Kate Moretti is full of character(s)...plus a book giveaway

We're thrilled to have New York Times bestselling author Kate Moretti here for a visit. Melissa A. was blown away by her debut novel, Thought I Knew You (reviewed here). Kate's sophomore novel, Binds that Tie, is darker in nature, but it definitely looks intriguing! She's here today to talk about her characters from both novels and show what it's like to write two contrasting women. She even has one signed copy of Binds that Tie for a lucky reader anywhere in the world. In addition, her publisher, Red Adept, is doing a swag giveaway over at their website, that also includes e-books of Thought I Knew You.

Kate Moretti lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, two kids, and a dog. She’s worked in the pharmaceutical industry for ten years as a scientist, and has been an avid fiction reader her entire life. She enjoys traveling and cooking, although with two kids, a day job, and writing, she doesn’t get to do those things as much as she’d like. Her lifelong dream is to buy an old house with a secret passageway. You can find her at her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Writing My Less-Than-Perfect Female Characters

Creating characters from thin air is hard. Every writer has her tricks. For Thought I Knew You, I loosely based Claire Barnes on myself, a classic rookie move. Some of the critics have called her “boring”. Touché. But, I was going for real. I am boring. I’m a mom of two little girls. I work in the pharmaceutical industry, along with my husband. I live in an old farmhouse, and at the time I wrote the novel, I had a dog (sadly, she’s since passed away). Many of Claire’s worldviews are not mine. Her rigid selfishness is not mine (I don’t think) and her lack of self-awareness is not me. I know this to be true: I am unflinchingly, torturously self-aware. I wanted Claire to be relatable, although flawed and not entirely likeable. I wanted her to be in pain and emotionally drained. I wanted her to act out. It was difficult to determine where this line would be drawn: erratic behavior based on life circumstances or unpredictable character?

Creating the novel around Claire was easy. She’s similar to a lot of us; concerned with soccer and the PTA, playground safety, Girl Scout cookies, playdates, and church rummage sales. She’s a working, middle-class mom, thrown into a tragedy. Her perfect little life is upended. What would we do? I probably made her drink a bit more than I should have, along with some other questionable behaviors.

For Binds That Tie, I knew I had to “man-up” and explore character development. I wanted a character who was almost the complete opposite of me. I learned the trick of basing characters on celebrities. I actually have no idea if this is a well-known trick, but it worked like a charm. When I started out, I based Maggie on Gwyneth Paltrow (this was pre-working mom rant, when she was still at least a little bit likable). Whenever I was stuck on what Maggie might say or do, I tried to imagine Gwyneth playing Maggie in the movie. Maggie, like Gwyneth, is beautiful, yet cold and distant. I then took it a few steps further. I created a character who was emotionally unavailable and self-reliant, yet terribly insecure. By the end of the novel, I honestly just loved Maggie. I still do. I think about her, wonder how she’s doing in her continued life. But I knew that I might be the only one.

Maggie fascinates me. She’s been rejected or used by almost everyone around her. Her parents were ill- equipped for parenthood and doted mainly on her sister, who then marries Maggie’s ex-boyfriend. Maggie’s husband is unfaithful. For these reasons, I was insistent on making Maggie beautiful. People think that beautiful people are empty vessels. Why should they hurt? Why should they be insecure? Why should they ever feel lonely? I imagined that being extraordinarily good-looking could be isolating, because people assume your distance comes from snobbery or superiority. Then I gave Maggie the inability to really connect with anyone because she felt different. To me, Maggie is so wonderfully honest and broken. I wanted to hug her. She needed a friend, in the worst way, the poor girl.

It was fun to write two completely different characters, one I could relate, the other I couldn’t. I much prefer my second method, which is a good thing since I think autobiographical characters are a one-time use. I found that I much preferred deeper development of Maggie over her husband, Chris. And while it is dual point-of-view story, I felt a much stronger connection to Maggie. I think I’ll always gravitate towards female driven plots with strong, but somewhat, damaged main characters. To me, the real meat of life lies in the flaws. Bad decisions, selfish choices, the way people react when pushed to their limits; the best stories lie in the blurred space between good and evil.

Thanks to Kate for visiting us and sharing her book with our readers. 

Enter to win an e-book or swag from Red Adept Publishing and see the rest of the blog tour stops here.

How to win Binds that Tie: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

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Worldwide. Giveaway ends May 27th at midnight EST.