Several people have asked me where I get the ideas for my manuscripts. The easy answer: from my dreams. The more complicated answer, to be honest, involves my husband. Jack Diamond, for example, started from a flash of a dream. In that particular dream, I watched a man who had just finished running lean over and tie his shoe. And that's how it began. That's it. That's all.
Later that day I happened to flash back onto the dream and that man, and all of a sudden my mind flashed onto his kitchen. He was chopping veggies to make salsa and guacamole. As I looked around, I caught a glimpse of his living room. It reminded me of a typical NE Portland house, with a giant front porch, no entry foyer, just a centered front door with large windows on either side, a living room on the left, dining on the right and the dining room connected to the kitchen with a bar with three comfortable stools where someone could sit and admire the man making their dinner. The living room was painted a beautiful deep red, and had a couch. And on the coffee table in front of the couch stood a half-played game of chess. I have since "seen" the entirety of Jack's house and his back yard in my dreams, and have created a floor plan and everything!
Time passed, and I found myself elbow deep writing my first manuscript (M1), and wrote an entire scene of that main character baking chocolate chip cookies. I found the scene in the manuscript very romantic and charming, as it reminded me of a true story in my own life of a very sexy man in faded levis baking chocolate chip cookies, my feeding him an enormous spoonful of the cookie dough, and then dancing with him barefoot in his kitchen while I was wearing a ballroom gown. But I digress.
After I had written this scene in M1, I realized that at no point during the rest of the manuscript had this main character ever shown any interest in baking cookies. Or baking in general. I do recall several scenes of his cooking things and not being a bad cook. But clearly, this scene was not, in fact, about the main character in M1. So I deleted the scene, stored it away somewhere on my computer, and forgot about it.
Years passed, and I found myself wanting to write a new manuscript. My sweet hubby suggested that I switch genres to Murder Mysteries, as that is the genre that, at the time, I read the most. "Write what you read," they say.
"That's all fine and good," I told him, "except for the fact I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what I would write about or where I'd get my ideas from." His jaw dropped in incredulity. "Hello? Don't you think I could help you out a bit?"
"Fine. So what would I write about?"
"Well, you could have a story about a guy named Jack Diamond. He's a good buddy of mine from work, and he has the best name. I bet he'll let you use it." (Thank you, by the way, Jack, for giving me permission to use your name in my book! You seriously have the best name ever!) My husband went on, "Jack could be a detective for the Sheriff's Office. He could investigate a series of murders, and all the bodies could be dumped into various pools of water throughout Portland." He later went on to suggest that Jack's Dive Team could do some seriously cool underwater investigations to retrieve the bodies and uncover evidence in some amazing underwater scenes -- since, he argued, no one is currently writing Detective Crime Novels with scuba diving detectives who perform seriously gnarly underwater investigations. With his experience and my over-active imagination, he suggested I could write an amazing book.
"Hmmmm."
I grew troubled by his suggestion, because then I thought I'd just be writing my husband's book, rather than mine. This fear troubled me for quite some time. My husband after all, is a brilliant man. And the last thing I wanted was to take his idea and write his book, with all of his thoughts and plans and ideas and characters, with my contribution being, well, essentially a ghost writer. The doubts festered, and I worried.
Until a short while later. I had another dream. A dream in which Jack Diamond morphed into the man from my dreams. The one who was chopping veggies for salsa for a beautiful woman's dinner. The man who was baking chocolate chip cookies in my first manuscript.
So I started thinking about Jack Diamond. And I watched in the dream as this beautiful woman for whom Jack was cooking dinner had a daughter, an extraordinarily gifted child who, too young for school, needed a challenge to keep her intellectual curiosity at bay. Jack promised to teach the little girl how to play chess. And over the years, he and the woman became quite good friends.
So I began to write the manuscript using my husband's skeleton idea, and more and more of Jack's past came to light. The woman and her daughter didn't end up in the final version of this first manuscript about Jack, but I do believe I'll see them again one day.
I have since found out more and more about Jack. I learned about how GranNini raised him. I watched in horror as his past came to light and how his need to become a police officer enveloped him and became a part of who he is. I watched over Jack's brother during his struggles. I watched Jack go to college and meet Claire. Throughout the time I wrote this book about Jack Diamond, I created dozens and dozens of characters, all while daydreaming about Jack and his escapades. I know all about Monday and her husband and how they met. I have a whole book idea about Monday's mom and Monday's grandparents. And that book led to two other book ideas (an intertwined love story spanning two generations with the setting in the San Juan Islands). Jack's brother has an entire book of his own -- which intertwines with my first manuscript. Which I suppose means I'll have to dust M1 off, scrape off the mothballs, and rewrite it. I still think it's a wonderful love story. It just needs a bit more assistance and a great deal of rewrites.
I know about Nick's past and a little bit about his home life. I look forward to learning what is in store for him. Shea, Peter, Max, Tank, and Mason are all growing into wonderful meaty characters. I probably know most about Max from that group, as she's based on a dear friend of mine. I have hopes and plans of writing each and every one of their stories, and all of these books will have something or someone in them that connects them to at least one of my other books. And as for GranNini, well, she's a children's literature author. And I most definitely have plans to write a wonderful series of children's books with GranNini as my pen name.
I've been so fortunate to have my husband answer technical questions about Jack's scuba diving adventures and work issues and whatnot. His advice and technical mumbo jumbo really give my manuscript a ring of truth. But as he'll gladly admit, other than his technical help and providing the first skeleton idea of this manuscript, the only thing he's assisted me with since then has been providing love and encouragement every step of the way. He's the one who taught me that the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
So in all honesty, the more complex answer is easy too. My husband gave me the idea for my manuscript. But Jack? Well, he's all mine.
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