WRITING WITHOUT A NET

  One of the most commonly asked questions of writers is "What is your process?" I'm never quite sure what is meant by this, and I've given all kinds of answers.  But after a lot of deliberation, I think it means: Tell me how you write a novel in 1000 words or less.  So, okay.  Here it is: Ready, Set, Go I don't work from an outline, but I never start a book without knowing four things: 1)The title. To me, the title represents the message, or theme, I'm writing about. A Flash of Shadow was delayed several weeks because, even though I knew the story, I did not know the title.  Once it finally came to me, everything else fell into place.  By contrast, Undefeatable   was actually set in the previous book, Dead Man's Trail , when Raine Stockton said, "They are smarter than us, more determined than us, and they have nothing to lose. They are virtually undefeatable."  Who could resist that segue into a sequel? 2)The opening scene. Sometimes I actuall...

PRE-ORDER UNDEFEATABLE: A BUCK LAWSON MYSTERY HERE  I love it when characters take on a life of their own, making their own decisions, creating their own dialogue, and surprising me by taking my carefully planned and plotted storyline in an entirely new direction.  I also hate it.  Sometimes trying to keep up with independent-minded characters is like herding cats (or puppies, as the case may be!)-- not as much fun as it sounds. This was certainly the case with Patrick Henry Jessup, who first appeared in the Raine Stockton Mystery Dead Man's Trail . That book, I'll admit, was floundering dangerously toward the precipice of predictability when I realized it desperately needed another point of view character. Jessup was  supposed to appear sporadically throughout the book, stalk and murder a few non-essential personnel, get caught and never be heard from again. But Jessup was no ordinary serial killer.  He was an ethical hunter, a survivalist and caretaker of the ...