Today’
guest blogger, Betsy Ashton, is the author of two Mad Max books, Mad Max
Unintended Consequences and the 2015 release, Uncharted Territory. In her spare
time, she is the president of The Virginia Writers Club. She stopped in to
share a bit about her relationship with her protagonist.
Thanks, Austin, for inviting me to yammer on about
how Mad Max and I came to an agreement on how she should be portrayed. Let me
begin by saying my Mad Max has nothing to do with the Mel Gibson character in
the Thunderdome series, or in any other Road Warrior series. She is a
fifty-something grandmother, smart, sexy, snarky and oh so wealthy. She also
has two of the most adorable grandchildren who held her solve crimes. Oh dear,
I’m getting ahead of myself.
When I began writing what became Mad Max Unintended Consequences, Maxine
“Mad Max” Davies was a minor character. The original story line focused on the
dissolution of a marriage, the idea prompted by real life, where a wife
descended into alcohol, drugs and infidelity, leaving a family in mourning.
Even I was bored with it. Max kept creeping in, asserting herself into the
story instead of remaining in the background as the mother of the alcoholic,
drug-addicted wife of the two adorable grandchildren. Through alternating chapters
wherein the couple told their stories in first person singular, a technique I
absolutely loved but which didn’t work, the story played out. It was so much
fun to write, so painful to read.
One night about three in the morning, I heard a very
clear voice shouting at me: “It’s my
story. Dammit, tell it my way.” Why, yes ma’am. And so, Mad Max was born.
I took the advice of a dear writer friend who read
the first fifty pages of the original and said, “Let Max be Max.” I did. As
soon as I focused on Max, I felt a story come to life. Admittedly, I wasn’t
excited about the amount of rewriting this shift in point of view entailed.
Like from sentence one to “the end.” Six drafts later, Max was a fully fleshed
out character with multiple secondary characters, including her adorable
grandchildren who helped her solve a crime.
I found an agent who loved Max as much as I do. She
suggested short synopses for two more books in the series, which she then sold
to Koehler Books, a small press in Virginia Beach. The thrill of writing a
series was almost as intense as discovering Max in the first place. She taught
me to listen to the voices in my head. I do, even to the newest one, a female
serial killer who may or may not be a psychopath.
Betsy
is a dedicated author and a staunch author advocate as well. You can learn more
about her and her writing at www.betsy-ashton.com
