In the Half-Light Essay in Hunger Mountain

Hunger Mountain is a wonderful online magazine (and print in the fall), whose editor, Bethany Hegedus (who wrote the wonderful Between Us Baxters), asked me to write an essay for them on the development of Cid Wymann, the protagonist of Open Wounds, and a secondary character named Winston Arnolf Leftingsham (aka: Lefty). Hunger Mountain is both a print and online journal of the arts that publishes fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, visual art, young adult and children’s writing, writing for stage and screen, interviews, reviews, and craft essays and I’m honored to have been selected by them to write this piece.

After a difficult birth (on my part) Bethany pulled my piece together with some great suggestions and trimming, and I have to say I’m pleased with the way it came out. The essay is called “In the Half-Light” and is in the current online edition which has just gone live. The first chapter of Open Wounds is also included in the issue. If you’d like some insight into the creation of these two characters, and my own creative process (yes, I do have one), then take a look.

Check out what Andrew Smith has been writing about how he develops characters in his blog Ghostmedicine.com for a look at how another author, and the writer’s who comment on his blog, look at the subject.