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)

* * * * *

Granini's French Toast

Granini's French Toast

So by some weird miracle, we ended up with bread leftover after I made a couple more loves of that yummo French Bread of mine.

Click here for the recipe: French Bread

So this morning, I made French Toast.

I've always just thrown a bunch of ingredients into a bowl, whipped things up, and made French Toast by 'feel' rather than by a recipe. This time, I did my best to get at least some sort of rough estimates as to how much of each item I put into my French Toast batter. Nothing is really exact with this recipe, so if you are a little over or a little under, don't you worry yourselves. It will turn out okay.

Ingredients:

6 eggs
⅓ cup milk
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
8 or 9 fat slices of French Bread*

and about ¼ cup of powdered sugar to sprinkle on the top (optional)

I think that apple smoked bacon (Trader Joe's is my fav) and freshly cut pineapple are a nice addition to this lovely breakfast, so I recommend getting those too, whilst you're at the store getting the rest of your ingredients.

*If you didn't make French Bread from scratch (bc sometimes you just don't have the time, or the inclination do to so), and you HAPPEN to have Texas toast bread (which is just really thickly sliced white bread), that's a nice substitute. If you haven't got that, feel free to use whatever other sliced bread you have. Honestly. It really doesn't matter.  Some people like bread that has lots of nuts and seeds. Others like white bread. Some people like a nice sour dough. It's all up to you.

Directions.

Set your griddle on or about 325℉. Set a small butter melter on the skillet to start melting your butter. Pop your bacon in the oven. Cut up your fresh pineapple and set aside. I personally prefer half salted, half unsalted butter, but again, melt whatever butter floats your boat. Then heat up some syrup.

In a large bowl, whisk your eggs. Add in the milk and whisk again. Add in the remainder of the wet ingredients and spices until you have a nice frothy mixture.

Once your griddle is heated, quickly dip your bread into the eggy mixture, flip the bread over onto the other side, and then put the damp bread onto the skillet. Don't leave the bread in the mixture for too long or it might get really soggy. The more soggy the bread, the harder it is to cook thoroughly, and it can result in a mushy disaster. Cook until the under side is lightly browned, then flip, and cook the second side.

Once the French Toast is ready to come off the griddle, slather the top side with melted butter and serve.

Some of the folks over here like powdered sugar. Some like heated syrup. Some like a smear of peanut butter and syrup. Some like blueberry gravy (recipe here: blueberry gravy -- which is really just homemade blueberry syrup but it tastes a lot like the inside of a blueberry pie, and if you like that kind of thing, you might just want to make a blueberry pie, and the recipe for my blueberry pie can be found here.)

Eat and enjoy!

If you don't have a griddle, and you want to make perfect pancakes and french toast and grilled cheese sammies, buy a griddle. Seriously. Buy one. They're like $20 at Target, and I'm sure you can find one at Bed Bath & Beyond and use a coupon. They cook your breakfast items evenly, you can regulate the temperature so that your food isn't burnt on the outside and runny in the middle. And you can cook a LOT at once, enabling more of your family and loved ones to eat all at once, and not have to watch them waiting, eagerly, or not so eagerly, with a fork in their hands and a greedy glint in their eyes, with a tense fear that they might just stab you in the back or slip on the pile of drool on the floor whilst they are hangry and anxiously awaiting their breakfast nosh.  Just sayin.

I own two.

For those of you who like pictures, here are a few for you!!

 Crack 6 eggs into a bowl. Don't worry if you crack the yolk. You're gonna whip it all up anyway.

Whisk in the milk and the lemon juice and the vanilla.

Whisk in the nutmeg and cinnamon. It seems like a lot, but I like a lot. And it tastes great. So there.

 Mmmmm French Bread.

Slice the bread up into thickish slices. Not too thick, not too thin. 
The Goldilocks of slices

Quickly dunk the bread into the egg mixture. Don't worry if all the cinnamon floats to the top. That's fine. Just don't keep the bread in the eggs too long, or the bread will get soggy.

Bake on one side until light brown underneath they're ready to flip.

Bake on the other side and then slather in butter. See my cute butter melting thing? I got it at an antique store for like $2. It's amazing. Holds a whole cube of butter. Looks a lot like one I had when I was growing up, but much bigger. Again, highly recommend.

Mmmmm French Toast & bacon.

Here's a link to my French Bread recipe

And, when you're all done with your breakfast, and you've cleaned up the dishes, and you're looking for good book to read, click on the links below! I write murder mysteries!

* * * * *

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)

* * * * *

Granini's French Bread

Granini's French Bread

(makes 2 loaves)

Trust me. Make two Loaves.

2 cups + 4 Tablespoons warm water

4 ½ teaspoons yeast (or 2 packages)

2 teaspoons brown sugar

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

4 teaspoons salt

6 cups flour, divided

Hi there.

Sorry for the terrible lack of posting. It's been a bit rough over here. But I have a tiny reprieve, and I had a minute, so I thought I'd post my newest favorite recipe. Plus I'm going to make the bread tonight, so it seemed like the right time to post the recipe!

I snagged the recipe off of Pinterest, but when I went back to grab the reference, the post had been stolen! Snagged off of Pinterest; commandeered and stolen and reposted by someone else claiming the recipe was their's. It's not. I was aghast. Shame on them.

The original recipe came from TheMamasGirls, but their website is officially down, and I can't give you a link to their website, but let me just say, thank you to these lovely folks for such an AMAZING recipe with incredibly easy directions. May they have a wonderful day today, and each and every time I use this recipe (and anyone else uses it) as my way of saying thank you to them. 

And may all their lights be green on their way home.

The first time I made this recipe, we were all stunned at how well it turned out. French bread is something that requires negotiation and preferences. This is not a recipe for baguettes, which are thinner and longer, and have a nice crispy crust on the outside and a chewy crust on the inside with a lovely soft middle. I have a recipe for those on this website somewhere...

This French bread is the kind you use to make garlic bread. Or to slather with salted butter and eat while hot. Or cold. Or to make a small sandwich with. Or a grilled sammie. Or with which to make french toast in the morning should you have leftovers. hahahaha. As if you'll have leftovers.

Some people like a hard crust. Some people like a soft crust. I was looking for a loaf that would cut beautifully, that could be easily sliced, that would have a lovely, white middle; a bread that could be used for garlic bread to accompany my fav lasagna, as well as something I could serve alongside of soup. Sometimes cheesy biscuits and homemade rolls just aren't quite what you're looking for when it comes to a nice bread accompaniment. This loaf was so unbelievably amazing that we snarfed down the entire thing, and I completely forgot to take a picture.

When it was time to make the loaves a second time, the recipe had been snagged off of Pinterest, commandeered and stolen and I was aghast. See above.

So here's my scribbled notes from what I remember of this amazing recipe. I will come back and add in a picture and my fine-tuned notes as soon as I make it again tonight. Trust me, this one's worth it!!

(Here's the recipe for one loaf:)

French Bread (single loaf)

(Again, why are you making only one loaf? You should make two. Trust me.)

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons warm water

2 ¼ teaspoons yeast (or 1 package)

1 teaspoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

3 cups flour, divided
and for the top before baking:
1 egg + 1 Tablespoon milk

French Bread (makes 2 loaves)

Trust me. Make two Loaves.

2 cups + 4 Tablespoons warm water

4 ½ teaspoons yeast (or 2 packages)

2 teaspoons brown sugar

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

4 teaspoons salt

6 cups flour, divided
and for the top before baking:
1 egg + 1 Tablespoon milk

Pour the warm water into a large bowl and sprinkle the yeast over the water. Add the brown sugar and the oil. Allow the mixture to set until it turns bubbly and foamy (about 5 minutes).

Add all the salt (AND STIR REALLY WELL), and half of the flour and stir. Wait 10 minutes.

Add ½ a cup of flour and stir. Wait ten minutes.

Continue this process of adding ½ cup of flour and waiting 10 minutes until all the flour has been incorporated.

Knead the dough for 5 full minutes, until it is lovely and not sticky and feels just about perfect.

Shape the dough into two loaves (or one -- you fool! why did you only make one?!?). Put parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put each of the two loaves onto the parchment paper.

Slice the top of the bread in three generous slashes to allow the bread to grow without ripping the dough.

Place the loaves in a slightly warm oven (or proof the bread) for ½ an hour.

Bring the bread out of the oven and heat the oven to 375℉.

Whisk an egg with 1 tablespoon of milk. With a pastry brush, brush the top of the loaves of bread until they're fully covered. This will allow your bread to have a soft, but firm, crust. Chewy, not crunchy. Perfect for garlic bread. Or eating. With butter. Vats and vats of salted butter. Mmmmmm.

After the oven is hot, place the bread in the middle of the rack 

and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!!

(Garlic Bread helpful hints:)

If you're going to make garlic bread, as soon as the bread has cooled enough to handle it, or even the next day -- if you have bread left, hahahaha, which you won't, warm up a stick of unsalted butter in the microwave until it's nice and soft but not completely melted. Crush 2 or 3 cloves of garlic. Sprinkle in some parmesan cheese and some basil or oregano. Stir. Slice your bread into even slices. Give the two heels to your favorite kids. Evenly divide the garlic butter between your slices. Put the butter smothered bread onto some tin foil and cover completely. Pop the bread in the oven at 350℉ for 30 minutes or so. I usually pop the bread into the oven around the same time that I pop my lasagna in the oven. If my lasagna is going to cook for longer, I wait until the 30 minute mark so that they come out at the same time. If my lasagna is going to be baking for less time, then I pop them both in at the same time. You get the idea.

If you're in a big hurry, you can slice your bread in half length wise, rather than in traditional slices, smother the bread with garlic butter, and broil it in the oven. That works too. :)

Should have let it bake about 5 more minutes. It was ever so slightly underdone. Well, alas, something to fix for the next time I make it. Which, to be honest, will probably be later this week. Because... YUM.

* * * * *

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)

* * * * *