DUST, Susan Berliner – Author Guest Post

While unloading groceries in her Rock Haven condo, Karen McKay notices a strange swirl of red, green, and blue dust. The swirl follows her inside, lifts a porcelain ballerina from her wall unit, twirls it in the air, and throws it to the floor, shattering it into pieces.

The following evening, Karen hears her neighbor’s dog barking loudly. Upon investigation, she finds her neighbor, Marion, at the bottom of the stairs—dead. At the top of the stairs, a colorful whirlpool of dust circles ominously.

Now the feisty librarian must consider the unthinkable: Could the dust be responsible for her neighbor’s death and, if so, would it kill again? Karen turns to her ex-husband, Jerry, for help and together they bravely confront the mysterious dust. But will their daring actions cost them their lives? – FROM AUTHOR SITE

AUTHOR GUEST POST…Characters in Charge

When I began writing DUST, I knew my main characters (Karen and Jerry), the plot of the story, the ending—and not much else. I always pictured novelists outlining each chapter before writing it, but that’s not what happened with me. I just sat at the computer each morning and wrote. The words poured out, often without me knowing what was going to happen. The characters themselves determined the action.

Recently, I read an interview with famed author Elmore Leonard who described his writing process in a similar way, saying he makes it up as he goes along and his characters let him know what comes next. So I’ve got good company! Here’s the link to his comments: http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/leonard_making_it_up.html

I was part of an Authors’ Panel a few months ago and a man in the audience brought up the subject of characters, saying novelist Stuart Woods was asked why his books had so much foul language. Woods’ response was that he didn’t curse; his characters did.

I understand exactly what Stuart Woods meant. It’s almost as if the characters I write about have their own lives. Often, much to my surprise (and sometimes to my annoyance), the characters say and do things I don’t expect. But not knowing exactly what will happen makes the writing experience much more entertaining!

When I write a novel, I envision the action in terms of a play, positioning my characters on the stage (i.e. page), acting out their roles in the story. As a result, I mentally divide the action into scenes and acts (chapters). When all the characters have finished performing their parts, the curtain falls, and the chapter ends.

At a recent library talk about DUST, an audience member asked if I continue to think about my characters after I finish a book. I had never thought about that question, but the answer is “no.” I think about the characters continually throughout the writing, editing, and revision processes, which can be very lengthy. However, when the book is completely done, so are my characters. With DUST, it’s like Karen and Jerry finished playing their roles, bowed to the audience (readers), and walked off the stage—forever.

Maybe that’s why, unlike some other writers, I don’t envision my novels as series or sequels. When a book is finished and the final curtain falls, it’s really “The End.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Susan Berliner has been a nonfiction writer for nearly her entire career. She had originally planned to be an elementary school teacher, but left after a year to become a newspaper reporter for Fairchild Publications. She covered men’s retailing for Daily New Record, a men’s wear/textile trade newspaper, which was the “brother” paper of Women’s Wear Daily.

After Susan’s children were born, she switched to freelance writing–mainly in education–publishing several book series dealing with editing skills, language arts, and standardized testing. She has also created teachers’ guides, student activity sheets, and test passages. During this time, Susan was the project editor for a national science magazine for elementary school students and edited subject-related manuscripts for children in grades 7 and 8. In addition, she freelanced as a local reporter, covering board meetings for the North County News, a weekly newspaper in Yorktown Heights, New York.

When she returned to work full-time, Susan became the promotion manager of the Yorktown PennySaver, a job she held for 20 years. She created many original weekly contests–Phony Ad, Rhyme Time, and PennySaver Prophet.

Susan lives with her husband, Larry, in Yorktown Heights, where she is preparing her second book (Peachwood Lake) for publication and writing her third novel.

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