Best-Selling Author, Marlene Bateman is with us today to answer a few questions and discuss her latest novel, "A Death in the Family!"
So tell us, Marlene, what’s your secret to making the character’s in your books come to life?
I write down everything I possibly can about each character and keep it in a file so I REALLY know the character. I don’t use most of the information in the book, but it helps me create a real character—lets me get into his or her ‘skin’ and know their past, present and their hopes and dreams for the future. As I write, I try to imagine myself as that character and imagine how he or she would respond to each situation they faced.
How do you come up with characters names and place names in your books?
I get my names from two sources. First, I can look online. I found a great website that lists names according to year. This way, if I have an older character, I can type in their birth year and have a long list of names from that era to pick from. Second, I save names from the sports pages of my local newspaper when they list all-star football and basketball teams. I clip out the entire page and file it away for when I need some current popular names. Each page has dozens of cool names.
