Maybe the rest of you don't do this, but when I'm writing a book, I get the old notebook paper out, and I find a good pen. I literally write out the outline or bullet point things I want to say. I have notes for my notes. I write extensively stupidly over-extended notes and I never seem to get to all of them. I'm going to go back over these notes tonight, and see if I can incorporate a few of them, now that I am 70% finished with the book!!
I took pen to paper on this one; after I wrote three chapters today. I sat myself down and forged out the next 10 chapters, how long they would be, what they would be about, and what order they should be in to maximize the interest of my readers. I don't tell the story from Point A to Point B. That would be incredibly boring. I don't really jump around too much either, but I do throw a bone to someone, then a monkey wrench to the other. It's a thing I do, and I don't know if I read it somewhere, or if maybe the books I've read tend to do that; I think to myself, what would Arthur Doyle do? What would Earl Stanley Gardner do? What should I do?
To show you how my mind works, I always knew there would be a discussion in the book about the title of Doyle's famous book "Hound of the Baskervilles" because so many people think the title is "The Hounds of Baskerville" which is just incredibly funny to me. I don't know why. I remember having the discussion in the 3rd grade when I tried to check the book out, but the librarian at Bethany Library in Oklahoma, where I live, didn't think it was a book for a nine-year-old. My mother checked the book out so I could read it, and I heard my mom say something like "If it's about dogs, it's not that bad, is it?" LOL...my mom! My....MOM!!! GEEZ, I love that woman. Well, instead of having the characters I thought were going to have the conversation, it ends up being discussed by two completely different characters at a completely different part of the book! It just turned out that way.
I know I'm going to say that John Reid is really Rodney Freeland, but is he an infamous wanted man in the United States who has been faking his way and his accent for years; a thespian among us? We'll just have to find out, but find out we will, because my next chapter will be all about John Herman Reid; or whatever he is calling himself these days. He will be identified, watched, tipped off by someone in law enforcement, and before the end of the year, or right at it, actually, Reid makes his escape on a boat headed for Canada! OH NO!! (tune in for the end of the book, so you can find out who the man really is!) Plot twist!
I think my next book will have to find Hugo dog in there somewhere. Hugo is my new Grand Dog who was born without his left ear. It's literally not there. He is the product of a puppy mill somewhere in Southern Oklahoma. His parents were not supposed to find one another. He is a perfect 50/50 mixed breed of German Shepherd and Rottweiler. He's 12 weeks now, and so polite. He's really getting along with the others in the household. When we take him to PetSmart, Big Lots, Tractor Supply, and other places, he walks nicely already on the lead, only getting twisted a few times. For being only 12 weeks old, he is quite alert, and he'd rather observe than just jump into the mix to discover things on the fly. We're hoping he's a perfect Emotional Support Dog for Laura, but he can be a drug dog in training in the sequel to Murder Book.
There will be about 76,000-80,000 words in Murder Book. With a 7x4 size, and sized 12 font, it should be a 335-340 page book; perfect. I won't try to do anything too fancy with the covers; I don't really care about the cover as much as I do about the consistency of the books because they will be written in a series. I'll need to think about that before I find the right exterior pictures. Nick will need to be prominent or perhaps they will just be words and colors; I just don't know yet. What I do know is there are 10 more chapters to write. I'll do 2 tomorrow, and at least 3 or 4 over the weekend. This thing will be finished soon, and then the tweaking begins!!
I don't know when it will be produced. I'll have to get with my publisher to see what the plan is. It won't be too long. I know that. I have too many others to get into the pipeline.
Photo Credit: Me. (This is Hugo)
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