The Chocolate Cafe with Tina Radcliffe

Among the many wonderful things about Seekerville is the lady who seems to bring it all together, Tina Radcliffe. Not only is she good at lassoing a bunch of ladies into an amazing, award-winning blog, but she also writes real-to-life, beautiful, award-winning fiction.

Hi, this is Tina Radcliffe (looking around the place).

So this is the Chocolate Café? Thank you the Alley Cats for inviting me. As usual I decided to hijack your blog. I asked the chef in the café to prepare some special chocolate cupcakes with mocha frosting.

When I create a character I always refer to Michael Hague. He says that in order to create reader empathy or identification you must make a character sympathetic. To do that apply two or more of the following:

1. Make the character the victim of some undeserved misfortune.

2. Put the character in jeopardy (in danger of loss).  Readers identify with people with worry about.

3. Make the character likeable-liked by others in the book.

4. Make your character funny.

5. Make your character powerful.

In Mending the Doctor’s Heart the hero is Dr. Ben Rogers. As played by actor Scott Foley.

Ben comes to the small town of Paradise, Colorado as a broken man. He feels responsible for the death of his sister and he’s developed a phobia of hospitals. To add to his problems, he’s come for a clinic director position (paper pusher) and discovers that the job he thought was his— is not. He must compete with Dr. Sara Elliott for the position.

Ben has a self-deprecating, dry humor. He starts out as a stuffy city doctor and eventually loosens up. I really like his ability to laugh at himself.  Here’s a few of his one-liners from the book:

Ben looked away, then slid his phone from his pocket, grimacing when he saw the time. "I hate to Heimlich and run, but I've got to be somewhere."

~~~~

"I heard about your heroics at the café. Well done."

"Hardly heroics, sir. Dislodged a chocolate chunk cookie. The Friday special, I understand."

~~~

"Don't move. I'll call a doctor."

"That's not funny, Ben." She slowly opened her eyes, savoring the sight of him.

I hope readers like Ben as much as I do!

Character Quote for Today:

“It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.”

― William Faulkner

LOVE IT!!! Thanks for being here, Tina and feel free to take over ANY time ;-)