December Round Robin Blog Fest

They Cancelled the DJ a new release f... David B. Savage, shares his business ...

December Round Robin Blog Fest

Happy Holidays to you all!!

Twas the week before Christmas and the blog fest is here

For reasons that really aren't exactly clear

We're writing about how our family deeds

Translate into delicous writing scenes

In other words: How do your family experiences translate into writing scenes?

In spite of various family members recurring nightmares about being characters in my books, I’ve been pretty easy on most of them. Sure, the odd friend has appeared as a victim or an innocent bystander in my mysteries, but I never portray them as awful people. For the most part, rather than blatantly use one person in my books I tend to mesh two or three people into one character using traits, features, and habits from each in different ways. The writing group in The Bookstore Lady is a great example. No, they are not based on my local writing group aside from bits of various personalities.

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Imagine coming home and finding a group of people gathered in the living room of your landlady’s home then being informed you have just become the newest member of a local writing group. Poor Katie never set out to be a writer, unlike me, but she quickly found her niche in the group since she ran the local bookstore. That bookstore was based on one the kids and I frequented often and where I did my first book launch. I’ll have to go back there one day soon. Perhaps with a new book in 2022.

Any family or even friend experiences I may use will definitely be embellished. When book one of my Gilda Wright Mysteries, Dead Without Honor, first came out, there was an ongoing debate for years as to which of my senseis at the time were the one I modeled Mick Williams after! I can honestly say none of them. Mick was a combination of many people. Kane Garrick is also a combination of various.

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One of the most fun scenes I’ve ever put into a book was about a gingerbread house we made one year. While putting it together, the icing was still too warm and a roof panel slid off and broke. Since perfection wasn’t going to happen, we put a candy Santa beneath the rubble. The joys of having three boys!

Our own gingerbread disasters inspired Christina Davidson’s whole catastrophe with building a gingerbread house for Lucy Stephens in The Bakery Lady. Although I can honestly say I’ve never trapped a bowl inside of one but did come darn close!

Becoming a single mom came after I’d written The Mystery Lady, but Lucy was loosely based on a couple people I knew at the time. Then I became her, which was a switch. Just like Lucy, life went on and has become better again one step at a time.