Friday, June 27, 2014

Guest Author: Linda Acaster


The Bull At The Gate – Handling Characters’ Emotional Arcs

I’m happy to welcome author Linda Acaster with her take on Lights in the Dark as related to her newest release, book 2 of the Torc of Moonlight trilogy: Bull at the Gate. 

I’ve read the first two books of the series and recommend them highly for any reader who loves intrigue, history, and supernatural elements. A review for the books will be posted at Elucidate Publishing.


Welcome, Linda!
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The Bull at the Gate, Book 2 in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy, has just launched. (Click here for Buy Links)

LindaAcaster-BullatGateWith Alice dead, Nick has moved to York, a mediaeval city of crooked half-timbered houses and tight cobbled streets where Viking re-enactors thrill the tourists. But York was once a Roman colonia that garrisoned the Ninth Legion, and the Sixth Victrix, and the stains of older, sacrificial, deaths lay buried deep in modern cellars. When a female student disappears the police start asking awkward questions about Alice, and Nick finds himself a suspect. Why has an artefact from the Temple of Mithras appeared on his desk? Could Alice and the girl be trapped together, and if he frees the girl can he return Alice to him?

The Bull At The Gate is a cross-genre novel that fits into Romantic Thriller, Crime, Suspense, Occult, Paranormal Romance... No matter the genre, I am writing about relationships, about ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances and making decisions, and then standing or falling by the result. They take responsibility. They try to put things right.

The premise of the trilogy springs from British myth – a female water deity able to cross between planes: think the Lady of the Lake in the Arthurian legends. To modern connotations she was – is – an embodiment of Nature, of balance, which ticks to a slower clock than human beings. One particular deity, forgotten in the wilds of Yorkshire, is resurrecting herself. Neither good nor evil, she just *is*.

Because the deity is female, for balance across all three books my main character is male – Nick. In Book 1 he is a nineteen year old student who, like most of his gender and age, has no concept of his own mortality. Alice has borne losses in her life and tries to insulate herself from pain by remaining aloof. However, they are pledged by a force she senses but cannot see, that Nick comes to see but denies can exist. In so doing so, he sets them both on a path to disaster.

Despite its otherworldliness resonating in the background, the trilogy is set firmly in the real 21st century and readers can walk round York in Nick’s footsteps. When The Bull At The Gate opens it is three years after Torc of Moonlight closes. Nick does not stride from one storyline to the next as if nothing of note has occurred – he’s trying to emerge from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He’s 22, been living again in the parental home, and a temporary job in York is his first step back into independence.

As the novel is primarily from his viewpoint I couldn’t label him as a sufferer because he doesn’t want to look the diagnosis in the eye. Instead I open with him experiencing some of the milder symptoms: interrupted sleep, sweats, panic attacks, low self-esteem... Not until halfway through the novel, when he is being interviewed by the police, is the label mentioned and his mental state questioned. Nick as portrayed is hardly regular hero material. Yet he is because he carries on regardless, and when the opportunity arises for him to put right the decisions he mishandled, he will not be swayed despite the toll it takes on his health.

None of us are the sum of a single character trait, though one may become more dominant during different sections of our lives. Part of the reason for each book having one historical and two contemporary storylines running parallel is to reflect one another at an oblique angle, to emphasise the ambiguity of accepting any one stance as “the truth”.

LindaAcaster-TorcofMoonlightFor the trilogy to work, Nick, and to a lesser degree Alice, have to evolve as people across the three books. From the euphoria of youth in Book 1 to being riddled with regret and guilt in Book 2, when Book 3 opens – three years later for symmetry – Nick has empowered himself with both knowledge and belief, and self-knowledge and self-belief, trusting them to be his sword and his shield. Life, though, no matter the plane, is never quite that simple. If it was I wouldn’t have a novel.

“..a beguilding tightrope walk..” “Fabulous! Can’t wait for more.”

“..a crafted blend of Crime, Thriller and Myth makes the reader question their grasp of reality..”


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14 comments:

  1. Thanks, Ella, for inviting me across to focus on writing a character's emotional stresses without the author blatantly explaining all to the reader. If anyone wants to discuss this, or any aspect of the 'Torc of Moonlight' trilogy, please leave a comment. I'll be calling back in to chat. Catch you later!

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  2. Enjoyed your post, Linda - the series sounds most intriguing!

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    1. Thanks for coming across, Rosemary. It's been referred to as "deeply multi-layered" - the sort of thing we writers like to know has been noticed!

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  3. Interesting analysis and very true those comments about no one being the sum of a single character trait. It's an angle that's well done in this book. I'm looking forward to no 3.

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    1. Thanks for saying so, Penny. One person's truth is never the 'correct' one, something I mined to effect so that readers had to make their own decisions. It's my pet irritation to have everything laid on a plate when reading.

      Number 3, yes, the w-i-p... now where did I put it??

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  4. Linda, I'm so glad to have you here! I'll be in and out this weekend, also.

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  5. Your skill as a writer is to lead readers beyond the first, instinctive snort of disbelief and to take them inside Nick's mind, to share his frailties and tenacity.

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    1. Thanks for calling by, Madeleine. I agree; writers have a duty to their readers to guide a path slightly off-centre of the expected. In 'The Bull At The Gate' my aim was also to make them falter in their real-world lives to take a closer look at their own surroundings. The products of History are mere inches beneath our feet, beneath the buildings we inhabit, but History is also a fluid concept. When does Time cease being current and turn into History? What if it never truly does?

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  6. Having read, and been intrigued by, the first two books in this series, I'm eager to learn how Nick develops in the third. You've given the reader a real man here, who, in spite of his flaws, takes us with him on his journeys and becomes a hero through his sheer determination and devotion to the woman he loves. It's been a great trip so far and I look forward to reaching the end with your fascinating character.

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  7. Thanks for that accolade, Stuart. Building 'super-hero' characters are easy but ultimately two-dimensional, and are satisfying for neither author nor reader. Nick certainly developed in the writing. I believe in nature + nurture + environment + experience, and none of this comes in a single stroke of the pen. I might keep an eye on the end goal but the emotional journey is the writer's, and reader's experience.

    Good of you to call by.

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  8. From typical laddish student to scarred adult, Nick's journey is not an easy one. I was haunted by his grief, his terror, his mounting isolation...but most of all by his courage and his constancy. Beautifully-written. I look forward to his final destination.

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  9. Hey, thanks Karen! I'm glad you empathised with him so well. 'Final destination' is always difficult, even in a trilogy. Someone will be disappointed. I only hope it isn't Nick. I don't want him haunting me. Ooh, I shall dwell on that now I've typed it [shudder].

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  10. Linda, thanks again for being here. I've enjoyed the conversation in the comments, as well. Thank you to everyone who has come by so far. If you're late to the party, go ahead and comment and I'll let Linda know you've arrived!

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  11. I've enjoyed it. Thanks for having me, Ella. And yes, I'll be automatically notified if new arrivals jump in, so feel free to ask a question or make a comment. I'll be around!

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