I’m excited to have award-winning author, DiAnn Mills, here with me today! Her newest novel, High Treason, has just released and will grab you from the get go! Keep reading for a chance to win an e-copy. Take it away, DiAnn!

Do you grab your readers by the hand and lead them into your character’s closet for an up close and personal view? What do you find? Is the character messy? What kind of shoes does he/she buy? Does he/she insist upon name brands? Are their clothes and shoes worn? What’s his/her favorite color?

If you’re not journeying into your character’s daily life, you’re doing your reader a disservice. Why? How can a reader encounter story without stepping inside the real character?

A writer’s goal is for a reader to experience story vicariously through our characters. That means all the assigned traits ensure the character comes alive. Writers strive for a character to become:

• Successfully captured in the reader’s imagination
• A friend or a fiend.
• Someone who might greet them at the grocery or at work.
• Memorable by refusing to leave the reader’s mind long after the story is over.
• A part of the reader’s life. The reader becomes the character.

What’s required for the reader to be in that exclusive position? Here are six ways to ensure your reader has an unforgettable magic carpet ride.

1. The writer creates a character whose motivation and resulting behavior fits backstory and temperament.
2. The writer understands deep POV and slashes through distancing the reader from the character. Through sensory perception, the schism is eliminated. The reader is the character and journeys through an exciting adventure.
3. Through sensory perception, the story world swirls in the imagination.
4. Body language and emotions fit the scene and are accepted as appropriate.
5. Every word is weighed to assure the reader is personally involved with the character.
6. The writer constantly searches for new ways to deepen the reader’s adventure.

My suggestion is to flip on the light in your character’s closet and invite in your readers. Those special people who read your books will thank you for it!

How do you create impressive character and reader adventures?

Comment below and be entered in a random drawing for an e-book version of High Treason.

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Firewall, the first book in her Houston: FBI series, was listed by Library Journal as one of the best Christian Fiction books of 2014.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. She is co-director of The Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference and The Mountainside Marketing Conference with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on Facebook: www.facebook.com/diannmills, Twitter: https://twitter.com/diannmills or any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.