Barking Mad Guest Post Jamieson Ridenhour

Barking Mad

by Jamieson Ridenhour

Available Now

About Barking Mad - goodreads, Amazon, Typecast Publishing
The year is 1931. The scene is werewolfishly classic English fare. And tonight the moon hangs as full as a royal pie plate in this inaugural Reginald Spiffington mystery when the none too obsequious playboy, Reggie, sets out for a delectably long weekend at Huffsworthy Hall to assist his dear friend, Moony, in his failing endeavor to take the hand of his lady-love and to partake in the culinary talents of the genius chef running the kitchen. With no one reason more important than the next, he ll be off straight after breakfast. Reggie s itinerary for the weekend turns abruptly less toothsome when he decides to solve the unexpected murder of another of the Hall s guests, a guest whose luggage is secretly packed full of nefarious plans. Soon, all Huffsworthy s inhabitants are potential suspects, including Reggie s saucy, quick-witted love-interest, Mimsy Borogrove. Aided by his invaluable valet, Pelham, and armed only with his knowledge of detective novels and a newly acquired set of keener, canine senses, Reggie sets out to find the killer before another meal falls to ruin

Well here I am, exactly like I like to be—Buried in Books. Heather has asked me to talk about characterization—how I created the characters in Barking Mad, whether they were based on real life people, etc.

I like my characters, even the nasty ones like Sir Lionel. I don’t think I could spend the amount of time it takes to write a novel with them if I didn’t. Barking Mad is in the first person, which means that I spent a LOT of time with Reginald Spiffington, much more than anyone else in the book since I was in his head the whole time. And for me, that was the best part of an experience that was frankly made up of mainly fun parts. Reggie is so dim, so full of himself, and yet so naïve that he can’t help but be endearing. I just love him, and I had a great time being him. But everybody in the story had something about them I enjoyed. They were all great fun to write.

I’m happy to say that none of the inhabitants of Huffsworthy Hall are based on people I know in real life. Because the seed of Barking Mad was to create a pastiche of P.G. Wodehouse and Universal horror films, the characters began as types: the idle playboy, the dour and unflappable manservant, the hulking toady, etc. The wonderful thing about writing is that when it’s working, the characters really do take on a life of their own. Dickens maintained that his characters demanded certain turns of story; he would apparently speak to them as he wrote. I didn’t have quite so diagnosable an experience, but I did find that once I knew who my characters were, the dialogue and some of the action came more or less naturally. I knew what Mimsy would say in a situation, and I knew how Reggie would react to a given event. By the time I was done, Reggie, Pelham, Moony, and the rest had quite outgrown their original types, had become, in fact, fully realized people I had grown quite fond of.
Reggie Spiffington has recently gotten his own Twitter feed, and one measure of his having grown into reality is the way people joyfully interact with him—asking him for drinks, speaking in that chap-like upper-class twittering that he affects. His character works that way. He’s more than the story, and I look forward to spending more time with him in future books. My editor recently added a p.s. to an email, in which she said how much she following Reggie on Twitter. “I forget that he’s you,” she said. To which I replied, “Reggie’s on Twitter?” He never tells me anything.

Thanks for sharing your world of characterization with us today!

Don't forget to follow the rest of the tour and enter the contest below:

Monday, February 6th - Reels Well Blog
Tuesday, February 7th - A Casual's Reader Blog
Wednesday, February 8th - Evie Bookish
Thursday, February 9th - My Bookish Way's
Friday, February 10th - Bewitched Bookworms

Monday, February 13th - I Just wanna Sit Here and Read!
Tuesday, February 14th - Books and Things
Wednesday, February 15th - Books and Other Creative Adventures
Thursday, February 16th - Sweeping Me
Friday, February 17th - Reviews by Molly

Monday, February 20th - Unabridged Andra
Tuesday, February 21st - Buried in Books
Wednesday, February 22nd - Hooked on Books
Thursday, February 23rd -Glorious Books
Friday, February 24th - A Cupcake and A Latte

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