A.R. Simmons's Blog: Musings and Mutterings, page 15

An “Official” Case

 

Richard Carter’s first official case. Spree killer Bobby Lee Paget has passed through the area after killing a family in Arkansas and kidnapping a woman in Missouri. Federal authorities think Paget has fled to the west coast, but when bodies begin turning up on logging roads in Hawthorn County, Richard suspects the killer is staying somewhere nearby.  See at Amazon

 

 

 

Canaan Camp

Richard Carter #3

Are 'Stock Characters' Taboo?

We’ve all read about “stock characters.” They’re the equivalent of trite expressions. (Poison pills, right?) Let’s take a look at how they originated. Today’s stock characters began as yesterday’s fascinatingly original ones. Readers and viewers loved them. They became iconic. Authors copied them. After years of such tribute, they became debased by overuse.

I’ll begin by stating that I think it’s okay to use both stock characters and trite expressions if we employ them as we do unusual words—sparingly. Stocks seem to work fine as minor characters where they can serve as a sort of shorthand to convey an entire situation or setting quickly. I think they can be used for main characters also so long as significant modification and evolution occur as the story progresses.

The ideal, of course, is to create original characters. But how? Since we cannot imagine anything (see it, hear it, feel it) that we have not experienced either directly or vicariously, we imagine by rearranging our images to picture them in new ways. I try to develop my characters by patterning them after people I know. Then I add, subtract, or exaggerate traits. After that, I let them develop themselves in a logical manner as the story proceeds. This way, even characters that begin as stock transform into ones that are not.

What are your thoughts? What is your method?

Excerpt from Secret Song (Richard Carter #4)

Shane went outside as much to let the uninvited tension dissipate as for a smoke. The autumn night was all washed-out grays in the half-light of a full moon not yet risen beyond the eastern ridge. He walked down to the creek, stopping momentarily to light up before going out onto the dock. Riffles murmured beneath the floats, soft, but distinct in the autumnal chill. Overhead, limbs laced a star-stippled sky with slashes of intricate tracery. First one, then another star blinked out, momentarily puzzling him. A mournful solitary honk solved the mystery—night-flying geese. A puff of wind stirred the crisp leaves behind him, sounding like the turning of a page, the passing of another year. He was already nineteen.

The Evolution of the Series (3): Canaan Camp

Canaan Camp (Richard Carter #3) was the second of the series to be written. (Cold Tears, RC #2, was written as a bridge from Bonne Femme.) For best enjoyment, the series should be read in order, but each of the novels is a stand-alone story. If you happen to read one out of order, you won't be at a loss as to who these people are or what the heck happened to them before this.

I found the going easier this time. There was less redacting, but still a lot of editing. During this project I found my "voice." That may be easier for some authors than it was for me. A key that I discovered was something I should not do, rather than something I should do. I have a good eidetic memory. I can hear what I have read--sometimes too well. While in college, a professor joked that when I wrote about Milton my writing read a little like Milton. Also, my training is in history where the unpardonable sin is plagiarism (of ideas as well as words). The upshot is: I do not read fiction while writing fiction.

For preparation and for authenticity sake as far as the motivations, actions, and thought process of my bad guy, I kept books written by members of the FBI's behavioral science unit on hand right next to DMS-IV and "A Primer on Drug Action." These are still on the bookshelf above the worn out keyboard upon which I wrote all ten books (so far) in the series.

I enjoyed getting to know the new characters in this story, and I enjoyed writing it. Like many of you, I suppose, if I find myself not caring about the characters in a book, I won't finish reading it. The same thing applies to my writing. I'm sure you will enjoy learning more about Jill and Richard as well as a very special young woman, Raven. I would love to share them with you.

viewBook.at/B00ECZPAO0

The Evolution of the Series (2): Cold Tears

Although this is the second book in the Richard Carter series, it was the fourth one written, and the first set in the Ozarks. I moved Richard directly into Hawthorn County from Michigan. (If you read Bonne Femme, you understand the reason for the move.) However, after two novels set there, I realized that the move to the hill country was not seamless. So I wrote Cold Tears as a bridge to take the Carters from Breton County, Michigan to Hawthorn County Missouri, and to take Richard from pardoned felon to rural deputy sheriff. The Carters also had emotional and marital problems to resolve. Cold Tears gave me the opportunity tie up loose ends and settle them (emotionally and physically) in the place where they begin gathering a non-traditional extended family.

Another way this book was out of place was that it was published third instead of second as it should have been. This was unavoidable due to contractual problems which are best not discussed. Suffice it to say, things were resolved in time for me to publish shortly after Canaan Camp.

This novel was great fun to write, and I hope you will enjoy reading it. I got attached to another character, a strong young woman. I must confess that I am partial to powerful female characters.

Cold Tears

The Evolution of the Series: Bonne Femme

Bonne Femme is the first of the Richard Carter novels. The book was written eight years ago and left to cool while I worked other stories. Although the plot and the characters remained unchanged, the book required major surgery. The problem was that there were too many extraneous details, anecdotes, asides, and instances of purple prose. I had yet to learn that not every thought needs to be set in print.

I also had reservations about the believability of the plot. Then I came across these wonderful lines from Mark Twain. "Life does not consist mainly--or even largely--of facts and happenings. Life consists mainly of the storm of thoughts forever blowing through one's mind." With that in mind, my characters and their dilemma are frighteningly believable.

The characters had become so real to me that I could hear their dialog before I wrote it. I didn't want their story to end, so I moved them from Michigan to my native Ozarks. In a sense, I took them home with me. This was the genesis of the Richard Carter series. "Canaan Camp" #3 and "Secret Song" #4 followed. Then I wrote "Cold Tears" #2 as a "bridge" taking the Carters to Hawthorn County and Blue Creek.

Bonne Femme

Richard Carter #2

Cold Tears (Richard Carter #2)

Bonne Femme Where It All Began

This is the Prequel to the Richard Carter tales of obsession. Mogadishu, Cartier Michigan, and the isle of Bonne Femme. From a “chance encounter” on campus between a French-American coed and two ex-Marines A grotesque triangle develops and then spirals into a campaign of physical intimidation and terror. A determined psychopath, a bright, but conflicted young woman, and a damaged man who is terrified by what he might have to do as he is about what might happen.

See at Amazon

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This is the Prequel to the Richard Carter tales of obsession