March 5. 2018
People ask me if I outline the plot then fill in the details. Miranda and I start out in a certain direction and then life happens. Some of the biggest surprises in the plot were not planned, they just came about as the story developed.
When I first married in my twenties I thought that would be it for life. Now three marriages later due to a divorce, early widowhood, and my current marriage, it is apparent we make our plans and then…life happens.
My family and friends have been a constant source of support as well as source of plot lines. My kids are brilliant good hearted rascals with a biting senses of humor. Though they might roll their eyes at some plot idea, they always follow with, “Go for it mom. I’m proud of you.”
Maybe you’re like me and you have your day planned out and think you know how it will go. You might stop for coffee at your usual place, thinking about what you are planning to do. Then someone pats you on the back and says, “Hey! long time, no see…” You don’t have a clue who they are. You tell them they must be mistaken, but it kind of throws off your concentration. You grab your coffee, get in your car and back into a BMW. It belongs to a mafia guy the Feds are tailing. (Please feel free to use this in a story if you like). I hope to inspire people to write. This is how plots develop for me, my mind always goes to, “What if Miranda…”
I would have published Rare Blood thirty years ago but life happened. My computer, with the only copy of my first draft (which of course, I hadn’t backed up), was fried during a lightning storm in Illinois. It turned out okay, it gave me years of good, weird, sad, funny and inspiring additional material to work with.
Tristan was inspired by one of my clients, and if not for him I don’t think I could have found my first vampire. There are some people in this world that take your breath away and speed up your pulse. Sometimes there are people that you just want to throttle. In my professional life I had to smile and maintain professional boundaries.
I could not change what might have happened to a client, but writing is another matter. That is the reason my vampires go after those who have abused women, hurt children or generally have “gotten away” with some heinous act. In my books, karma really can be a bitch or a vampire, or both.
So, grab a cup of coffee, find a pen, pull out a notebook (okay, or your laptop if you must) and let your story begin. Writer’s rock!
