Guest Post: Zoe McKnight

It's another Living in Glass Houses tour stop! Today, author Zoe McKnight has generously written a guest post for Books Etc. I reviewed the book on Saturday and you can read the review here but the short version is that I enjoyed reading it! I was curious to find out what it was like writing from multiple perspectives and if it was difficult to make sure each character got the right amount of attention. Thank you for this great post, Zoe! And don't forget to enter the giveaway for a copy of this book - details are at the end of the post!


When I started writing Living in Glass Houses, it was my plan to tell the story from only one character's point of view—Elle. But I found her too level-headed and logical to make for an intriguing story on her own. So, I introduced more characters and felt their stories needed to be told as well. 

In order to balance out Elle's pragmatism, I developed a second character. One with a riveting story-line, to which I believed readers would respond strongly. And, they did. The most impassioned feedback has been about Blair. Readers either sympathize with or hate her. 

And because chick-lit (by definition) focuses solely on women, I thought it would be cool to show things from a man’s perspective. Having several close male friends I've learned that they go through a lot of the same relationship woes we do. Only, they rarely talk about it. That was the genesis of my third character,  Jonathan.

I had a lot of fun dipping in and out of the three character’s heads, but my challenge was in telling enough of their personal stories so that readers could connect with them each. Believe me, there was a lot more I wanted to write, but for the sake of brevity I had to limit their back stories. In order to find their individual voices, I created a bio for them each. A detailed story about who they were and not just the surface things like their occupations and hobbies, but also details like their personality quirks, fears, and bad habits. The small things that make people who they are. For instance, I knew Jonathan had a touch of ADD and Blair was perpetually late. Once I felt like I really knew them in my mind, I had a better sense of how they would react under certain circumstances and what drove their decision-making. It also helped as a reference when I came to points where I wasn't sure which direction to take. 

I must admit, I was a bit biased in that I had my favorite characters. And the plot I was most fascinated with, did get the most attention. But, overall, I think I balanced them out well and towards the end, the stories began to overlap so I was able to feature more than one character in each chapter. 

In my next novel, the sequel to Living in Glass Houses, I'm only telling the story of one character, Blair. This will answer a lot of questions readers had after completing the first book. It gives a deeper look into her past, who she is and why she's such a controversial character.

Now, for that giveaway! Zoe is kindly offering a copy of her novel to one of you lucky readers. You can choose a print copy or an ebook. All I ask is that you leave a comment on this post, or any of the upcoming posts, with your email address so I can contact you (use AT and DOT if you wish), and let me know what your favourite thing about fall is. I tried to come up with something that was related to the book but I decided to do something fun and random with this one! Bonus point if you follow the blog and/or the Facebook page. The contest will be open until midnight on Monday October 29 - the last day of Zoe's tour. If you've already commented on either of the previous posts, there's no need to comment again to enter (but I welcome responses to this guest post!).

Happy reading :)