A Good Read and a Question

Broken hearted, New York debutante Christianna Lawrence flees her home and meets a Blackfoot white captive on Montana's high plains. Saved from a flash flood as a boy, Rowan Cameron was destined to become a shaman. Divided by cultural misunderstandings, the extraordinary lovers surpass contrasting beliefs and join forces against railroad saboteurs--only to unleash the magic and spirit of the Ghost Dancer. Eppie Finalist.

Question from the E-mail:  Do your characters ever go off and do things on their own without asking you?

Answer:  Boy, do they!

In Ghost Dancer the main character’s sister was used as a impetus to get her to travel west. I had no plans for Elaine  to be in the book at all. She was a catalyst, nothing more. To my surprise she appeared in a scene. 

I wrote her out of it. 

She came in again in another scene. I wrote her out of that, too. But she kept coming back. Later, I figured out that I  needed her badly to take over action that would have made my main character look like a twit. But Elaine knew that all along. That’s why she kept showing up.