J.L. Wilson's Blog: Why I'm not here often, page 10

A gruesome death scene

This is one of the very first books I ever wrote and it's somewhat based on truth.

I knew a man like Tom, someone haunted by Viet Nam and what happened there, a man recruited by a shadowy agency who used his genius for ... I'm not sure what.

I embellished the story but wasn't sure who the hero would be. Then a news story caught my eye about a local small town sheriff who was retiring after 30 years of police work. What would life be like for him now that he was a civilian?

One thought led to another, and this book was born. It has a chilling death scene that still gives me shivers, if I do say so myself.

I rewrote it about 6 times, I think, before I think I got it right. These characters show up in some other books, and characters from Brilliant Disguise show up in this book as well. See if you can spot them!

The first Deadly Landscaping mystery

This book kicked off a 3-book series and it's a series I wasn't sure would ever get published.

At the time (a few years back), my publisher didn't like to do series with the same characters. I'm not sure why, but to make a long story short, I pitched the entire series AFTER I wrote the books. I submitted all 3 books to my editor, all the synopses, the blubs and tag lines: everything all at once.

She read the books, loved them, and helped convince my publisher to pick them up. We released them back to back, one a month, in April, May, and June.

A hectic burst of activity that year, for sure.

Anyway, here's the kickoff book to the Deadly Landscaping Romances, in which Carrie (who has an interesting history with the Whittington family) stands to inherit a million bucks -- maybe. There's the pesky problem of the body in the greenhouse to deal with, her ex-husband who still loves her, and a new boss who might be a new love interest.

And that's just for starters ....

Righter or Writer -- you choose

This book came about because of my casino group. There are a few writer friends who I get together with and we go to a casino and brainstorm ideas for books.

One time we came up with ideas for "books we can't imagine writing" and I came up with "a male writer who writes under a female pen name who falls in love with a woman at a writers' conference, but he can't reveal who he is because he's there in disguise as his alter ego, the female writer".

Well, I took that idea and I twisted it a bit. Yes, the main character is male and it's in his point of view. And yes, he's a famous author writing as a woman. And he does go to a conference in drag, hiding his identity and he kind of likes a woman whom he met in an online forum.

But there's also a mystery thrown in there, one from the old Hollywood days ("old" in this case being the 1980s). I had so much fun researching for this book and coming up with ideas for how my main character can pass as a woman at a writing conference.

So here's Righter, about a writer out to right a wrong.

Travel back in time ...

I wrote this book at a low point in my life and writing it really helped me through a bad place.

I was laid off and unemployed for about 6 months. I know, it doesn't sound like a long time, does it? But man, it felt like forever!

I was living in Minnesota at the time and I was always fascinated by the Jesse James connection to Northfield, Minnesota and the botched bank robbery that took place there.

I decided to drive to Northfield and wander about and see where it all happened, so to speak. While doing so, I came up with the idea for this book. I had to research the time period, the James gang, farming practices, legal issues ... you name it, I read about it. It took me quite a bit of time to figure out how to make it work, and that made the unemployment time go so much faster.

This is the first of three History Patrol books. These are my "reincarnation love stories with a time travel twist" in which two lovers are reincarnated far in the future. They're sent back in time to reconcile the problems they had when they were alive. One catch: one of them doesn't know about the reincarnation, and one does. And the one who does is reincarnated as an animal companion who can't reveal the secret.

In Penance, the pair is Penelope, who doesn't realize that Jim, her dog companion, is really her lover in a former life. They're forced to live through the events that got them killed, but this time Jim has a chance to undo the wrong he did.

These three History Patrol books are among my favorites because they're complicated but really simple at heart: two people who are connected through life and death, who need to make it work.

What a great idea for a series!

A leap year book leaping in here

I know I shouldn't say this -- parents should never say they have a Favorite Child -- but I have to admit that this book is my Favorite Child.

There are many reasons for this. It's one of the first one I wrote in 1st person, a POV that I discovered was perfect for me. I adore the hero, JT McCord, a cop who has returned to his home town and the woman he jilted years before.

I also love Molly, the heroine. She sorts her M&Ms by color for the psychic impact they give her, and she's feisty, independent, and reluctantly willing to take a second chance on love.

Add in a cast of characters including Melvin the pig and it's a fun, light-hearted book.

This is also one of those books that I just wrote -- I had no idea who the killer was until I got to about chapter 10 and realized that, damn, I need to layer in some clues here if so-and-so did it. So I went back and reworked a few scenes, and six weeks later, I had a book.

Yep, you read that right. I wrote this book in about 8 weeks. I always said this book wrote itself, I was just the medium through which it came to life.

If you haven't read it, take a chance on it -- and if you have read it, tell me: did you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it?

Oh, and FYI: it released on Feb 29...

http://bit.ly/candy_book

A new book (tucked in here among the anniversary posts)

Here's my Peter Pan book -- another Remembered Classics Mystery, all about Peter Pan, T.K. Bell, and, of course, Wendy.




And later this year, I have another one coming out -- Woulds, based on Robin Hood (what if Robin really was a hood?)
More later!

Surfing and Strangling

This book came from a conference I attended in Florida.

It was one of the first writers' conferences I attended and it was an enlightening experience for me. I was under contract for three ebooks to be published that year, with the books coming out later in print.

Some of the more established writers there were dismissive of my ebooks. I mean, no one can make a living on ebooks, right? They're not *real* books, right?

One of those authors was Joe Konrath, who later became one of the biggest ebook advocates out there.

Isn't it funny how life works out?

Anyway, I had to create a fictional conference, complete with theme and location, as well as (of course) decide who would be murdered. I mixed up the above-mentioned conference with one of the bigger romance conferences, and lo, this book was born.

It's the 2nd in my Fatal Writer's Conference series and it continues the relationship of the two main characters. It can be read as a standalone, but the other books in the series help give it added meaning. I'll be talking about those books later this year.

For now, though, during this cold winter, enjoy a bit of Sun, Surf, and Sandy Strangulation.

http://bit.ly/SurfWilson

A cross-country train trip ... heaven or hell?

This book is based (somewhat) on a real thing that happened.

A friend of mine (we'll call her Grace, like the Grace in my story) agreed to meet a guy for coffee. The guy was a friend of her cousin's husband. Grace was drop-dead beautiful but she was so unlucky in love. She just never found anybody who appreciated her for more than her beautiful face and body.

So she agreed to meet this guy, sight unseen. She goes to the meeting place, a guy approaches her, they start talking, and she thought "What a nice guy" -- score!

Well, it turns out he wasn't the guy she was supposed to meet. But it all worked out okay because she did eventually meet the original guy, they fell in love, got married, and happily ever after.

I took that little glimmer of an idea and came up with Grace, who meets a guy who is NOT the guy she's supposed to meet. He gives her something and that sets off a chain of events that go on halfway across the United States while Grace is on a vacation, what was supposed to be a leisurely train trip.

I had fun with the hero in this one. Ben is very self-assured, but he's getting older and he's worried he's too old for Grace. That doesn't stop him from enjoying some time with her (ahem), but in the long run, he's sure he can't have anything long-term with her.

See how it all works out in Lie To Me!

http://bit.ly/Lie_book

Hot Rods and Homicides!

The next book is one of those "I wonder what would happen if ..." books. I was in a parking garage one day and I heard an argument somewhere in the garage. Given how things echo, I wasn't sure where the voices were coming from. They were arguing in a foreign languge, I think German -- I speak French and some Spanish, and it wasn't those.

As I left the garage, I thought, "Gee, I wonder what would happen if someone overheard an argument and it turns out that was right before a murder. And that person saw the murderer ..."

And lo, "Homicides, Hostages, and Hot Rod Restorations" was born. I love researching things I know nothing about for my books, and this was no exception. The heroine is a rather erudite person, and I had fun checking facts about the English language. Plus she's of Rom heritage, so that involved some research. Then there was the whole car restoration stuff.

Lots of fun to research and write. This was the first of the "Gypsy cousin" books (followed by "PhDs" and "Ex-Wives", to be mentioned later). If you like an interesting heroine and a somewhat shy hero, this one might be for you.

http://bit.ly/Wilson_hotrods

Leap of Faith

It's weird to kick off a year of posts about books with the final book in a trilogy, but there you have it -- the luck of the draw.

Leap of Faith is the final book in my far-future trilogy (composed of Human Touch, Living Proof, and Leap of Faith). This trilogy is penultimate group of books for the series I'm currently writing -- the Endless American Dream series, which will have (Lord willing) 14 books total.

Yep, you read that right. 14 books. There are 9 books set in current day. One book set 2 generations from now. One book set 4 generations from now. Then these 3.

Here's the odd thing: I wrote these 3 books knowing that I would be writing the first 12 someday. But I only had vague ideas of the plot lines, although I did know the characters.

So I created this trilogy years ago and now I'm writing the 12 books that lead up to it. I have Books 1-7 done. I'm writing Book 8. I have book 11 done. Yeah, I keep busy ...

So what can I tell you about Leap of Faith? This entire trilogy is about politics, really. I tried to envision a society that had solved a lot of our problems: racism, inequality between the sexes, religious intolerance. I imagined what it would be like if those issues didn't exist. What would be the conflict?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there will always be conflicts -- it's just a matter of where they come from. And that's where Leap of Faith starts: a new race has been discovered on this imaginary planet, but where did they come from? And what effect will they have on the current inhabitants?

Dru Delaney is a planetary leader and her co-leader is Jak Exo Moreno. They have a lot to learn about trust, love, and leadership -- and it all culminates in this book.

I'll tell you about the other 2 books in the trilogy later, on their anniversary dates. For now, just tuck this one away in the back of your mind: you may want to revisit it later ...


http://bit.ly/Wilson_leap