On Writing and Creativity: Who Are Our Characters?

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[Warning:  This post touches on an emotional political issue in order to illustrate a point.  I do NOT want the comments on this post to devolve into political debate.  This is ultimately a post about writing and character work.  Please refrain from commenting on the political stuff beyond how it relates to character work.  Comments that are polemical or divisive, whether or not they agree with my personal political views, will be deleted. Thank you.  We now return to our regularly scheduled Monday post...]

There is a moment late in the second Thieftaker book, Thieves’ Quarry (due out July 2 from Tor), in which my protagonist, Ethan Kaille, explains to another character all that has happened in the previous days and how the magic wielded by the “bad guy” contributed to a series of attacks and deaths.  When he is finished, he and the character in question have the [...]

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An Interview with Ethan Kaille, Thieftaker and Conjurer

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Ethan Kaille is one of Colonial Boston’s leading thieftakers.  He is also a conjurer, an ex-convict, and a veteran of the War of the Austrian Succession, in which he served as a sailor in the navy of His Majesty King George II.  Though an intensely private man, he recently agreed, albeit reluctantly, to sit down and answer a few questions about his life, his career, and, of course, his rivalry with Sephira Pryce, Boston’s famed “Empress of the South End.”

*****Mister Kaille, thank you for joining us today.  I wonder if you wouldn’t begin by telling us a bit about your work as a thieftaker.

There is little to tell, really.  Boston is filled with reprobates and fools, and invariably men who fall into one category or the other take it upon themselves to improve their meagre lot in life by stealing from the city’s monied class.  When they do, [...]

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