A while ago, I wrote a post about songs that sound like they were written for fictional characters. Today, I thought I'd continue that theme, and invite some audience participation.

In the other post, the song I referenced was "The Tower" by Vienna Teng, which is absolutely perfect for the protagonist of "My Fugitive". You can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCTd8AgWnG4

This time, I found some songs that work bizarrely well for a trio of "Farscape" characters. Some may consider these song/character matches to contain spoilers for Season 3, so I'll put them after the 'read more' break.

Have you ever encountered a fictional character who was simply inspiring to you?
 
There are some writers who try to make ‘role model’ characters, though more often or not the ‘role model’ traits are so superficial or blatantly fake that I can only roll my eyes at them.
 
You know the types - the ”strong woman” whose “strength” seems to consist of snapping at her teammates, the “tough guy” who can handle everything by himself and has no need for anyone - or the tough guy’s counterpart, the ”sensitive” guy who expresses his sensitivity through weeping and gibbering over nothing. Ack.
 
It takes a mature writer to write a mature character, one whose strength is balanced by gentleness, wisdom, and clear, appropriate personal boundaries. I’ve found such characters to be regrettably rare, so I’m always happy to see one, and there are a very few I find honestly inspiring.
 
One example that comes to mind is Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan, a warrior-priestess from Farscape. As with any good character, she certainly isn’t perfect, but I love her balance of gentleness and strength, and her ability to not just see the best in people, but to inspire them to live up to that high expectation.

 
In my capacity as a marketing coach, there are a lot of times when I have to make a conscious decision about how I’m going to see my clients and potential clients, what I will expect from them, and how much I believe in them. For that matter, I’m finding more and more that almost every interaction is affected by the way I see the person I’m interacting with.

As I grow more balanced and mature myself, I'm finding that some of my characters are also evolving. Obviously, not all of them are even remotely meant to be a 'role model', but there are some whose strengths, lessons and growth were inspired by my own personal journey, and I'd love to see them become an inspiration to those of my readers who identify with them.
 
What about you? Have you ever come across a character in fiction whose personality or way of handling things inspired you?

I look forward to reading your comments.

Have you ever had a time like this? A time when putting your message or your book out there was downright scary, because you were afraid that you would give it your all, only to feel like it wasn’t good enough because nobody seemed to care?

I’ve had a lot of days like that. For an author, self-publisher and marketing mentor, that’s especially difficult, because being good at marketing carries an inherent expectation that you’ll always be able to get a strong response.

On days like that, there are a few things I try to do or keep in mind:

1. Nobody gets it right all the time. Even the top-level experts sometimes need to test, experiment, and research to find out what works.

2. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The world is usually a lot quicker to forgive and forget than you think it will be.

3. Remind yourself of your past successes. Why is it that those are often harder to remember than the ‘failures’?

4. Don’t get stuck on the idea of things looking a certain way. Give it your best, and accept that sometimes the benefits will come in a way you didn’t expect.

5. Connect with your friends and especially your mentors, and seek encouragement for what you’re already doing, and advice for what you could be doing better.

6. Keep trying. Focus on the things you want to change or create, and let them be your motivation.

Now it’s your turn to offer your wisdom, both to me and to the other readers of this blog. What are some of the things you use to keep yourself positive and encouraged when discouragement starts to set in?

I look forward to reading your comments.

WOOHOO!

Eight months ago, I finished the first draft of Voice of a Silent Fugitive.

A few days after that, I started my own business, and time for my writing was suddenly in very short supply.

I'll admit, there were times when I was tempted to simply let it slip entirely. To set it on the back burner, and begin the editing process 'when I had time'.

However, one thing I'm learning is that we have time for the things we make time for. If you make a commitment to give time to something in a day, then barring any big, day-eating surprises, you're going to make that time.

In this case, I made that time while I was flossing and brushing my teeth. Needless to say, this made the act of editing typos interesting - have you ever tried to type with your hands tied together with dental floss? I've gotten fairly good at it.

And now the editing phase is over. Voice's launch is complete. And I can finally do what I've been itching to do for a while now: start on my next book.

After all these months of editing, it feels so good to be writing again! My current project is somewhat different from My Fugitive and Voice of a Silent Fugitive; it's written in the third person, it's more plot-oriented than character-oriented, and it's my first attempt to write a story in medias res.

But while it's something of a departure from the Silent Fugitive series, it'll still be the same suspenseful, page-turning plunge into the psyches of intriguing characters that you've come to expect from my writing. I look forward to sharing it with you.

Great news!

I've been talking to a lot of people about the newly-published "Voice of a Silent Fugitive", and some of them were disappointed that they were missing the launch sale. As they hadn't heard about the launch before today, I decided to give them one more day to get their copy at half price.

If you haven't grabbed your copy yet, you can still get it at half price tonight or tomorrow. But after that, it's going up to full price, so don't wait too long!

The Voice of a Silent Fugitive launch sale is just about over. I'm very grateful to everyone who helped to support this launch, and I hope you're enjoying your novel. If you've read My Fugitive or Voice of a Silent Fugitive, I'd love to hear from you in the comment section!

If you haven't grabbed your copy yet, don't forget: in celebration of Voice's launch, both novels and the Complete Series set are on sale for half price, but only until midnight on Saturday. After that, they're going up to full price.

If you enjoy suspenseful, heart-twisting novels about soldiers and civilians helping each other to survive in enemy territory, you can find the books by clicking the button below:

I hope you enjoy My Fugitive and Voice of a Silent Fugitive. The sale ends Saturday, so please don't miss it!