Regular blog visitors will know how much I enjoy belonging to Book Connectors on Facebook. Today I’m delighted to be featuring another author I have met through the group, Giselle Green. Giselle’s latest novel Dear Dad is published in e-book today 31st March 2016 and is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US. Giselle has kindly provided me with a guest post on juggling multiple viewpoints in writing and you can read what she has to say below.

About Dear Dad

Handsome, 28-year old, Nate Hardman is a frontline reporter with a big problem. Suffering from shell-shock and unable to leave his house, he’s already lost his social life and his girlfriend. Now his career prospects are sinking fast.

9 year-old Adam Boxley who lives alone with his ageing nan, also has big problems. Neglected at home and bullied at school, he’s desperate to reach out to his dad – and that’s when he sends his first letter to Nate. Only Nate’s not who he thinks he is. Will he help? More importantly – can he?

Across town meanwhile, caring but impulsive teacher Jenna Tierney really wants to help Adam – except the feisty redhead has already had enough of teaching. Recently hurt by yet another cheating boyfriend, Jenna’s now set her sights on pursuing a dream career abroad … only she’s about to meet Nate – her dream man who’ll make her re-think everything.

The big question is; can three people desperate to find love, ever find happiness when they’re only connected by one big lie?

Juggling Multiple Viewpoints

A Guest Post by Giselle Green

Many thanks to Linda for inviting me onto her blog today to talk about juggling multiple viewpoints.

Six books in now with Dear Dad, I can say this has very much become my modus operandi. All of my books have been based on dual perspectives. There are (usually) alternating chapters for each character so the reader gets to understand how each of the two main characters are viewing the unfolding action … and to anticipate the misunderstandings and dilemmas that are going to ensue.

In Dear Dad, for instance, young frontline reporter Nate who’s become housebound is deeply moved by lonely orphan Adam to act in loco parentis for the child. But the only way he can do that is by making out to the boy’s teacher Jenna that he is in fact Adam’s father. What honest and upright Nate intends as a small, inconsequential lie turns into something so much bigger as his growing feelings for Jenna become reciprocated. But from Jenna’s viewpoint we know that – while she too is falling for him – she’s going to take an extremely dim view of him deceiving her.

I love writing like this. Because I write in the first person, present tense, I get a chance to really get into the persona of each protagonist and see right into their thoughts and feelings. I make sure that both sides are usually standing in stark opposition on some main point so this can become very interesting! As the writer ‘being’ the character, I have to be equally passionate about both sides of the argument. Both parties need to have compelling and plausible reasons for feeling the way that they do – in this case, they both have Adam’s best interests at heart – and I want the reader to be able to sympathise with both sides. This way of tackling a story can make for lively book club/readers’ group discussions too because it makes readers question why people feel or think the way they do about certain things.

With Dear Dad, for the first time I have added the third vector of having another main character – the young boy, Adam. Whilst he doesn’t have an ‘onstage’ point of view, he’s very much a third central character. Through the use of a lot of dialogue, his poignant situation and the strength of his determination and spirit shine through. He’s only nine years old but he’s one of my most favourite characters I’ve written to date!

Of course, with three people in the mix, the amount of juggling (for the writer, hopefully not so much for the reader) goes up considerably. You have to keep tabs of who said what and who knows what and – where there are fibs being told, who knows the truth and who doesn’t.  When you add minor characters into the mix – for instance as in the wedding scene in this book – it can be all too easy for the characters themselves to forget who said what to whom, leading to sometimes comic (and potentially disastrous) consequences. Through it all, only the reader has the full grasp of the situation. They know that sooner or later, it’s all going to come out … and then the emotional fallout will be huge … but even without any happy ending in sight, it’s human nature to always hope for one.

I hope I’ve delivered on that this time. I’ve certainly enjoyed writing it!

About Giselle Green

Giselle Green was born in the UK but grew up in Gibraltar, where she has extensive family. Her debut novel, Pandora’s Box, won the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writer’s Award in 2008. Her third novel, A Sister’s Gift, went to number one on the Amazon Kindle chart in 2012. She lives in Kent with her husband and their six sons.

You can find all Giselle’s books here. You can follow Giselle on Twitter and visit her web site.