Jack Diamond - Book 2. And so it begins. Or ends...?
So I just finished writing the second to last chapter of Jack Diamond, Book 2.
Wow.
That was fast!
And the first book just came out a few months ago!!
Alas, don't go getting your hopes up just yet. The book's no where near being finished. On the contrary, I just started writing the book this afternoon. And as it turns out, I had to write the ending before I could start at the beginning.
The strange thing about my writing -- or perhaps, if you're a writer, it's not so very strange, but for me, writing is like watching a movie. I come up with an idea, or my sweet hubby does, or my kids throw something out there -- and when I actually sit down to write, it's like watching a movie. The whole world ceases to exist. I slip into another world, and things happen to my people -- my characters. For me, Jack Diamond is as real as the man he's named after. Things happen to him, and it breaks my heart. He winks at a pretty woman, and I get jealous. He takes care of his GranNini and my wee heart swoons.
When I first started writing my very first manuscript*, I just wrote willy-nilly, writing chapters here and there as they came to me, and then I sort of piecemealed them together at the end. (No wonder the whole thing needs to be rewritten before it can be published!!) So when I sat down to write Diamonds for Diamond, I had to do more systematic planning. I needed to know what would happen when, so that I could figure out where to put in my clues, and where to send my characters each and every day. I spent eons plotting and planning and figuring out exactly in what order everything had to happen. So when I actually sat down to write the book, I simply looked at my plan, and wrote whatever was next on the list. Kinda like turning on a Netflix marathon, and tuning in to the next episode.
I made the decision (well, it kinda just sort of had to happen this way), that all of my books will have connections to all of my other books. Needless to say, when I wrote my first manuscript, I started having these dreams about other people. Other book characters. At one point, I wrote an entire scene involving a character, who at the time I thought was my main character, but was in fact someone else. After having written the entire scene, I realized that my main character wouldn't really ever do what this guy was doing. It was so unlike him. I cut the scene out of my manuscript, saved it in a file somewhere, forgot about it, and moved on. Later (probably that night, but maybe a week or so passed by, or maybe a year. Or two. Who can remember these things?), I had a dream about that other main character. The one from the deleted scene. I watched the scene like a movie. And as the movie went on, I pictured his house. I watched the man go about his evening, walking around his house, playing chess, laughing with a friend... Years went by, and Jack Diamond evolved, and this "deleted scene" guy turned out to be none other than Jack Diamond himself.
While writing that first manuscript, a two-book romance also came popping up into my subconscious. I sat down and plotted that set of books out from start to finish. Then while those two books were being plotted down, Monday's mom's story started bubbling to the surface. She gets a whole book to herself. It's set in North Carolina. It wasn't until years later that Jack Diamond emerged, and he's got three more stories (at least) to go. And then there's the GranNini and Me stories that you'll learn about when you read Jack Diamond Book Number 2.
So for those of you who loved Jack Diamond and are wondering if there are more stories to come, the answer is a resounding "Yes!" No, I have no idea how long it will take me to get them all written. But, I did start today. So. Perhaps that will be your whet for the day✤!!
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Footnotes:
*Okay, so I'm taking a page out of Mary Roach's fantabulous books and have decided to include footnotes in all of my blogs, wherever needed, from now on. I *LOVE* her. I want my fictional character Monday Willner to be best friends with Mary Roach. I want to be best friends with Mary Roach! When I finish writing this next book, I shall write to Mary Roach and ask her if she'll be friends with my Monday. And maybe, then, vicariously through me too. And maybe, if you're curious about Mary Roach, you could go to her website here: Mary Roach, Goddess of all, and buy all of her books. But I digress. This footnote is actually to talk a wee bit about my first manuscript. My first manuscript was not Diamonds for Diamonds, by the way. My first manuscript was a contemporary romance. No, not a bodice ripper. There were no heaving bosoms, despite what my hubby jokes about. It was a lovely story about two college professors who fall in love. I love that story. But I wrote the story before there were cell phones in every household. Before tweeting and twittering and Facebook and emails. So, essentially, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. I will eventually go back and rewrite this manuscript, update it for technology, change a few things that desperately need adjustments, and then publish it into a lovely book. I promise. Scott and Ellie will have their day!! And then you can meet Scott's brother (the first Easter egg in my books☩!).
☩An Easter egg, from what I understand the definition to be, is a little, ever so slightly hidden, gem of a detail inside your story that if you know enough about the writer, or the characters, you can gain some hidden meaning behind that detail, usually in the context of that author's other works. The t.v. show Lost was filled with Easter eggs. In my case, all of my books have at least one connection to one another. For example, in my first manuscript, one of Scott's students gets a summer job at a camp. This same camp is the one and the same that Monday's mom works at, and is the setting for book 2 of a two-book romance I have plotted out. My first book also introduces Scott's brother, who then has a connection to our very own Jack Diamond. But, as River from Doctor Who would say, "Spoilers!"
✤ whet: A thing that stimulates appetite or desire
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I wrote a murder mystery! Here are the links so you can buy it:
You can buy the paperback version of my book here:
Or, you can buy either my e-book or the paperback version on Amazon here:
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