This is the week friends! This is the week I murder someone with my keyboard. It will happen. I can absolutely guarantee that it won't be pretty, it won't be needed, it won't be necessary (from the point of view of the victim, anyway) but it won't be random. It will be calculated, planned, and executed, but it will not be something that had to happen in order for the bad guy to be caught. Detective Nick Posh was already on the trail of the suspect; whose identity will not be revealed through the blog, but through the book. I haven't murdered in a while; and I just sort of felt the need to do it. I have three other books I've written where a murder takes place, but I don't feel like publishing any of them at this time. I may rewrite them and include them in my Nick Posh series. Oh wow, I just admitted there will be a Nick Posh series! OK, it's out - - can't take it back now.
As a writer, I am always looking for, and even hoping to find the perfect place to murder someone. But you've heard me say it a dozen times at least, it's not the murder that creates the problems for the suspect; it's the disposal. Disposing of the body, the entire body, is the real problem because once a person is dead they can't walk themselves to the freezer or the woodchopper. It's a drag at best, and in some cases there will be a makeshift pully system using piano wire and a horse plowing harness - in come cases. The disposal for the body in this book, as in my mind, and I've let it slip a few times, will be to freeze the body, chop it into a million pieces using a woodchopper (I need to research them to be sure they were even made in the 1930s, if not it'll have to be a mill of some sort). After the chopper comes the farmer's pigs, and whatever is left will be scattered either in a cornfield, or over the lake so the catfish and turtles will do what they do best - - dispose. No one has ever interrogated an Illinois River Cooter to my knowledge.
One of the reasons I write my Nick Posh series in this particular genre and/or period is because my son Reuben was in a movie called "The Gray Man" (2007), filmed in 2005 here in our hometown basically. It was about 30 miles away, but he was in the film as part of his graduation agreement with the school he attended. I was privileged to have been his personal assistant during the filming. My son had long gorgeous reddish brown locks floating around his shoulders, but for the part he was to play; a 1930's beat cop, he had to not only cut his hair, but shave most of his head. He was excited to save himself the money having to go to the barbers, but mom was a bit sad. The lady cutting his hair cried a bit, and even kept it as a momento. She was cute. The film wasn't all that successful, but it was an amazing experience for all of us. It took me back 25 years to when I worked in Hollywood, and it allowed Reuben the opportunity to show off his good looks as well as his athletic abilities. There's a scene where he hunts down and tackles the murderous villain in a rural setting - - the director had to use a stunt man after the 2nd take. Reuben showed a bit too much enthusiasm apparently. You know what, I need to go onto IMDB and update the site so Reuben is given credit for being in the film. That's what I need to do. But I digress.
My lunch is over here getting cold while I reminisce about the gooy eerie details of how so and so is going to die. I'm not even going to tell you who it is that I'm killing off, but I can assure you they needed to be. When I murder someone in my books or in my mind, they are always someone who pissed me off recently, or maybe in the past. I am a very patient murderess. I have waited years before offing someone who really needed to slip off the edge of a towering brownstone or perhaps found themselves unaware of the cloaked Reaper as he stood silently, breathlessly taking his charge. If I'm simply pissed they simply die, if I'm really upset with the bastard he'll suffer a long and cruel punishment before giving up his last breath to death's cold fingers. That's happened twice.
This week will be the week I sit down and write the bones of the book - - I've decided to back pedal a bit with Nick, and introduce him again in this book, as if it were the first I have written. It is not the first, but it will be the first to be published, so he'll need to be introduced and a good open air description will be given. The style of the book will be familiar to some; I write the Nick Posh stories in the traditional sleazy, dim lit, dusty manner in which many older Perry Mason novels were written. I use terms, lingo and language befitting a third generation American Scottish man from the burbs of Chicago; accents may reflect the area, words may reflect the times. Nick is hard. He's been hit and has done the hitting; he hit the hardest. He's a rough and ugly diamond at best, but diamonds cut; never forget that.
What a week for me! I'm absolutely excited about it, but I do have to literally set my alarm on my phone to remind myself to eat. When I write I don't eat at all unless I'm forced to get off the keyboard. I usually only get off the keyboard to take the dog or myself to pee -- and even then I chinch it. I don't allow a full minute to time me out of my writing streak - - it can be brutal. I love my work. You may see me guzzling coffee, squeezing my Thesaurus and flipping through hymnals for inspiration. I've often quoted the Bible in these books because Nick, for all his past sins, has actually accepted Christ and it is the one saving grace, literally, his saving grace - - otherwise Nick could be sought by the law himself. Nick and Jesus have an understanding - - the debt was paid at the Cross; no one needs to know every detail here on Earth. He lives with his past; strives for forgiveness.
OK, gotta get the mind ready - - Ima about to dig both hands in up to my elbows in deceptive behavior that can be measured in keystrokes. I'd say wish me luck, but luck is for the Irish. I'm a Scot (American born) I make things happen - - luck can fail. I don't have that luxury.
Photo: unknown credit, but David Rudd is the director of Cinematography for the film.
No comments:
Post a Comment