I’m a writer, and it won’t surprise you to learn that I loved reading from a very young age.. I graduated quickly from children’s books to adolescent fare (Nancy Drew was my first binge-reading experience, though I had to wait weeks or even months until someone gave me a present of the next few books in the series. How poignant was the longing for things, in that age before the Internet and downloadable books!
Soon enough, Nancy Drew seemed too adolescent, and I started observing what my mother read. She liked the Gothic romances, and I started borrowing them after she was finished. In these novels, I got my first glimpse of extended and exciting dialogue. Characters would speak to each other—at length—and their conversations were compelling, even addictive. I recall reading a Victoria Holt novel with a dialogue that lasted for five or six pages, with no dialogue tags! She knew that well-written dialogue was enough to draw in a reader. Not only was I able to follow these back and forth, but I was utterly pulled in, as though I were eavesdropping on a real conversation. Holt’s characters were memorable enough that I would think about them long after the book was over, mulling over their dialogues in my mind. Eventually I began to create my own characters in creative little daydreams, giving them clever things to say to one another. My characters didn’t face the pressure that real people face in a real dialogue—they had no pressure to come up with a witty response in an instant. I had all the time in the world to come up with the best response, and my characters reaped the benefits.
Another of my mom’s favorites, and my all-time favorite, was Mary Stewart. Her dialogues plunged readers into a literary world in which a young heroine might quote Shakespeare, and the dashing, handsome man would recognize her reference and quote another line which was apropos. I loved that world, in which two literate people shared the same textual universe and could communicate at that cerebral level. That was a world which appealed to Mary Stewart, and there we have another joy of dialogue—one’s characters can live out the author’s dearest imaginings.
The more I read, the more I dabbled in my own dialogues, essentially hearing voices and giving them things to say. These voices eventually found their way to paper, in stories and eventual novels. The voices will never stop until the flow of creativity stops, and that will never happen. It flows in everyone, it’s just a matter of tapping into that rich vein.
Writing dialogue is truly a joy because it is the act of creation. One creates people, a world for them to live in, and intellects which inform and complicate their lives. It is the ultimate act of creativity, and I will never tire of bringing a character to life by giving her a voice.
CASTLE DEADLY, CASTLE DEEP by Veronica Bond
After a man dies during a performance at Castle Dark, Nora Blake learns just how hard it is to catch a killer, especially if every suspect is a trained actor, in this exciting new Dinner and a Murder Mystery.
Autumn has arrived at Castle Dark, and Nora Blake has settled into her role as an actor in Derek Corby’s castle murder-mystery troupe. She is troubled, however, by the setting of Derek’s fall mystery: the catacombs in the depths of the castle. Yes, these catacombs are part of a set, the skeletons and cobwebs mere props, but Nora feels uneasy in the shadowy passages beneath Castle Dark. When a man is killed during one of their first shows, the eerie catacombs become a place of terror.
Joined by her castle companions, Nora attempts to find the motive for killing a seemingly innocent victim. Some of those answers appear to lie with the local community theater, the members of which Nora has come to know because she has joined Derek’s latest town production. As Nora practices her lines at Wood Glen’s Blue Curtain Theater, she realizes that everyone around her is an actor, and all of her suspects are perfectly capable of convincing others of their innocence. Nora soon discovers that someone else is in danger and that she may also be in the sights of the killer. With the help of her handsome boyfriend, Detective John Dashiell, Nora will have to go off-script to prevent a murderous encore. . . .
Mystery Cozy | Mystery Woman Sleuth [Berkley, On Sale: July 5, 2022, Mass Market Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593335901 / ]
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About Veronica Bond
Veronica Bond is the pseudonym of a beloved author who has taught high school English for twenty-nine years.
Dinner and a Murder
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