By Jean Henry Mead
Today I’m interviewing Dana Logan and Sarah Cafferty, two main characters from A Village Shattered, my latest senior sleuth mystery/suspense novel. My 60-year-old senior sleuths aren’t too pleased with me at the moment:
Dana, having a serial killer lurking in the San Joaquin Valley fog must have put a damper on your Christmas festivities?
It did, and we received some strange gifts. A friend in Arizona sent me a helmet to protect me from a possible attack. She also sent a neck brace in case the killer tries to strangle me, like he did to two of our club members.
Sarah, did you also receive some weird presents?
My kids sent me a baseball bat and a paint ball gun. The sheriff won’t allow us real guns, I guess he thinks we’ll shoot ourselves in the foot, or each other.”
Guns are dangerous if you don’t know how to use them.
Dana’s late husband taught her to use all kinds of guns. And our friend Micki shot all the game meat for her freezer. Everyone thought her late husband shot the deer, but Micki says he couldn’t hit a barn at five paces. You won’t tell anyone, will you?
I’m afraid I already did. Whoever reads the book will know why you and your surviving club members are being killed alphabetically.
We were doing just fine until you brought that serial killer into our midst. Our So and Sew Club Members were happily meeting each week to do needlework and swap retirement village gossip. Why’d you have to ruin it?
Sarah, you don’t write a mystery/suspense novel without at least one body.
One sure, but your serial killer is trying to send us all to the happy hunting ground. Why so many victims?
I guess it’s because I give my characters free rein and the killer wasn’t satisfied with just one body. . . By the way, Dana, how are you coming along with your sleuthing? Found any clues?
You planted plenty of red herrings but we’re sifting through them. I really think you have a mean streak because you planted us all in the fog. Thank goodness my daughter Kerrie arrived in time to help with the investigation. She’s a journalist, you know, and thanks to you she’s also on the killer’s list.
Which scenes were the most frightening for you, Dana?
When the killer locked us in the closet. He was planning to turn the old farmhouse into a crematorium, with us in it. It was even worse when he kidnapped Kerrie.
What about you, Sarah?
I was nearly scared to death when Dana and Kerri were lost in the fog and had to steal a police car. I didn’t know about it until later. I just knew they were missing.
Well, ladies, are you looking forward to a happy new year?
Fat chance. You’re gonna put us in a motorhome in the middle of a Rocky Mountain blizzard in the next novel, Diary of Murder. Why can’t you leave well enough alone?
Sorry, Sarah. I just can’t help myself . . . It’s time to tell everyone, “Happy New Year.”
Showing posts with label San Joaquin Valley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Joaquin Valley. Show all posts
Monday, December 29, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Never Polish the First Chapter Until the Final Draft is Done
by Jean Henry Mead
I’ve rewritten a first chapter many times before progressing to the second, only to find that it had to be rewritten to fall in the line with the rest of the novel. I finally learned to write it once and forget it until the first draft is done.
I’ve never been able to outline a novel because I literally give my characters free rein. And they rarely submit to what I’ve planned for them. They have minds of their own and I wouldn’t want them doing something out of character. In my current Logan & Cafferty series, my feisty 60-year-old senior sleuths surprise me by doing things I’d never consider before sitting down to write. Dana Logan and Sarah Cafferty live with me 24/7 while I’m writing about them and they have their own plans for what should happen that day. Sometimes I have to retreat to chapter one to include some of their "brilliant" ideas.
In A Village Shattered, Logan and Cafferty gather their friends to discuss the serial killings taking place in their retirement village. Out of that meeting came many new ideas about who the murderer might be and why he or she was on a killing spree. Until the third quarter of the book, even I didn’t know who it was, and I was forced to return to early chapters to flesh out the killer by adding inner monologue.
In the second novel, Diary of Murder, due out early next spring, I take my sleuths out of California and place them in a motorhome in the middle of a Rocky Mountain blizzard. Fortunately, that had happened to me, so I could write convincingly about the life and death experience. The blizzard starts the novel off with a bang, but they face a similar situation later in the plot, so I had to swap some snowy details between the first and later chapters so that they didn't appear too similar. Weather plays a lage role in any northern state, and gives the plot an element of danger.
In A Village Shattered, the opaque San Joaquin Valley tule (too-ley) fog hides the serial killer, but I didn’t even think about the fog until I was writing chapter three. Having lived there for a dozen years, I know the horror of trying to drive in pea soup fog, so I switched seasons and went back to chapter one to add it to the plot. In doing so, it tied all aspects of the story together.
I’ve rewritten a first chapter many times before progressing to the second, only to find that it had to be rewritten to fall in the line with the rest of the novel. I finally learned to write it once and forget it until the first draft is done.
I’ve never been able to outline a novel because I literally give my characters free rein. And they rarely submit to what I’ve planned for them. They have minds of their own and I wouldn’t want them doing something out of character. In my current Logan & Cafferty series, my feisty 60-year-old senior sleuths surprise me by doing things I’d never consider before sitting down to write. Dana Logan and Sarah Cafferty live with me 24/7 while I’m writing about them and they have their own plans for what should happen that day. Sometimes I have to retreat to chapter one to include some of their "brilliant" ideas.
In A Village Shattered, Logan and Cafferty gather their friends to discuss the serial killings taking place in their retirement village. Out of that meeting came many new ideas about who the murderer might be and why he or she was on a killing spree. Until the third quarter of the book, even I didn’t know who it was, and I was forced to return to early chapters to flesh out the killer by adding inner monologue.
In the second novel, Diary of Murder, due out early next spring, I take my sleuths out of California and place them in a motorhome in the middle of a Rocky Mountain blizzard. Fortunately, that had happened to me, so I could write convincingly about the life and death experience. The blizzard starts the novel off with a bang, but they face a similar situation later in the plot, so I had to swap some snowy details between the first and later chapters so that they didn't appear too similar. Weather plays a lage role in any northern state, and gives the plot an element of danger.
In A Village Shattered, the opaque San Joaquin Valley tule (too-ley) fog hides the serial killer, but I didn’t even think about the fog until I was writing chapter three. Having lived there for a dozen years, I know the horror of trying to drive in pea soup fog, so I switched seasons and went back to chapter one to add it to the plot. In doing so, it tied all aspects of the story together.
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