This is probably going to be a huge Duh for the rest of you but I finally figured out the problem with Zelda’s negative motivation: It’s negative.
As you may remember, Zelda didn’t want to go to Rosemore, but Rose lures her in and then keeps her with the promise of helping her find [...]

Wow.
I had no idea. But if I ever kill Bob, his body will never be found.
Sorry to be a tease. Here’s the full story of the story:
My editor e-mailed me and said, “We’d like to put a short story or two on the website as a teaser for when Agnes comes out. [...]

Once again I have been distracted from You Again by something that needs to be done right away: a short story. Don’t ask.
Here’s the tasteless part: While I am still trying to figure out the plot and structure of this sucker, I am confounded by a plot point. The story is about [...]

I pulled myself back to working on You Again instead of playing with Curio–because I’m a serious writer, that’s why–and began to look at the book as a whole. I remember the parts but rereading them just takes me down the same path that led me into a wall, so I stepped back and [...]

I am absolutely bewitched by Curio. And that’s before I’ve even started doing white boards on it. Heidi showed me the opaque slide which means I can make some of the images transparent on a sliding scale which means I can make faces come out of flames or water or layer landscapes [...]

So I meant to work on Zelda, I really did, but I was working with the Curio software, trying to get some images together so I could figure out who she is and get her motivations, flipping through tons of photos from the Daily Kos post I blogged about a couple of months ago, [...]

The new first scene really is much better. It’s still not tight enough and I have to concentrate on the characters more so it’s not so much information swapping and is really conflict. I did another polish on it today and it’s still not where it should be, but I’m happy with [...]

Mara Lubell does it again:

Isn’t she the greatest? Both Agnes and Mara.
So the idea was to use this on the website and also on aprons as gifts within the industry, and then Mollie said, “Put it on merchandise and sell it,” and I thought, Ouch, exploiting fans. Except people are asking if there’s [...]

So Agnes went out yesterday, and then I dealt with some trauma which meant my head was anywhere but my writing, and then I woke up at the crack of dawn still upset and read a book by a pal that made everything better. Mad Dash by Patricia Gaffney. It’s not out until [...]

First, thank you all very much, I had a great time reading the comments. Still not sure what Zelda’s deal is that gets her hooked, but I have plenty of options now.
Then I played with the type and thought about Zelda, and she has to be this one:

Because it looks like her, that why.
I [...]