Interview with the Alien (Lynn Kerstan)

I’m currently writing a paranormal romantic suspense, a mix I haven’t tried before. Paranormal means a degree of world-building, even if the book is set on planet Earth in present time. Suspense requires a tightly plotted story arc. And romance demands character-driven action.

Sometimes I feel like one of those performers who sets a lot of spinning plates atop poles and scampers about trying to keep them all going ‘round and ‘round. Then comes a day when the plates start to tip and fall.

This afternoon was warm and sunny, so I took a walk on a nearly deserted beach and had a long private talk with my recalcitrant hero, Draegon.

The "character interview" is a common technique used to delve into the thoughts and feelings and motivations of a character. Most authors I know write down the questions and answers, which is useful for later reference. But I can’t do that, because my persnickety Internal Copy Editor keeps correcting typos or rewording what my character says. And that destroys the magic link between the author and her subconscious, where characters are far more self-directed than we realize.

So today, I just mentally asked questions and listened to the replies. And often–too often–the results were not at all what I was expecting. He had his own plans, and they were going to make for serious complications.

"I am not a puppet," he said at one point. In theory and practice, I know that. My characters always take on their own imperatives and drag me along, but usually not until the set-up and initial conflicts are well underway. This guy is taking charge from the get-go.

Um . . . maybe not. I haven’t interviewed the heroine yet, but Katia is as tough as they come. She won’t be a pushover.

Anyhow, just so you can see how some of us make sausage, here’s a snippet of my interview with Drae. He has apparently decided that some hot inter-species sex in, say, chapter three, would be a great idea.

ME: (not at my brightest) OK, convince me. Why do you think so?

DRAE: (shrugging) I am male.

ME: Right. But you’re also an individual and a heroic character. Not a biologically driven sex-machine.

DRAE: Do you forget that for the past two years, I was confined in solitary darkness?

ME: OK, deprivation is a factor. But you were just transported 88 light-years from your world to this one. You landed in the wrong place. Bare-assed naked. You have nothing.

DRAE: I have myself. I have my destination. I have a goal . . . to discover who I really am and what I am meant to do. And I have Katia.

ME: But she has major problems of her own. Just being in your company puts her in danger. She’s already tried to escape you. She’ll lose you as soon as she can.

DRAE: Yes. So I must bind her to me, by whatever means I have.

ME: (pretty much appalled) You think she’ll stick with you, and help you in spite of the risk to her life, just for the sex?

DRAE: It is a beginning.

ME: Oh, that is cold. Not to mention exploitive.

DRAE: Seduction is not compulsion. You say she is in danger, but I do not know how or why. Perhaps, if she is with me, I can protect her.

ME: Good luck with that. And with the rest of it. Y’know, you are making this very hard for me.

DRAE: (smiling) But interesting. And always, I am your creature.

ME: Right. But unlike the Creator of us all, I’m not on board with that "Free Will" thing. You have to do whatever I choose.

DRAE: We shall see.

Plates come crashing down all around me.
There must be easier jobs.
You want fries with that?