Updates and Progress

I did some updating on this blog site yesterday, adding a page for "Seer, Tyro, Fiend." Added the same to my Google site, Kathryn Flatt, Writer . While I don't have a firm date on the book release yet, I thought seeing more about the sequel could induce some people to read "Dabblers" first.

Also yesterday, I sent the corrections for "Stranger Faces" the print book, so that one will also be coming out soon.

Now it's back to "Janus" for a while, at least until I get galleys for "Dabblers" the print book. The big scene I alluded to earlier is written, so the stalker angle is now evident to Jack and Tabitha as a concrete fact. So who fired shots into their bedroom? Someone stalking Tabitha? An old enemy of Jack's? A stalker of Jack? Someone concerned about the case he just started working on? All the characters will have their favorite suspect and motive, and I hope the result comes as a big surprise. That's always an issue for me, of course. I always wonder if I've made it too easy, either by what I put on the page or what is implied. Did I give the real antagonist too much face time and so subtly suggest this person is more important? I know who it is already, of course, and I know what the motive is. Now I just have to make sure the other suspects have equally believable motives.

Aaannnd...Action!

Trouble had reared its head in a big way in "Janus Games" this morning. I had to do a little research, though, to find out how to describe the sound of a bullet hitting a window. Amazing what you can find on the Internet. I was able to listen to the sound effect and then put it into words.

I noted something interesting about my own writing habits as well. When a big scene is coming up, I often have a problem getting it started. I don't know why this is. Maybe I'm trying to build up my own suspense or something. Or perhaps I'm just getting ready for a flurry of typing while I'm getting the scene down in words. I also know that such scenes are often the target of considerable tinkering, if not full-scale rewriting at a later date.

Action scenes can be a challenge because they have to move fast at the same time as providing sufficient information about what's going on. Certainly, some of the details will come out later as the characters recap to someone else, as Jack and Tabitha are about to do to the police. Oh, I know some people might say that Jack should be playing hero, getting out a gun and hunting for the shooter himself, but that's not his way. He leaves law enforcement to those who are sanctioned for it, and as an ethical man, he would not consider assuming that authority, even to protect the woman he loves. He demonstrated this mindset in the other two books, although he will play hero when circumstances demand it. It's just who he is.

Besides, it's much too early in the book for a scene like that. This one is just introducing a new level of danger. Now Jack will have to figure out who is the intended target as well as who the shooter is.

Little Scenes

One of the fun things about writing the Jack Watson books is the little scenes. Sometimes, these are from the antagonist's point of view, and I use them to provide updates on what the baddies are up to, supplying (hopefully) an element of suspense. I also sometimes include them to define something about one of the characters.

But my favorites are those where I'm providing hidden clues and especially making up incidental characters. Those one-scene characters often must be memorable so that they pop into the reader's head when mentioned later. An example from "The Changeling Kill" is Little Bobby, an informant. In "The Janus Games," I just invented a gun dealer aliased as Jerry Nefarious. The killer goes to him for a weapon, complete with the sleazy dump of a house where Jerry conducts business and a code name the killer uses to gain access. As the two of them verbally circle each other, small clues are dropped. Of course, I'm only on Chapter 5, so they are very small clues. The setting is a great opportunity to paint word pictures.

Names for these incidental characters are fun, too. Since they are only mentioned once, I don't have to worry too much about name similarities. I believe I addressed this before (see the page "Observations for New Authors") where in an unpublished novel, I had a good guy named Michael and a bad guy named Maxwell. When they get into hand-to-hand combat near the end, it becomes confusing as to who hit whom because the names look so similar. For one-scene characters, I also don't worry about reusing a name now and then. It's only natural that anyone would encounter more than one Tom or Jerry or whatever along the way, but never in the same book.

The Purpose of the Scene

I've been concentrating on proofreading the galley for "Stranger Faces" and so have not made any real progress on "Janus" this morning. I have been thinking about it, however, and also did a little research earlier about guns, particularly rifles. My killer is going to buy one in a coming scene, most likely an illegal one, and I needed to know what sort of weapon would be the best, how it would be described to the dealer, and all that sort of thing. As usual, I'm not out to impress anyone with detailed knowledge within the story itself. I only need to know enough to make the passage plausible to a potential reader with their own knowledge of guns. Since my "baddie" is out shopping with a nefarious purpose in mind, that character will know what to ask for. I would not want any reader to say, "But no one would use that kind of gun to kill someone that way!" and then throw the book aside.

Which brings up another point in my mind, i.e., what to leave in and what to leave out. I just finished a scene which introduces the idea of a stalker, and the next big scene where the killer takes action is a ways off. How to fill the time in between? Should I just jump over the interval? I would if I could not think of anything significant that happens in it. The rule is, everything that is in the book should have a purpose. Maybe it's introducing a character or providing some insight about one. Maybe it's foreshadowing, laying the ground work for something to come. Is comic relief a "purpose?" If I were writing humor, maybe.

An example comes to mind from "Stranger Faces" of how I broke the rules in a way. One big rule is to get some conflict going as close to page one as possible, but I didn't. The start of Chapter 1 serves to establish the setting, the time frame, and to reestablish Tracy's personality, but the mystery at hand does not really start until the last half of the chapter. HOWEVER, there is another purpose behind the opening scene which follows Tracy doing her job of solving problems--the characters in that scene will return later to fulfill different but pivotal roles in the action. Even as I first wrote it, I felt this might be a risky move, but I let it stand with the hopes that potential readers would have read the first two books in the series and have an interest in Tracy, enough to keep them going. I'd also hope readers who have read my other novels would know that I hate loose ends and like to tie everything together in a neat package by the end of the book.

Ah, Proofreading

This morning, I picked up the galley files for "Stranger Faces" the print book and I started reading. Once again, I find myself itching to change little things that don't really need it--a phrase reused in too short an interval, a word, a paragraph change--but I know I must resist. I'm on Chapter 4 now and have only found one real correction.

I also added a bit to "Janus Games" first thing, having jotted some notes on ideas the night before. At times it seems that my subconscious knows the plot before I do and supplies those ideas as needed, surprising me with how well things fit together. Even when I have to devote some time to proofing galleys, I try to keep adding to my current work in progress so the story doesn't lose its allure in my imagination. I also think about how great it is to not have a regular day job to get in my way.

As for things that get in my way, in 15 more days, I'll get rid of one of them--the cast on my arm.

More Books and About Suspense

I've been providing various pieces of my books to my publisher in the last week or so -- adjustments to cover art, blurbs, etc. -- which means there will be more available formats soon, plus "Seer, Tyro, Fiend".

And it's steady as she goes on "Janus Games." A friend of mine, also a writer, reported on Facebook that she wrote 100 pages in a day. Wow! If I had full use of both hands, I still don't think I could write that much in a day. It seems that most of the time, I work out scenes in my head first, fiddling with the imagery and words, before I sit down and type it into my manuscript. On rare occasions, the scenes just sort of flow one after another without planning, although that is easier to do in the Faces and Windsong Lake books because they are in first person point of view.

The Jack Watson books present a different sort of process. With multiple points of view, I need to consider what the next event is chronologically and which character is best to present that event. This can be elementary in some cases as only one POV character is present in the scene. Where there is more than one, however, deciding who should "drive" can be tricky. Sometimes there's no clear choice, with advantages for each candidate.

I'm also conscious of balancing the on-stage time for all my POV characters, especially the unknown "bad guy(s)." In both earlier Watson books, the protagonists don't know what's coming, but by introducing the point of view of the antagonist, the reader gets an idea of it in advance. This is one way to avoid a lot of post-climactic explanation about the baddies' motives and plans. I also hope this is a device to build suspense, maybe making the reader long to warn my heroes of impending doom.

I remember something from my childhood that sort of relates. A friend of my sister went to see some horror movie, one of those 1960's shockers that mostly come off cheesy today. Anyway, the ubiquitous negligee-clad leading lady was creeping deeper into the BAD PLACE, and the theater audience had fallen silent with suspense since they knew she was walking into danger and horror. Then, as the screen heroine placed her hand on a door knob, my sister's friend shouted, "Don't go in there!" I'm sure the film's creators would have grimaced at the burst of laughter in that theater, an abrupt release of all that tension prior to the big reveal which should have induced screams.

As a novelist, I can at least imagine a reader reacting to a suspenseful buildup with an equal impulse to shout out a warning.

Day By Day

"Janus Games" making good progress, albeit slowly. While I am now able to type with both hands, all fingers, the cast still gets in the way. Since I have to hold my left arm at an odd angle to make it work, The muscles get fatigued rather quickly and I have to stop and rest. I am grateful, however, that I CAN type at all and that I should be back to normal by mid-June at least.

The other plot line is starting up which will bring in more suspects along the way. Come the first big scene, the introduction of danger, it won't be clear whether Jack or Tabitha is the center of it, so the suspects can come from her celebrity, his past, or his present case. Red herrings everywhere!

I'm hoping that the ebook of "Seer, Tyro, Fiend" will be making the scene pretty soon, and I'll be firing up the promotion engine on that. I had planned to make more of an effort on the promotion front prior to my accident putting me out of commission, but alas, until I can drive a car again, it must wait.