Category: The Scribe

First, some news: Revisions for THE SCRIBE are done! Yay! It’s off to the editor now. ARCs will be going out to reviewers in a couple of weeks, then the release is still set for October 15th. To everyone who has preordered, thank you!

So, character description.

Character description is kind of a funny thing. A lot of it depends on what point of view you’re writing from. Since I write primarily in alternating close third person (which  means the narrator uses “he/she” instead of “I/we,” but speaks only from one character’s perspective at a time), describing characters can be a challenge.

Why? Well, honestly, most of us don’t go around thinking about how we look all the time. (If you do, you might want to consider how healthy that is. Just saying.) So sometimes, a character stays kind of fuzzy until he or she encounters another character who notices how they look.

This is really just a long and meandering way of saying I have another little teaser from THE SCRIBE for you. Here’s a piece from Chapter Two, when Ava is watching Malachi.

From THE SCRIBE, Chapter Two…

She wandered the edges of the palace, looking out over stunning views of the sea and snapping pictures for hours. Every now and then, she’d catch a glimpse of him on the edge of her frame.

Hello, stranger. Ava snapped another picture of him, pushing a button on her camera to examine him more closely.

At least they’d hired an attractive one this time.

He looked Turkish. Taller than average. Most professional bodyguards were far from romantic notions portrayed in movies or books, even farther from the giant thugs who followed musicians around. The best were men and women who could blend into any crowd. They were overlooked until they became necessary, and they rarely garnered an admiring stare.

But this man was… not handsome. Compelling. Something about him made her eyes want to linger. Lean muscle covered his frame, and despite the heat, he was clothed from head to toe, though his suit appeared to be made of linen and not some hotter material. His collar lay open, exposing the edge of an intricate tattoo. That was unusual. His hair was dark and straight, falling onto his forehead and almost into his eyes. He could use a haircut, which meant he was probably not married. She glanced at the three college-age girls who checked him out as he pretended to read a book at the cafe. He didn’t even give them a glance. Focused. He blended into the crowd admirably for someone as physically imposing as he was, but there was still something about him that drew Ava’s camera over and over again.

~~~

Okay, so reader questions:

1) Who would you pick for Malachi? Granting this could change, since you haven’t read the book yet. Feel free to google “Turkish men.” (Girls, you may thank me for this one.)

2) Do you form a specific picture in your mind when you read a character? Or is it more vague?