What Makes an Unforgettable Character? By Sylvie Perry (aka Keziah Frost)

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm delighted to host Sylvie Perry, author of THE HAWTHORNE SCHOOL. You might remember her as Keziah Frost, who wrote THE RELUCTANT FORTUNETELLER, which so many of enjoyed. But now she's turned to the dark side, where characters still rule. Her new book is spooky, creepy, and thoroughly gothic. And PS, Sylvie and I had a lovely conversation to celebrate her new book, hosted by Madison Street Books. You can watch that here. Welcome Sylvie!

SYLVIE PERRY: If I ask you to name one character from fiction—or two or three—that you will never forget, which names come to mind? 

Do you see these characters alive in your imagination? Do they seem almost—or even actually—like real people?

I would argue that a memorable character trumps a memorable setting or even a memorable plot.  Do you agree?

Let’s see if any of your unforgettable characters are the same as mine. 

Characters I will never forget include: Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca—even though she is dead before the story starts and we only hear about her from other characters; Lewis Carroll’s Alice, the girl who made me first connect with fiction, a girl after my own heart who tried to make sense out of a nonsensical world of mad adults; Uriah Heep, the servile, writhing, snake-like creature of Charles Dickens’ who pretended to be so “humble.” And then I hasten to add Dickon, the boy in The Secret Garden who could talk to all animals and birds and really knew their languages, as well as the secrets of plants and trees. And who could ever forget the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein? Or the idiosyncratic Sherlock Holmes or the insightful Miss Marple? Or how about Rhys Bowen’s Lady Georgiana?

Whom would you add?

As great as the books these characters live in may be, I believe the characters are even greater, and keep us coming back to re-read, and return to our thoughts from time to time our whole lives long. They make an impression on us as much as—or perhaps more than—flesh and blood people we have known.

A good rule for a writer is to put a compelling character into an interesting situation. That is a place to start with a protagonist, but it can also work for any character in the book. Not all the memorable ones are main characters.  Ophelia is unforgettable in Hamlet. Think of all the brilliant characters in The Wizard of Oz.

So what is the special sauce? What is it that makes a character memorable?

I think there has to be something very relatable about them, and also something very surprising. We want to marvel at them—and at the same time feel that they could be expressing ourselves, or a part of ourselves. Is that right? Do we tend to empathize with these book-people, and also admire some special skill they have--or else recoil from something tragic, horrifying or disturbing about them? Maybe there has to be something very realistic in their personalities, so that we can believe in them, and yet they need in some way to be larger than life, unlike any real person we know, so that we will be mesmerized and read until the very end, and then never forget them.

So we have Alice, as puzzled by grown-up ways as any other seven-year-old, but ten times more clever. And we have Shelley’s monster who only wants acceptance and belonging as we all do, but he is gigantic and terrifying to look at. Even the eponymous Rebecca strikes us with awe because that is the effect she has on the book’s protagonist, but we are repelled by her cold black heart.

Who are the characters that live in your mind, and why?

What does a character need in order to make that permanent impression on readers?

About THE HAWTHORNE SCHOOL: Claudia Morgan is overwhelmed. She’s a single parent trying the best that she can, but her four-year-old son, Henry, is a handful–for her and for his preschool. When Claudia hears about a school with an atypical teaching style near her Chicagoland home, she has to visit. The Hawthorne School is beautiful and has everything she dreams of for Henry: time to play outside, music, and art. The head of the school, Zelma, will even let Claudia volunteer to cover the cost of tuition.

The school is good for Henry: his “behavioral problems” disappear, and he comes home subdued instead of rageful. But there’s something a bit off about the school, its cold halls, and its enigmatic headmistress. When Henry brings home stories of ceremonies in the woods and odd rules, Claudia’s instincts tell her that something isn’t quite right, and she begins to realize she’s caught in a web of manipulations and power. 
 


The author’s work as a psychotherapist, with a focus on narcissistic manipulation and addictive power dynamics, guides this exploration of a young mother wanting to do the best for her child.

LET’S TALK ABOUT GENRES by Keziah Frost (A.K.A. Sylvie Perry)

 LUCY BURDETTE: Today I'm happy to welcome back Keziah Frost to the blog. She raises a great question about genres--why should authors be pinned to writing one kind of book?

KEZIAH FROST: “Write the book you’d like to find on the shelf!”

That’s the advice that writers hear all the time, and good advice it is. However, it may conflict with the encouragement writers also hear to “brand” themselves, to keep offering more of the same to their readers, only each time, a little better. 

When I think about the book I’d like to find on the shelf, I ask, “Wait. Just one book?”  If you’re like me, your shelves are overflowing with books you want to read. And if you imagine the book you’d like to find, your thoughts go in several directions at once.

Sometimes I want to find a light-hearted and wise, uplifting book. At other times though, I’m in the mood for a gothic suspense story. And there are times I look for fairy tale collections, or time travel stories, or silver sleuth mysteries, or… well, you get the idea. Are you the same?

The book I want to find on the shelf can be almost any genre, but it has to immerse me in another world, and it must tell a good story, and I have to enjoy the writing style as well. Genre doesn’t matter to me, really. And this makes me wonder why authors these days are usually boxed into a single category. 

Think of Shirley Jackson. She’s known for the terrifying short story, “The Lottery,” as well as creepy novels such as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. But she also wrote very funny books about raising her four children: Life among the Savages and Raising Demons. 

Think also of Shakespeare. He wrote comedy, tragedy and history, with the only aim being to entertain his public. But there is tragedy in his history, and comedy in his tragedy. It’s always crossing over, because stories, like life, are multi-dimensional. It makes me wonder sometimes why we have these categories at all. 

I guess they do help us to find our favorite “vibes.”

Each reader has a couple of favorite genres, I think. For me, it’s humor and suspense. I think what they have in common is that little twist of surprise. It’s the little jolt that keeps the reader alert and engaged. But these elements can be worked into any genre.

What brings me to reflect on this topic is that I have a new book coming out, quite different from the first two. In this new novel, I move from “up-lit” (an uplifting story) to gothic psychological suspense. And did I have fun writing it!

The Hawthorne School will be published by Crooked Lane Books in December of 2021. In it, a single mother enrolls her 4-year-old son in a progressive, artistic school, which turns out to have hidden darkness behind its idealistic appearance. 

As this is a change in genre, I was asked to choose a different pseudonym so that readers of my books written under the name Keziah Frost would not be expecting to laugh when my intention is to give them chills. So I came up with yet another identity, complete with Facebook account, Instagram account and website. It was all rather fun and gave me the sensation of engaging in some nefarious activity.

How about you? What are your favorite genres, and why? What are the elements in “the book you want to find on the shelf?”

                                         

Sylvie Perry is the pseudonym of a Chicagoland-based psychotherapist. One of her professional focuses is in counseling survivors of narcissistic manipulation. She has a masters in English. The Hawthorne School is her first psychological suspense novel. Her website is: 

Her optimistic twin (a.k.a. alternate pseudonym) is Keziah Frost, author of The Reluctant Fortune-Teller and Getting Rid of Mabel.

Book clubs: Keziah Frost asks are you in one?

HALLIE EPHRON: These days I love talking to book clubs. I mean, these people who actually read my book! Such a precious thing.

Back in the day,  I was in a book club. These were serious readers and I slogged through a lot of books I'd never otherwise have read. As you might imagine, this was a good thing and a bad thing. Inevitably, as I got busier and started writing and reviewing, there were too many books and too little time.

I've missed it, so it's fun to hear from Keziah Frost about the amazing book club she started. And, by the way, her new novel, Getting Rid of Mabel. Classify it as... read on, it's a great new category that I'll be looking for.

KEZIAH FROST: Book clubs seem to be everywhere now. While they say this is an age of loneliness, it’s also an age of finding new ways to connect.

Like the literary salons of yore, book clubs create a gathering place for people who want to react with others to the latest “great read.” Each book club has its own personality, its own vibe, to suit the members of that particular group.

There are book clubs that don’t discuss the book and are more wine-focused. Others discuss the book-of-the-month in great depth.

About four years ago, I got an idea for a book club after reading Marie Kondo’s The Magical Art of Tidying Up. I gathered all my 800 books in the living room, and I picked up each one, asking myself not “Is this a classic?” or “”Was this a gift?” or “Have I read this yet?”—but only the one clarifying question: “Does this spark joy?” By the end of the afternoon, I had 400 books going to Goodwill and 400 staying. I set the joy-sparking books in the book cases in new categories, giving one full shelf to novels in French.

I sat down to gaze at that shelf and felt the joy of seeing all those French novels side by side, and then asked myself: Why don’t I speak French more often, since French gives me joy? Why isn’t there a French book club around here? Why don’t I start one?

Four years later, our French book club is going strong, with six earnest members arriving at our monthly meeting with seriousness of purpose, copious notes, and a good store of wine, tea and biscuits.

I’ve visited several book clubs in my area to discuss my first novel, The Reluctant Fortune-Teller. It’s become one of my favorite author-ly things to do. There’s always a sense of warmth, often excitement, and sometimes even hilarity. And it is a wonderful, surreal experience for me to hear readers animatedly talking about my characters as if they are real people. I love it, because they are real people (in a way) to me, too.

As my second novel, Getting Rid of Mabel, hits the bookstores, I am getting more invitations to visit book clubs in the coming months. Those that are far away will be Skype visits. I’m looking forward to readers’ reflections and questions about Margaret Birch, eighty-seven years old, who learns to her horror that she has a double, a doppelganger, who has come to her town and is doing scandalous things. To add to the mayhem, a foster child “with behavior problems” is brought into the family circle. As Margaret and her friends deal with these two challenging strangers, comedy meshes with lessons learned.

Like The Reluctant Fortune-Teller, Getting Rid of Mabel is categorized as “up-lit.” Uplifting literature. Its purpose is to make the reader laugh, while also offering some things to think about.

And you, readers? What are your thoughts and experiences on book clubs?

And Reds, have you visited book clubs, and how does it feel to listen to readers discuss the characters who were born in your brain?

HALLIE: UP-LIT! I love it!! And it's exactly what the world needs now, that's for sure.

Are you in a book club? Have you been? And... how do you decide which books to toss and which to keep?

About Getting Rid of Mabel: Carlotta Moon, eighty-one years old, is the uncontested leader of Carlotta’s Club–and has been for as long as anyone can remember. Her loyal followers have always obediently thrown themselves into every new scheme she has ever proposed. Her most recent project was turning Norbert, a retired accountant, into a reluctant fortune-teller. Her ideas for future adventures are limitless, as is her confidence that her Club will always follow her.

Enter Mabel Paine.

For the first time, Carlotta finds an unlikely yet worthy opponent in a bizarre infiltrator. A stranger who bears an uncanny likeness to Carlotta’s oldest friend Margaret comes to town and threatens to hijack their Club. To add to the chaos, Carlotta’s niece brings an angry foster child “with behavior problems” into the family circle. To cope with both newcomers, Carlotta must learn her life lessons about love and belonging.

Getting Rid of Mabel follows the characters that first came to be in The Reluctant Fortune-Teller. Norbert Z is here again, playing a supporting role to his nemesis, Carlotta Moon.

FORTUNE-TELLERS, THERAPISTS, AND “WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?” by Keziah Frost

LUCY BURDETTE: We've welcomed Keziah Frost in the past year to hear about her first novel, THE RELUCTANT FORTUNE TELLER. Today she asked to talk about where writers get their ideas and whether our other lives inform our fiction. Of course we want to hear about that, so welcome, Keziah!

KEZIAH FROST: As I worked on the final draft of The Reluctant Fortune-Teller, I was struck by how therapeutic my card reading protagonist turned out to be. Norbert gives advice that is thoughtful and compassionate. He listens intently, like a therapist. He feels responsible to and for the people who seek his insights. He truly wants the best outcome for each of his customers—or “querents” as they are called in the cartomancy trade.

Yes, Norbert makes use of many therapeutic skills. He encourages people to connect to their own inner guidance system, and he avoids letting them become too reliant on him—just as a good therapist does.

Where would Norbert have gotten these skills? After all, he’s a retired accountant. The answer is, they seem to be natural to his temperament. He’s lived his life on the sidelines, observing people, and he reads them pretty well as a result. Fortunately, he wants to use his knowledge for good!

And where would I have gotten the idea to create a character who is sort of an amateur therapist--like Norbert?

Oh, did I mention…I am a psychotherapist?

It’s been said that writers reveal themselves in their work. I think it’s true. Norbert feels the same sense of surprise at the confidence people place in him just because of his “shingle,” and is troubled by the same concerns that I used to have, especially in my first years, that following a session, someone might take a catastrophic path. So I understood as Norbert worked through all of that, and that struggle became pivotal in the novel.

I’m currently composing the first in a series of mystery novels, and my amateur sleuth has a natural ability to attract confidences and confessions. She’s not so much about bringing evil-doers to justice as she is about helping each person understand themselves and grow into a more evolved version of themselves. Kind of like a…therapist?

So Reds: Have you ever found that your day job has influenced your characters and/or plots?

And readers: Have you ever sought the advice of a psychic or fortune-teller? And if so, would you share if the predictions came true? 

I am giving away three copies of The Reluctant Fortune-Teller. To enter to win, just email me your name and mailing address, and how you would like the book autographed. (U.S. addresses only, please, just because of the postage!) Find my email at   https://keziahfrost.com/contact/ 

BIO:  Keziah Frost is a psychotherapist and holds masters degrees in English and Counseling. She loves painting, Zumba, yoga, animals, and languages, but most of all, she loves to write books that give her readers suspense and laughter.

Words of Encouragement for Writing that Famous “Second Novel” @KeziahFrost

LUCY BURDETTE: I had an email exchange with our Red Writer friend Keziah Frost a while back, and she was mentioning how different (and how much harder) the experience of writing the second novel was, as compared with the first. (Have you read THE RELUCTANT FORTUNE-TELLER? It's a perfect summer book...) And I said, "this would make a great post." And she said, "I'll write it." So welcome Keziah!

KEZIAH FROST:

Words of Encouragement for Writing that Famous “Second Novel”

When I am not writing novels, I am a psychotherapist.
These two jobs are not as different as they might seem. After all, in both cases, it’s all about the story.
As a therapist, I sometimes remind clients of the saying, “Beware of comparing your insides to someone else’s outsides.”
What that means is that we have a tendency to look at another person’s made-up, dressed-up, prepared-for-public-consumption version of herself and then look at ourselves on our worst day and think, I just don’t measure up.
 But wait!
That, right there, is what your therapist would call a “cognitive distortion.” In other words, it’s a mistaken idea.
In the same way, a writer setting out to compose her second novel  needs to remember that her first draft is not going to look like someone else’s published novel. (Or even her own previously published novel.) 
You see, I easily and giddily wrote my first novel, The Reluctant Fortune-Teller. I laughed out loud as I wrote. And what did I write? Why, I just went and wrote the book I wanted to read, that’s all. (I’d heard that advice, and it sounded good to me.) What could be easier?  And, because the stars aligned, a wonderful agent agreed to work with me, and then HarperCollins/Harlequin/Park Row published it, much to my eternal gratitude. I was too naïve to worry about anything at any point in the process. And then it was time to write novel number two. However, now, I was a different writer. I had learned many things I hadn’t known when typing away about Norbert, the retired accountant who is forced to become a card reader to make ends meet.

The first time, I was unaware of all that lay ahead of me: the editing process, the self-promotion, and the necessity of getting and staying plugged in to social media. I was unaware of how many zillions of books are published every single week. I hadn’t started trying to read all of them, so that I would know what readers liked and publishers bought. In short, the first time, I was wrapped in a cocoon of blissful ignorance—and that ignorance protected my creativity.
I was too innocent to compare my insides to anyone else’s outsides.
Fast forward to my current work-in-progress.
As I began to write a humorous mystery, I studied the best I could find in the genre. I made the mistake of comparing finished, published, celebrated works with my first rough draft. 
Of course, I began to feel a crisis of confidence.
It took me a few months, but now I get it.
Don’t compare your insides to someone else’s outsides. And don’t compare your rough draft with someone else’s published work!
Every novel you love began with a rough draft, and was polished and perfected before you laid eyes on it. Obvious? Yes. Easy for a new writer to forget? Absolutely.
So now, I ‘m back to where I started:  having fun, making myself laugh as I write, and making another book I would love to read. There will be work ahead, polishing, and perfecting. That’s all part of the fun.
I think that as much as possible, writing—and life--should be fun. As writers, and as livers of life, we do so much better when we don’t take ourselves so seriously.
All of us—writers and other human beings-- need to quiet that inner critic, and set ourselves free to play. 
No one else can tell your story. 


How about you? Do you have an Inner Critic to manage? How do you keep your Inner Critic under control? And what do you do to make sure that you keep on having fun?

Keziah Frost is a psychotherapist who has felt she was “supposed to” write novels since she was in fifth grade. That was five decades ago, and she is thrilled to see her first novel ready to go to print. She had so much fun writing this one, she hopes to write many, many more. (Says Lucy: And check out her blog, which includes Norbert's readings of various book people, including Lucy herself...)

Life Lessons in The Reluctant Fortune-Teller @KeziahFrost

LUCY BURDETTE: You met debut author Keziah Frost in the fall when she wrote a terrific post for JRW on editing. But now her new book, THE RELUCTANT FORTUNE-TELLER, is almost out and I asked her to return and tell us more about it. Welcome Keziah!

 KEZIAH FROST: We all have more than one career in us.

That’s what my protagonist Norbert, a retired accountant, learns in his seventy-third year as he launches into an occupation he never could have predicted for himself: that of town fortune-teller.

My debut novel, The Reluctant Fortune-Teller, is said to be witty. I hope it is! We need laughter now more than ever. It is also about many things – among them, how people reinvent themselves – to their own delight and peril.

Norbert is having trouble making ends meet. He is a practical man, and doesn’t believe in card reading or anything to do with the psychic world. But when three forceful women he knows from his art league show up on his door step and insist that he can solve his financial crisis through telling fortunes—and that they can teach him how to read cards…, well, you’ll have to read the book to find out all about his delight and his peril.

And just maybe, Norbert’s journey to create a new version of himself will inspire you, as well. I hope so!

In elementary school, a kind teacher told Norbert’s class that each child has a special gift to share with the world. We all have heard this claim. It seems that some people know just what their gift is, while others wonder if they’ll ever find theirs, or if they even have one at all. Norbert was in the second category, wondering in his later years if he had any gift at all. He doesn’t feel special or gifted in any way. He certainly isn’t a person that anyone notices or listens to…. That is, until he goes into business reading cards for the tourists and residents in his quaint lakeside town. 





As “Norbert Z, the Amazing Psychic,” Norbert suddenly becomes interesting. People make appointments to listen to him and they press money into his hands to show their faith in his abilities.

As Norbert’s new career takes shape, his confidence grows; he comes into a new sense of himself; he changes.

We live in a time of continuing education, mid-life career changes, and post-retirement careers. In my own life, I’ve been a college English instructor, a painter of pet portraits, a bilingual teacher, a birth doula, a bilingual counselor and now: a psychotherapist and a novelist. Each new career identity has benefitted from lessons learned in all the previous ones.

And what about you? Have you had more than one career, or more than one identity in your life? Do you believe you have at least one more gift in you that is asking to be developed? Do you dare to open that gift?

The Reluctant Fortune-Teller will be released by HarperCollins/Harlequin/Park Row on March 6, 2018. It is Keziah Frost’s first novel. In the back of the book is a fortune-telling guide, so you can get together—perhaps with your book club—and read fortunes using Norbert’s method. There are also questions for discussion. And if your book club would like to
Skype with Keziah Frost to discuss The Reluctant Fortune-Teller, you can just contact her through her website.

Keziah Frost is a psychotherapist who has felt she was “supposed to” write novels since she was in fifth grade. That was five decades ago, and she is thrilled to see her first novel ready to go to print. She had so much fun writing this one, she hopes to write many, many more. (Says Lucy: And check out her blog, which includes Norbert's readings of various book people, including Lucy herself...)

A Debut Novelist on Revision @KeziahFrost #amwriting

LUCY BURDETTE: Back in May, I received an email from someone I didn't know. It read like this: 

I am a therapist, too. I have my debut novel coming out with Park Row Books in March of 2018. I was trying to think of a pen name, and the name that came to me was Lucy Green Burnette. Of course, I searched to make sure there wasn't already an author by that name, and I found Lucy Burdette. I am so impressed with how much you have written and how joyful your books look.

Who could resist such an email? Now I've read Keziah's book, and so enjoyed it--you'll be hearing more about it this winter. But meanwhile, she has some very wise words about editing that I thought you'd enjoy...

KEZIAH FROST: Gratitude and amazement are what I am feeling about the March 2018 publication of my debut novel, The Reluctant Fortune-Teller. I’ve wanted to write novels ever since I was in the fifth grade, and that was fifty years ago. I got a little side-tracked. My hope is that this book will cheer and encourage you, and even make you laugh. Meanwhile, here are some of things I've learned about writing and editing.

1. I have a “positive encourager.” First of all, before even my agent sees the manuscript, I share it with my “positive encourager,” as I like to call her. In my case, this would be my daughter, Claire. She will enthusiastically point out what is good, and honestly point out what doesn’t work for her. Not every writer has someone who could play this role, but if you do, it can go a long way in developing confidence in the good bits and discarding the weaker bits before the manuscript ever goes any farther.

2. I slow my roll. When my manuscript comes back from my agent, and later on, from my editor… I’m not gonna lie: seeing lots of “suggestions for improvement” on my work inspires many (ahem) feelings. I now read those suggestions, put them away, do other things, and come back to the work in 24 hours, rather than respond immediately. Okay, maybe 48 hours. Considered overnight, most suggestions have turned out to be spot-on, but I couldn’t see that at first glance. The suggestions that still don’t seem right simply become points for discussion.

3. I try to keep a light heart. Revision can be an expanding part of the creative process. With the right editorial people, revision can bring out the best in a story. All of us working on the manuscript have the same goal: to produce a satisfying novel that people will love.

4. I revise keeping in mind that each scene has a purpose, even beyond entertaining. True confession: despite having a master’s degree in English and reading voraciously for decades, I did not know that every scene in a novel is supposed to move the story forward. I really did not ever grasp that fact! After working on revisions for my first novel, where I was asked “What’s the point?” about a couple of scenes, I learned that “It’s funny!” is not enough justification for a scene to exist. This has been a game-changer for me! Now, when I edit my own work before sending it in, I ruthlessly slash every scene that does not advance the story. Or, if I love the scene too much to cut it, I add what that scene needs to make it an integral part of the story.

5. I read differently now. I can’t read anything without seeing where tighter editing might have improved a work—not only my own, but everyone’s!

6. Gratitude. I am grateful for everyone who takes the time to study what I have written and make suggestions which I may or may not follow. Every writer wants to be carefully read.

What about you, writers? How do you feel when you are asked—by beta readers, editors, or your “positive encourager” to change your manuscript? How do you decide whether the requests for changes are valid, or when you need to hold firm?

(Lucy says, Keziah's suggestions work for readers too, don't you think?)

Keziah Frost is the pseudonym of a psychotherapist in the Chicago area. She has masters degrees in English and in Counseling. She loves writing funny stories. One of her daughters presented her with a t-shirt that reads: “I just want to write books, drink tea, and rescue Chihuahuas.” She shares her life with five little dogs, one audacious cat, and her encouraging human family. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and at her website.

Twinkle, her Chihuahua mix, practices gratitude every day.