Thank you for having me on your blog, Jodie! I’m excited to
be here and look forward to chatting with your peeps.
Charleston, SC is one of my favorite cities. My daughter
went to MUSC (Medical University of SC) in Charleston and that sealed my love
for the city. As I visited the old city I discovered so much history and one of
the tidbits I gleaned was the earthquake of 1886. I walked down the streets and
was fascinated by the earthquake bolts used on so many of the old homes and
business.
So when I was brainstorming for a new series the earthquake
came to mind. As I researched the history of the earthquake I was fascinated by
not only the earthquake, the sounds and results of it but also by the reactions
of the people. I really tried to put my reader into the story—to feel what the
people of Charleston felt, to hear what they heard, and to see the response of
the local people. I hope I’ve achieved that on every page.
Now my characters are also based on real life. . .sort of.
You will meet 4 siblings in Shattered Memories, Drew (Andrew), William,
Christian, and Jo. Those 4 characters and their names are loosely written after
my 4 children, although I used their middle names for the story. Unlike me, my
husband and children have all medical backgrounds except for one who married a
nurse and goes on medical mission trips with her. So you can see how easy it
was for me to weave this family of medicine together.
Now my characters are not carbon copies of my children. I
used my right as a writer to make the characters fit into the roll they needed
to play, but I will tell you that each character has one dominate trait of the
child they are molded after. For example: Drew takes life serious and wants to
fix things, but with close people is a lot of fun and isn’t afraid to cut up.
William is a thinker and very serious. He thinks beyond his years. His humor
can be rather dry. Christian is a happy-go-lucky guy. He’s intelligent, a hard
worker, loves animals, and loves to have fun. Jo likes to stay busy, but she
likes to stay busy doing things she likes. You’ll find she is strong and a hard
worker. She loves to laugh and is another with rather dry humor.
So armed with a great setting, a devastating disaster, 4
molds for characters I set out to write Shattered Memories. I hope you get a
chance to read it and find yourself immersed in the history of Charleston.
Thank you, again for having me on your blog Jodie. I’m
looking forward to chatting with your readers. I’d love to give a choice of one
of my books (paperback or ebook), Shattered Memories or Sword
of Forgiveness away to one lucky winner. To enter answer one of these two
questions:
1.) If you’ve been to Charleston, what is your
favorite thing about the city?
2.) I told you about my 4 children, tell me which
you think would be the most fun to write their character?
Debbie Lynne Costello has enjoyed writing stories since she
was eight years old. She raised her family and then embarked on her own career
of writing the stories that had been begging to be told. She and her husband
have four children and live in upstate South Carolina. She has worked in many
capacities in her church and is currently the Children’s director. Debbie Lynne
has shown and raised Shetland sheepdogs for eighteen years and still enjoys
litters now and then. In their spare time, She and her husband enjoy camping
and riding their Arabian and Tennessee Walking horses. Visit Debbie Lynne at www.debbielynnecostello.com, www.theswordandspirit.blogspot.com, https://www.facebook.com/debbielynnecostello , https://plus.google.com/+DebbieLynneCostello/posts,
and https://twitter.com/DebiLynCostello