Christy and Chaikin

The Christy Award winners just came out - some books I liked, some I didn't. As a Cavanaugh fan, I wish he would have won, though Fire by Night was great, too. I hope he wins next year - having an entire trilogy with Christy Awards would be nice. I did think Flabbergasted was a better first novel than Welcome to Fred, but I enjoyed both. Three deserved to win.

Linda Chaikin is this week's author, and character roles is the writing topic (I'll do Dekker after I read his trilogy). Linda is prolific author with the knack of stretching one couple's love story into three novels. How does she do that? By making them hate each other at the beginning. You get a lot more writing material if your couple hates each other, form a tentative truce, become friends, then fall in love, rather than making them fall in love at the beginning and having to contrive ways to make their relationship last a book or two.

Having them hate each other isn't a cure-all, though. If your readers become used to your hero and heroine hating each other at first, any guy your heroine hates immediately becomes a romantic possibility. As with any trick of writing, use what works for you and your story.

Why do Chaikin's heroes and heroines hate each other? More tomorrow . . .