I want to welcome Kirstyn Petras to fundinmental to share her thoughts about characters. Love ’em or hate ’em, they need to draw us into their lives.
One of the interesting, and slightly tricky things about writing unreliable/disagreeable narrators is finding enough in them to make readers like them enough to care, but also have a healthy distaste for their flaws. Anti-heroes are very fun to write and create, to have a combination of sympathy and odiousness to keep the story interesting. A mentality of “it’s okay if they’re hurt, but maybe don’t?”
Balancing Melody in The Next Witness is my best example of this. In the writing process, I had conflicting advice from beta readers – some that wanted to enhance her more asshole characteristics, and others that wanted to enhance her good qualities. But, I enjoyed the discussion because it was a reflection of her role within the story as well. Is she weak, vulnerable, and innocent? Or the leader of a movement that allows its members to die without a second thought? Should readers care about her fate? Absolutely. But with the acknowledgment that she is a deeply flawed human, not wholly good or bad, just a product of a very cold, claustrophobic environment.
Derek is similar, he is not a genius, he places himself in an environment in which he realizes, too late, he has no control over. Alexander is absolutely responsible for his actions, but he is also attempting to survive and advance in a society that has drilled certain expectations of his behavior into his head.
It’s so easy to vilify or glorify. Writing this book was a chance to explore the layers in between, and I hope readers feel the same.
Thanks so much for visiting Kirsyan. I love this simple cover. Says so much with so little.
The Next Witness by Kirstyn Petras
GENRE: Thriller
BLURB
Alexander Covington is hunting a traitor: Melody Karsh, a missing girl accused of treason, a Party member who has forsaken her country. But, letters are appearing in mailboxes, being slipped beneath doors, and in the pockets of passersby. “Free Melody” is being spray painted on walls. Her image – cold, shivering, pathetic – has captured the public’s attention and sympathy.
Melody has no idea that her name is being used to start a movement, not until the executions of those demanding her freedom start airing on television.
Derek Lin would feel sympathy, if he didn’t blame Melody for the deaths of those who have disappeared without a trace, caught up in the investigation to find her.
Melody must choose to join the fight or stand aside. Derek will become a leader or break under the pressure. Alexander will decide how many bodies must fall to save his own life.
EXCERPT
“Well, we thank you very much, Detective Covington, for your time and encourage the public to cooperate fully. And now, a word from our sponsors.”
“Clear!” Morgan called, and Covington stood up. He ripped the microphone off his blazer, and, without a word, strode out of the studio. Morgan started screaming the second he was out of earshot.
“Do you want us shut down?! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!”
“Morgan, what is he going to do?” Denise asked, leaning back. “Look, he didn’t want me to ask a question, and I did anyway. They never actually announce stories like this. I wanted to know why – how far she could have gotten – the fact he didn’t answer doesn’t make that look good, does it?”
Morgan gaped at her, before returning to the mixing booth. Derek followed her and peeked over her shoulder to watch the playback.
There, on the screen, were the pictures of the so-called terrorists. And there was her picture. She’d been at the bar, waiting for Sean, however long ago. He’d seen her picture, the background of Sean’s phone, heard Sean talk about her, mope about her, drink himself stupid over her.
“We have a problem.” He muttered to Morgan.
“What?” Morgan jumped, not having seen him following her. “Why?”
AUTHOR Bio and Links
Kirstyn Petras is a fiction writer and commodities reporter but primarily identifies as caffeine in a human suit held together by hair spray and sheer force of will. She currently resides in Texas, though claims home as a combination of New York and Edinburgh. When not writing, she trains contortion and aerial hoop. She has been published in Punk Noir, and is the co-host of Dark Waters, a literary podcast exploring all that is dark, ready, and wonderfully twisted.
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