Writing a character's backstory

Writing a Character's Backstory

So whilst we're in Covid-19 lock down, I've been tackling a variety of projects around the house. That's what I'm telling folks. But honestly, I've just been baking, eating, cooking, eating, playing with the puppy, eating, ignoring housework, eating, helping out the in-laws while my father-in-law recovers from heart surgery, eating, watching television, eating, making a couple of baby quilts (which are a super duper cute), eating, dealing with pesky doctors and MRIs, eating, and mulling over some background plot ideas for Book 2.5, the love story between my main character Jack Diamond and the love of his life, Claire Wilcox. Oh, and eating.

So several people along the way have asked me how I come up with my characters' back stories. And honestly, the majority of the time I truly don't know. They just sort of come out. I'll be merrily writing along, and the next thing I know, I'm jotting down info about where Nick Buchanan went to school, and the fact that he had a baby sister, and his football career, and so forth. It just writes itself, and I don't really think about it. Honestly. Things just write themselves right out of my fingertips, and sometimes I'm just as surprised as you are when you read them.

But I've been mulling things over about my sweet Claire, and I have to give her back story a great deal of care and thought.

I know how Claire met Ron Wilcox and his daughter. That much has been obvious to me since the very beginning. I know why Ron Wilcox is an alcoholic. 

I know where Claire and Jack Diamond meet.

I know what Claire does for a living, and I know one of her co-workers.

But I had to think about Claire and her house where she grew up, and her folks and wondering if she had any siblings.

And I had to think about why she decided to become a cosmetic surgeon, specializing in pediatric facial reconstruction.

And this morning as I was lounging about in bed, not wanting to face the world because today is housecleaning day, I started thinking about Claire's background.

And several scenarios started making their way through my thought processes.

To take it back a step, Jack Diamond had a very violent past. Much of this is hashed out in books 1 and 2, so I won't bore you with it here. And when I was writing Book 2 I had to reconcile the problems with Jack's violent past with Jack's adorable and lovely Granini. How did she not know? Why didn't she try to fix it? Was Granini Jack's father's mother? or his mother's mother? That reconciliation caused a great deal of time and grief and tender care when writing Book 2.

So now it's time for Claire's back story. I don't even know if it's going to appear in Book 2.5, but I have to know what it is in order to figure out who she is, and how she came to be that way.

Do I want her to have an equally challenging childhood so that she can Jack can bond over trauma?

Do I want her to have an innocent and carefree childhood free of all the drama? Would someone like that be someone strong enough to be a mate for Jack?

And how did she get interested in facial reconstruction?

So I started playing out several different scenarios in my mind:

*Abusive father:
Mother gives birth to baby boy with a cleft palate. Father is livid at his son's 'deformity.' He kills the boy, kills the mother, and goes to kill Claire, but she kills him.

Too violent.

*Sexually abusive father:
Mother gives birth to baby boy with a cleft palate. Father is livid at his son's 'deformity.' He kills the mother, strangles the boy with his own umbilical cord, and goes to kill Claire. BUT, Claire's older sister, whom the father has been sexually abusing for all these years, grabs a pair of scissors and kills him first.

And as much as I love the evil thought of the horrible man strangling his own 'defective' son with his umbilical cord, trying to pass the murder off as a 'natural' accidental death, the whole scenario is just way too violent.

And honestly, blech! Who wants to read about child sexual abuse?!!!? It's bad enough that it happens in the real world. Why does it have to happen in my books?

*Accidental death
Claire's mother gives birth to a baby boy who is born with a cleft palate. The birth is quick, and at home in the middle of the night. There's so much blood and it happens so fast, that everyone is caught of guard. Claire's father runs out of the room to grab a pair of sharp scissors to cut the umbilical cord. Claire's older sister wakes up. She asks her daddy what's wrong. He quickly tries to explain that everything's okay and he tells her to go back to bed. Claire sleeps through the whole thing. Claire's mom cries out for help. Claire's dad turns to run to get back to Claire's mom. He trips on the rug in the hallway. He lands on the very sharp scissors he's carrying and bleeds to death in the hallway. Claire's mom bleeds to death in the bedroom. And Claire's baby brother dies before medical attention can arrive.

This super sad story may be the one I go for.
It serves multiple purposes.

1. Both of Claire's parents are dead. Both of Jack's parents are dead. Even though Jack's father was horribly abusive, and Claire's was not, being an orphan does connect them to each other in a way that most young 20 somethings don't have in common.

2. This storyline means that Claire now needs to be raised by someone other than her parents. I don't know if it will be a family friend, an aunt, or a grandparent. But being raised by someone in a loving home is truly important to both Claire's and Jack's positive upbringing. Without the positive influences, both Claire and Jack could end up having significantly different personalities. I want these two to have complicated childhood backgrounds that gives each of them compassion and a mission to do better. This positive upbringing by someone other than her parents also endears Granini to Claire, which adds to the benefit of this story line.

3. Claire's baby brother being born with a cleft palate could easily become the motivation that Claire needs to become a surgeon who repairs birth defects. She has a soft spot for babies and young children with birth defects, or those who suffer from facial deformities due to accidents, and for the parents and siblings who care for these children. These two facts will then explain how she becomes motivated to become a surgeon and why she falls in love so dearly with Ron Wilcox's daughter, and has a soft spot for Ron, himself.

4. This story line now gives Claire an older sister. Which I didn't even know was a possibility. An older, lovely sister. And now I get to go and mull about Claire's older sister and find out how she turns out. Will she be a lovely person? Will she be productive and amazing and inspirational? Or will she be sad and depressed and go down a dark hole and be someone Claire is embarrassed to call her sister? Oh, I say let's go positive. Today I'm in a happy mood. I don't want any more darkness. There's soooo much darkness in this world.

So.

That's how I start thinking about characters' backstories. It's long and complicated and will end up being given more thought along the way. But this is how it starts.

And that's it for today. I'm going to go eat some strawberries.

* * * * *

I not only bake and cook, I write murder mysteries too!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

Currently writing:
Book 2.5: Yet to be named: Jack and Claire's love story

* * * * *

Book 3 and the torus vortex

Book 3 and the Torus Vortex

I was listening to the podcast Harry Potter as a Sacred Text while walking my puppy, Charlie the other day, and Vanessa Zoltan and Casper Ter Kuile made an interesting comment about The Prisoner of Azkaban (HP book number 3) as they delved into the final discussions / wrap up of the the book. 

If you haven't started listening to Harry Potter as a Sacred Text, and you're a fan of the Harry Potter books, please go and start listening to the podcast right now. Don't even bother coming back to read this blog until after you've started listening to the podcast. Don't bother to eat. Don't sleep. Don't stop at Go and collect $200. Go. Right. Now. and Listen.

It's amazing.

Soooo, back to the podcast, and their review of book number 3, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, both Vanessa and Casper seemed to dislike the book as much as they like the first two books.

Vanessa and Casper discuss the importance of having a focus in a book. They describe book number three in the Harry Potter series as feeling unrooted, with a lack of focus -- because so many different characters have so many different energies focused on so many different things. 

"Hermione with her academic achievement, Lupin trying to look after Harry and reorient himself within the Hogwarts system, Snape trying to get revenge, Dumbledore is, like, MIA and then returns suddenly, Trelawny is having predictions, the Weasleys are basically not in this book. Where is Ginny? We like found her? And then she's like not in this book."*

Vanessa and Casper argued that the book almost felt as if the book seemed to miss something. That the stakes felt too small or too low and that something felt narratively missing when the book's focus wasn't on Voldemort.

By no means would I ever compare my books to the Harry Potter book series, but the structure concerns, to me, are relatable and are something I'd like to address.

In my own Book 3, I have the victims, the killer, and Jack Diamond all having their own perspective to a shooting that occurs on a pedestrian bridge here in Portland. By having so very many different things going on, I could have a very real problem -- lack of focus.

BUT

If I were to make the event -- the shooting on the bridge -- as the focus of the entire story, with each chapter unraveling the events through the lens of: each of the people who were on the bridge, or near the bridge, or a part of the shooting that occurs upon the bridge, or first responders to the events that occur upon the bridge -- that could keep the story focused.

STAY FOCUSED ON THE SHOOTING ON THE BRIDGE

Instead of envisioning the story as a snail shell, perhaps it is more like a yoyo, the events slowly unfolding bit by bit as the yoyo heads toward the depth of its trajectory, and then the shocking shootings create the jerk that is sufficient to lead the story back toward its conclusion.

Or, perhaps the story is more like a torus vortex or a tube torus, with each circular piece representing the different people who are involved in the incident, and the incident (the shooting on the bridge) itself being at the center of the entire book.

source

It seems to me that as long as I keep the shooting as the focus of the story -- the people who are on or near the bridge, the shooter, the victims who are shot, and the peace officers and first responders who come to rescue the victims and reduce and remove the threat of the shooter, the story should continue to have the proper focus.

I love this idea.

It is beautiful in its complexity.

Not once, ever, in my entire life, did I ever think that writers put so much thought into how their stories should be plotted out to best serve the readers, and to best make the story an effective, interesting, complicated but lovely book to read. But here I am, before I even truly begin, trying to plot out how this book is going to work before I start writing it, so that it will end up being structured like a torus vortex.

Did I mention how much I love this idea?

* * * * *

Citations:
* Zoltan, V. and Ter Kuile, C. (2017, September 5). Wrap-Up: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast.

* * * * *

I not only bake and cook, I write murder mysteries too!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

* * * * *

Plotting out book 3

Plotting out Book 3

So here I am, once again, sitting down at the computer, trying to figure out how to plot out the complexities of Book 3, the book that has not yet been named.

For those of you who want to know where I was, back at the beginning of January, start here: And so it begins. It's my blog entry about some of the complexities that go into my thought processes when I plan out a book.

What it doesn't say, is that -- like most people -- I have to juggle writing with life. And life has been consistently getting in my way of writing. 

I struggle with that.

When I was a college professor, I went to work each and every day. I spent hours on my commute. I spent hours teaching. I spent hours with students during 'office hours.' I spent too many hours grading. And I loved each and every minute of it.

Now that I work from home, it is a much bigger struggle to say no to other people. Someone needs a ride to the airport. Or to the doctor. Someone else wants to have lunch, and maybe go shopping. Someone else needs something from the store. The groceries need to be purchased, the bills need to get paid, the laundry needs to get done, and someone has *got* to clean up the dog poo and the clean out the litter boxes. 

And when the hubster and the kiddos are at work and at school it is infinitely easier to ask the one person who is at home to do those things. So much harder to ask someone to do something if they are in a physically different location.

The invisible woman who juggles work with home life and struggles to find her own identity in the midst of caring for her work needs, her home life needs, her family's needs, her own needs.

And so now it is March and I have not worked on my book. It has festered in my head. It festers still.

I am struggling with the structure of this next book, and think I've decided on a snail shell. 

Yes, you read that right. A snail shell.

I believe I am going to tell the story from several different perspectives, hour by hour, building upon the people's version of the story, wrapping and coiling the story around until the grand event. And then I'll uncoil the story and unwrap it around as it races to the end and finishes in a grand flurry.

To me, that's like a snail shell.

To some of you, you may think, "mmmmkay. She's lost her nutter."

Well, maybe I have.

And maybe that's okay.

Sometimes I think you have to be a bit mad in order to be a murder mystery writer. My sick and twisted mind, all dark and twisty, is exactly the perfect kind of mind that this type of story telling needs.

And it's the kind of mind my hubster loves and adores, 
so that's just an added bonus.

* * * * *

Follow me on Instagram! @kaysmithbooks

* * * * *

I not only bake and cook, I write murder mysteries too!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

* * * * *

Where do my writing ideas come from?

So where do my writing ideas come from?

Over the years, so many people have asked me this question.

Where do my writing ideas come from?

Well, like me, the answer is rather complicated.

The first novel I ever wrote was a story that had been rambling about in my head for so long I honestly don't remember where it came from. I will rewrite it some day. It's a lovely love story that took place long before cell phones and texting, when people got mail and love letters were a thing.

It never occurred to me to ask if other people have dreams about book plots. Maybe they do, maybe it's just me. But sometimes, my dreams bring me book ideas.

And when the book ideas come in my dreams, wowie, do they zing me.

Jack Diamond, my main character for Diamonds for Diamond and No One Noticed came from a dream.

I was in the middle of writing my first novel, and I started writing a scene about the main character making cookies in his kitchen. I finished writing the entire scene before I realized that wasn't Scott, the main character of the novel, but rather some other random guy.

Many moons later when I was hashing over murder mystery plot ideas with my husband, I felt mildly frustrated because I couldn't figure out who the main character was. I couldn't envision him. I didn't want to create a guy out of nothing. I wanted him to BE someone.

And then I remembered the scene about the 'fake' Scott baking cookies in the kitchen, and it all came flooding in to me.

I remembered the scene vividly.

I could see what he was wearing. I could picture the entire kitchen. And just like that, I was inside his house. I took a few steps backward, and I saw his dining room, his living room, the front door. I watched as he sat on the couch teaching a little girl, maybe 6? or 7? how to play chess. I watched him get up and go into the back of the house, passing the laundry room and the guest bathroom. I watched him go into his bedroom and off to change his clothes. I saw the french doors leading to his back garden, and realized that his grandmother taught him how to garden. That she, in fact, had raised him. I felt a million of his memories come flashing into my memories, like a USB had been plugged into my circuitry and now I knew who this man had the potential to be.

My husband may have named him (after a real man who worked with him on the real MCSO Dive Rescue and Recovery Team), but Jack Diamond in my books is a completely different person, downloaded from my imagination.

Since then, several other scenes from various bits and pieces of book ideas have periodically popped into my thoughts.

Once, not long after visiting my family and friends in Alaska, I had a very short, very vivid dream for a romance novel -- start to finish -- that took place in Valdez, Alaska. I've never been to Valdez. But evidently I'll need to head over there some day. The dream was unbelievably realistic, with an absurd amount of details considering the whole thing took place in under three minutes of sleep.

Then, last night, I had a doozy. Truly, a gift of a dream.

This time, the dream manifested out of actual events (in actuality I was looking over the doctor's shoulder, watching the fascinating results of a someone else's echocardiogram) -- but in the dream, I was looking over the surgeon's shoulder, looking at someone's cataract on an enormous screen.

The remainder of the dream was completely unrelated. As I watched the dream unfold, I found myself fascinated by the amount of details I had been able to obtain from the characters.

I rolled over in bed, grabbed my phone, and started typing down the details. I think at one point after I had written down as much of the dream as I could remember, I must have fallen back asleep a little bit, because more of the dream kept coming. I typed along as the dream was coming to me, jotting down detailed notes of the whole thing. Like sleep walking, only typing. Sleep typing? I typed down where we were, who his family was, who else was there, conversations. Feelings. Emotions. Scars. Memories.

To me, these dreams are almost like alternate realities. As if in some alternate universe these events actually took place. I remember the dream as if it's a memory of my own experience. The aches, the hurts, the feelings are all mine, but the story is theirs.

I have learned a process of writing that works effectively for me. I plot out the whole book, from start to mostly finish, jotting down itsy bitsy pieces of notes for each chapter. Something like, "Claire meets Jack at the restaurant and gives him the envelope full of photos." Just enough of a note to trigger the idea of what has to happen in that chapter. When you're writing a murder mystery, it's important to plot out what happens when, who dies when, who figures out what at which point, and so on. Lay out the clues. Fill out the timing. Get things right.

And then when I sit down to write, after looking at my note, I simply start typing. And the next thing I know, it's like watching a movie unfold. I watch what happens. Who is there? What does the place smell like? What are they eating? What are they talking about? Is she happy? What did she choose to wear today? What does her perfume smell like? Is she upset? I can scan the whole scene in my mind, taking it all in, trying to get it all down in writing so that the reader can be sitting beside the characters, listening to their conversation, nibbling on their french fries while sipping at an iced tea, a virtual fly on the wall.

Writing just comes to me, pouring out of my fingers. Things happen to my characters that I had no idea was going to happen. People die. Sometimes they buy thoughtful presents that I would never have thought of. It astounds me when people say something like, "But you wrote it.  It came from you. So you thought of this." Yes, I suppose that's true. But to me? It feels like the characters came up with the ideas all on their own. They did what they did. They said what they said. They made their choice, did their deeds, suffer the consequences. I'm just the writer who translates their actions onto paper.

And now, as I'm rambling on forever and a day, I am realizing I have a new struggle. Do I write the story from my dream into a more cohesive story? Do I take time away from Jack Diamond and his adventures to write a romance? Or do I take a few notes, save the paragraphs, and hope that when at some point I'm done writing Jack Diamond books and am ready to switch gears, I can rekindle this memory of this amazing dream, and write this romance that haunts me still, fourteen hours later?

These are good questions.

* * * * *

* * * * *

I not only bake and cook, I write murder mysteries too!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

* * * * *

The post publishing relief

So now that No One Noticed is officially out and published and rarin' to go, I'm FREEEEEEEEE. I know that I sound suspiciously like Doby the Elf. But, alas, that's a wee bit how I feel. No, I was not enslaved by evil wizards who made me wear a dirty pillow case and be at their beck and call to do whatever they needed done. However, sometimes, as a writer, one does feel a bit trapped by the intensity of the project. The relief one feels is euphoric, with a dash of glee, and a dollop of bliss, followed by a slow fizzling out like a balloon sadly leaking out its birthday helium.

I spent the better part of today cleaning off half of my desk. I couldn't face the other half. So I was pleased with half. And you should be too. If you had seen the sorry state it had grown into, you'd be quite pleased with me.

And then I went browsing. Which is really a way of saying I went shopping, but without my credit card.

And, just to make sure you know everything I did today, I spent an enormous amount of time trying (and failing) to make travel arrangements for my daughter to fly overseas. Hopefully tomorrow things will be easier.

I walked the puppy and played a lovely game of chuck it.

And then I decided to settle in and see what I could start coming up with for this idea I had for my very first "Granini and me" story.

It's going to star a snail.

Like this one.

This lovely beaut was found nibbling on the leaves of a tree in Indonesia last month when I was poking about on a coffee plantation. It was HUGE. And I think it makes quite the perfect picture for my snail of inspiration.

I know, I know, I promised Book 3 for my Jack Diamond Series. And I promise, I'll get to work on that one just as soon as the holidays are over. But I thought I might dip my hat (my pen? my fingers??) into Children's Stories and try to whip up an adorable story that involves a snail. And three princesses. And the Jeff.

How's that for a tantalizing treat?

Alrighty! That's it for today! Wish me luck on my travel planning tomorrow. And hopefully I'll have such amazing success I can sit down and write more on this Children's book!

* * * * *

No One Noticed

by Kay Nimitz Smith

Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series

now available on Amazon!!

Book 2

Meanwhile, please go and buy my book.

And then leave lots of great feedback!! 

* * * * *

Buy my books!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

Underwater crime scene investigations

No One Noticed

by Kay Nimitz Smith

Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series

now available on Amazon!!

Book 2

Someone asked another intriguing question this week 

and I thought I'd share the answer.

How does underwater crime scene investigations and scuba diving

 play a role in your new book?

That's a great question!

For those of you who have read my first book, Diamonds for Diamond, you'll remember that our protagonist, Jack Diamond, is a detective for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office (MCSO). He is *ALSO* the head of the MCSO's Dive Rescue and Recovery Team.

And before I go any further, yes, in real life the MCSO has a Dive Rescue and Recovery Team. Yes, the folks who dive for them are amazing. They do great work!! Sometimes they're saving lives, other times they're doing underwater crime scene investigations, recovering weapons, evidence, cars, and dead bodies as the needs arise.

So, back to Jack Diamond.

In my first book, Diamonds for Diamond, a serial killer is on the loose, dumping his dead bodies in various bodies of water throughout the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Jack Diamond and his team perform underwater crime scene investigations, scuba diving in the black water conditions of the Columbia River, the Willamette River, and other bodies of water, to recover the victims' bodies and various evidence associated with those crimes.

Jack and his MCSO Dive Rescue and Recovery team are back into action throughout the book No One Noticed. And although the scuba diving and under water crime scene investigations play a smaller role in this book, there are several intriguing scenes throughout the book involving underwater crime scene investigations.

I have done extensive research regarding these crime scene investigations. All my underwater scenes have been thoroughly "vetted" by a specialist who used to perform those types of blackwater scuba diving investigations. And although I have yet to go scuba diving myself, I finally got my first official snorkeling experience in the Indian Ocean just a few weeks ago. The visibility in the waters around Lembongan Island is a gajillion times better than that of the Columbia River, but hey, it's a start!!

Here is a picture of my favorite scuba diver (and underwater crime scene specialist) off the coast of Menjangan Island a few weeks ago (October, 2019):

And here is a picture of my favorite scuba diver under the Columbia River:

hahahahahaha

So it's not really a picture of him under the Columbia River. The water isn't that clear. I could never have been able to get such a great picture. Seriously. Visibility is less than a foot. No bueno for pictures. Or visibility. And the lack of visibility makes it exceptionally difficult and challenging for his team to do underwater crime scene investigations. But they do. Mostly by feel. 

And they're awesome.

Can you imagine how incredibly challenging it must be to locate a dead body, under water, without visibility?!? They use these incredible search patterns, lead lines, under water communications gear; they try to avoid kicking up the silt, and they feel around, hoping (and sometimes not hoping) to find something. 

One time my most favorite scuba diver described a search in which he was seeing absolutely nothing under the water, and he felt something. Something suspiciously like a bone. A vertebrae. He knew it felt human. He'd found cow bones before, but they're bigger. So he popped it into his pouch and kept on looking, because that's not what he had been searching for. Turns out they believe the neck bone was the bone of a human skeleton from many years before that they believe had floated downstream from an ancient Native American burial ground located near the Columbia river.

He has also told me stories about finding something rather gruesome through his scuba gloves, but not knowing exactly what it was until he took a steadying breath and brought the item right up next to his face to find out what it was. Sounds down right gruesome to me!! What a horror nightmare.

I am equally fascinated by the thought of his team recovering bodies that have been in the water a very long time, relieved that their families can have closure and being able to bury their loved ones; and sheer mortification and horror at the idea that water critters have nibbled upon these bodies, which is great for the ecosystem, but rather terrifying for the poor soul who has to try to scoop the water logged body into a body bag, hoping not to lose a toe bone that is apt to float away.

So yes. Underwater crime scene investigations. I write about them in my books. I find them fascinating. And unique. And a whole realm of crime scene investigations that are rarely, if ever, discussed in murder mystery books. 

So there you have it.

If all y'all have more questions, please don't hesitate to post them. 

I'll answer them along the way!

Meanwhile, please go and buy my book.

And then leave lots of great feedback!! 

No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)

Here is a closer look at the entire book cover for book 2,
for those of you who are interested:

* * * * *

Buy my books!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond 
(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

No One Noticed, Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series

No One Noticed

by Kay Nimitz Smith

Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series

now available on Amazon!!

Book 2

Back cover summary:

Marjorie Goverman was a devoted wife, loving mother, and dependable full-time employee. She disappeared for six weeks, and no one noticed.

At the urging of his beloved grandmother, Detective Jack Diamond brings this missing person’s case to his colleagues at the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, hoping that solving the case will help ease his way back to work after his near death experience. As Jack wrestles with his own personal issues, he and his colleagues peer into the bizarre and seedy underbelly of new-age prenatal care, racing to figure out where Marjorie went, why she disappeared, and why no one noticed when she did.

I have had several people ask questions, and others requesting more juicy details about my book, other than where to buy it (click here, or click the links below). So here you go:

1. Can you read No One Noticed without having read the first book in the series?

First of all, No One Noticed is book number 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series. Yes, you can read the book as a stand alone novel, without having read the first book (Diamonds for Diamond). It holds up quite well all on its own. However, in my personal opinion, if you're going to start reading a book series, why not start with the first book and then move on to book number 2? 

2. Is this book based upon a real story?

Well, yes, and no. Once upon a time in a land far, far away, I heard a story about a missing person whom the police suspected had died. The story was fascinating and resulted in a non-body conviction. (A person was convicted of her death, even though her body was never found.) But after discovering many details of this case, I found myself uninterested in the person who died, and frankly, I had no sympathy for her. As a writer, I found several challenges with writing about that case. First of all, I try never to write about real cases -- other than to get a hint or an inspiration from a case -- so that I do not step upon the toes of the dead. Or the living. I have a rather vivid imagination and I like to embellish upon stories, molding them and changing them to suit my own personal needs. Secondly, I didn't think anyone would really care to read about someone who may or may not have died who may or may not have been a likable person. I wanted my victim to be well-loved, to be an important and significant person at home and at work, so that when she disappeared, her absence would most definitely be felt, be important, be significant. I felt that a more likable character would create more of an interest when the reader found out she disappeared for six weeks before anyone noticed.

3. Will there be a book 3 in the series?

Absolutely. Book number 3 will also be inspired by a real case, but will be completely fictionalized so that I can embellish upon the story, use my own imagination, twist the plot lines to suit my needs, and so forth. I wrote more about book number three at the end of book number two, so that's just one more reason why you should go and buy No One Noticed. 

FURTHERMORE, I am seriously contemplating writing a book that will go between book 2 and 3. Book 2.5 if you will. In this in-between book, I am contemplating writing a romance book that features Jack Diamond and Claire Wilcox, the love of his life. I had several thoughts behind this idea. One, many people have told me how much they love Jack and Claire, and they want to see more of them, and more of the romance. Two, I love romance stories. Three, I struggle to write too much romance in the middle of a murder mystery. Some romance, sure. Some hints here and there about sexual tension seems fine. But to me, it would be almost a bit too distracting to have the romance and sexy bits in the background of the murder investigation story line. 

I also am madly in love with the idea of writing more stories that move the character plots along. Character development is one of my favorite aspects to writing my novels and reading other people's novels. I have always loved reading book series where the same characters appear in book after book after book, learning and growing and being. I fall in love with characters and want to know more and more about them. 

I am also fiercely determined to have all of my books have a character connection between them. For example, I have a rough plot outlined for the story of Monday's mother. I have a fairly significant plot planned out for a two-book romance series that includes both Monday's mother and someone from the book about Matt's life (Charlie's roommate). I have written an entire draft of a book (which needs to be heavily re-written) which explains Matt's background. And so on, and so forth.

4. You're a female writer, why do you have a male detective as your main character?

Good question. Before I began writing Jack Diamond's story, I had always planned to write a male main character. I guess it never occurred to me to write a female main character. In No One Noticed, I do introduce Andi Overton, a female detective who is currently in charge of the Special Investigations Unit, specializing in domestic violence cases and cases involving child abuse. Andi, the character, is based upon the real - life Andi Overton whom I met at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in San Diego in 2016. She's delightful and amazing, and is currently running for mayor in the town of Hagerstown, Maryland. Go Andi!! It is my intent to have Andi (the character in my book) have a larger and more significant role in the Jack Diamond Mystery series as the books continue.

In the very first manuscript I wrote, I had two main characters, one male, one female. It was so much easier for me to write the male main character. Perhaps it's easier for me to write males because I watch them every day and interact with them every day. Self-introspection as writing inspiration seems odd to me. Most of the detectives and peace officers that I know are male. My one friend who is a female officer reminds me a great deal of Claire. She's stunningly gorgeous, fiercely independent, unbelievably intelligent, an incredible athlete, and truly a lovely human being. She's an amazing cop, and almost too good to be true. I made Claire into a plastic surgeon who dedicated her life to fixing children who were born with birth defects. Seems fitting to me.

If all y'all have more questions, please don't hesitate to post them. I'll answer them along the way!

Meanwhile, please go and buy my book.

And then leave lots of great feedback!! 

No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)

Here is a closer look at the entire book cover for book 2,
for those of you who are interested:

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Buy my books!

Both books are available in paperback and kindle versions

Diamonds for Diamond (Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)
and
No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

Buy my books!

They're available!!

Paperbacks & Ebooks for both novels 

are now available!

Diamonds for Diamond and No One Noticed

(The first two books in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)

Book 1

Book 2

  

You can find both paperback and e-book versions for Book 1 here:  

Diamonds for Diamond 

(Book 1 in the Jack Diamond Mystery Series)

and

You can find both paperback and e-book versions for Book 2 here:

No One Noticed

(Book 2 in the Jack Diamond Mystery series)





For those of you who like to read the back cover of the book, here are the blurbs from the back of the books:

Diamonds for Diamond

A serial killer is terrorizing the women of Portland, Oregon as he dumps their lifeless bodies around the waterways of Multnomah County.  Detective Jack Diamond and his partner Nick Buchanan race the clock to catch the killer as the victims stack up, and the killings become personal.  The ghosts of Jack’s past haunt him as the love of his life becomes the killer’s next target.  Jack and the county’s Dive Rescue Team perform underwater crime scene investigations, turning up evidence that leads them to the killer — but will they get there in time?

No One Noticed 

Marjorie Goverman was a devoted wife, loving mother, and dependable full-time employee. She disappeared for six weeks, and no one noticed.

At the urging of his beloved grandmother, Detective Jack Diamond brings this missing person’s case to his colleagues at the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, hoping that solving the case will help ease his way back to work after his near death experience. As Jack wrestles with his own personal issues, he and his colleagues peer into the bizarre and seedy underbelly of new-age prenatal care, racing to figure out where Marjorie went, why she disappeared, and why no one noticed when she did.

Here is a closer look at the entire book cover for book 2:

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The last (and hopefully final) proof will be here tomorrow!

Happy Days!

So don't get the theme song stuck in your head (for Happy Days), but blissful news, the first proof came back and it looks LOVELY!!!

Just a few minor changes and it'll be ready to go!

The cover, for example needed a few tiny bits of change.

For example:

When I put No One Noticed right up against Diamonds for Diamond, I noticed that the size of my name and "A Jack Diamond Mystery" were larger on one book than the other. So I had to fix that. I also noticed that my Jack Diamond logo was practically invisible on the proof. It gets lost in the blue, cloud-covered skies. So I fixed that. Then after a much more careful look at Diamonds for Diamond, I noticed that I could get away with a much smaller font for my photographer acknowledgement (thanks Jen!!) since I thanked her inside my book (and here too!), and thus I could put that whole section into one line, like it is in my first book. It's frustrating that these things weren't caught in the first round, but alas.

These things do happen.

(And now I have Phantom of the Opera in my head. When Carlotta says, "Si! These things do happen! Well, until you stop these things happening, this thing does not happen." I actually think that my life is one long running playlist of movie clips and television show clips and song clips with lines from each one playing back to back to back. It's amusing if you happen to be with me and you happen to know the movie or television show reference. My mind persistently pulls from the television show Friends and the movie The Princess Bride. So if you want a good place to start, start there.

Meanwhile, INSIDE the book, I found a few changes as well. One, I found a typo! That almost never happens at this stage. Super excited. The perfectionist in me is beyond thrilled. It's like scratching a satisfying itch that I didn't even know I had. In one of my sections in No One Noticed, I have a character who is from Scotland and has a lovely brogue. Trying to translate that accent to the reader's ear is a challenge in and of itself. Trying to get my computer to recognize the misspelled words as intentional is another. Inside a whole flurry of brogue I had the word whose instead of the contraction who's. With all the red underlines in that chapter, it's no wonder we all missed it. One's mind simply glosses over the misspelling as it sounds correct, particularly when one is struggling to get the brogue into one's head. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Also, along the way, some of the spacing of the words needed slight adjustment. I loathe reading a book where the words on a line are all stretched out or overly squished together. So I had to adjust for those issues.

I also found a last minute minute oddity. (Get it? minute minute?) Some of my chapter headings were ever so slightly longer than others, even though they all had three hard returns before the word Chapter. Turns out I had a 12 point font on some and a 16 point font on another. Again, something that the perfectionist in me reveled in discovery before publication.

Then, while I was making those adjustments, I noticed some dialogue in several places that could also use a quick touch up. It's so hard not to keep editing. Over and over, making things better and better.

Because each amendment is, in fact, an improvement.

But at some point, one must simply stop, let go ("Let it go, Let it go..."), and move on to the next book.

As someone who strives to get things right, I do find it a challenge to go back and re-read my first book and find things -- some big, some small -- that were I to go back and re-publish, I would change.

My daughter, for example, despised the way I spelled GranNini in the first book. I wanted people to understand the connection between the fact that she is a grandmother and her nickname is Nini (pronounced gruh-nee-nee). My daughter, however, said I should assume that the audience is bright enough to get that. She also didn't like the capitalization in the middle of the name. And she said the extra N was superfluous. Thus, in No One Noticed, I have changed the spelling of Granini's name. And sure enough, she's right. The simplification works well. But changing the spelling from book 1 to book 2 is a struggle for me, as it is inconsistent.

Furthermore, my father-in-law, bless his heart, said he was pleased that he had only found one or two typographical errors in book 1. I have yet to discover any, as I have read the book so very many times, and clearly I gloss over them. My editor didn't find any either. When he re-reads the book before starting book 2, I shall have him point them out to me, again, not just for posterity, but also so that I can make the edits should a second edition of the book ever be released.

I strive for perfection.

I am humbled by my imperfections.

And I hope that you all understand the infuriating frustrations that arise from the conflict.

So. Enough ramblings for the day.

Here is one last lovely look of the book's cover before the book is sent out for final print. Should be sent out Sunday night or Monday morning, and will be available for purchase very shortly afterwords!

SOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!

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Diamonds for Diamond (the first book in the Jack Diamond Mystery series) can be bought by clicking on the picture or the link below.

You can buy my book in both e-book and paperback on Amazon here:  

Diamonds for Diamond by Kay Nimitz Smith



No One Noticed (the second book in the Jack Diamond Mystery series) will be available shortly!

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