Character Interview: Stella from the book Sophie

Welcome back to Getting to Know The Character. This is RaeBeth and today I have a very special guest with us. Give a warm welcome to Stella Dugan. Thank you Stella for joining us. It's great to have you here.

Stella: Thank you, dear. I'm honored to be here with you and your readers. 

RaeBeth: I'd like for you to share some information about yourself so our readers know who you are.

Stella: I'm Stella Dugan, grandmother of Sophie Hathorn and mother of Emma Hathorn. I live in Fairchance where I grew up with my mother- Elizabeth Poole and my father- Henry Dugan. I'm one of the most powerful witches besides Sophie. I'm sixty seven years old but don't let my age fool you. I'm not old. I'm just well educated with life.

RaeBeth: Thank you for such a wonderful introduction. I noticed you and your parents don't all have the same last names. Is there a reason for this?

Stella: As a matter of fact there is. Witches, true witches carry their birth names all of their lives. This is one way other magical beings can identify which set of witches you come from. 

RaeBeth: Are all magical being born with abilities?

Stella: Unfortunately, no. The Hathorn/Dugan family has the strongest bloodline and thus gives us more of a chance to giving birth to one of our own. It's up to our Goddess on who gets what. Take for example- Sophie. She wasn't a magical being until her twenty fifth birthday. That's twenty five years of mortality. 

RaeBeth: How did your bloodline become so powerful? 

Stella: Our Goddess, of course. When my mother Elizabeth was young, she used to practice using herbs and trying to create potions. One would call it "dabbing in white magic." Our Goddess saw her abilities and knew she had the power within her. It only needed brought to the service. Pax made this possible. Therefore, when witches give birth, they pass down the DNA but it's up to Pax to activate it. I guess you could say for the lack of a better phrase.

RaeBeth: How well do you get along with the wizards? Please enlighten us on the names of who you are talking about as well.

Stella: I'm very familiar with wizards. We go way back. I've had my run ins with the Wizard Council before. They're the most powerful wizards alive and their job is to ensure that all is right in the world. If our Goddess comes to them with a foreseen problem, they are the ones who eliminate it. The highest and leader of the council now is known as Thor. He's very wise and follows the magical law regardless. It doesn't matter if you're family or not. If you broke a law, he will punish you.

RaeBeth: A bit harsh but understandable. Everyone needs a wise, educated, and feared leader. I think if there's no fear... there's no respect. Especially in a world such as yours. Are you at liberty to share some of the magical abilities witches, wizards, and demons have?

Stella: Of course, dear. I don't mind at all.  Let me explain a bit of the background. Our Sophie is a bit unique so this doesn't apply to her. Most of the time witches have one to several of the abilities. We can cast spells, use telekinesis, levitation, healing, mind control, and an energy ball- among a few others.

RaeBeth: Wow, intimidating. Has anyone ever used their powers against mortals?

Stella: Witches and Wizards would never do a such a thing. Demons on the other hand don't care. They will use their abilities no matter what if it helps them get what they're after. 

RaeBeth: What are some of the abilities demons have? Which ones have been used against mortals?

Stella: Times have changed so I could be a bit off. But the abilities I know of are: Fireballs, shape shifting, mind control, hovering, and portal creation. I know they have used shape shifting and mind control on mortals before.

RaeBeth: Let's back up a minute. I thought it's been said magical beings don't share the same powers?

Stella: That's true if you're talking about the past. As I have said, times have changed. It seems as if the powers can be used by anyone if their looking in the right place. 

RaeBeth: Who is the most recent demon you came up against?

Stella: He goes by the name of Eros. He is powerful and can take over you in an instant with the mind control and power augmentation abilities he holds.

RaeBeth: He sounds pretty scary. Are you at liberty to discuss more about him? Like why you had to fight him?

Stella: That's confidential dear. I'm sorry. Our Goddess only gave us permission to share certain things and some are not to be spoken of. 

RaeBeth: Totally understandable. Moving on. Please describe the abilities wizards can hold.

Stella: They can use illusion, power sensing, conjuration, deflection, and an energy ball. What they're really known for is their ability with the staff. You see a wizard with a staff... it means he's very powerful. It takes years of practice to perfect the usage of a staff. 

RaeBeth: Thank you so much for your time, Stella. We are out of time for the day. Do you mind if our readers as you questions in the comment section of this post?

Stella: Not at all. Sophie told me you'd ask that. She told me to say... remember witches are with it these days. Internet is not a scarce thing. 

RaeBeth: Ahh yes. I remember her saying that. Thank you.

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I hope you enjoyed the interview with Stella. She was visiting from my book, Sophie. It is still a work in progress at this time. I thought it would be fun to get everyone geared up for the book. I'm having so much fun writing the book and wanted others to join in on the fun. Feel free to share this post using your social sites. I would very much appreciate it. Also, if you would like updates everyday from myself and my characters.... please join me on Facebook under The Writing World. Have a wonderful day.

Character Contest Update

Hey everyone,

WOW, I must say I am impressed so far with the responses I have for this contest. I'm so happy to have so many of you interested and willing to partake in this event. I've begun to send out the next step email after you sign up. Please get your entries back as soon as you can. Judging will begin on June 21st. Therefore, entries will be accepted until June 20th.

If you signed up and haven't recieved the next step email, please contact me at the following email address and I'll email those items to you.

budasangel@gmail.com

Thank you so much and have a wonderful day.



Character contest is for my upcoming book:

Become a Character in my next book.....

Character's are one of the most dynamic parts of a book. In my opinion, I think they take more work then the book itself. When creating a character, an author has to think of things such as... Are they the protagonist? What is their novel worthiness? Distinguishing features such as eyes, hair, face shape, nose shape, condition of their teeth, or age? Are they attractive? What are their values? These are only a few of the questions an author answers when creating a character.

My question to you... Have you ever wanted to be a character in a book? Well, here is your chance. I'm giving my readers a chance to make that happen. In my current work in progress, I got the idea of having you help create some of the essential characters within the book. The characters will have your name, looks, personality traits, etc.

All you have to do is this.... let me know you're interested and are willing to provide information when needed. You'll help with your characters lines and their behavior to the events going on within this book. Sound cool?

Those who are interested will fill out a questionnaire and character worksheet. This will help me create your character within the book. Now, there are limited characters in which need created.  They are certain ages so please keep in mind, if you're chosen, you MUST remember their age. As an example, the character can't be 24 years old and act like they're 16.

In addition to this, you'll be asked to submit a photo that can be used with promotion of the book. Therefore, the photo submitted must belong to you and you MUST have the copyright. Permission to alter the photo must be given.

There are three female characters and one male character that need created. Therefore, there will be four winners. Here is the prizes:

• Mentioned in the acknowledgements page.
• Their edited photo posted on our Facebook page.
• Advanced reading of the book.
• A signed bookmark, pen, and magnet with book cover.
• Interviewed on my blog.
• Copy of finished ebook before it's released.

What do you have to do? It's easy. Sign up HERE for the Character newsletter. More details will be emailed at a later date. (Such as the questionnaire and character worksheet)

Silenced Characters- Part Two

I have learned while writing, it's really fun and helpful to find photo's of those who look like the characters in the stories you're writing. Although these photo's aren't owned by me, please keep in mind they look like the characters and are not the actual characters. Enjoy.

Let me introduce the look like to Landon. Here's a small bit about Landon.

Age: 18

Worthiness: Focused, Passionate, Sympathetic, responds actively to surroundings, embraces opportunity, reinforces the main character, Amber


 Landon hates conflict and would rather everything go smooth. Amber gives him a run for his money with her attitude and her drive to have a great time.

Let me introduce, Patrick. He's mostly confused and doesn't know what he wants. He's dating Casey and their relationship is like a roller coaster. He likes to party and have a great time. Although, drugs are his thing, he's caring and doesn't like conflict either.

Character Realization

Silenced is coming along well. (For those of you who are new and don't know what Silenced is... it's my WIP.) The editing is taking a turn I didn't expect. As I'm reading through, I'm finding places where new idea's come about and I just have to add them in. It seems it went from an editing phase back to a rewrite.

One aspect that's really important within a novel are the characters. Writers create these characters to portray certain characteristics and they have these character go through certain things. My MC in my WIP deals with major depression. So, one aspect you'll read in the book is where she goes to see a doctor ("shrink").

At first, when this idea came to me, I had no idea what happened during the sessions. So, I set the goal to find out. I did some research on the Internet but the information I found didn't quite fit what I needed. So, I talked with my older sister (who works for a Psychiatrist) and got some information from her. This information helped a bit.

Then, I figured ... it's been a while since I did any type of counseling for my depression, I'd experience this myself. Not only would I use my sessions as helping me but also helping my reading as well. This experience has helped me write some amazing "scenes" within my book.

Question to those who write: What lengths do you go to... to ensure your portraying your characters the way you envision them?

Silenced- Characters

One thing that I like to do is find a picture of what I envisioned my characters to look like. As I was searching today, I found two perfect pictures.

Here is what I imagined Amber, the main character of Silenced looks like:

Here is what I imagined her best friend, Casey looking like:

Both girls are in the 12th grade and going through some ordeals that define them. They are both confused and just trying to find out who they are. Hope this help all the readers who will one day obtain a copy of Silenced when it's released.

By looking at the pictures, what do you think their personalities are?