Often it’s hard to get a writing project started. It’s also difficult to find the time to write, to think outside the box and to bring your writing to a place it’s never been before. As I swelter in what I hope are the last humid days of summer, I know I can’t put off the inevitable. Jill Brennan is calling. In fact she’s been calling for the last six months. She is demanding I tell her story in the fourth book of the Detective Jill Brennan series.
Every writer’s writing process is different. Mine usually begins with a place. Then the first few sentences. And then… if I’m lucky and the muse comes, I’m off and running.
But first, the opening sentences to Blood Kin (a working title)…
At first, Detective Jill Brennan thought it was a prank call. Some kid with nothing better to do on a Saturday night than make a nuisance of themselves. But now as she sat on her bed looking at the opened suitcase at her feet, Jill wasn’t so sure. There was something about the girl’s voice. A voice too high-pitched, too edgy.
The place? Lane Cove National Park. I chose the Park as the setting after driving past the entrance on my way home from a late night out with friends. The case of Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler immediately came to mind. It’s a sordid story. A baffling mystery surrounded by international conspiracies, cheating husbands and wives, respected scientists. It was a mystery that remained unsolved for more than five decades.
Number 4 in the making – way to go Gina!
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Thanks, Gail. I think I’m more than a little crazy!
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Interesting that you start with the location. I don’t think I’ve heard that before. However, the same thing just happened to me. I was looking at swamps down south and thinking, what a great place for a murder!
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That’s how my imagination works, Sue. I get a feeling about a place and then, whammo my mind goes into overdrive. And it’s usually bad people doing bad things. LOL
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I remember that case Gina. It captured the public imagination for such a long time.
I agree, some places speak to you of stories waiting to be told. I’m inspired by place. Good luck with the muse.
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It was very controversial, Robyn. Intrigue, sex, conspiracies- topics that always get people taking. Who can forget the hype around the Azaria Chamberlain case. Every dinner party you went to in the 80’s the dinner talk inevitably turned to Seventh Day Adventists and dingos.
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