A Complicated Relationship by Cassidy Reyne

Today, I am delighted to introduce Cassidy Reyne to the blog to discuss the relationship she has with the characters in her books. I have no doubt authors will empathise and readers will be fascinated by this peak behind the pages.

Thank you for inviting me to your blog today, Val. It is exciting to be able to share my characters and my relationship with them with your readers. Because, you see, from the very beginning of my writing journey, my characters asserted their will, told me what they wanted, and what was going to happen. All I could do was listen and write as fast as my fingers allowed.

So, what do you do when you had the entire story plotted out, in great detail, and your main character throws you a curve-ball that spins you around, throws you upside down, and turns your brain inside out?

Well, I tend to follow where I’m led and adjust my plotting accordingly. I’ve had too many ‘OMG’ moments when I’ve been dragged toward what I thought was a wild tangent, only to realize that it was actually pivotal to the main plot all along. I guess I’ve learned to trust that my leading man or woman knows better than I what’s coming next. As of yet, I’ve not been pushed too far out on that precarious limb where it no longer made any sense.

 While I was writing my first book, The Sentinels — Saving Her, my characters behaved themselves, mostly, and allowed me to write the story the way I’d been told without them changing their minds or revealing things that would have been useful to know from the beginning. To be fair, I’d lived with them in my head for ten years by the time I started writing, so I pretty much knew it all by heart.

Once I was getting to the end of the book, I realized there was another story to tell. One that grew from my characters’ relationship with each other, and a terrifying ordeal in the past. This is where they started telling me in detail what was going happen and how they would deal with their situation — especially my main man. He was a constant, nagging voice in my ear, and I can tell you, the things he knew would happen to him were not very nice, to put it mildly. But he insisted and said it had to be that way whether or not he survived his ordeal.

I had to make the choice of listening to him or write the story the way I felt it should be. Guess whose version I went with? And that’s how The Sentinels 2 — Saving Him came to be.

My leading lady was none too pleased and kept ranting in my other ear that it was not fair, and he would never do that to her, and she would never allow it to happen. In the end, even she had to concede and allow the pieces to fall where they may. Of course, it was then up to me to make sense of it all and put it in some kind of coherent order, while still having them ranting and raving in my head.

While all this was going on, some of the secondary characters were getting restless and wanted to tell me their stories as well. They’d had enough of waiting and were getting louder every day. The only way I could appease them was to make a rough outline of their stories and make notes of the key events they were lobbing at me. Finally, they relented and gave me some peace to finish what I was already working on.

Having your characters shouting, whispering, nagging, grumbling, and commenting in your head, not just while you’re awake, but in your dreams as well, can be exhausting. You want them to go away, but you also want them to hang around, so you can hear their stories.

I love the relationship I’ve built up with my characters and how they’ve grown from a vague vision in my head to lifelike people with a rich past, an active, fast-paced, and energetic present, and a future that at times seems fraught with drama and life changing events but also suffused with scorching and everlasting love. After all, in their world, Soulmates do exist.

 I enjoy having conversations with them — no, I’m not crazy, I know they’re not real — and figuring out what makes them tick, what drives them forward, and what sets their senses on fire. It’s fascinating, frustrating, captivating. and sometimes confusing, but always a path I want to follow into the deepest shadows and the brightest sunlight. I’ll take the good, the bad, and the beautifully ugly.

My Paranormal Romance, Fallen — Unchained, is the perfect example of this. It was challenging to write, with dark and light dancing around each other, but it turned out to be a gripping and emotional read.

As authors, we need peace and quiet around us and calm in our minds to weave our magic, create worlds that readers will fall in love with, but we also need the noisy chaos of mumbled words, insistent whisperings, sometimes loud shouting, and the occasional thunderous roar.

It’s a complicated life with complicated relationships. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Author

Cassidy Reyne is the Alter Ego of a Swedish girl living in England. She's been happily married for over 25 years and has two grown up children.

She writes steamy, contemporary romance with some suspense thrown in for fun and excitement and also paranormal romance. Her current series, The Bound by Conviction Series, the Agent of Honor Series, and the State of Grace Series are available in Kindle E-books, Paperbacks and Kindle Unlimited.

Currently living in South London, she fits her writing in with the property business she and her husband run from home.

When she isn't writing, she enjoys spending time with friends, visiting her family on an island in Sweden, and drinking a glass or two of a good wine. Sometimes, she replaces the wine with vodka or rum.

Cocktails anyone?

If you would like to connect with Cassidy, you can find her on several social media sites.