25 Years in the Rearview Mirror: 52 Authors Look Back

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: Characters Have Pasts, Too

Have you ever wondered how authors make their story people come alive? It takes a lot of planning to create compelling, well-rounded characters who readers care about. Authors know their protagonists and secondary characters so well that they can even answer a crazy question like, "What was your character doing twenty-five years ago?" All of the essays in this chapter look back twenty-five years into the characters' pasts, providing a fascinating glimpse into what makes them tick in the novels they inhabit today.

Diana's Promise

By Stacy Juba

Written from the perspective of Diana Ferguson, the murder victim from the novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today, on the last day of her life.

Tears filmed Diana Ferguson's eyes as she faced her father's grave. Flurries whirled in the overcast sky, dusting her curtain of dark hair, black wool coat and suede gloves. A thick layer of snow frosted the cemetery grounds, deserted except for her shivering, thin frame.

"I messed up, Daddy," she whispered. "I really messed up."

What would her father say if he knew what she'd done? Did he somehow know, wherever he was?

A sick feeling twisted in the pit of her stomach. Daddy, please don't be disappointed in me.

Diana stared at the engraved words on the granite headstone, Joseph Ferguson, Devoted Husband and Father, until her vision blurred and she had to dab her eyes with her gloved fingertips.

Her father always forgave people for their mistakes. Even the time she'd spilled paint all over the brand new carpet, because she hadn't taken time to spread a drop cloth beneath the easel, he'd forgiven her.

This mistake was so much worse than that. So much worse.

Diana crouched and hugged her knees, needing to feel closer to her father, not caring about the wet snow dampening her jeans and seeping through the socks in her ankle-length boots.

"I'll fix this, Daddy," she murmured. "I promise."

She rested one hand against the gravestone, covering the word 'Father.'

"I promise," she said, louder, her voice stronger.

Diana straightened and brushed snow off her jeans. She glanced at her silver wristwatch. Sigh.

She wanted nothing more than to go home, retreat to her warm bedroom and paint one of her scenes from Greek mythology as she contemplated the best way to handle this nightmare.

But, they were expecting her at work. She'd go to the bar, and then. . . .

And then she'd end this. Once and for all.

"I wish I could give you a hug, Daddy," Diana said, a lump swelling in her throat.

With one last look back at her father's grave, she turned and trudged out of the cemetery.

Stacy Juba, the editor of 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror: 52 Authors Look Back and an award-winning journalist, has authored books for adults, teens and children. She has written about high school hockey players, reality TV contestants targeted by a killer, teen psychics who control minds, a theme park Cinderella, teddy bears learning to raise the U.S. flag and lots more.

The Sandbox

By Darcia Helle