When I was young I often overheard my grandparents “discuss” things that needed to be done, and later my parents went through similar discussions. I’m talking young, now, and Grandpa Riddle was my hero, because he took time to talk to me without lecturing.

“If you had a duck,” I recall his telling me once, “in front of two ducks, a duck between two ducks, and a duck behind two ducks, how many ducks would that be?”

My six-year-old brain quickly did the calculations, of course, and came up with, “Nine ducks, Grandpa.” He picked up a stick and proceeded to draw a picture in the dirt of three waddling ducks. As I waited for him to draw six more, a cartoon light bulb clicked on above my head.

Truthfully, I learned more from my grandmother, who taught me to sew. Yet I as I grew older, I often thought of my grandmother as a nag. She seemed always to be nagging Grandpa into doing something he didn’t want to do. My mother never learned to sew but she picked up the habit of nagging.

I suppose it was inevitable that I would grow to despise confrontation. Honey-do chores at my house never got done because I was indelibly opposed to asking more than once.

As a writer, though, I had to revisit that attitude. Protagonists need someone to say, “But dear, consider the consequences!” Or, “Have you really thought this through?” Or, “Hey, Cisco, don’t do something I’ll be sorry for.”

Every hero needs a primary nag, a naysayer – usually a sidekick. And for special situations, bring on the “expert” naysayers.

• In my Dixie Flannigan thriller series, which features an assistant district attorney-turned-bounty hunter, naysayers include Dixie’s 12-year-old nephew, her sister and brother-in-law, and her defense attorney-best friend, Belle Richards. [image error]  [image error] [image error]  [image error]

• The Booker Krane novels, which are a traditional or “cozy” series, have several naysayers, including the local sheriff but most prominently Emaline, a storkishly tall, muscular, 60-year-old golf instructor who pokes her nose into everybody’s business. [image error]  [image error]

• Captain Cord McKinsey, my 300-year-old pirate in the Paradise Cursed series, has a first mate, a cook, and a recent paramour to nag him into doing whatever he resists or to caution him against it. [image error] [image error]

• Emissary (as I work on the trilogy), has dual heroes, Ruell and Longshadow, who play the naysayer role interchangeably, but several other characters speak up, as well. [image error]

With each book, I throw in a real or self-proclaimed expert who knows more than the hero in some situations and who bellies up to the task up when the hero needs a nudge. While nagging and confrontation are still not in my nature, my early lessons come to the rescue when a story thread needs goosing.

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