My Writing Corner : Fun with Characters

One of the first questions many people ask when they learn someone is a writer is "How did you become an author?" or "Did you always want to be a writer?". Everyone has a different answer and it's why I always love to ask writers that question. Their stories are always wonderful. It's one of the reasons I love publishing a blog that features authors every week. Today's guest in My Writing Corner has a wonderful story to tell, so let me turn it over to today's blog guest, Tina Fausett. Take it away, Tina...

"First off, I want to say that I never pictured myself this old writing about people this old. But we’re not dead yet and I realized there’s definitely a market and a need to tell our stories. (I think the fascination with The Golden Bachelor proved that).

My favorite place is New Orleans where I once lived. A native of Oklahoma City, I grew up with a southern mom and she used to tell me I had swamp water in my veins. I’ve owned an antique store and art gallery, been a pickle pusher (I had a company called Red Hot Mamma’s Pickles), I’ve sold real estate in the Big Easy and OKC, yet I am always drawn back to writing. I’ve written mainstream, a children’s book that’s not published, some mystery and suspense with romantic and paranormal elements and even erotica. I can say, quite proudly that I have two Raunchy Read Awards. A rather haughty and unimaginative woman once asked if I regretted not focusing more on my intelligent side. In response, I quoted Einstein. "Creativity is intelligence having fun.""

Tina, what do you enjoy about being an author?

I love writing, plain and simple. I’m fascinated with people. If you take the time to listen and ask questions, everyone’s got a story. Pretty much all my characters are based on someone real: something that happened to them or something they said or just their personality.

What do you find is the most challenging part of being an author?

Everything! I guess first would be finding the time because it does take time. Many of us have to make a living, have family obligations, etc. And you do have to have your head into it. Just sitting down a writing is the easy part. There’s the editing, over and over, the rewrites and then when you think you have everything perfect, you find something else. Skip forward and you’ve actually finished the manuscript and in your mind written THE END. Then there’s the query process, a synopsis to be written and every publisher and agent is going to ask for something different. You’ll need a blurb, excerpts, etc. Once you’ve completed your book…that’s when the hard stuff happens.

How do you develop characters?

All I have to say is be careful, you might find yourself in one of my books. Often a character isn’t just based on one person but several and then a huge amount of my imagination. I’m also a small (or large) part of all my characters as I think is true for most writers. On rare occasions, as with the character, Thomas, in “Unrequited”, he’s not based on anyone I know. I simply made up what I’d want in a perfect man and since I’ve never found one I had to imagine him.

Tell us about your road to publication.

I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. I once even had an agent in New York. But life got in the way, and I ended up going with a vanity press then quit writing for almost 20 years. By then things had changed and my granddaughter, Rhiannon, taught me about Wattpad and I spent a few years putting my books on there. After gaining a decent following and winning a couple of awards, I decided to self-publish. Again, life happened, I had to put everything on the backburner for a while. The pandemic hit, there was a lockdown, I was preparing for three back surgeries in a row and months of recovery. During the recovery process, I finished my book and was determined to go traditional. I reached out to a friend and asked her to help me with the editing. She liked the book and suggested I query The Wild Rose Press…and here I am today, a little over a month out after its release.

What is your book that you will feature today and how did you come up with the idea to write it?

My novel’s called Unrequited, which is Book 1 of my Widower Whisperers Series. The idea came from two different things. First, there was my 50th reunion. I have high school amnesia and didn’t remember most people. However, there were a couple of men who insisted they remembered me and my red hair (that’s usually what people always remember). They would show me their graduation picture on the badge hung from a lanyard around their neck and ask if I remembered them. Quite honestly I didn’t. One of the gentlemen acted perturbed, as though I’d obviously insulted him. I assumed he’d been a big deal…you know, how dare I forget. Later, I asked a few girlfriends if they knew him and if we’d ever dated and then it came to me…what if?

The second thing was getting together with my single girlfriends, and we always ended up talking about men, awful dates and laughing about how hard dating was at our ages. That’s where the idea for the Widower Whisperers came in. Like wouldn’t it be awesome to have a business training newbies (widowers and newly divorced men) how to live again, date a contemporary woman, dress, do the things their wives used to do for them. Well, no business was formed so I wrote about it.

Let's get a blurb:

After a coffee date from hell, Sally Estes and her friends come up with an idea for a business-The Widower Whisperers, LLC. They train Newbies, recently widowed and divorced men, on how to start living again and to do the things their wives used to do for them. The hardest part is teaching them how to treat and court a contemporary woman.

Little did Sally know this new venture would change all their lives forever, bringing back a man from her past she can't remember and a history she wants to forget. What started out as a promising enterprise now threatens to destroy her friendships and everything she's worked so hard for.

Want to know more? Let's get an excerpt:

His head was bent but Elaine could see the trace of a tear escape from the corner of his eye. She stretched forward and ruffled his hair. “Could we get back to Sally?”

“Yes, let’s,” he mumbled without looking up.

“I was just reading an article about her and some of her girlfriends starting a business called the ‘The Widower Whisperers’. Ghastly name I know and doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but catchy.

“They evidently help widowed and divorced men…newbies, they call them, get back into the swing of life and train them how to do the things their wives did for them, as well as getting them ready to start dating…I think they even have a course called ‘Women 101’. When I first saw their ad about four months ago, I kind of thought it was a ridiculous idea and had no clue Sally was involved. But it looks like they’re doing really well and have so many male clients that they’re going to branch out to females soon.”

“That’s charming and I wish them all the luck in the world, but it has absolutely nothing to do with us.”

“Well, if you think about it, it really is a good idea. It’s hard for most people to start over. You know what it was like after you and Gayle divorced. I remember what it was like dating after Jake died, before I met you. It was horrible. Men were absolute idiots, thinking they were suave and debonaire. You’d go to dinner, and they’d be putting down the ex, drinking too much, start trying to hold your hand and talking about back rubs…” She shivered and ran her hands over her arms. “It was creepy, and I don’t imagine it’s gotten any better as we’ve aged.”

What’s your next project or what are you working on now?

I’m currently writing Book 2 of the Widower Whisperers Series, Forever’s Not so Awfully Long. I’m having so much fun with these characters I had to write another one. I’m also working on finishing another women’s fiction, “Broken Promises”.

What advice do you have for beginning writers?

Keep writing. That’s what the agent I had told me. It was her only advice. And even though I took about 20 years off, I went right back to it. There were so many things I’d experienced and people I’d known…so many stories to tell. It is not easy. But don’t give up. Your stories won’t be known unless you tell them. KEEP WRITING!!!

Thank you, Tina, for being my guest today. Following are the Buy Links for Unrequited and Tina's social contact information.

Buy link(s):

Amazon.com: Unrequited (The Widower Whisperers Book 1) eBook : Fausett, Tina : Kindle Store 9781509252992 - Walmart.com Unrequited by Tina Fausett (booksamillion.com)

Unrequited a book by Tina Fausett (bookshop.org)

Unrequited by Tina Fausett, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Unrequited eBook by Tina Fausett - EPUB Book | Rakuten Kobo United States

Unrequited by Tina Fausett (ebook) - Apple Books

Social Contacts:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/tinafausettauthor/

Facebook Personal Page: https://www.facebook.com/tina.fausett

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tinafausett

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinafausettauthor/