www.vktritschler.com

www.facebook.com/vktritschler

www.twitter.com/vktritschler

www.goodreads.com/vktritschler

Publication date: October 19th, 2021

Links: Amazon | Goodreads

What if your lifelong curse is the only thing keeping you alive? Abandoned at birth, life has always been a battle for Jane Walker. She and her best friend, Sadie, spent years fighting to survive Vancouver’s cutthroat underbelly. That would have been tough enough without Jane’s mysterious afflictions: an intricate pattern of blood-red birthmarks that snake around her body and vivid, heart-wrenching nightmares that feel so real she wakes up screaming.

After she meets the first man who isn’t repulsed by her birthmarks, Jane thinks she might finally have a chance at happiness. Her belief seems confirmed as the birthmarks she’s spent her life so ashamed of magically begin to disappear. Yet, the quicker her scarlet marks vanish, the more lucid and disturbing Jane’s nightmares become—until it’s impossible to discern her dreams from reality, and Jane comes to a horrifying realization:

The nightmares that have plagued her since childhood are actually visions of real people being stalked by a deadly killer. And all this time, her birthmarks have been the only things protecting her from becoming his next victim.

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NAMING CHARACTERS by JP McLean

In his famous Romeo and Juliet soliloquy, Shakespeare asked, “What’s in a Name?”

Quite a lot, as it turns out. I don’t have children, so the only names I’ve bestowed are on my fictional characters and my dogs. Happily, my choices have yet to be challenged (at least by the dogs).

Still, it’s important to find a good fit between the character and the name you choose. A name invokes an image in a reader’s mind. The way the name is spelled, how it rolls off the tongue, how it looks visually on a page—all these things add nuance to the character.

There are many elements that influence a name choice:

The era in which the story is set: Consider that Zeus and Apollo are now names reserved primarily for pets (the gods would not be pleased). The most popular names of any decade are readily available online.

The gender of the character, whether male, female, or gender variant: Consider Taylor, Charlie, Emerson.

The location within the country: If your characters are in the southern US, they may have uniquely southern names like Gunner and Knox, or Dixie and Hattie.

The personality of the character: Are they a no-nonsense one-syllable Jane or Bill, or a complicated three-syllable Abigail or Joshua? Is your character a wallflower or minor character you don’t want to draw attention to? Plain names such as June or Joe slide under the radar. If your character is the serious type, they may choose Judith over Judy, or Theodore over Teddy.

Age also plays a role. Younger characters might use a nickname, like Billy for William or Caddie for Caroline. Sometimes, nicknames stick throughout adulthood, and sometimes they’re used ironically: Stretch for a shorter person, Tiny for a larger person.

The entire cast of characters must be considered: Mix it up so the names don’t all start with the same few letters of the alphabet or aren’t all the same syllable length.

To help readers differentiate between characters, it’s important the names don’t look or sound too much alike. As in Abe and Abigail. Or Emery and Emelynn (yeah, that was one of my mistakes—Emery’s name got changed to Avery).

Writers also need to consider the nationality of the characters. Does your cast reflect the mix of people you’d see in your neighbourhood? In the grocery stores and libraries? If not, fix it. You can find lists online of names by nationality.

A resource I use all the time is the local telephone book. The flimsy paper books aren’t as prevalent or thick as they once were, but they’re rich in interesting names. Best of all, these are the names of people of all nationalities who live in your neighbourhood.

The best part about finding the perfect name for your character is that the name does some of the work for you in defining the character’s role and personality. Names have connotations, so it’s important to make the most of them. And even if your fictional children hate the names you’ve given them, they’re not likely to disown you for your choices.

I'm very fortunate to live in a writer's paradise on one of the small northern Gulf Islands off the eastern shore of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The rugged beaches and towering fir and arbutus trees that surround me often end up in my stories. When I'm not pouring my imagination into my computer, I'm futzing in gardens, making a mess of the kitchen or hiking local trails. I write stories that entice you to believe the impossible and escape the everyday for a while. Enjoy the read!

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Publication date: April 7th, 2018

Links: Amazon | Goodreads

Grolar:
half grizzly bear, half polar bear

Jon lost his job in Vancouver and finds work at a small gold mining camp. His wife and his young son join him. When the toddler shows them what he had found near the tree line, they know, there is something dark waiting for them.

The author Thorsten Nesch lives in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He is an award-winning and traditionally published author. His novels are read in schools in Europe.

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Environment is the new horror

By Thorston Nesch

Going back and drawing from the past when writing genre fiction comes with a secure background on the topic—if it is a vampire, a zombie or anything in between. If I ever wanted to play it safe, I'd have stayed in my comfy office job for the public health insurance.

The uncharted challenges of the future interest me, mostly surrounded by more or less vague theories and wild speculations. This is the place for the jester.

The modern artist has to assume the role of the jester in front of the king: holding up a distorted mirror to the society of today in order to provoke a reaction, ideally with the result people questioning themselves and their doings.

Recently the environment assumed a center role in contemporary horror scenarios (versus the threat of the nuclear apocalypse of the the cold war). So far it is the weather: storms, rain, droughts and rising sea levels.

But what if the weather brings together what should never have met in the first place? Bacteria, viruses, insects or … bears?

Because of the rising temperatures, grizzly bears migrate further north, into old polar bear territory, and they mate … oh, you think, that is just the fantasy of a jester?

Think again.

When I heard about that problem I remembered an article about Ligers—half lions, half tigers, man made, out of a sick egocentric notion, but nevertheless two species foreign to each other. And they grow way bigger than a tiger or a lion alone. Fact.

What if that could be true for Grolars?

The amount of food the animal would need … and imagine a gold digger camp would be in its hunting grounds … 

Since 2014 I live in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

My stories received literary grants and awards nationally and internationally. In the last years I did more than 1500 readings in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and on two cruises.

My first novel was nominated Best German YA Debut and I won the Hans-im-Gluck-Award 2012

Jury: „His style is a stroke of luck for literature“

Website 

Publication date: August 31th, 2021

Links: Amazon | Goodreads

Adaline Rushner is a woman in pieces. Her daughters have gone missing, and although the authorities seem to have found their bodies, something still isn't right. Her husband, Cache, can't bear the pain and wants to move on, but Adaline can't shake the feeling they're still alive. She even starts seeing them in the house, though Cache does not. Adaline wonders whether this current tragedy has something to do with the misfortune and painful experiences she suffered in her own childhood, but her memories have gaps in them that she can't quite close on her own.

After Adaline and Cache move to Salt Lake City, everything gets even stranger. Local cop Officer Abbott thinks Adaline's distinctive owl necklace may somehow link to his own missing daughter. Adaline's neighbor Maggie offers assistance and comfort, but Adaline suspects her of hiding other truths from her. Adaline tries to prepare for her girls' eventual return while investigating her own past forgotten traumas, but a threatening message urges her to let the past stay forgotten. Can Adaline find the truth and save her marriage to Cache, or will the tangled web of memories from her past keep her from moving on?

Author Lauri Schoenfeld's psychological thriller is a suspenseful tale of family trauma, discovering our inner strength, and understanding the power of forgiveness.

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Giving Your Characters Pain
by Lauri Schoenfeld

We all go through pain either psychologically, emotionally, or physically. A lot of times it can end up being all three. No one shares their agony exactly in the same way as another because of our different personalities, upbringing, experiences, and perspectives. None of us are free from it.

As you're writing, your character or characters will always have something in one of these areas that they're striving to get through—trying to understand and process. They may be searching out who they are, and maybe because of their upbringing or culture, this search causes them a great deal of affliction, going outside the grain of figuring those pieces out. Perhaps the loss of someone they love has greatly affected their worth, will, drive, or purpose for existence. Or physically, an illness they feel is so intense that even getting up to take a shower is too much to handle. Each area can weaken your character's spirit and heart.

Readers want to keep reading because pain is a universal thing, even if they don't completely relate to what that character's dealing with. They want to root for them. The readers feel the agony and empathize with how much this space hurts the characters deeply and want to be there to push them forward.

The hero's journey for our characters is constant movement within that anguish. Getting to the next step can be more intense, scary, hard, and worse before it gets better. Our characters will want to leave, but they'll have to make the hard choice to face it and keep going through the storm. By doing so, some answers, lessons, and moments will define them.

Here are a few examples from some of my favorite books. There are no spoilers on endings!

From Fault in Our Stars, the character Hazel Grace Lancaster is a seventeen-year-old who has thyroid cancer. It's started to spread into her lungs, so she uses a portable oxygen tank to breathe properly. Hazel feels suffering day in and day out. She wants to be understood. To appease her mother, she attends a cancer patient's support group and meets a teenage boy named Augustus Waters. They begin to build a friendship, and she finds out he had osteosarcoma but had his leg amputated and is cancer-free. With their friendship, they're able to help each other with the struggles they both face.

In Shutter Island, Teddy Daniels is devastated by the loss of his wife, which took place in a fire. The grief he feels messes with him both emotionally and psychologically, sending him spirally to look for answers about his wife's death and his own sanity. He wants truth and answers. The story makes you question the depth of this man's sorrow, and you can't help but wonder where his head's at, but you're rooting for him to figure it out.

In Wonder, August Pullman, also known as Auggie, has "mandibulofacial dysostosis," a rare facial deformity. Surgery is not uncommon for him, as he's had (27) of them. Auggie's been homeschooled by his mom for eleven years, so when he's enrolled to go to 5th grade in a public school, pain, and fear of being different sets in. He wants to be accepted and liked. Auggie goes to school anyways and faces the unknown each day.

What hardship is your character dealing with?

Is it physical, mental, or emotional? All of them?

What would your character/characters have to do to face that pain? The next step forward?

What is one thing that your character wants and is in search of?

• Hazel wants to be understood/friendship.

• Teddy wants truth and answers.

• Auggie wants to be accepted and liked as he is.

For fun and research, go through some of your favorite movies and establish the characters' ultimate affliction and want/need (goal). Or even think about your own life story, a friend, or a family member. How has their pain/ struggle made them tick? React? How have they handled it?

Now, write that novel. Bring in all the raw emotion, so the reader's sucked into feeling it all right along with your character.