Welcome Sharon Alice Geyer

My guest today is Sharon Alice Geyer, the author of a trilogy set in the Middle East: The Samson Option, The Time of Jacob's Trouble, and the upcoming The Return of the Mahdi, plus her memoir Daughter of Jerusalem. Sharon is a fellow member of Lagunita Writers Group in Southern California. I'd love for you to get to know this interesting woman.

 Lorna: What was your inspiration for the character of Ari?

An infant boy was found abandoned and brought to the Baby Home where I worked in Jerusalem. I loved this little fellow, who eventually was adopted by a kibbutz family. The grown-up Ari is a figment of my imagination.

Lorna: Did you meet people like Lily who had been diagnosed with the Jerusalem syndrome? Is it an existing condition?

I met several people who exhibited certain delusions, which would qualify as the Jerusalem Syndrome. It definitely is a known phenomenon to doctors in Jerusalem.

Lorna: We have visited Israel ourselves and remember many of the spots in the novels. We are transported back there through your books. You vividly describe all the locations Ari and Lily pass through in their journeys. Did you yourself visit all of them?

Yes, I have lived and traveled extensively in Iran, Israel, the West Bank, and the Sinai. The only exception is Damascus. I have never been there, but surely would love to visit “Straight Street” some day in the future.

Lorna: Does the convent garden in Jerusalem where Lily uncovers the inscription actually exit?

Yes, the convent belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church, located in a neighborhood near Jerusalem called Ain Karem. This is the traditional hometown of John the Baptist.

Lorna: The brothers, Daniel and Eli, are pivotal characters towards the end, but their personal motivations seem vague at the end of the first book. Was this deliberate? They reappear in the second. Will they reappear in the last book in the trilogy?

My plotting is done more from the subconscious level than anything deliberate. But yes, Dan and Eli are important characters. They appear in the sequel The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, and the final book in the trilogy called The Return of the Mahdi.

Lorna: Is the character of Lily based on someone you know?

Lily is perhaps an amalgam of many people I have known. But other characters, like Dr. Hepzibah Klein and Rachel, are based on real people.

Lorna: Are any of the situations or characters based on your own life?

Yes, the nurse, Miss Queller, who is murdered in the chapter one, is based on my life as a baby nurse. I changed her nationality and home country to make it not so apparent.

Sharon Alice Geyer was born and raised in California where she met and married her first husband, an Iranian national. After the births of two sons, she returned with him to Iran. Her naïve dreams of living as a Persian princess were soon shattered, and her life became so dangerous her only option was escape. However, the price for her freedom was leaving her sons behind. She became an exile in Israel in the hope of regaining her children. She returned to the United States in 1989 where she lives today with her second husband, an archaeobotanist. Her sons now live nearby and she has a close relationship with them and her grandchildren. Read all about her fascinating life in her memoir, Daughter of Jerusalem.

Writing Believable Characters

At one of our writing group meetings a couple of years ago, a member suggested one of our characters could do a particular action. Larry and I responded at the same time . "Oh, no. She'd never do that." She laughed and said, "You talk about your characters as if they are real," to which I replied," Of course they're real. If they aren't real to us, how can we expect our readers to believe they're living breathing people?"

I've been thinking a lot about how we create realistic and believable characters, and I'll share a few of our methods with you.

When we initially discuss a story we want to write, we create character sketches for the major ones. The protagonist is better defined than the more minor characters, but we need to know some of the following about those folks we'll be spending time with during the writing of the book.

WHEN AND WHERE DOES THE STORY TAKE PLACE?

Young people growing up today speak differently than those who grew up in the '60s or '70s or '80s. And those from earlier periods had different speech patterns as well. What was happening in the world during their early years? Was the country at war? In what country is the story set? If in the US, what state, town, city? The life experiences of the characters will be influenced by all of these.

WHAT WAS THEIR CHILDHOOD LIKE?

A child raised without parents will have a different world view than one raised by a single parent. And that child will see the world differently than one raised with both parents.

Was the family rich or poor? What was their ethnicity, and what were their family rituals? Was it a happy home or a dysfunctional one? Was the person abused in any way as a child? How large was the family? Were drugs and/or alcohol used to excess in the family? Where in the country did the child grow up? Small towns are different from suburbs are different from large cities.

We are all molded by our early years, and they provide motivation for the rest of our lives.

WHAT WAS THE BIRTH ORDER?

Lots of studies of the effect of birth order on behavior and personality have been done over the years. The order in which one arrived in the family has a great influence on their overall personality.

This came home to me when we had finished our first romance anthology, Snowflake Secrets. It's the story of four little girls in the years between 1958 and 2007. The novellas in the book were written by four different writers. Yet when I assembled the complete manuscript, I was struck by how accurately each of the four displayed the personality traits most commonly associated with their birth order!

WHAT CHOICES DID THEY MAKE?

Did they go to college or not? Did they marry young, or older, or not at all. Did they have children, and when? Are they divorced, widowed, single? What was their career choice? How did that affect their lifestyle?

HOW DO THEY REACT TO STRESS?

This is very important. Does the heroine twirl her hair or bite her lip? Does the hero raise his eyebrows or frown? Does someone tap their foot or fingers? How do they react to other people? Do they become quiet or do they become aggressive?

WHAT IS THEIR FEAR, AND WHAT DO THEY NEED?

You have to know this about each and every main character in the book so you know how they will react when you place them in danger or under stress. And you need to know what they have to lose and how important it is to them.

HOW DO THEY TALK?

What is the rhythm of their speech? Their area of origin will dictate this to some extent, but everyone has a different speech pattern. What are their favorite words? Do they have expressions they repeat?

When we get the basics defined, we begin to note other characteristics as we write. The characters may end up very different than we thought they would, but we have a starting point. As we get to know them better, we discover additional minor nuances. Each of them must be distinctly different or the reader won't believe in them.

WILL YOU GRIEVE THEIR LOSS?

This past week we had to let several of the major characters in our current project, The Memory Keeper, die. As is our habit, we began to read the finished chapter aloud to each other. And we couldn't get through it. I was sobbing and Larry was choking. In short, we were a mess. We had become so close to these people we felt their loss as acutely as their family members.

When I was writing Ghost Writer, I couldn't figure out why I just couldn't finish the manuscript. It finally dawned on me! I didn't want to let the ghost go! He had no other story to tell, so when this book was completed, I'd never see him again. When I got the edits back from the publisher and reached that chapter, I wept again.

After we finished Snowflake Secrets, we took the final manuscript to the house of the hostess of our writing group to read it through for her. She had only heard it in bits and pieces. When we got to the last chapter, however, none of us could get all the way through. Larry started until he choked up. Then Luanna read a while. I had to finish it, and I wasn't doing too well, either. But Martha, our hostess, was sobbing. And in reality, that was the precise response we wanted our readers to share.

How do you create real characters who step off the page? Have you ever read a book where all the characters spoke with the voice of the author? Did you ever put down a book because you just didn’t care about the characters? I'd like to hear your experiences.

Writing Believable Dialogue

 People speak differently in person than they do on the page. To understand this, try listening to real folks talk. They hesitate and use 'um' and 'ah'. They don't speak in complete sentences, and they don't use correct English. However, if you write 'real' dialogue in a story, it will slow down the pacing, and it won't read convincingly.

On the other hand, if you write dialogue in the same style as the narrative in a manuscript, it will sound too wordy and will also slow down the story.

What's a writer to do?

1.      Edit!

Read the dialogue and then delete any unnecessary words. Believable dialogue needs to sound like real dialogue without all the tics and hesitations. People often leave out the subject or the object in a sentence, and characters should as well.

2.      Choose Phrasing and Rhythm Carefully

Observe real speech and listen for distinctive phrases. Write the interesting ones down and give them to a character. But make sure each character has a different sound. Pay attention to the rhythm of speech, and give each character a distinctive one. People sound distinct and different, and characters should as well.

3.      Use Dialect Sparingly

If a character speaks in dialect or a foreign language, the temptation is to write all their dialogue as if every word was in the argot. DON'T DO IT! Making the dialogue too difficult to wade through is just plain frustrating for a reader. Instead, choose several key words or phrases and use these as 'seasoning' to flavor their speech. And if you choose to use foreign words, make sure they are absolutely correct for the location and timeframe. But don't overdo those either.

4.      Read Out Loud

One of the keys to writing believable dialogue is hearing it read out loud. Larry and I have an advantage in that we write together and read all our work aloud to each other. We will often read conversations with each of us assuming the role of a different character. In addition to that, it's even more valuable to have someone other than the author read the dialogue aloud. It's the only way to actually hear where a reader has difficulty, hesitates, is confused, etc. The writer can also hear where dialect or other speech patterns work or fail.

5.      Eliminate Tags and Address

Few things are more annoying to me as a reader to have each line of dialog end with, "he said" or "she said." Another easy trap to fall into is to have each person entering the scene greeted by name: "Hi, Jane," said Sue. GRRR! Instead, add action whenever possible to indicate which character is speaking. For example: Jane entered the room. "Are you ready for tea?" We know who is speaking (Jane) and she is addressing whoever was already in the room ahead of her.

6.      Must Suit Each Character

Make sure each character has a distinctive voice, but it must fit the character in personality and background. A drill sergeant from Texas will sound different from a debutante from Georgia and a valley girl from California. Don't exaggerate the verbal clues, but each should speak using different vocabulary, phrasing, and rhythm.

Dialogue can either make or break a story. If a reader knows exactly who is speaking, it is unnecessary to identify the speaker as often. Learning how to write effective dialogue will go a long way toward making stories enjoyable for readers, and that, after all, is the author's intention.

Do you have any other tricks or advice for writing believable dialogue?

Farewell, Las Vegas

We will head back home today after attending the Public Service Writers Association conference in Las Vegas. The conference was wonderful. We learned a great deal, saw friends, and made some new ones.

However, I was once again reminded of why we don’t visit Las Vegas often.

It's HOT! I don't do well in the heat. I've heard the argument, "But it's dry heat." At over 100 degrees, ANY heat is too much. Admittedly, I find it harder to breathe in humid air, regardless of the temperature, but high temperatures simply sap all my energy.

It's crowded. The traffic in the city is even worse than in Southern California. Last night we met friends for dinner at a restaurant on the same street as our hotel but about ten blocks away. It took us over half an hour to get there in the Sunday evening rush. In addition, the only scenery is the skyline featuring tall buildings vying for attention with their flashing neon signs.

Las Vegas allows smoking and I am extremely sensitive to the smell. My sinuses have been complaining since we arrived. Even in our supposedly non-smoking room, the scent of smoke is noticeable. In the Casino, I find it hard to breathe. Fortunately, the floor where the conference rooms are located was more isolated, and the air seemed a bit cleaner.

The unrelenting noise and lights are overwhelming. The casinos remind me of the pachinko parlors in Japan—all flashing colors and bells and tinkling music. Even the rooms aren't very quiet. Because the city runs on a 24/7 schedule, people slam doors, laugh in the hallways, talk loudly at all times, regardless of the time. I haven't had a good night's sleep since we arrived.

I am looking forward to being back at home in Dana Point where the daytime temperature is expected to be about seventy degrees. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed. I want to work on my PC with the dual screens in our office where I can hear the waterfall instead of slamming doors.

Yes, I'm spoiled—and I love it.

Lots of people pay a great deal to travel long distances just to visit Las Vegas. Since we don't drink or gamble, the charms of this city are rather lost on both of us. Maybe someone can explain to me why they enjoy coming here.

Will we return again? If the conference is held here again next year, probably. The rooms are inexpensive and the conference is worth the discomfort. Would we come for a vacation? Unlikely. Highly unlikely.