In a previous blog post, I mentioned that I had a large gardening project going on in my spare time. I’ve been converting thirsty lawn to drought tolerant plants and my sprinkler system from regular sprinkler heads to drip irrigation or new high efficiency heads. It means that I changing 20 sprinklers and finding a way to drip onto over 100 plants. I enjoy the fresh air, but I’ve only been cranking out about 300 words a day of one of my two WIPs.
In Castle Killing, Jill Quint and friends are about to visit Islay Island in Scotland and in Willow Glen Heist, Damian Green is trying to figure out why a Malaysian guy is trying to kidnap Hermione.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a pantser writer which is to say I write by the seat of my pants or without an outline. The trouble with that is, I get stuck at various times while writing a book. I’ve tried giving a friend a vague outline of where the story has gone, and asking for suggestions. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t; it’s hard to suggest something appropriate without reading the full story.
After working on Castle Killing for two weeks, I’m turning back to Willow Glen Heist to work on the bank robbery and Hermione’s safety. In the back of my mind for Castle Killing I’ll be working out a creative connection to two WWII events that aren’t really connected in truth according to the history scholars, but when you write fiction then you can connect them, you just have to do it in a way that makes sense to the reader. Obviously, we all suspend our disbelief when we read fiction, but a reader will only go so far. For example, I like the In Death series by JD Robb and none of the key characters has been killed through the 40 plus stories. Jack Reacher hasn’t died despite all of the danger he’s been in for twenty stories. In fact he’s not even been to the hospital for injuries and as a reader I have to believe he really is that lucky to enjoy the stories, so I do!
Now that the rain has stopped, I’ll be outside replacing sprinkler heads and thinking about where my bank robber disappeared to nine years ago after collecting an estimated sixty million in an after-hours bank vault robbery.
Oh the power of one’s imagination!
Cheers and a Happy Thanksgiving to the American and Canadian (yes I know I’m a month late) readers of my blog.
Alec Peche