Fictional Characters with Real Life Problems

 

Though my stories include mermaids, mages, and magical creatures, the settings are similar to the “real” world, and the characters must work through problems such as you and I might encounter.

Before I started writing, I was a clinical social worker for many years, and I draw on this training and experience for my stories. I want believable characters, so I write them facing actual issues which people confront every day.

My characters deal with body image, addiction, self-concept, family difficulties, and other troubles while struggling with an antagonist with opposite goals. Danger and threats complicate the predicaments, and initial coping attempts fail. These poor people don’t have an easy time of it! They have to figure out how to survive and thrive using intelligence and courage. Magic is part of their world, but it never provides the solution and often makes things more complicated.

For example, Nik, the heroine in Water Dreams, has a deep-seated fear of water, a huge obstacle for a person who lives in Florida. Nightmares about tidal waves sweeping her away disrupt her sleep. Fear of water determines where she drives and even what restaurants she eats in, since bridges are common throughout the state, and many eateries overlook the Gulf of Mexico. When Nik finds out mermaids and mermen exist, she begins a journey which forces her to confront her fears. How she handles this challenge sparks her growth as a person. This is romance, so she also falls in love with the exact wrong person, and their relationship threatens everyone they care about.

Here’s an excerpt from Water Dreams which shows one of the many times Nik cannot avoid water. Kidnapped by a couple who give her the obviously fake name of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, she must escape before they turn her over to the Nerei (as the merfolk call themselves) for money:

 

Mr. Smith stopped the car at a half-deserted pier. There were cars parked there, but most of the owners seemed to be out fishing or boating, or maybe they were walking on the beach. Either way, no one was around. Mr. and Mrs. Smith unbuckled Nik’s seat belt and pulled her out of the car. Mr. Smith slashed the duct tape around her legs, but left her hands bound. They had not gagged Nik, so she tried yelling, but they might as well have been all alone in the world. For all anyone noticed, Nik’s cries might have come from a seagull.

Daylight faded and shadows swelled. The yellow pool of streetlights illuminated small sections of the pier. Three moths fluttered around the top of one of the lights, the only life evident in the area. Everything else was concrete, man-made, and artificial. Nik scanned the area for something she could use to save herself, but she couldn’t find anything. She figured the Nerei were on their way to retrieve her, but none of them had shown up yet.

After thinking of everything she could, Nik realized what she had to do. It was the worst thing she had ever thought of doing, and yet it was inevitable, as if she had been moving toward this moment for years. She knew, but she was terrified.

Nik stared at the dark water below the pier, desperately trying to think of another way out of the mess, but nothing else occurred to her. It was risky. For one thing, Mr. and Mrs. Smith had guns. Nik thought they might be mad enough to try to shoot her. If they thought it through, Nik knew they would realize that if she died, she would be of no use to them. However, they were still angry about the last kidnap attempt, which resulted in nothing but a long swim for them and the embarrassment of being rescued themselves. That hadn’t done anything for their reputation as master outlaws. In addition, they struck Nik as typical criminals, who probably didn’t spend a lot of time envisioning the possible consequences of their actions.

Mr. Smith scanned the water, maybe looking for signs of the Nerei. Splashing sounded far out in the water, and Mrs. Smith looked around, her gaze leaving Nik for a moment. Nik took a deep breath, sent a mental prayer into the universe for protection, and flung herself off the pier into the water, throwing her body as far from the dock as possible. She heard a shout, and the unmistakable sound of gunfire. The shots didn’t seem too close, since no bullets swished through the water around her, so she didn’t worry too much about one striking her.

She focused on her body, which sank like a stone. She had no control of it. Nik didn’t know what to do with her legs, and her wrists were still duct taped together in front of her. She didn’t need to breathe yet, but she knew it was only a matter of time before she would feel oxygen deprived. This situation was worse than any Nik had imagined, and this was real.

While she sank, she berated herself for getting into this mess. She couldn’t believe she would die this way. After spending her whole life avoiding water, would she drown after all? Was her phobia a presentiment of the fate that had been awaiting her all her life?

 

Thank you so much for joining us here on the Pen Dames blog! I hope you enjoyed this snippet from Water Dreams. If you’d like to learn more about my books, please take a look at my website: http://katherineeddingersmits.weebly.com/

Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll send you a free short story exclusively available to subscribers: Siren of the Deep. In 1794, Adelia, a not-so-proper, young, English woman, escapes her guardian’s plan to force her to marry by stealing money from him, pretending to be a widow, and booking passage on a ship headed to America. Far out in the Atlantic, pirates attack, and Adelia tumbles overboard. After that, things get interesting.