Elizabeth Hoyt, the wonderful and gracious author of The Serpent Prince, The Leopard Prince, and The Raven Prince, has written this Guest Post for The Good, The Bad, & The Unread.
We will also post a Hoyt contest later today, so check back with us. And now, without further ado, allow me introduce Elizabeth Hoyt!
—
Writing Simon Iddesleigh
by Elizabeth Hoyt
It’s the writer’s job to reveal her characters to the reader. Ideally, by the end of a book, the reader should be able to recognize a line of dialogue, a movement, a thought as coming from a particular character and no other. That really shouldn’t be all that hard, right?
The problem is that in order to reveal the character, the writer first needs to know that character.
At this point, the non-writers reading this are probably thinking that I’ve wandered off the path of reason and gotten tangled in the shrubbery of artistic idiocy. How can a writer not know the character she creates? Well, believe me, she can. Some characters hide behind foggy veils. The hero of my May [2008] release, To Taste Temptation, is Samuel Hartley and he’s one of those characters. He’d smile at me as I wrote (very cordially – he’s an easy going guy. Mostly) and say, “Am I really feeling sorrow here? Or is it anger-mixed-with-sorrow? Or maybe I’m just horny. I am a guy after all.”
Sam gave me fits.
Not so Simon Iddesleigh, the hero of my third book, The Serpent Prince. The moment Simon walked onstage in The Raven Prince as a secondary character I knew who he was. I knew how he portrayed himself on the surface and I knew that he was hiding three-fourths of himself from view, even from his best friends. Simon was a revelation. His language–his emotions–are so over the top at times that I would pause in my typing, stare at my computer screen, and wonder if I could really get away with a particular line.
Simon was – is – a writing gift. I hope you have as much fun reading about him as I did writing him.
Cheers!
Elizabeth Hoyt
—
Thank you, Elizabeth!!
Elizabeth Hoyt is a great author. Love reading her books.
Simon sounds like a real Prince. 😉
Well, with that kind of introduction about Simon, how can I not be intriqued? I will just have to read the book.
I agree with LLL. That is one intriguing intro. Want this book! Good luck, Elizabeth.
I want to read more about him!
“The moment Simon walked onstage in The Raven Prince as a secondary character I knew who he was. I knew how he portrayed himself on the surface and I knew that he was hiding three-fourths of himself from view, even from his best friends?”
Elizabeth, I got that from reading The Raven Prince, and knew I wanted to read his story.
Oh I do remember Simon in The Raven Prince and wanting to make sure he had his story. Gosh I want to re-read THE RAVEN PRINCE. I was a bad girl, I let someone borrow it and haven’t gotten it back yet. I’m sitting here and thinking how Simon led Elizabeth on to his story! Yeah, knowing this now, he wasn’t easy but too he was. I guess we sure will get to know him this time!
I can’t wait to read Simon’s story. I have loved the other books in this series.
Simon sounds very interesting, sure would like to read more about him:)