Where Do I Get My Story Ideas?

I like to answer questions about my writing. I much prefer that to the actual readings. I just realized that as I typed it, but it's true. I don't know if it's the interactivity of it or that I'm not confident that I do a good job of reading, but I do know that I like to talk about the process I go through in my writing. And that's true despite the fact that, no matter how many times I do events, I get the same few questions every time. Once in awhile, someone will surprise me, but mostly it's some combination of the same three or four questions. So I thought I would do a short series of posts in which I answer those queries. 

One thing that is almost always asked, especially at events that aren't with other authors, is where I get my story ideas. The first time I was asked that, I have to admit that I was taken aback to realize I didn't have any idea. And the reason for that is that when I first started writing Harsh Prey, my first book, it was more about the characters than the story itself. I had two people who loved each other deeply, but one of them wasn't sure if she could deal with the violent job of the other. It was almost like I had a snapshot and I built the whole story out from that still frame. It's not almost like that, actually. It's exactly like that. I had no idea where the story was going. At the beginning, I asked myself, what if she's been gone to decide if she can deal with his being a detective and she calls, only to have the violence of his job intervene? And that seemed to work, so I had to ask why the violence happened. The answer was what propelled the story. But regardless of what happened in the detective half of the books, they were, and always will be, more than half about that relationship between Harry and Dee, and now Jenn and Emma Grace too. The Shalan Adventures are, for good or bad, stories about a loving family and the things they go through together. It's almost incidental that he's a gumshoe. 

The second Shalan story, Kisses and Lies, was loosely inspired by an event in the life of the young lady upon whom I based the leggy blonde at the beginning of the book. She had gotten married--in fact, I had performed the wedding--and found that her new husband changed immediately afterward. It was nowhere near as violent as it was in my fictionalized version, but it was, as usual, this series of what-ifs. What if he had been hiding something darker? What if it got violent? What if there were a family dynamic that added a level of depth? And the story grew from there.

The next two, In the Shadow and Dawn of Grace, are really one giant story arc broken into two books. The arc actually begins at the end of Kisse and Lies when Harry finds out that Dee is pregnant. That story was always going to be primarily about them losing that baby and then getting it back. I made the story of Jenn to parallel that. The Jenn part was again inspired loosely by real life events, though no one incident in particular. I'm just exposed to and touched by stories of abuse against young people because of my job as a high school teacher. And when I started writing In the Shadow, I just chose a young lady who was my student and made her the face I saw when I imagined the story in my mind. This young lady wasn't just my student. She was one of my adopted kids, the gang who eat lunch in my room and stay after school to watch movies while I make pancakes and come see me after they graduate when they come home from college. So when I pictured someone doing terrible things to her, it helped me tap into the rage that drove Harry to do what he did at the end of the book. 

As for my current work in progress, it grew out of a scene from a classic book. I read it as part of the AP reading last summer. It was about a young lady taken in by someone purporting to be her father, but he turns out to be a very bad man. Over the course of the week of the reading, I started building a story on that concept that had nothing to do with the original book at all, but that evolved from that situation. What if a teenager had no family and suddenly someone came along saying he was her long-lost father and he wanted to take her in? So that made me ask the next question, which was how did she come to have no one? Was she always an orphan or did she have a family that she lost somehow? And what if, like in the original book, he wasn't really her father? Why would he be interested in taking her in? I knew he had to have some ulterior motive, but I really didn't want it to be anything sexual. I'd had enough of that dark realm and wanted his motivations to be evil in a completely different way. So the story built from there. 

So I guess the answer to the question of where I get my story ideas is that I start with a character or a group of characters and a beginning point--a snapshot in time--and I start asking what if. What if this happened? What if he or she reacted in that way? And once I've asked and answered enough of those what-ifs, I have a book. Piece of cake. Mmm, cake. I better wrap this up and have some breakfast. 

Next week: Where Do My Characters Come From?

Christmas With The Shalans, Week 4

Merry Christmas Eve! It's been a very interesting week, to say the least. So interesting that I forgot that today was Saturday and almost neglected to post my final Shalan holiday excerpt. Before I do so, though, I ask that you keep my family in your prayers. We're going through a tough time right now, but we do have much for which to be thankful.

So without further ado, here's the final excerpt, which doesn't technically take place at Christmas. It's Thanksgiving dinner, but Dee gives Harry one of the greatest gifts he's ever received. This is from Dawn of Grace.

I took my brother Will’s spot on the couch as he was called to the kitchen for carving duty. A half hour later, my sister and brother-in-law back from a successful mission to locate whipped topping and the turkey carved and on the table, Mom called everyone around. Dad turned off the TV and my oldest brother and my two sisters-in-law came down the stairs, preceded by four rambunctious children, ranging in age from three to nine. “I forgot something,” Dee whispered in my ear. “Be right back.” I looked after her, concerned that she had gotten ill. But by the time everyone was gathered around the table, she was back with what looked like a Christmas gift bag in her hand. She waved it at Jenn, who smiled. She moved to my side and took my hand. Jenn wrapped her arms around Dee’s other arm and put her head on her shoulder. 

Mom moved to my other side, putting her arm around my waist. I put my arm over her shoulder. “Harry, you want to say the prayer?”

“Sure. But first, I’d like to say thanks to everyone for working so hard to arrange your schedules so we could all be here together for Thanksgiving. Especially Otis and Anita. I want to say one more time, congratulations on your engagement. We’re all so happy for you two. Although, Anita, you might want to be careful. How your future husband could afford such a rock on a cop’s salary is beyond me.”

Otis laughed. “It’s amazing what good prices you can get at the evidence lockup.”

“Let’s see the ring one more time!” Jenn shouted. Anita shyly held out her hand.

Dee reached toward Anita. “It really is beautiful, Anita.”

I squeezed Dee’s hand. “Not as beautiful as its owner, though.”

“Watch it bud.”

“Otis, you’ve been flirting with my wife since high school. This is payback.”

“Okay, then.”

 Okay, let’s pray.”

Dee raised her hand. “Umm, I’m sorry to interrupt, but before we pray, I have a little something to say.” She let go of my hand and Jenn disengaged from her other arm. “Harry, I’m sorry to tell you this, but I’ve been keeping something from you and I just can’t keep up this charade anymore. You’ve known for a while probably that something is different.” She lifted up the bag. “I was hoping to tell you this at Christmas time, but Miss Punkin here figured out my secret, so I feared you would soon, too.” She held up the package. “So, now that I have you all completely perplexed, here, Harry. Hopefully this will explain what I’m talking about. Before you open it, I want you to know I love you very much.”

She handed me the bag. I smiled at her and pulled the tissue paper out revealing something small in the bottom. As soon as my fingers touched it, I knew what it was—a Christmas ornament shaped like a baby rattle. It was inscribed with “Baby’s First Christmas.”

Mom leaned in. “Is that…?”

I smiled through tears. “Yes. I got this for you last Christmas. And I forgot.”

“And I opened it. On Christmas morning.”

“After we lost Emma Grace.”

“And I was so horrible, I drove you away and almost lost you. I’m so sorry.”

“Does it mean what I hope it means?”

“Yes. Everyone, we’re going to have a baby. I’m pregnant.”

I engulfed her in my arms, kissing her forehead. “I love you so much, Babydoll.”

“I love you too, Mister Man.”

Literally every other person in the house hugged her before Mom reminded us that Thanksgiving dinner was getting cold, so I said the prayer and we all sat down to the feast. We laughed and ate and had a perfect meal. Eddie spent the whole time circling the table, receiving enough bites that I was afraid he was going to get sick. But he never stopped.

After dinner was eaten and all the cleanup complete, Dee came and sat on my lap as I watched football with the menfolk. I was uncomfortably full, but it was worth it. I nestled my head in her bosom, put my hand on her belly, and sighed, eyes closed. It was obviously rounded, now that I was paying attention. Some detective I am. She lifted my chin, kissed me lightly, and then whispered to me. “Oh, and Harry, Dr. Mathur and I did the math. Based on how far along I am, guess when Emma Grace was conceived.”

“It’s Emma Grace?”

“You had the dream too, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“That’s the night. Our special night. That’s when she came back to us.”

So there you go. I hope you have a blessed Christmas and an amazing 2017. God bless us, everyone!

Busy Summer

My first week back from Louisville has been a busy one. I've written two articles for Clutch, started writing the rough draft of my newest book, led a writing workshop, and been all over the  MOV setting up readings and signings. Here's a rundown of all the events I have coming up in the next few months. This schedule is subject to change and I hope to add more, so go to my website and click on the News & Events tab to see the newest information.

June 25 (That's today!): I'll be at J&M's Used Bookstore from 11am to 2pm signing books. They're in the old Blockbuster store near the Southside Kroger. Note--buy the book from the bookstore and then I'll sign it. That's not how it works at the library.

July 5: Vienna Public Library from 6pm to 8pm. That will include a reading and q&a time at 6:30.

July 16: Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library on Emerson Avenue from 11am to 1pm. PLEASE NOTE: That's a change from the original announced time. I changed it so I could attend a personal event of great importance.

July 23: South Parkersburg Library from 10am to 2pm. This too will include a time for readingsfrom Dawn of Grace and q&a. The reading will take place at 11am.

chamberdata.net

July 30 (this is tentative): Point Park Marketplace. Times TBA, but I plan to be there sometime early in the day. This coincides with Market Vendor Fair, so come down even if you don't want to buy a book! BY THE WAY: You can now purchase all my books at the Marketplace. Same great price.

September 30-October 1: Pullman Square in Huntington. I'll have a sale booth at the Ohio River Festival of Books. Exact times are TBD.

October 28-29: West Virginia Book Festival at the Charleston Civic Center. This is a huge event with dozens of booths, along with big name authors doing readings. There are also always activities for kids, lots of giveaways, and a gargantuan used book sale.

Hope To See You June 25!

I'm glad to be back in Parkersburg, though I really enjoyed my week in Louisville. I met some new friends and had a lot of fun. I hope Kansas City is just as fun next year. But now that I'm back, I can start promoting my new book in earnest.

Toward that end, my first big event is a signing next Saturday, June 25 at the new location of J&M's Used Bookstore on Division Street. It's just a few doors down from Kroger, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding it at all. I'll be there from 11am to 2pm, and I hope to see you there.

I'm also planning to do signings at all the local libraries and anywhere else that would be interested. I'll let you know when I get those set in stone.

I also plan to have an online launch party in the next couple weeks. That's where you come by and visit me cyber-style. It'll be on Facebook and you just drop by my author page during the designated time and check in. There will be trivia games and giveaways. Unfortunately, the only refreshments will be holographic meatloaf, but you can show up in your underwear and no one will care.

Finally, I want to share that I've figured out the general outline of my next book. The big news on that is that it will not be a Shalan Adventure. It won't be a detective book at all. It's all about a 16-year-old girl name Elizabeth Janeway, known as EJ to her friends, who loses her mother in a freak accident, only to discover that, despite what her mother had told her all her life, her dad is not only alive, but he is a powerful businessman and the mayor of a nearby city. I worked out the plot last week and I have to say I'm excited. I think it has potential to be a book of note--if I can just write it. I will definitely be shopping it to agents and publishers rather than publishing it independently, as I do with Harry and Dee. For Shalan fans, have no fear--I plan to continue their story. I'm just taking a break to work on something a little more literary in nature.

So what can you expect from Harry and Dee? Well, the plan is to release a new e-book-only novella. I believe this will be a second prequel that tells the story of their wedding and his hanging up his shingle in Parkersburg. It will pick up where "Harry and the Redheaded Angel" left off and tie into the beginning of Harsh Prey. After that, I have a vague idea for a spinoff series for Jenn.

So that's all the news that fits from here in the land of Joe. I hope to see you on June 25 or some other venue soon. I'd love to sign your copy of Dawn of Grace.

Dawn of Grace Is Here!

I'm in Louisville, so this will be a short post. I just want to let everyone know that my new book, Dawn of Grace: A Shalan Adventure is out and now available to order in paperback and for Kindle. To order the paperback from Createspace (the best way to order is directly from the printer), go here. If you would prefer to read it on Kindle, just go here.

The first place you'll be able to buy it in person will be at J&M's Used Bookstore on June 25, where I'll be doing a signing from 11am to 2pm.

Have a great week and thanks for your support!

PS--in case you missed it, here's the trailer for the book:

More DAWN OF GRACE News!

It looks like we're in for a rainy day today, which is okay with me. Yesterday was busy outside and inside both. I went target shooting with my pistols in the morning with my fellow enthusiasts. As an interesting side note (well, interesting to me), the two pistols I own are the same two that are owned by Harry and Dee Shalan. That's obviously not a coincidence. I own and am familiar with these two partly so that I can write about them and not sound like an ignorant rube. But anyway, after I got home, I finished draft four of Dawn of Grace and began the final proofreading read. I didn't get far, though, because then it was time to help my dad with the yard. So I slept well last night.

But since today is going to be quiet, my goal is to finish my final polish and start the submission process with Createspace. I won't be able to finish it because I don't have the cover photo yet, but by the end of today, literally everything else should be complete and ready to set up. I've already done all the formatting--I put it in the correct format two drafts ago so I wouldn't have to worry about it. The acknowledgement page is finished, as is the end-of-book stuff. So once I get the cover art, it will be one step and the book will be ready for final proofing and then ordering.

This is the original location of J&M's.
The new, huge store is in the Kroger/
KMart plaza in south Parkersburg
and will open June 11.

Why am I telling you this? Because it means that you'll soon be able to pre-order Dawn of Grace: A Shalan Adventure. And it means that, assuming no major disasters between now and then, you'll be able to put your hands on a copy for the first time on June 25 at J and M's Used Bookstore, where I'll be doing a signing from 11am to 2pm. And it finally means that you'll be invited to my launch party sometime in July.

I have to say that, even on the fifth thorough reading, I'm still finding proofreading and typographical errors. I know that the previous four drafts were not done primarily for the purposes of proofreading, but it still amazes me that areas that I hadn't touched in subsequent drafts and therefore have been exactly as is since I initially wrote the manuscript have words missing, wrong words, etc. So, as I get deeper and deeper into this writing thing, I'm realizing more and more just how important multiple drafts, each for a different reason, are vital. If only I had known then what I know now, my first book might have been a lot better. But the past is past and I'm excited about the future. I hope you are too.

Hopefully, this will be you reading my
new book and trying to decide what
glowing words to say about it in your
review on Amazon.

So it's sincerely my hope that I'll be in touch as early as tomorrow to ask if any of you would be interested in a pre-read in exchange for an honest review. If you agree to do that, I'll send you a signed copy of the book absolutely free. This offer is open starting now and I'll take the first twenty people. All you have to do is comment on here or send me an email. Or you can wait until I officially announce it in the next day or two. Thanks in advance for considering it.

PS--Don't forget that if you've read and enjoyed my previous three books, two of the greatest things you can do to help me are to tell your friends and to write reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. As an independent author, all the ads and events in the world don't do half what word-of-mouth and reviews can do to help me be successful.

Dawn of Grace Teaser #2

With my new Shalan Adventure, Dawn of Grace just a couple weeks from its debut, I thought it would be nice to give you another little taste of the book. Here's the blurb, AKA that thing on the back of the book that people read to decide if they want to buy it. Please tell me what you think:

Private detective Harry Shalan seems to have it all. His wife Dee is a curvy redhead with cover girl looks who loves him completely. His foster daughter Jenn is utterly devoted to Dee and him after they rescued her from the clutches of her murderous, perverted father. His best friend Otis, a police detective, would take a bullet for him in a heartbeat. 

So why is Harry standing on the Fifth Street Bridge contemplating how much he would mind if he fell in the river and didn't come back up? You see, Harry lives by a strict code of honor and is struggling not to hate himself because he broke his code--badly. He lost control and brutally attacked Jenn's biological father, Antonio Bezaleel. Bezaleel is more monster than human and everyone agrees that he deserves a punishment much worse than the one Harry dealt out to him. Nonetheless, Harry's act has sent him into a spiral of despair that has cut him off from the very people he needs the most. Dee, Jenn, and Otis are fighting to bring their hero back from the brink.


In the midst of this dark episode, Harry and Dee answer a cry for help from an old friend who is accused of savagely murdering and mutilating her ex-husband. She swears that she didn't kill him, but things don't look good. She was, after all, found by the police kneeling over the man covered in his blood and gripping the knife that had been used to kill and dismember him. 

Their investigation brings them in contact with a precocious six-year-old who swears the murder was committed by a ninja, and he just may be the key to the case. They also encounter an old classmate of Harry's who is a little more appreciative of Dee's anatomy than anyone's comfortable with, a guy who likes to snort coke and cut women's hair, and even a hooker with a heart of gold. They also meet a quiet young woman named Anita Rathbone who seems quite sweet on Otis, a man married to his job since the only woman he's ever wanted is married to his best friend. Does Otis finally find a woman to love? Does Harry learn to forgive himself and accept the forgiveness of those who care for him? Do the Shalans solve the crime and save their friend from a life behind bars? The answers are revealed in... 

Dawn of Grace: A Shalan Adventure

So, does that sound like a book you'd buy?

Shalan #4 Title Revealed!

Every senior teacher yesterday after grading finals and
projects all week. 

It's been a crazy last month of the school year, but somehow, amidst grading projects and reading portfolio entries and getting ready for all the end-of-the-year activities for my seniors (I'm one of the class sponsors), I've managed to get the fourth book in my Shalan Adventure series nearly ready to go. I'm down to one last draft, which is about a third complete, and a polish coat, so I plan to be finished within the week.

I can't show you the cover because that's not even close to ready, but today I'm going to share a couple of things with you. First, I'm going to tell you the title and talk about the process I went through in coming up with it. And second, I'll share the opening chapter.

THE TITLE: When I was almost through the first draft and knew how the book was going to end, I started thinking about what to call it. I thought for quite a while and was almost completely stumped. This book has been different in many ways from the first three and this was one of them. I knew the title practically from the first word of the others. This one was a struggle, though. If you follow my writing, you know this one has taken a lot longer to write than the first three. As long as Kisses and Lies and In The Shadow combined. And I just couldn't decide what to name it. I talked with my faithful sidekick, Pepper Potts, and we agreed on one thing:
it needed the word grace in it. Once you read the book, you'll see the double reason for that. But that was it. Grace didn't seem like a very good name for a detective book. I got out my writing notebook and started writing down every phrase that could possibly contain the word and still make sense. It went on for two, two-column pages. But none of them sounded right. And then I was listening to Josh Groban's Christmas album (it was Christmas so that isn't weird and I never listen to Christmas music at odd times of the year and just shut up about it), when I heard him use an unusual phrasing for one line in "Silent Night. The normal line is, "With the dawn of redeeming grace," which the background singers sang, but he just sang, "Dawn of grace." BOOM! There was my title. It fit the book exactly in about eleventy billion ways. I texted it to Pepper and she loved it as much as I did. That cinched it. So there you have it, folks, Shalan Adventure #4 is entitled:

Dawn of Grace

Like I said, I can't show you the cover because I don't have it yet. But I can show you the picture I gave to my super-duper professional photographer friend Liv. She's going to be at the beach in early June and will take the cover photo for me. It will be something like this, only a lot better:

The First Chapter: This book takes up about five minutes after In The Shadow ends. If you want the full story of just why Harry is so darkly contemplative at the outset, you should read it. But it's dealt with pretty extensively in this book, as Harry tries to fight his way back being able to accept forgiveness for an act he views as unforgivable. At any rate, here's the opening chapter of my newest book, Dawn of Grace, which will be available for pre-order in early June: 

A family of mallards passed silently beneath me, blissfully unaware of my presence. Actually, I had no idea what kind of ducks they were because it wasn’t quite light enough to see them clearly from the bridge. I only knew they were ducks and not geese because one of them quacked quietly once in a while. But I decided they were mallards, mainly because that was the only variety I could think of.

It had been a week since we'd received a meaningful amount of rain, but the Little Kanawha River was still the color of chocolate milk and probably would be well into summer. That was just how it looked. It didn’t seem to bother the ducks. Though normally too afraid of heights to do such a thing, I stood, feet on the bottom rung of the guardrail, and leaned as far out as I could without toppling over and down into possible oblivion. I wasn't sure which I felt more--the desire to live or the desire just never to feel anything again. That probably should have bothered me.

There was little pink remnant left in the western sky where the sun had set a bit earlier. It would be completely dark soon. I wasn’t worried about walking home alone. I live in a small town and even if I did encounter some intimidating figure, not many people scared me. I am, as my wife Dee is fond of saying, imposing. A little over six feet tall, I’m muscular and fast from years of weights, running, and martial arts. So somebody dumb enough to attack me, unless it happened to be several somebodies, would likely regret it. If I fought back. Maybe I’d take the beating. But I probably wouldn’t. I’d proven recently that I tend to struggle with impulse control.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I fished it out to find I had missed five calls and eight texts, all from either Dee or Jenn. Jenn was our daughter, though her name was still Bezaleel instead of Shalan because we were technically just her legal guardians, but she was our daughter as much as if a piece of paper said so. The last call was from her. She left a voicemail.

“Har—Harry,” she said, haltingly, “I just talked to Otis. Said you left a while ago. Where are you?  Dinner’s ready. Been ready for a while, actually. Please call me back. Please?”

There was clearly a strain in her voice. Part of me felt bad about causing her anxiety. She’d had enough pain in her life. Enough for a dozen girls her age. More than plenty for any person of any age. Her father had started molesting her when she was only ten years old, something for which her mother blamed her. Dee and I had taken her in, only to let her dad kidnap and nearly kill her. Being, again my wife’s words, a hero, I should have been able to save her, but I couldn’t even say that. That honor goes to a tiny, brave little girl named Arienne, who took on the wrath and rage of Tony Bezaleel, sacrificing herself to assuage his fury long enough for the police to catch up with them. It had been a closed casket.

But there was another part of me, the part that seemed to be making decisions, that just couldn’t allow me to go back there. To face her. To face both of my hers. Dee and Jenn were my reason to keep going. The irony was that the reasons I did what I did, for which I could never forgive myself, were those two women whom I loved more than life itself, but in committing my sin I made myself so completely filthy in my own eyes that I couldn’t bear to face them. I felt I should shout “Unclean!” every time either approached. So I compounded my sin by absenting myself from them as much as I could get away with.

But I had nowhere left to go. I was walking back home from the Parkersburg Police Department, where I’d just been talking with my best friend other than Dee, Otis Campbell. Otis was a detective and the best cop in Parkersburg, West Virginia—maybe the best anywhere. My parents, the only other people in walking distance, were out of town visiting my brother in Virginia and I’m not one to drown my troubles at a bar. So I had no choice. But I could walk slowly. I pulled up the texts, each one a little more insistent that I reply. I texted Jenn back.

“On my way. Go ahead and eat.”

“We can wait. Rather eat with you.”

My heart throbbed. “Not hungry.”

“We miss you.”

I wanted to reply that I missed them too. I did miss them so much that it was actually painful. Almost as painful as the sharp, corrosive guilt that was eating its way out through my chest. But I hated myself more than I missed them. And besides, if I said that I missed them, I knew what would come next. I wasn’t prepared to answer that question. So I was a coward. “Suit yourself. On my way.”

I turned off my phone and began the walk home, though it was at a snail’s pace and over as circuitous a route as I could come up with in my depleted mental state. Even wandering all over town, I was nearly home and it was before the two of them were likely in bed. I thought of circling the block again, but my legs were positively leaden. Maybe I could sneak onto the porch and rest on the swing without them noticing. Probably not, but it was worth a shot.

As I mounted the front stairs as stealthily as I could manage, the front door flew open. Dee stepped out, not seeming surprised when she saw me.

“Harry, where have you been?”

“Walking home.” It wasn’t a lie. I didn’t say straight home.

“It doesn’t matter.” She threw me the keys to her vehicle. I was temporarily vehicle-less after I’d wrecked my beloved Mustang on a snowy road the previous Christmas day. Really long story. “We have to go.”

“Go where?”

“Sam Howe is dead and Becca’s under arrest for his murder.”

Dee and I were couple friends with Sam and Becca right up until I took pictures, at Becca’s behest, of Sam doing unspeakable things with his secretary. Well, I didn’t have pictures of anything particularly unspeakable, but they were bad enough to know that Sam was getting his bread buttered by another woman. After that, we were friends with Becca. Sam, not so much. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he deserved to be dead, but Becca was an amazing woman who deserved a lot better than a jerk like him.

“Why do they think she did it? They’ve been apart for what, over a year?”

“Well, when they rushed into his place he was pretty badly carved up, missing an important part—won’t go into that—and she was kneeling over him covered in his blood with her hand on the knife that was stuck in his chest.”

Yeah, that might do it.