1-14-23, Day 13 In PTL Perrin’s Life
Welcome to day thirteen of A Day In My Life! Happy Saturday!
Why the adorable baby blue dragon? Because I love dragons at that age! And, just maybe, this one will show up in a story I’m working on.
One thing I enjoy about being an author is connecting with people over books. I’ve been privileged to speak about my books at a middle school, at book signings, and at book clubs. The most common two questions people ask me are: “How did you get the idea for your stories?” and “How did you come up with your characters?”
Today, I’ll answer question number two. I’ll share the answer to the first question in another post.
I don’t “come up with” any of my characters. I meet them. Here’s how I met my first character, Jewel Amaryllis Adams.
An exceptional piece of artwork caught my eye as I casually surfed the web one day. Concetta Antico is a tetrachromatic artist, a woman who sees a hundred million colors and whose art reflects her vision. Imagine that! What IS a tetrachromat?
Curiosity led me to websites like this one, Exploring Your Mind, and this one, Healthline, where I learned that tetrachromats have four color cones in their eyes, allowing them to see exponentially more colors than most humans, who have only three. Then I discovered that pentachromacy also exists. If a person with four color cones can see a hundred million colors, what would someone with five color cones see?
A picture began to emerge in my mind. A lovely young woman stepped out of the shadows. Her long black hair shimmered with dark rainbows in the sun, like the feathers of a raven. She gazed at me with large, aquamarine, almond-shaped eyes, smiled, and said, “Hi. I’m Jewel. Who are you?”
I learned that Jewel was seventeen and had just moved to Blue Mountain (fictitious name), NC, from Asheville, where she’d been homeschooled by her scientist parents. She was about to go to a real school for the first time as a high school senior, and she was angry about it. Since she saw people’s auras, in addition to a gazillion colors, her dad invented a pair of color-dampening glasses and made her promise to wear them at all times in school. Jewel was a pentachromat–a smart one, with a loving, supportive family. What’s the fun in that? As it turned out, she was not the only gifted one.
I met the others in much the same way. Curiosity about special abilities led me to more research down many fascinating rabbit holes. As I met each of the characters, I saw where they fit into the story and how they would grow through their experiences together.
The internet has opened doors to unimaginable amounts of information. Meeting my characters led me to learn about a different culture, discover the most fascinating places on planet Earth, read about mysteries galore, and craft a story using much of that information. I wanted to write a story I would have enjoyed reading back when we didn’t have a television in the house. That’s a good thing, considering how many times I’ve read it, edited it, and revised it.
If you’re an author, how do you come up with your characters?
It’s COLD today in Florida. We have winter until Monday. By next Thursday, we’ll be back in the high seventies, low eighties. I’ll take a few days of winter, thank you.
Since I’m not a winter person, I planned to stay home all day. It paid off! I packed one bin full of Christmas, and have a good start on a second one. Our house will look a mess until it’s all put away, but that gives me more incentive to complete the job. Maybe I’ll be done by the time summer rolls around again next Thursday.
Here’s my to-do list for today:
- Write my daily blog. (Check!)
- Read the blogs of everyone participating in this challenge and comment. (daily)
- Balance our checkbooks. (Didn’t get done again.)
- Pack ONE bin full of Christmas and put it away. (Making Progress! This stays on the list until it’s done.)
- Spend an hour editing my friend’s book. (Maybe tomorrow)
- Make dinner and watch a movie with Bill before turning in for the night.
- STAY WARM!
Still seven items on the list. I need the extra padding in this frigid weather.
Thank you for reading my blog today, and please visit my friends and fellow RRBC Bloggers at https://ravereviewsbookclub.wordpress.com/rrbc-member-chat/
Blessings!
Patty Perrin (writing as P.T.L. Perrin)
PTL Perrin Writes... 
Hi, Patty,
I so agree with the internet having so much information that these days you don’t have to leave your home to go visit a city. But I’d rather go to visit the city. It is so much fun to be there.
Shalom aleichem
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Hi, Pat. I totally agree with you! However, many of the strange locations in my books are on my bucket list. I may or may not have the opportunity to visit. I hope to get to many of them before I’m called Home.
Blessings,
Patty
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Wow! I don’t read fantasies, but I’d love to meet Jewel. I didn’t know people see colors differently. The best fiction is the one that allows you to learn new things.
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Hi, Susanne! Paranormal fiction is, in a way, a fantasy. My books are a blend of sci-fi (because there are aliens and technology we may or may not yet have) and fantasy (because there are mythological creatures that may or may not still exist on Earth but have gone into hiding). There’s also plenty of realism, especially in many of the settings and in the threat over the planet. I find it difficult to categorize into genres. I hope you do get to meet Jewel!
Blessings,
Patty
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Thank goodness I don’t have characters who come to me in my sleep. I think I’d freak. I have enough to dwell with during my dreams than muses fighting among themselves. All mine are actual people I grew up with or served with during the war.
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John, you have a lot of interesting characters in your life! And you have a gift for portraying them in your books.
Blessings,
Patty
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Patty, such an interesting post! How I would love to see more colors, but am grateful for those I do see. My characters seem to pop into my head, sometimes saying their first line in my story.
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Hi, Maura Beth! I was thinking about that today on the way back from church. It’s a beautiful day here, and a lake we passed was bluer than usual. I thanked the Lord for the ability to see. I wish my characters would be so considerate! I always struggle with the beginning of a story. That and the ending. Maybe my next character will pop in with one or the other.
Blessings!
Patty
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I love Jewel and all of your characters, Patty! I meet many of my characters in dreams. I guess they find that is the easiest way to reach me since my mind doesn’t stop during my waking hours. Once I’m aware of them, I have to figure out what their story is. It’s always so much fun. Great post today!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
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Thanks, Yvette. It’s fascinating to hear how authors meet their characters, and I love all of yours. People have asked if they’re a composite of people in my life, and I don’t know. They’re like our children, with some similarities, but each his or her own person, completely unique and separate from us. They have their own story, right?
Blessings!
Patty
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Absolutely! I think, of all my characters, only three came about because of people I know. One was a student, actually. He kept asking and asking for me to make a character based on him. He was such a ball of energy that I eventually made him an extra in a book. lol! The second one was a male friend of mine who became an avid fan from book one, constantly motivating me and pushing me to keep pumping out the next book, so I made a major character in book two look like him (though that character makes it clear that his personality is all his own). The third one was the short story I just wrote. The girl’s friend reminds me of the friend I had when I was a child. All the others are uniquely who they are. That’s what I love about them. 🙂
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What a fun post, Patty. I also do not ‘come up’ with characters. I meet them, and they introduce themselves. Sounds crazy, but other writers understand. 🙂
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I certainly do, Jan! Thanks for stopping by. I’ve met some of your characters, too, happily entangled in the plots of your books. Keep meeting them, and then introduce them to us.
Blessings!
Patty
http://www.ptlperrin.org
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