Hello, everyone! It’s been a long time since I did a Beautiful People post. This is actually going to be the last Beautiful People post of this year, as Cait @ Paper Fury and Sky @ Further Up and Further In, who host the meme, are both super busy and unfortunately, they will be putting the meme on hiatus for the rest of this year. 😭

Fortunately, they will hopefully be able to pick it back up again sometime in the future, and they’ve put together a super special edition of the meme filled with favorite questions from past Beautiful People posts as a special farewell to this amazing blog meme! Let’s dive right in…

WHAT IS THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE MEME?

From the Beautiful People FAQ on Paper Fury:

Beautiful People is for writers. Every month, we post a list of 10 questions for you to answer about your characters. It’s designed to help you get to know your characters – their quirks, their personality, their flaws, and who they are.

DISCLAIMER: I cannot guarantee that everything here is or will be canon in the future. I have spent a fair amount of time developing these characters, but some stuff is still unclear in my own mind, so I will try to answer the questions as best I can.

Also, the character I’ll be using for today’s post is from a super-secret project that I have yet to officially announce or finish working on, so some details about the characters and plot will have to remain secret, for now…

Enjoy the post!

The Character

Once again, I’m mostly going to use Mae from the untitled sci-fi duology I’m working on, but I will be mentioning some characters from my other books throughout the post as well. Photo by 胡 卓亨 on Unsplash

The Questions

1.Favourite genre to write in?

This might come as a surprise, but I actually really enjoy writing sci-fi! I’m not sure if it’s my favorite genre to write in, but I love being able to speculate about what the world might look like in the future and writing about real locations while still being able to take some liberties with technology and setting.

2. What book (a real actual published book!) do you think your character would benefit from reading?

Um, honestly… Mae would really benefit from reading the Bible. 😅

3. Favourite piece of dialogue you’ve written?

“What, exactly, did you do to me?”

“It’s a neural enhancer,” Marta tells the opposite wall, “Developed to enhance memory retention, focus, and awareness. It’s designed for use in the military, but we needed something that would ensure you’d be back on your feet and talking some kind of sense as soon as possible, so I authorized the use of a nonconsensual injection. I should mention that side effects include temporary insomnia for at least thirty-six hours, headaches, and a temporary increase in blood pressure. On the plus side, you are seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, and thinking clearer than you ever have in your life. Enjoy it well it lasts. It’s got a nice kick to it, but I hear the hangover is pretty bad.”

“Awesome,” I say, pressing my freezing hands against my buzzing forehead.

4. What did your character want to be when they grew up, and what did they actually become?

Mae has always wanted escape from her tedious life, and she found that escape in her online world, so I guess you could say that she became the hacker she always wanted to be…

5. Favourite character name(s)?

For girls, I’m really partial to Angel and Amber. For boys, my favorites are a tad esoteric: Jacamar and Marcel. (A jacamar is a kind of bird which was mentioned in The Mysterious Island, one of my favorite books, and I just love the word so much. I think it would make an awesome name!)

6. What makes your character feel loved, and who was the last person to make them feel that way?

I think Mae needs someone to really take an interest in her and her problems. She’s been dealing with everything on her own for so long, hiding all her issues from everyone (and from her parents most of all, before they left) that having someone who would actually help her carry her burdens would certainly make her feel loved. When she was young, her parents served this role for her, but gradually she began to hide more and more things from them and draw further away, and their lives became harder as well, so that they didn’t necessarily have much time or energy to help her figure things out.

7. Favourite character you’ve ever written?

This is really, really hard, because I love all of my characters. But I think I might have to say Esmeralda from Behind Her Mask was Death and Empty Little Heart. She’s fairly complex and deals with a lot of issues, both in her past and her present, and she’s honestly just a ton of fun to write. I also love writing Marta and John from Shell (the first book in the sci-fi duology I’m working on).

8. If your character were permanently leaving town, what would they easily throw out? What would they refuse to part with? (Why?)

All Mae really needs is a laptop and/or phone, some clothes, and she’s good. Her entire life is online, and she can access money from any one of her many bank accounts at any moment, so she doesn’t really need (or care to have) anything else.

9. Favourite tropes to write!

• emotional boys
• characters who think they don’t care, but they actually care a lot
• ‘good’ characters who find themselves becoming more and more like somebody that they really dislike
• characters who randomly hate some universally loved thing, like pizza

10. Which story has your heart and won’t let go?

My sci-fi duology is very near and dear to my heart, but I think the story of the Lavender family (from Behind Her Mask was Death and the the prequel/sequels I’m working on) will always be my favorite.

11. Favourite relationship between characters you’ve written?

I would probably have to say Devon’s relationship with his mother. It’s heavily featured in my untitled Behind Her Mask was Death prequel, so I won’t say too much for fear of spoiling anyone before the  book is even finished, but it’s just such a pure and enjoyable relationship to write about. ❤

12. Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” What are the books that you want to see more of, and what “holes” do you think need filling in the literary world?

This is such a great question, because it actually ties directly in with my sci-fi duology. I started writing it kind of out of frustration, because all the ‘hacker’ books I saw were always about people hacking into video games and messing around with them, and I’ve always wanted to see a book about a hacker in the real world who messes with  actual governments and stuff.

13. Favourite Pinterest board / aesthetic for a book?

Here’s a little aesthetic for Shell that I made a while ago:

14. Favourite time periods & settings to work with?

For time periods, I like writing in the near future (20-30 years ahead), and also in my semi-Victorian fantasy world (from Behind Her Mask was Death). For settings, I really enjoy writing about cities. There’s just so many different people and so many different layers of life to explore! I enjoy writing about lonely spots in the middle of nowhere as well.

15. When people are done reading your book, what feeling do you want them to come away with?

Ooh, this is another hard one… I’d like people to come away from Shell, and from my sci-fi duology as a whole, with some good ideas to think about and chew on: Is it really easier to forget the consequences of our actions when they are mediated through technology? Is it easier to manipulate people when we can pick and choose what parts of our lives they see and ‘edit’ our speech? Is technology, or are users of technology, manipulating us? Lots of heavy stuff to think about. 😛

Of course, I’d also like it to be an exciting, enjoyable experience. It’s all about finding a balance…

Thanks so much for reading this Beautiful People post! I’m a little sad that this is going to be the last one for a while, but, on the other hand, we’ve got Cait’s book to look forward to, and you can always check out Cait and Sky’s blogs in the mean time!

Be sure to check out Cait’s original post, where you’ll find links to other writers who have done this meme, as well as the list of questions and a place to link up your own Beautiful People post.

Once again, Beautiful People is hosted by the amazing Cait and Sky.