Today I am happy to host a guest post by Marlene Dotterer, whose first novel, "Shipbuilder", has just been released this weekend. 
 

Imagine being there before the Titanic set sail.

Now imagine being there before she’s even built.

Sam Altair is a physicist living in Belfast, Ireland. He has spent his career researching time travel and now, in early 2006, he’s finally reached the point where he can send objects backwards through time. The only problem is, he doesn’t know where the objects go. They don’t show up in the past, and no one notices any changes to the present. Are they creating alternate time lines?

To collect more data, Sam tries a clandestine experiment in a public park, late at night. But the experiment goes horribly wrong when Casey Wilson, a student at the university, stumbles into his isolation field. Sam tries to rescue her, but instead, he and Casey are transported back to the year 1906. Stuck in the past, cut off from everyone and everything they know, Sam and Casey work together to help each other survive. Then Casey meets Thomas Andrews, the man who will shortly begin to build the most famous ship since Noah’s Ark. Should they warn him, changing the past and creating unknown consequences for the future?

Or should they let him die?
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Let's Talk About Characters

A big thank you to Anna, for hosting me during my tour! I’m excited to be here and chat her readers about my book and how characters make the story.

Characters are the lifeblood of any novel. You can have a kick-ass world, awesome magic, and terrifying fight scenes, but if your characters are boring, stereotypical, or one-dimensional, no one will care.

My own pet peeve in characters: unlikeable.

Not every character has to be likeable, of course, but I'm the kind of reader that will not finish a book if there isn't at least one character I can really connect with. And I like nice people. So it's safe to say that the current trend of hard, gritty jerks-as-heroes leaves me cold.

That doesn't mean a character should be sweet-as-pie perfect. Repeat the boring, stereotypical, one-dimensional mantra from above. Characters are people. And people are complex. They make mistakes. They make poor choices. They may have good intentions, but mess up everyone around them. All of that may be true, but they can still be decent people.

It’s easy for me to write characters that are decent. The challenge is to keep them from being so decent that they don’t have any traits that cause problems for themselves or others. TTJ: Shipbuilder has three main characters. One is an historical figure - a man with his own personality and his own life. I had to take special care to portray him as the man he was, and obtain a certain level of historical accuracy. The other two characters are fictional, and it was up to me to imbue them with traits that give them a place in the story. Traits that gave them their own story, and make them feel like real people. You'll have to let me know if I succeeded after you read the book. Here’s a brief analysis of each of them:

Sam Altair is a physicist, sixty years old. He has devoted his life to his research on time travel. In 2006, he is head of a research team at the Sun Consortium in Belfast. He is a well-liked and much respected scientist and mentor. He has never married, but he's had a few close relationships over the years. He's an amiable fellow, with a touch of compassion for anyone less fortunate than he.

Sam’s biggest fault is that he is too often tempted to skip steps or skim over procedures if he feels he's close to a big leap in discovery. He is quick to justify his means by simply sweeping objections under the rug. He places too much faith in his own abilities and intelligence. We see this shortcoming in action at the beginning of the book, but keep an eye out for it as the story unfolds. Sam never quite gets over this problem.

Casey Wilson is a college student, twenty years old. Raised in a well-off, liberal American home, she has never had to suffer or struggle for anything. This doesn't mean she is arrogant or lazy - far from it. Casey is practical, smart, and hard-working. She is even respectful toward older adults. But she has no doubt that she can do anything she wants to do, that the world is open to her in all its possibilities. This attitude blinds her to the realities of life in the Edwardian era, and the toll she must pay for it is large.

Thomas Andrews was a real person, with a real life and real dreams. His personality is well-documented, and even today, he commands respect. I have done my best to portray him as he was, within the limits of my own understanding. Obviously, there is much I can't know, and in the end, my character of Tom Andrews may not be anything like the real man was. But I've done my best.

When we first meet Tom, he is a 34-year-old naval architect. He was born in 1873 to a well-off, privileged family in Ireland. From childhood, Tom has a reputation for compassion and generosity toward people and animals. He has worked his way up in the shipyard, starting as an apprentice when he was sixteen. He has degrees in naval architecture and engineering. He is much loved by the men in the Yard, and is considered one of the best shipbuilders in the world.

Tom’s fault? I hesitate to say that the real Thomas Andrews may have been a “yes” man, but I did get that impression from some of the research I did. As in any business, there are times during a ship’s construction when safety conflicts with schedule or cost. Did the real Thomas Andrews give in about features he knew were needed?

So in my book, I tried to show that Tom hates to disappoint people. This applies especially to those who hold power over him - supervisors, managers, and his uncle - Lord William Pirrie, who heads the shipyard. Once he knows of Titanic’s fate, Tom must learn to stand his ground and insist on providing Titanic with features that will be needed to save lives, even if the cost is hard feelings or damage to his career.

In all fairness to the real Thomas Andrews - Titanic had far more safety features than were required at the time. More lifeboats, higher bulkheads, more watertight compartments... and we can’t blame the builders for not seeing the future. The reasons for Titanic’s sinking are myriad, and we only need to look at our own modern disasters to realize how much we don’t know.

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About the author:

Marlene Dotterer grew up as a desert rat in Tucson, Arizona. In 1990, she loaded her five children into the family station wagon, and drove north-west to the foggy San Francisco Bay Area. To stay warm, she tackled many enterprises, earning a degree in geology, working for a national laboratory, and running her own business as a personal chef. She’s a frustrated gardener, loves to cook, and teaches natural childbirth classes. She says she writes, “to silence the voices,” obsessed with the possibilities of other worlds and other times.

She is married to The Best Husband in the World, and lives in Pleasant Hill, California.

Her website is http://marlenedotterer.wordpress.com/

Must Have Give-Aways!

Ships are launched with a bottle of champagne. My book is about a ship, so...

Actually, perhaps it’s best if I don’t try to mail anyone a bottle of champagne. But how about a free book?

Throughout the blog tour, I’ll keep track of everyone who leaves a comment on any of the blogs and enter them into a drawing. At the end of the tour, I’ll pick three winners, each to receive an autographed copy of The Time Travel Journals: Shipbuilder.

So, read on! Comment!