Polly Iyer's Blog - Posts Tagged "mind-games"
Does Crime Pay?
Former forensic accountant, now crime novelist, Colleen Cross, asked me to post on her blog, Crime Writer Spotlight, about the crimes in my books. I jumped at the chance. This was originally written in July of 2012. I've updated a couple of things, corrected a couple too. Here's the original link: http://tiny.cc/y8485w
I love cons. Not the guys in prison, although one of my book’s heroes is an ex-con, but the kind of cons in books and movies where there’s a very fine line dividing the good guys from the bad. Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block, and Donald Westlake come to mind as authors who test the ethics of the main characters.
“The Sting” is one of the best movies ever made about crooks ripping off crooks. Who can forget Paul Newman’s Henry Gorndorff as he and Johnny Hooker, Robert Redford, put one past crooked businessman Doyle Lonnegan, played by Robert Shaw? Then there’s The Grifters, a much darker movie about a con man. There are so many more where the theme is greed, as it is in all the books and movies where a con or fraud takes place.
I’ve written six books―nine, if you count three under my pen name―and most have some kind of fraudulent dealings.
In Hooked, my heroine is an ex-call girl whose illegal offshore account is discovered when the feds dig into the affairs of an old client, a Brooklyn mob boss whose accountant buried her money, unfortunately not deep enough. The New York Sex Crimes Division, in collaboration with the IRS, offer her a deal―work undercover at a high-class brothel to find out who’s murdering prostitutes, and they’ll give her a pass for failing to pay Uncle Sam his share of illegally-earned money—after she pays back taxes and penalties. That’s right. She was skimming off the top to save for an early retirement. The cops basically blackmail her until she does what they want. Damned if she does; damned if she doesn’t.
In the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, Mind Games (and Goddess of the Moon, unpublished at the time of this blog post), Diana has been a con artist most of her adult life. She’s a psychic entertainer who’s been called every name in the book ever since she was six-years old, but fraud is the one that sticks. Is she? Hmm, yes. Sometimes. Arranged seating at her performances paid for with credit cards allows her computer hacker employee to glean information she can use in her act. Then there are telephone records, email accounts―well, you get the picture. There are reasons why she pretends to be a charlatan, of course, but she’s still a cheat even though she really is psychic. Sound complicated? It is.
The unethical careers of my female characters are explained up front, but the other two books written under my name, InSight and Murder Déjà Vu, have business scams that, if explained here, would give away too much of the story. I will say one of them has to do with pharmaceutical fraud and the other with a Ponzi scheme, and both require the expertise of a forensic accountant to expose the fraud, as does Hooked. These schemes result in the deaths of innocent people, none of which are perpetrated by my main characters.
Save for crimes of passion, most mystery/suspense/thriller books have some sort of greed-generated crime that entails cooking the books. In the real world, one doesn’t have to look far to see the behind-the-scene chicanery perpetrated by the rich and crooked who will unlikely spend one day in prison for their fraudulent ways. The crooks in my books always get caught (well, one sort of unethical person did get away). In real life, not so much. Makes you wonder if crime really doesn’t pay.
I love cons. Not the guys in prison, although one of my book’s heroes is an ex-con, but the kind of cons in books and movies where there’s a very fine line dividing the good guys from the bad. Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block, and Donald Westlake come to mind as authors who test the ethics of the main characters.
“The Sting” is one of the best movies ever made about crooks ripping off crooks. Who can forget Paul Newman’s Henry Gorndorff as he and Johnny Hooker, Robert Redford, put one past crooked businessman Doyle Lonnegan, played by Robert Shaw? Then there’s The Grifters, a much darker movie about a con man. There are so many more where the theme is greed, as it is in all the books and movies where a con or fraud takes place.
I’ve written six books―nine, if you count three under my pen name―and most have some kind of fraudulent dealings.
In Hooked, my heroine is an ex-call girl whose illegal offshore account is discovered when the feds dig into the affairs of an old client, a Brooklyn mob boss whose accountant buried her money, unfortunately not deep enough. The New York Sex Crimes Division, in collaboration with the IRS, offer her a deal―work undercover at a high-class brothel to find out who’s murdering prostitutes, and they’ll give her a pass for failing to pay Uncle Sam his share of illegally-earned money—after she pays back taxes and penalties. That’s right. She was skimming off the top to save for an early retirement. The cops basically blackmail her until she does what they want. Damned if she does; damned if she doesn’t.
In the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, Mind Games (and Goddess of the Moon, unpublished at the time of this blog post), Diana has been a con artist most of her adult life. She’s a psychic entertainer who’s been called every name in the book ever since she was six-years old, but fraud is the one that sticks. Is she? Hmm, yes. Sometimes. Arranged seating at her performances paid for with credit cards allows her computer hacker employee to glean information she can use in her act. Then there are telephone records, email accounts―well, you get the picture. There are reasons why she pretends to be a charlatan, of course, but she’s still a cheat even though she really is psychic. Sound complicated? It is.
The unethical careers of my female characters are explained up front, but the other two books written under my name, InSight and Murder Déjà Vu, have business scams that, if explained here, would give away too much of the story. I will say one of them has to do with pharmaceutical fraud and the other with a Ponzi scheme, and both require the expertise of a forensic accountant to expose the fraud, as does Hooked. These schemes result in the deaths of innocent people, none of which are perpetrated by my main characters.
Save for crimes of passion, most mystery/suspense/thriller books have some sort of greed-generated crime that entails cooking the books. In the real world, one doesn’t have to look far to see the behind-the-scene chicanery perpetrated by the rich and crooked who will unlikely spend one day in prison for their fraudulent ways. The crooks in my books always get caught (well, one sort of unethical person did get away). In real life, not so much. Makes you wonder if crime really doesn’t pay.
Character Blog - Diana Racine
Good friend Jim Jackson, or as he’s known in the literary world, James M. Jackson, invited me to participate in a character blog. Since I had a new release featuring my character, Diana Racine, I thought why not? You can find Jim’s books, Bad Policy and Cabin Fever, at your favorite bookstore or online venue. His blog describing his character, financial investigator Seamus McCree, is at this location:
http://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/20...
Financial crimes investigator Seamus McCree returns in this thrilling sequel to Bad Policy. With his house in Cincinnati in ruins, Seamus retreats to the family cabin for some well-earned rest and relaxation. But his plans for a quiet, contemplative winter in the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are thrown out the window when he discovers a naked woman on his porch during a blizzard. The mystery woman is suffering from hypothermia, frostbite, high fevers, amnesia—and rope burns on her wrists and ankles.
I never intended to write a series when I wrote Mind Games, but I got an idea for book two, and Goddess of the Moon was born. It all fit so perfectly. Diana, a character in mythology, was Goddess of the Hunt and Goddess of the Moon.
Then readers asked for book three, and I panicked. Could I write a third?
Backlash was released September 30, 2014. People have already asked me about a fourth. To that I say, maybe.
What makes the series a natural is Diana herself. Here’s why:
Diana gained celebrity when she was six-years old after she found the body of a missing child. From that point until she was twelve, her father pushed her to find missing persons both for the police and for individuals searching for their missing kin, most of whom are dead.
The pressure on the young psychic took its toll, and to save her sanity, she claimed she lost her gift. Unwilling to lose his meal ticket, Diana’s father created a psychic act that traveled the world. How does a psychic who’s supposedly not psychic anymore star in a psychic act?
Easy. Daddy hired computer experts to hack into audience participants’ credit cards and any other trough of information to aid Diana pull off her ruse. Besides what her hackers unearthed, she somehow managed to find something in everyone’s psychic reading that no one else could have known.
So, is our heroine is a fraud, a charlatan, and a quack, or is she the real thing?
That’s what New Orleans police lieutenant Ernie Lucier had to decide in the first book, Mind Games, when she told him she saw the body of a dead woman in a vision when a masked man touches her at a Mardi Gras ball.
Diana is described by many as trouble looking for a place to happen. She’s fearless, reckless, and smart, but the one thing that sets her apart and makes it difficult for her to do anything clandestinely is she’s famous. People recognize her wherever she goes.
Here are some Diana facts:
She’s 5’2”, has a mass of black curls, wears only black and white with a touch of red to match her lipstick, and she might do an occasional private reading for an exorbitant fee. She won’t, however, perform in front of crowds, although in book three, she’s snookered into doing just that.
Diana is a fun character to write because I never know what she’s going to do. She learns more about the bad guys from touching them, and that’s why she’s always a target. They’re afraid of her. Ernie Lucier is totally smitten, and though a quiet, thoughtful man, he’s had to adjust to her celebrity. They make a great team.
My choice to pass along the character blog is Aaron Paul Lazar and his character Sky Lissoneau: the “Bad Boy” from Tall Pines Mysteries.
When Sky returns to the States after being MIA for eighteen years, his first love, Marcella, is stunned and deeply conflicted. Sky suffered badly in the war, forced to abandon his platoon when his best friend’s life was in danger. Captured and held as a prisoner of war for years, all he could think of was Marcella, his darling Marcella. It was the thought of Marcella’s soft kisses that kept him going. Her infectious laugh helped him survive the cruelest torture. And when he returns with a gang of vicious hi-powered crooks chasing him, she saves his life. Somehow, he just knew she’d be there, still waiting. But he didn't know she'd be married to Quinn "Black Eagle" Hollister.
Here's the link to Aaron's blog: http://murderby4.blogspot.com/2014/10...
http://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/20...
Financial crimes investigator Seamus McCree returns in this thrilling sequel to Bad Policy. With his house in Cincinnati in ruins, Seamus retreats to the family cabin for some well-earned rest and relaxation. But his plans for a quiet, contemplative winter in the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are thrown out the window when he discovers a naked woman on his porch during a blizzard. The mystery woman is suffering from hypothermia, frostbite, high fevers, amnesia—and rope burns on her wrists and ankles.
I never intended to write a series when I wrote Mind Games, but I got an idea for book two, and Goddess of the Moon was born. It all fit so perfectly. Diana, a character in mythology, was Goddess of the Hunt and Goddess of the Moon.
Then readers asked for book three, and I panicked. Could I write a third?
Backlash was released September 30, 2014. People have already asked me about a fourth. To that I say, maybe.What makes the series a natural is Diana herself. Here’s why:
Diana gained celebrity when she was six-years old after she found the body of a missing child. From that point until she was twelve, her father pushed her to find missing persons both for the police and for individuals searching for their missing kin, most of whom are dead.
The pressure on the young psychic took its toll, and to save her sanity, she claimed she lost her gift. Unwilling to lose his meal ticket, Diana’s father created a psychic act that traveled the world. How does a psychic who’s supposedly not psychic anymore star in a psychic act?
Easy. Daddy hired computer experts to hack into audience participants’ credit cards and any other trough of information to aid Diana pull off her ruse. Besides what her hackers unearthed, she somehow managed to find something in everyone’s psychic reading that no one else could have known.
So, is our heroine is a fraud, a charlatan, and a quack, or is she the real thing?
That’s what New Orleans police lieutenant Ernie Lucier had to decide in the first book, Mind Games, when she told him she saw the body of a dead woman in a vision when a masked man touches her at a Mardi Gras ball.
Diana is described by many as trouble looking for a place to happen. She’s fearless, reckless, and smart, but the one thing that sets her apart and makes it difficult for her to do anything clandestinely is she’s famous. People recognize her wherever she goes.
Here are some Diana facts:
She’s 5’2”, has a mass of black curls, wears only black and white with a touch of red to match her lipstick, and she might do an occasional private reading for an exorbitant fee. She won’t, however, perform in front of crowds, although in book three, she’s snookered into doing just that.
Diana is a fun character to write because I never know what she’s going to do. She learns more about the bad guys from touching them, and that’s why she’s always a target. They’re afraid of her. Ernie Lucier is totally smitten, and though a quiet, thoughtful man, he’s had to adjust to her celebrity. They make a great team.
My choice to pass along the character blog is Aaron Paul Lazar and his character Sky Lissoneau: the “Bad Boy” from Tall Pines Mysteries.
When Sky returns to the States after being MIA for eighteen years, his first love, Marcella, is stunned and deeply conflicted. Sky suffered badly in the war, forced to abandon his platoon when his best friend’s life was in danger. Captured and held as a prisoner of war for years, all he could think of was Marcella, his darling Marcella. It was the thought of Marcella’s soft kisses that kept him going. Her infectious laugh helped him survive the cruelest torture. And when he returns with a gang of vicious hi-powered crooks chasing him, she saves his life. Somehow, he just knew she’d be there, still waiting. But he didn't know she'd be married to Quinn "Black Eagle" Hollister.
Here's the link to Aaron's blog: http://murderby4.blogspot.com/2014/10...
Finishing a Difficult Novel
Finishing a Difficult Novel
I wrote this blog for Blood Red Pencil Blogspot on August 15, 2014, about six weeks before I released Backlash, the third book in the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series. I've had some time to think over some of the thoughts I had back then. I noted the changes at the end of the post.
Getting to the end of the first draft of your book is a major accomplishment for any writer. Getting to the end of the first draft of Backlash, the third book in my Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, was flat-out torture. I’d never struggled to finish a book before. As a typical pantser—one who writes by the seat of her pants—I write a chapter at a time, with only a glimpse in my brain to where I’m going with the story, possibly two or three chapters ahead at most. So why was this book giving me so much trouble?
Expectations. Both mine and my readers.
Over the past year, people wrote to ask me when the next Diana Racine novel was coming out. OMG, people were waiting for it. Those readers had obviously liked the first two well enough to look forward to the third. I published the last one, Goddess of the Moon, in October of 2012. That was almost two years ago. I published one other standalone in between.
Though the first book, Mind Games, wasn’t published until March of 2012, I wrote it way back in 2003 or 2004. My agent spent a couple of years trying to sell it to a publisher, with no success. Then I got distracted writing a few erotic romances under a pen name, published by two very good e-publishers. With no large or small press interested in Mind Games, I decided to self-publish it and the other suspense books I’d already written. At the time, I had no intention of writing a series until I had an idea for a second book, and Goddess of the Moon was born.
Both books received pretty good reviews. How could I possibly live up to them with a third book? I didn’t want to rely on the same formula―I hate that word when it applies to books―that I used in the first two books, namely, Diana in trouble to be rescued by New Orleans police lieutenant, Ernie Lucier, the love of her life. Was there enough excitement? Suspense? Humor?
One of the main criticisms in longtime series is keeping the characters from becoming stale and repetitious, thereby relying on contrived storylines to make up for the lack of characterization. Since Mind Games was written as a stand-alone, I had to dig deep to advance my main characters in Goddess of the Moon. What was left to know about them? How could I keep them fresh in the third book without losing the traits I had worked so hard to cultivate? Does the relationship between the two protagonists evolve naturally?
You see where I’m going? I began to second-guess myself, fearing Backlash wasn’t up to the two that preceded it. I agonized, edited, rewrote, and in the process lost my objectivity.
I always knew the ending, but getting there took every bit of perseverance I could muster. I’m reading it aloud now, patching inconsistencies, and will send it to a beta reader for her opinion and to my editor for her superb editing skills. My brilliant critique partner has already given it her stamp of approval, surprised by a twist at the end. I’ve announced a September publication date because I think on the whole it’s as good as I can make it.
But what a trip.
Writing a series, though popular with readers, adds extra pressure for me as a writer. Maybe I put that pressure on myself, but I’ve read so many second and third books of a series that can’t hold a candle to the first one. Don’t ask how I feel about the tenth or fifteenth book in a series. I admire those authors who can pull off a long series without disappointing his or her readers.
Will I write a fourth? My original answer to this when I wrote the blog was no, but I've changed my mind. Backlash has so far garnered good reviews. Some claimed it to be the best book of the three. Again, I can't agree or disagree because I don't know. But readers weren't disappointed, and that's the best part so far. I do know that there will be a new permanent character in the fourth book. And that's all I know right now. First to finish Indiscretion, then on to Diana Four.
I wrote this blog for Blood Red Pencil Blogspot on August 15, 2014, about six weeks before I released Backlash, the third book in the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series. I've had some time to think over some of the thoughts I had back then. I noted the changes at the end of the post.
Getting to the end of the first draft of your book is a major accomplishment for any writer. Getting to the end of the first draft of Backlash, the third book in my Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, was flat-out torture. I’d never struggled to finish a book before. As a typical pantser—one who writes by the seat of her pants—I write a chapter at a time, with only a glimpse in my brain to where I’m going with the story, possibly two or three chapters ahead at most. So why was this book giving me so much trouble?
Expectations. Both mine and my readers.
Over the past year, people wrote to ask me when the next Diana Racine novel was coming out. OMG, people were waiting for it. Those readers had obviously liked the first two well enough to look forward to the third. I published the last one, Goddess of the Moon, in October of 2012. That was almost two years ago. I published one other standalone in between.
Though the first book, Mind Games, wasn’t published until March of 2012, I wrote it way back in 2003 or 2004. My agent spent a couple of years trying to sell it to a publisher, with no success. Then I got distracted writing a few erotic romances under a pen name, published by two very good e-publishers. With no large or small press interested in Mind Games, I decided to self-publish it and the other suspense books I’d already written. At the time, I had no intention of writing a series until I had an idea for a second book, and Goddess of the Moon was born.
Both books received pretty good reviews. How could I possibly live up to them with a third book? I didn’t want to rely on the same formula―I hate that word when it applies to books―that I used in the first two books, namely, Diana in trouble to be rescued by New Orleans police lieutenant, Ernie Lucier, the love of her life. Was there enough excitement? Suspense? Humor?
One of the main criticisms in longtime series is keeping the characters from becoming stale and repetitious, thereby relying on contrived storylines to make up for the lack of characterization. Since Mind Games was written as a stand-alone, I had to dig deep to advance my main characters in Goddess of the Moon. What was left to know about them? How could I keep them fresh in the third book without losing the traits I had worked so hard to cultivate? Does the relationship between the two protagonists evolve naturally?
You see where I’m going? I began to second-guess myself, fearing Backlash wasn’t up to the two that preceded it. I agonized, edited, rewrote, and in the process lost my objectivity.
I always knew the ending, but getting there took every bit of perseverance I could muster. I’m reading it aloud now, patching inconsistencies, and will send it to a beta reader for her opinion and to my editor for her superb editing skills. My brilliant critique partner has already given it her stamp of approval, surprised by a twist at the end. I’ve announced a September publication date because I think on the whole it’s as good as I can make it.
But what a trip.
Writing a series, though popular with readers, adds extra pressure for me as a writer. Maybe I put that pressure on myself, but I’ve read so many second and third books of a series that can’t hold a candle to the first one. Don’t ask how I feel about the tenth or fifteenth book in a series. I admire those authors who can pull off a long series without disappointing his or her readers.
Will I write a fourth? My original answer to this when I wrote the blog was no, but I've changed my mind. Backlash has so far garnered good reviews. Some claimed it to be the best book of the three. Again, I can't agree or disagree because I don't know. But readers weren't disappointed, and that's the best part so far. I do know that there will be a new permanent character in the fourth book. And that's all I know right now. First to finish Indiscretion, then on to Diana Four.
Rafflecopter Giveaway
On July 5, I'm giving away 6 copies of Mind Games. Click the link below, then on either of my Facebook pages to be entered in the contest.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Two grand prizes will be given away at the end of the month -- a $100 Amazon gift card and an Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablet.
Check out the chance to win other giveaways all month long on The Fussy Librarian:
http://www.thefussylibrarian.com/for-...
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Two grand prizes will be given away at the end of the month -- a $100 Amazon gift card and an Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablet.
Check out the chance to win other giveaways all month long on The Fussy Librarian:
http://www.thefussylibrarian.com/for-...
New Publication and a FREE Book to Celebrate
For everyone on the planet, 2018 marks a new year, a new beginning. For writers, it marks another year to produce a book for publication. I haven’t published a new novel since September of 2015. I reached 35,000 words on one, decided I didn’t believe the premise, and gave up, though I think it has future possibilities with a little more thought. I did write The Last Heist, a novella for the anthology, Lowcountry Crime, but that was it.
On January 9th, I published The Scent of Murder, the fourth book in the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, my ninth suspense novel, and my twelfth book overall, including erotic romance books written under a pseudonym.
When I published Backlash, the third book in the series, I thought it was the most difficult book I’d written, not because it was a hard book to write, but because I didn’t want the series to diminish in quality.
We’ve all read reviews of books deep into a series that suggest the author should move on, that s/he had written the best of the books and now the characters, story, and suspense have become tired and repetitive. A few writers have been able to pull off a long series and keep readers engaged, but it's not easy to keep the plots and characters fresh? I thought about how to make the fourth book as good or better than the third book. Here are the answers that work for me.
Characters.
Characters.
Characters.
How many times have you read that the characters in a book were unlikeable? It takes an amazing plot to overcome that. I’ve stopped reading books because I didn’t care what happened to the main character. DIDN’T CARE! I want my characters to be likeable. Damaged, maybe, but I want the reader to care about them enough to follow them into subsequent books.
Developing relationships in a series is essential. My lead series characters meet in the first book, Mind Games. I personally don’t like cat and mouse games for too long in a romantic relationship. A little tension in the beginning is fine, but their constant back and forth irritability is annoying, and if a writer keeps that going in subsequent books, especially stand-alones, readers know what to expect, and the books become formulaic. Characters grow to like each other; get on with the story and quit messing around with their hot and cold emotions, especially in a suspense/thriller.
I had posed a question to writer friends if a series character always needs to be in danger at the end of every suspense/thriller. The answer was a resounding YES! How many times can a writer make that fresh? Different dangers, different rescues, different, different, different. It’s a terrific challenge to keep the reader alert and engaged. Of course, he or she is rescued unless you want to end the series, but how it’s pulled off is crucial.
Secondary characters in a series—the ones in every book—should be as developed as you can make them short of having them take over the story. As the series develops, so should they. Readers get to know them, like them, see their different personalities. In some cases, a secondary character can be the story, and that’s okay. Think John Sandford’s character Virgil Flowers in the Prey series becoming his own series. Why? Because he was interesting and well developed.
In The Scent of Murder, I introduce a ten-year-old boy and thought long and hard about whether to keep him as an ongoing character in the series. I didn't decide until the end of the book.
Then, of course, there's the plot, or in the case of this book, two plots that have nothing to do with each other. Could I switch from one plot to the other without jarring the reader? That was the question I asked beta readers. One plot also takes Diana, a retired psychic entertainer, into another realm of her otherworldly gift. It was tricky and risky. I’m sure my readers will let me know if I succeeded or if I opted for sensationalism and failed.
Because I have two plots, I have multiple villains. Remember characters, characters, characters? Even though villains appear in only one book (unless s/he is a recurring villain - think Professor Moriarty), they should be as well developed as the main characters. Writers can make them nasty, irredeemable, or sympathetic. I’ve written them all, but they must be memorable.
To celebrate the publication of The Scent of Murder, I’m giving away the ebook of Mind Games, the first book in the series, January 11~14 on Amazon, and I’ll be interviewed on the Writers Who Kill blog on January 13th. www.writerswhokill.blogspot.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Polly-Iyer/e/B...
Happy writing. Oh, and happy reading too.
On January 9th, I published The Scent of Murder, the fourth book in the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, my ninth suspense novel, and my twelfth book overall, including erotic romance books written under a pseudonym.
When I published Backlash, the third book in the series, I thought it was the most difficult book I’d written, not because it was a hard book to write, but because I didn’t want the series to diminish in quality.We’ve all read reviews of books deep into a series that suggest the author should move on, that s/he had written the best of the books and now the characters, story, and suspense have become tired and repetitive. A few writers have been able to pull off a long series and keep readers engaged, but it's not easy to keep the plots and characters fresh? I thought about how to make the fourth book as good or better than the third book. Here are the answers that work for me.
Characters.
Characters.
Characters.
How many times have you read that the characters in a book were unlikeable? It takes an amazing plot to overcome that. I’ve stopped reading books because I didn’t care what happened to the main character. DIDN’T CARE! I want my characters to be likeable. Damaged, maybe, but I want the reader to care about them enough to follow them into subsequent books.
Developing relationships in a series is essential. My lead series characters meet in the first book, Mind Games. I personally don’t like cat and mouse games for too long in a romantic relationship. A little tension in the beginning is fine, but their constant back and forth irritability is annoying, and if a writer keeps that going in subsequent books, especially stand-alones, readers know what to expect, and the books become formulaic. Characters grow to like each other; get on with the story and quit messing around with their hot and cold emotions, especially in a suspense/thriller.
I had posed a question to writer friends if a series character always needs to be in danger at the end of every suspense/thriller. The answer was a resounding YES! How many times can a writer make that fresh? Different dangers, different rescues, different, different, different. It’s a terrific challenge to keep the reader alert and engaged. Of course, he or she is rescued unless you want to end the series, but how it’s pulled off is crucial.
Secondary characters in a series—the ones in every book—should be as developed as you can make them short of having them take over the story. As the series develops, so should they. Readers get to know them, like them, see their different personalities. In some cases, a secondary character can be the story, and that’s okay. Think John Sandford’s character Virgil Flowers in the Prey series becoming his own series. Why? Because he was interesting and well developed.
In The Scent of Murder, I introduce a ten-year-old boy and thought long and hard about whether to keep him as an ongoing character in the series. I didn't decide until the end of the book.
Then, of course, there's the plot, or in the case of this book, two plots that have nothing to do with each other. Could I switch from one plot to the other without jarring the reader? That was the question I asked beta readers. One plot also takes Diana, a retired psychic entertainer, into another realm of her otherworldly gift. It was tricky and risky. I’m sure my readers will let me know if I succeeded or if I opted for sensationalism and failed.
Because I have two plots, I have multiple villains. Remember characters, characters, characters? Even though villains appear in only one book (unless s/he is a recurring villain - think Professor Moriarty), they should be as well developed as the main characters. Writers can make them nasty, irredeemable, or sympathetic. I’ve written them all, but they must be memorable.
To celebrate the publication of The Scent of Murder, I’m giving away the ebook of Mind Games, the first book in the series, January 11~14 on Amazon, and I’ll be interviewed on the Writers Who Kill blog on January 13th. www.writerswhokill.blogspot.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Polly-Iyer/e/B...
Happy writing. Oh, and happy reading too.
