Mandi's power

A writer needs to make her characters live up to her descriptions. If a character is described as well educated and intelligent, the writer let her speak in monosyllables and act dumb. If the character is described as powerful, she needs to use her power.

I had to remind myself of this as I was wrapping up Circe, the last story of my Fair Warrior Chronicles series for eXtasy Books.

In each of the six stories of the series, the point of view character possesses an offbeat paranormal power. In Circe, the character Mandi is a queen of fantasy. She has the power to make people feel extraordinarily good about who they're with and what they're doing. As her bouts of group sex with the other Fair Warriors increase her power, she can cause people to feel stronger emotions. 

As the story wound to a conclusion, I realized I hadn't given Mandi enough opportunity to display that power.  She caused people to fall in love, but that seemed too close to the everyday magic of love in the real world. So I gave her an opportunity to deal with a squad of soldier-of-fortune commandos. They come on scene in the last few pages, circling down in helicopters to settle matters by force. Mandi tries to think of a fantasy that would make them forget their orders.  She comes up with A hunting lodge stocked with fancy guns, horny women, and free beer.

The commandos get lost in the fantasy, and the stage is set for Mandi to use her power in an even stronger way to thwart the final ruse of the villan.