Something new on this site: a week from today, I will be hosting my first guest blogger as part of a blog tour. She’s Marlene Dotterer, and she’ll be interviewing three of the characters from her new time travel novel, Shipbuilder. What if someone from our time had gone back and warned the builder of the Titanic?

Interested? I’ll put her schedule at the bottom of this post, but the post for next week (no, you can’t see it yet!) got me wondering, Could I interview my own characters? Could I go on a blog tour of my own?

The real problem with my characters is that they change so much, and that change is a major part of the plot, particularly in Homecoming. So when do I interview them, without giving away too much of what happens?

I could start at the beginning, I suppose, but at that point Snowy simply would not talk. He’s convinced that his “differences” would get him killed if anyone found out about them, and he’d certainly play dumb for an interviewer, even someone he knew. Those telepaths might not be able to read his mind, but they could certainly read the mind of anyone he talked to! The only things he would be willing to talk about would be dancing and choreography, because he knows that those are what gives him value as a slave – the things that might keep him alive.

Later, how does someone whose whole sense of self-value is based on his physical abilities react when he is totally paralyzed? He can’t talk, he doesn’t believe a word anyone is telling him, and he’s certainly not going to let anyone into his mind!

At school he’s still hiding what he is. His odd talents let him pretend he can move and speak normally, but he’s still afraid to expose those talents, even when a bully almost kills him. No, I don’t think an interview with Snowy would be much use – he’s too untrusting to talk at first.

Marna might have some interesting stories to tell, but to whom would she tell them? She’s the only survivor of her species, and she’d certainly react to a stranger! Maybe I could have a conversation between her and Win? Granted he’s either a ghost, her imagination, or a guardian angel but a conversation between the two of them might be interesting.

Interviews with Lai or Derik would be a little more manageable, especially toward the beginning of Homecoming, or when Derik finds out what happens to slaves he’s sold. Hmm. Have to think about that.

Zhaim. Ah, that’s an interview I could get my teeth into. Granted it would be a bit like writing The Screwtape Letters – one can only twist one’s mind into a character as unsympathetic as Zhaim for so long. Still, he does have logical reasons for what he believes and  does. Why not let him express them? Maybe I’ll try writing that.

The schedule for Marlene’s blog tour is below.

Sept 1 – Marlene Dotterer
Sept 2 – Patty Jansen
 Sept 3 – Amy Raby
 Sept 4 – Anna Kashina
 Sept 5 – Darke Conteur
 Sept 6 – Carole Ann Moleti
 Sept 7 – Meredith Morgenstern
Sept 8 – Here.