Shared WIP Tag- Part II: Meet My Cast of Characters

Congratulations to Connie Saunders who won Blood Brothers from my last blog.

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Thanks to all of you for leaving comments two weeks ago on Part I. In Part II, I answer several thought-provoking questions about the Half-Truths cast. At the end you'll find a list of my blogging colleague's posts. Check them out--these are young adult writers with limitless imaginations!

1. Who is the main character?

Anna Katherine Dinsmore. Her friends call her Kate; her best friends call her Katie. She turns 14 in Half-Truths and recently moved from a tobacco farm in eastern NC (where this picture "was taken"--well, sort of, truth is, I found it on Pinterest) to ritzy, Myers Park, NC (a part of Charlotte).

I imagine Kate was about 10 when this picture was taken.
That's Speckles next to her. 

2. What is the goal of the protagonist?  

   After moving from Crossroads, she wants to find a place where she fits in.

2a. The antagonist? 
     
   - Ginny, a friend she used to play Civil War with when she visited her grandparents in Myers Park. Ginny wants to keep Kate away from her crush, Robert. 
     - Kate's grandmother, Cecelia Dinsmore, who wants to make Kate into a debutante. 

3. Is there a possession or memory the MC keeps close?
    The marble her granddaddy made and gave her. 

4. What is the protagonist's greatest fear?
    That her daddy will get injured in the Korean conflict. Or worse.

5.  Who is your favorite character?
     Like many of the other bloggers in this tag, I like them all. Sometimes I even like Kate's uppity grandmother, Cecelia, who drives Kate crazy.

6. List some of the more prominent characters, and then provide a line that describes them.

Eileen: Even though I’ve had the whole summer to get used to the idea of moving to Charlotte I’m still not ready to leave. “I still don’t see why we can't stay." I say, tugging on my goat’s rope to get her to hop up on the truck. Why can Eileen jump over the chicken coop but when I want her to do something she digs her heels in and refuses to budge?

Eileen is a Nubian goat.
Random fact: Carl Sandburg had Nubian goats
in his mountain home in Flat Rock, NC.
They're from African descent.

Lillian: As I duck under the clothes line, I smile at the maid and wrap Eileen’s rope around my wrist. Her skin is the color of sand and up close I see her hair is nappy at the roots and her nose is flared. If a body’s not looking close, she’d pass for white. I’ve never seen a colored gal with green eyes like mine.

I've been studying pictures on Pinterest until my eyes blur. Here are two contenders for Lillian, although neither are quite right. The first is the correct time period, and I'm thinking the young woman at the top right has Lillian's skin tone, but I picture her hair to be longer, like one of the two young women on the bottom. 

Lena Horne and Ricardo Montalban with civil rights heroine Daisy Bates and the “Little Rock Nine,” at New York’s Imperial Theater on June 13, 1958. Horne and Montalban were starring in the musical, Jamaica at the theater.

Wrong time period, but this is Anita Florence Hemmings
who passed for white in order to attend
Vasser in 1893.

Ginny: In Journalism the next day, I’m hoping that Ginny figured out that I’m not a good gossip gal and that I’d be re-assigned back to the News staff. No such luck. She simply smiles sweetly and tells me I can have another chance by reporting on the fall festival. “Make sure you write up all the booths real well,” she says. Her sweeter than honey smile doesn’t fool me. “By any chance has your grandmother talked to Mrs. Tillett since your luncheon? I do hope she doesn’t forget to visit my booth!”

The girl seated on the left could
be Ginny. As long as her hair is red.

Robert: Robert is still avoiding me. Boys! If he didn’t keep slicking down his cow lick in that dang cute way he has—I’d write him out of my life too.

If the boy sitting down with the football had a cow lick,
this would be a great picture of Robert.
(Ad is dated 1952. Perfect!)

7. Who is the funniest character? 
Maggie, Kate's younger sister:

I stare at great-grandfather Jeremiah’s portrait over the fireplace and Maggie follows my gaze. “I’ll be flabberdoozled! Look it, Frank. That’s you!”

“Flabberdoozled?” Granddaddy repeats. He bites his bottom lip but his laughing eyes gives him away. 

“You know, Granddaddy!” Maggie looks at him impatiently. “Flabbergasted and bamboozled. Flabberdoozled!”

Smartest character? Lillian.

Quirkiest character? Eileen.

8. How do you come up with names?

I flip through books like these:

as well as websites like this one on civil war names. 


9. Are any characters influenced by someone in your life?

Lots. But I'd prefer to keep their identities secret. (You never know when someone will come up to you and say, "You really didn't write about me, did you?")

Here are my fellow bloggers in this Shared WIP Tag. I hope you'll check out their characters too. You'll find some doozies!

Ivie

Sarah

Jem

Lila

Faith

Lisa
Evangeline

Shared WIP Blog Tag- Part I

Congratulations to Linda Phillips who won the audio CD of "Indigo Girl" from last week's blog.

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Recently I have met several young writers and bloggers.  One of them who goes by the pen name of Julian Daventry, asked for volunteers to be part of her Shared-WIP four-part tag. Each blogger answers four sets of ten questions that will be geared to four different aspects of their current WIP – the story itself, the characters, the storyworld, and general writing.  You'll find links to the other blogs at the bottom of this post; I hope you'll check them out.

My long time blog followers will know answers to some of the questions, but hang in there--there are some surprises too! 

What is the title, genre, and current status of your WIP?

Half-Truths is historical middle grade (after years of flip-flopping between YA and MG. Here's my post about this recent decision.). I just passed the mid-point of what I hope is the last draft--of at least ten (to be honest, I've lost track of how many times I started over!)

What makes your story unique?

Although there are other friendship books between a white girl and a black girl, no others take place in a southern city just before the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision to integrate the schools. 

Titled "Isolation." 1960's, Michigan

Where did the title come from?

Generational secrets (i.e., half-truths) that influence the present fascinate me. 

Pictures like these from Pinterest inform my story.

How long have you been working on your WIP?

Ten years. (not counting a few years spent on a picture book and early chapter book that laid the ground work for Half-Truths. Yes, a picture book. Really.)

Some of the books I've read while researching and writing. 

What do you think people will enjoy most about your WIP?

I'm hoping they'll enjoy the girls' friendship and what Kate and Lillian learn from one another. I also hope they'll become more aware of their own half-truths (We all have them!).

Describe your WIP in ten short phrases.

Segregation; Charlotte, NC; civil rights; passing; family secrets; rambunctious goat; debutantes; journalism; unexpected friendship; Korean War. 


Provide a snippet (long or brief) of a favorite scene.

Dear Katie,

Sorry for not writing sooner. Lola Mae told me you were waiting on me to write.

Ever since Daddy folded the Shaw’s place into ours, we’ve had more tobacco to pick than you can shake a stick at. Them sorry coloreds were all standing around boo-hooing when the sheriff served them papers. Hey, it’s not our fault that they didn’t pay their taxes.

I put the letter down and stare out the window. Mr. Davis didn’t buy the Shaw’s property.

He stole it. 

My eyes blur as I continue reading. With all the cutting and drying we gotta do, I’d just as soon as not finish school. That would be fine by Daddy, but Mama won’t hear of it. I just got me a few more years ’til I’m sixteen. Then she can’t say nothin’ more about it. 

I really gotta run. Don’t worry about not being my dance partner no more. Ain’t nobody gonna ever shag like you, baby.

Baby? I crumple up Mack’s letter and throw it into the trashcan. What did I ever see in him? The big oaf!

It would serve him right if he flunks out of school.

What is the hardest thing to write with this story?  What is the easiest?

Hard: Getting the African American story right.
Easy: Writing off the page. (I write Kate's poems in long-hand first. These seem to come out easier.)

A line where the tension builds.

"My anger balloons bigger than my questions about the mysterious object. No one should be forced to dig up their ancestors."

Explain the plot in one line.

In 1952, fourteen-year-old Kate Dinsmore's world is shaken when she discovers that the Negro teenager working in her grandmother's house is her second cousin.

Please visit Sarah, Ivie, Lisa, Julian, Jem, Faith, Lila and Evangeline to see their answers to these questions. You'll be impressed with these young writers enthusiastic dedication to story creation!

Stay tuned for Part II in a few weeks.