Yeah.

Right.

I mean, c’mon. Obviously you as The Writer were writing what you wanted to write. What you wanted to see on the page. And the characters were only doing what you were making them do. Because, really, characters do not have minds of their own.

Then I created Emma, the fantasy artist. Emma with a mind of her own who knew things about characters I hadn’t even realized I’d created yet. Emma who sees the links in the things that I write and manages to connect the pieces six months down the road when I’m ready to give up. It was Emma who dragged me kicking and screaming into the fantasy romance world so I could give her and Micah the story I’d never been able to fit in the nice, normal everyday world.

I know what you’re thinking. Why do I think this is Emma, and not just me talking to myself? Easy. I know Emma’s voice. And if I told you some of the things Emma has done that has made me believe she is a living, breathing character in my head, well…you’d think I was nuts. But I’m getting off topic. As much of a pain in my backside that Emma and her Micah are, they’re not a part of the world I’m working on right at the moment. Well, that’s not entirely true.

See, my characters are now forming split personalities. When I started writing, I had Luca and Keeley and Micah first. Then I created Emma to go with Micah, and gave the brothers a sister, Seren, and a mate, Adrian, for her. Of course I have other characters for other series, but these were the three couples for the Dragan world. They were supposed to stay in that world and I expected them to be happy and content with the fact that they were all going to get their own stories which of course meant their own Happily Ever Afters. I really should have known better.

To make a long story a little bit shorter, the story I’m working on now started off as Luca and Keeley’s original story. It’s turned into something SO FAR beyond what the first draft was, that it’s not even the same story anymore. It’s not even the same world. But I couldn’t separate Luca and Keeley from it. I could give them new names, but this was still their story. See, they want both–their dragon story, and the Guardian story. Which meant that everyone else from the dragon world expected to be part of both series, too, since brothers have to stay together, and NO ONE gets near those guys except for their women, unless I want to end up in the emergency room because my characters have revolted and split my head open. And yes, I am now blaming my migraines on them.

So…yes. I am in charge of my own personal insane asylum. It’s just not as bad as it sounds, because I fully believe with all of my heart that if I don’t know my characters and love them absolutely, that no one else ever will, either. And they really, truly deserve to be loved. After all, they have to put up with me.

~Eden

So this is what I’ve come up with, for my main pain-in-the-backside cast of characters.

Emma: Flyleaf all the way.

Micah: He likes the hard stuff. Disturbed, Rage Against the Machine, Seether…and hardcore rap. Anything to get his blood pumping.  Which usually results in him getting caught in another fight with someone wanting him dead, but if the man has ever met someone who hasn’t wanted to kill him at some point or other, I’ve yet to find them.

Keeley: She listens to a lot of Norah Jones, Duffy, A Fine Frenzy, and Alicia Keys. She loves the way their music makes her feel.

Luca: Nickelback, 3 Doors Down, Hinder. He doesn’t do the angry at life stuff, he has enough to be pissed off at without using music to add to the fire.

Seren: Within Temptation and Plumb. I’m sure she probably listens to other artists, but those get her where she needs to be in her head so she can do the things she needs to do. And with Adrian as her husband, I don’t argue with her much.

Adrian: Godsmack.

When I first wrote HWM, I was still in charge of the stories and the characters in my head. Micah and Emma (of course, right?) changed all of that. They refused to be one dimensional characters, their reasoning being if *I* didn’t know them and love them, how could I expect anyone else to? So I dove into the Undying world, and learned how to really make my characters as dark as I wanted them to be, until finally, Kian decided it was time for me to go back and edit his story. Only he didn’t want to be a human anymore. Oh no, that was too normal for him and, he declared, for me, as well, knowing I’d never be satisfied writing about nice, simple characters ever again. I really hate it when my characters know me better than I know them. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Anyway, once Kian decided I was where he wanted me, he made my head split open again because this time, he not only didn’t want to be human, he wanted to be something epic. Something huge, something not done in a romance novel  yet. Something that is going to seriously test my creativity and ability, and let them–he and his brothers and sisters–be exactly what I’d been wanting to do for years and never thought I could pull off.

No, I’m not going to tell you what they are. Not yet, anyway.

So what’s my problem with Kian? Well, he’s using his new-found power against me. Never mind that he’s the one who wanted the story darker, which was great in theory, but he doesn’t see why that should mean his Isabel is in more danger this time around. Oh no, if he could, he’d probably just skip the entire story and settle nice and comfy in bed with her, naked, for all 80,000 words.  So much does he not want me to put her in danger, EVER, that I can’t seem to write this chapter for them. It’s driving me nuts–no, it’s gone past that, and straight to me wanting to knock my head against the keyboard for awhile. It is seriously frustrating me, but I am determined not to give up. The story is done, it won’t take too much editing to make it fit into this new world, and I am determined to have it ready for submission within the next couple of months. I promised my crit group, and they’re right. The story is good, but it’s time to take my writing to the next level if I’m serious about it.

And I really, really want to be serious about it. That means I have to be stronger than my characters. It means shutting everyone else in my head up so I can concentrate on what I need to do, or none of them will ever have their stories told. Even stubborn bastard, pain-in-the-ass Kian Sorrow.

I miss writing. I miss being creative and building a world and watching it, and the characters I love so much, come alive. I miss the frustrating joy of letting a story slowly come to life. I miss arguing with my stubborn, larger-than-life males, and I miss watching my heroines twist the brains of their heroes. There is so much fun for me in character and story development. Even when I feel like beating my head against the keyboard to knock something loose, or those times when I’m sure all my creativity has simply dried up and stopped existing, there is not a lot that I love more than writing. My daughters, my husband, my family…my writing.

So why, other than my abnormally silent characters, did I take the summer off? I think because I needed to. It has been a stressful summer for my family. I lost a cousin in a three-week ordeal that devastated all of those that I love most in the world, and I worried about the health of my grandparents through it all. Death is never easy, and it leaves a hole somewhere thinking about him not always being there in the background. But I guess that is how it should be. There have been other dramas, and there were definite times I was sure over the last two and a half months that I was sure I was headed for a nice, quiet, comfy padded cell. In fact, if I could have taken my laptop, and been assured of an internet connection, I might have volunteered, just for a small, mini vacation.

Luckily, things have seemed to have settled out over the last week or so, and my lovely, wonderful characters have taken to driving me nuts once again with all their demands and needs. I still have not settled on a story to work on, but there are ones that are already finished that need to be edited for submission, and I might focus my energy on that for awhile. My Undying characters are the loudest in my head for the moment, but they are the ones I have focused on the most for the last year, and did the most development on. I have other ideas for other stories, other series, other worlds that will eventually need attention, too, so who knows where I will go when I settle into the new school year’s schedule. 6AM comes very early when you don’t go to bed until 4:00, but I will find my rhythm soon.

In the mean time, I will start posting excerpts of my writing soon, and here is the link to the online publication of my very first short story. It’s called At Last. Hope you enjoy it, and check back again soon.

Eden

I guess I should explain my relationship with my characters before I go any further. While I admit that I have no idea what is normal and what is not, my characters are living, breathing people in my head. It wasn’t always like that and I fought for control and to make the stories I wrote come out the way that I wanted them to, but with my first romantic-suspense novel, Here With Me, my characters took over and because I had no choice about the matter, I let them.

It was magic.

It also opened up an entire world to me, and it came with characters that I have come to know and love beyond words.  I’ve even started giving life to my bad guys with the belief that the good guys, my Heroes, are only as good and bad-ass as my bad guys are bad. I’ve learned that by not wanting to hurt my characters, I was robbing them of their chance to fight and wage war and move the earth for the one they love. And I firmly believe that it is the heroine’s right to fight just as much as it is the heroes. They may fight for each other in different ways, but it’s her battle as much as it is his. They have to save each other.

By opening up my imagination this way, I have come across several characters that I know I will never be able to fully let go of, so I will continue finding other worlds, other stories, other lives for them, and I will have fun watching them fall in love all over again in different ways.

So as of right now, I am working on Chad and Rachel, one of my favorite Undying couples, though I admit their lack of internal conflict if worrying me a little. Shouldn’t there be something internal to keep them apart, as much as the external plot? I thought so, and it makes my head hurt a little that there’s not, but I am having fun with the story so I am just going to go with it for now, and worry about it if I have to later.

Anyway, welcome. I am Eden Ashe. Mother, wife, author. Up until last night, I was Eden Stone, but the web domain was taken, and just like my heroes, I don’t like to share. Though I have to admit, I am a little more flexible than they are. Thank God, or I’d be locked up somewhere by now.

So what do I write? Romance, of course, though recently my mostly-calm, normal, well-behaved characters decided they didn’t want to play nice anymore, and decided they needed a fantasy world to play in. With the help of my friend and co-author, Emma Weylin, we were able to make them the true, dark, bad asses we always imagined them to be.  You can read more about them, and our journey to make their world come to life, here.  It’s not always fun, it’s an awful lot of work, but it will be worth it in the end.

Welcome to my world, and I hope you’ll love it as much as I do.

Take care,

Eden