Three Months and Counting
The re-release of the Twinkie this summer probably saved my first novel, Blood Money. Okay, perhaps not the entire novel, but certainly it saved a few key scenes. With only three months to go before Blood Money is published, I’m reflecting on the small breaks that have had big consequences in this publishing journey. One of the writing challenges I have faced is balancing fact in fiction. When I submitted my first novel-length manuscript to a publishing house in 2005, I received a personal critique from an editor who suggested my writing needed to be more “slick and believable.” For the last 8 years, as I have tried to decode that advice, I began to push my stories to rise up from real world situations, trying hard to be accurate in telling a falsehood. Sometimes, when I review what I’ve written, I realize that I have snuck in contrivances for convenience. And then the re-writing begins. Which brings me to the resurrected Twinkie. Dr. Cooper “Mackie” McKay is a surgeon in a fix, caught between bad love and bad luck when the body of his ex-wife is found unceremoniously crammed into the trunk of his car. Naturally, part of the investigation focuses on him. In an early scene, he and his lawyer discuss the case over a plate of deep-fried Twinkies. The only trouble is, the company that made Twinkies went bankrupt in 2012, effectively pulling them from the market. And there in lies the rub. Should I deep-six the Twinkie in favor of another trans-fat treat or bull ahead with the full knowledge of the lie? Honestly, a Little Debbie dipped in a deep fryer doesn’t have the same effect (or so I’ve heard). As of July 2013, though, I can drop my concerns. The Twinkie is back, distributed by a new company. That small decision allowed me to turn my attention to the more mundane topics of plot and pacing. Write...
read moreBlood Money, February 2014
Blood Money will be released in February 2014! I will have a sign up list for reminders up shortly.
read more