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

* * * * *

Granini's Monkey Bread - the cinnamon kind

Granini's Monkey Bread

Much better!!

The first time I made monkey bread, it was a complete disaster. The biscuit dough was too mealy. The dough didn't cook all the way through. I filled the pan way too full. The syrupy goodness dripped down into the au gratin potatoes that were baking on the shelf beneath the monkey bread. The bread was way too salty, and no one liked it. Super duper sad.

So, I took what I learned, and WOW, what a difference!

This time I used my dinner roll recipe for the dough, used half unsalted and half salted butter for the caramel sauce, and mmmmm boy howdy it was delicious!!

So here you go!

Ingredients:

For the dough:

1 package yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup scalded milk

2 Tablespoons butter (salted or unsalted, doesn't matter)

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

3 1/4 cups flour

Sprinkles:

1 cup sugar (next time I'm going to use ¼ cup sugar and ¾ cup brown sugar)

2 teaspoons cinnamon (next time I'll add 3 teaspoons)

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Sauce:

¼ cup maple syrup

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ cup melted butter (unsalted)

½ cup melted butter (salted)

Directions:

1. Sprinkle the yeast onto the warm water. Give it a vigorous whisk, and allow to sit for about 5 minutes.
2. To scald the milk: place milk in a reactive (a metal pan, rather than a nonstick one) saucepan on medium high.  Allow the milk to come to a full simmer.  When the milk starts to climb the sides of the pan, pull it off the heat.
3. Add butter to the very hot milk.  Allow milk to cool for about 10 minutes. I usually put mine in the fridge to cool.
4. Add the sugar and salt. Whisk around. Add in the egg and whisk thoroughly.
5. Add ½ cup of the flour and stir completely.  Slowly pour in the milk, and stir. Mix in the remaining flour.
6. Turn on your oven to 400℉.
7. Knead the dough for roughly 5 minutes.
8. Lightly spray a clean, large bundt cake pan with cooking spray.  Make sure to coat all the nooks and crannies.
9. No, I did not let my dough proof in an oven. I was, however, busy making breakfast, so it probably sat on the counter for 14 minutes or so.
10. Split the dough into small pieces. About 1 to 1 ½ inches square or so. No need to be exact. No need to roll them into balls. Just chop them roughly around that size.
11. Mix your cinnamon sugar and nutmeg together in a medium sized bowl.
12. Drop each of your small pieces of bread dough into the cinnamon sugar and toss them around, coating all the sides.
13. Plunk the cinnamon sugar pieces into your bundt pan, placing them roughly fairly evenly around the inside of your dish.
14. After each layer (or just every once in a while), sprinkle an additional handful of cinnamon sugar over the whole section of bread dough, just to give the dough even more of the cinnamon sugar goodness.
15. Melt the butters together and stir to make sure the butter is completely melted. Add in the syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Stir until it is a thick gooey delicious looking texture.
16. Pour the cinnamon sugar syrupy caramel sauce over the top of the cinnamon bread chunks.
17. Pop the bundt pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or so, or until the whole top is lovely and medium brown. After 24 minutes, keep an eye on it. This is rather tricky. You don't want the caramel to burn, but you don't want the bread to be under baked. So keep an eye on it.
18. When the monkey bread is ready to come out of the oven, you're not going to let it rest in the pan it baked in. You're going to go ahead and pop it right out onto its plate.
19. Get a cake plate or a wooden cutting board or a serving dish that is slightly larger than your bundt pan. Using hot pads, very carefully flip your bundt cake upside down (invert it), and lift off the pan. Fingers crossed, and the whole thing will pop out of your pan easily, the underside lovely and caramelized, and your kitchen smelling like heaven.
20. Allow the monkey bread to cool slightly so that your fingers and your tongue do not suffer third degree burns when you dip in. If any of the caramel oozes off the sides, feel free to use a rubber spatula to schlop the goodness back onto the top of your bread.
21. When the monkey bread comes out correctly, you should be able to dip your fingers inside and pull out lovely chunks of caramelized bread bits. Like bite sized sticky buns. And boy howdy, is it scrumpdillyicious!!

For those of you who like pictures, here you go:

At this point, the bundt pan was barely more than ½ full -- definitely not even 3/4 of the way filled, but I was all out of dough. I honestly thought there wouldn't be enough dough in the pan, and I regretted not making a second batch of dough. But honestly, it was more than plenty!!! The dough rose beautifully in the oven, and baked to perfection.

I thought it looked a wee bit too dark around the edges, but I'd only baked it for about 29 minutes at this point. But it was lovely. I think for me, it might have been better after 28 minutes. I wanted to make sure the insides were baked all the way through.

 Look at that lovely monkey bread!!! HEAVEN!

This is what my monkey bread looked like no more than 12 minutes later. We put the cutting board in the middle of the table, and each of us grabbed a fork. We sat on opposite sides of the table and systematically pulled little pieces off, put them onto our dessert plates, and nibbled. WOW. What a treat!

We obviously decimated the entire thing. My daughter claimed that this new treat was like eating the insides of cinnamon rolls -- all the nice and gooey parts, without the hard crusty outer pieces. My husband, in between happy mmms, said he'd like a wee bit more cinnamon. And when I mentioned that I have a recipe for a savory version of monkey bread, my son said he'd like to eat a garlic parmesan version of the bread. So, I'll definitely be making this again!!!

How might I improve the recipe for next time?

Next time I'm going to roll the pieces in brown sugar and cinnamon (rather than regular sugar and cinnamon), like I normally do when I make cinnamon rolls. I will also add more cinnamon. I may also add in some toasted pecans. And perhaps I'll try not using the maple syrup. I like my caramel sauce nice and sticky, and the maple syrup really did the trick. But when I make cinnamon rolls, I don't use maple syrup. I don't really need to, since the brown sugar and the butter melt together in a lovely way to create a caramel sauce. So, I'll give that a whirl and see if I can perfect the recipe. But honestly, this was pretty darned terrific. The whole thing was decimated in about 12 minutes. Clearly, we liked it!

Alrighty then, until next time!

I'm off to go work on Book 2.5, Jack and Claire's love story.

Who are Jack and Claire? Jack Diamond is a Detective for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, who stars as the protagonist in the Jack Diamond Murder Mystery series. Claire is a pediatric cosmetic surgeon who repairs birth defects and specializes in reconstruction after traumatic injuries. They fell in love in college. After years of separation due to work, marriage, murder and life, they finally find their way back to each other.

You can read all about them in Diamonds for Diamond and No One Noticed. They'll also both appear in Book 3 -- a yet to be named book about a massive casualty shooting on a pedestrian bridge in Portland, Oregon.

Click on the links below and get started. Amazon will ship them to you, or you can download and read the e-book versions now!

What are you waiting for? Go get the books now!

* * * * *

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)

* * * * *

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)

* * * * *

And so it begins.

So much happens after you finish a book.

Exhaustion. Elation. The myriad book sales and signings. The perma-grin.

And then comes the frantic running about as if you're a chicken with your head chopped off, trying desperately to catch up on life that you completely ignored while you were finishing up with your latest book.

I have more than a dozen blog entries I started and stopped because I ran out of time. Food recipes. Dessert recipes. Photos of the gajillion pieces of candies and cookies and fudge that I made for the folks at the hubster's work. Pics of gingerbread houses of yore. Writing challenges I thought about while basking in the afterglow of having finished book number two.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting them.

But for now, I thought I'd say hi.

Tell you that I'm officially sitting down to start writing number three.

Even though there is still so very much to do with the rest of life.

And it's not as if I actually just sit down and start writing. The planning takes forever and a day. I learned that the hard way when writing book number 0 (the one that is stuffed inside a drawer somewhere collecting dust, no where near being publishable until it is completely rewritten). Planning a murder mystery is insanely challenging. Trying to figure out how the person died, when the people discover the body, who did it. What clues are placed behind. When are those clues discovered. It all takes coordination and planning and thoughtful, careful, deliberate thought.

And now I face a new challenge.

I have two books from the Jack Diamond mysteries published and out there (yay!). But both of those books take place over a period of time. That actual amount of time is never really discussed -- in either book. The first book was written with the strategy that the reader should begin slowly, learning about the case, and then as the bodies begin to pile up and the killer begins to notice Jack Diamond, the pace of the book picks up. As you read further and further into the book, the chapters become shorter and shorter and the book takes on a rather frantic race toward the finish line.

The second book really focused on character development: getting to know the main characters better, diving into their histories a little bit while trying to solve a mystery. Instead of having just one point of view (that of Jack Diamond), this book has three different viewpoints. Jack Diamond, the detective, Marjorie Goverman, the victim, and the killer each get their own chapters with their own points of view throughout the book. By presenting the story with the three variant points of view, the story moved along, keeping the readers on their toes. The final revelation then is created by the merging of the three points of view. From the time the victim disappeared to the time Jack Diamond solves the mystery, several months have passed.

But book number three is another kettle of fish. Instead of days or weeks or months going by in an investigation, the events of book number three take place over the course of hours.

This timeline thus creates myriad problems.

Should this book, like the last, have multiple points of view? For example, do I tell the same story 10 times from 10 different points of view from each of the 10 families who are involved in the story? (I am making the number 10 up here, just for the purpose of this argument. I actually don't know how many points of view there will be.)

Should this book be told solely from the point of view of Jack Diamond?

Should this book be told from the point of view of the victims? Or of the killer?

And if the book is written from someone else's point of view, will my readers still want to read it? Or do readers like to read more of the same. 

The same the same the same but different.

How many people are going to die?

If I have 10 people die, what are their names? Who are these people? What were they doing? Will they be missed? How will they die? Who are the survivors? Who are the heroes? Who is the bad guy? And why did he lose his nutter on the bridge and kill a whole mess o'people?!

Will the book spread out for more than the length of the day of the event? or just for a few hours?

If the book is only one day in length, will each chapter feel sluggish?

Or will it feel too frantic?

Should I break the book out into hours? Like the tv show 24? Should it be broken out by victim? Should it be broken down by going backwards, trying to piece together how everything unfolded? Should it be mixed up completely? Like the book The Time Traveler's Wife? I loved that book. Not as big of a fan of the movie, but the book? It was amazing. So many questions about how to put together this tragedy.

I do believe that it's a completely bizarre thing that I sit around plotting random murders. I think of places to bury victims. I think of different ways people can die. I don't want anything too bizarre. I tend to prefer more run of the mill, ordinary deaths, but with interesting REASONS for why someone died or why someone chose to end someone else's life. And, just so you know, I don't spend all my time on these thoughts. I truly only touch upon them when a new book is starting to sprout inside my mind. Or when I visit a unique and interesting place. Or when I watch a movie or read a book that made me ponder.

I think about my slightly sick and twisted mind that makes me want to write about murder mysteries. I love solving puzzles. I love figuring things out. It's ever so much harder to write a book with a surprise ending than it is to read one. I yearn for the day that I can truly surprise my readers (or myself, for that matter), with an unexpected ending.

So as I sit here, staring at "Insert Cool Title Here," these are just a few things that I will be thinking about over the next little while.

It's time to plot things out.

Make a plan.

Do some research.

It may actually be quite some time before a single word gets written of this book. But for now, it's all about the planning.

So while you're sitting there, sipping your coffee, eating that big ol' piece of chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting and cursing New Year's Resolutions, or while you're running on your treadmill thinking whoo hoo, I got this! Just know that I will be sitting over here, listening to my puppy snore, plotting the hypothetical deaths of a whole mess of people and keeping my fingers crossed for snow.

* * * * *

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)