The Story Behind the Story with D.C. Malcolm of New Brunswick, Canada.

 

           We have someone new to the Scribblerthis week. 

Let’s welcome D.C. Malcolm.

She is sharing the good news about herLatest book.  

Read on my friends.

 

 

D.C. Malcolm is a self-published Historical Mystery Author of Guilty Deceptions and Dark Jealousy. She lives in New Brunswick, Canada, with her son. Her interests include Victorian times, True Crime, and Murder Mysteries. Which heavily influence her writing. When she isn’t killing off characters in her novels, D.C. enjoys a quiet life, reading, spending time with family, and watching murder mysteries.

 

 

Title: DarkJealousy

 

Synopsis: A year after the events of Guilty Deceptions, Sheriff Dawsonreturns when Catherine Baker is found brutally murdered next to her mother'swoodshed in Willow Grove. Armed with his deputy's keen eye and his own wit,Sheriff Dawson must solve this gruesome murder. However, when he has it allfigured out, suspects start dropping one by one. Forcing Sheriff Dawson to facethe reality of stereotypes – fight for what is right – and hopefully solvethese crimes before someone else dies.

 

The Story Behind the Story: While I was finishing GuiltyDeceptions, an idea came to me. I didn’t want to say goodbye to the charactersI had created, and I felt there was more to Sheriff Dawson, Becky, Annie, andPatrick. I also didn’t want to let go of some other characters like Sylvester,Billy, and Horace, to name a few.

Afterbrainstorming, I decided that I could continue this story into a series. Thiswas because Guilty Deceptions had transformed from a story focused on Maggieand John to a story about Sheriff Dawson, his mind, and his hardships.

OnceI decided that I was going to continue the series, I realized I needed to finda plot to base my story on. This is because of my unique niche of looselybasing my murder mysteries on real-life crimes from Victorian times.

So,I researched cases that stuck out. Something that I could twist and morph intoa story. After hours of research, I came across a case that happened in 1883,where a man named William had been convicted of murdering his wife, Elizabeth.The murder took place in Willow Grove, a community that I had alreadyintroduced in Guilty Deceptions, and I figured it would be nice to revisit thearea in a second book.

Theproblem was the date, which wasn’t much of a problem. I just changed the datefrom 1883 to 1871 to fit the timeline of Sheriff Dawson. When I sit down towrite, I never know the ending of my stories. Halfway through my first draft, Idecided that I had to touch on topics that were considered taboo in 1871.Sheriff Dawson is always ahead of his time and touches on these taboo subjectswith a modern view.

Ialso did some research via newspapers on Google Books. (I love using thisfeature in my research) and found out that Small Pox was going around SaintJohn in 1871. After my research, I wanted to place a few nods to GuiltyDeceptions. I researched buildings built by the real-life John and visitedthese buildings in the story during the investigation. I described thesebuildings the best I could, and, from my understanding, many still stand inSaint John today. I owe credit to the many people on the Facebook groupHistoric Saint John for helping me with this. I was able to make connections toa fellow local author who was a tremendous help. I also connected with a localhistorian who helped me with street names before the fire and where thesestreets were located.

WhenI had everything I needed, I let the characters tell me what happened, how ithappened, and who was responsible for it happening in the first place. My bookDark Jealousy was fun to write, and I plan to have more books in the SheriffDawson series. I’ve been working on a prequel to the books.

 

Website: GoHERE  

 

A question before you go:

Scribbler: What is the ideal spot for you when you write your stories? Music in the background or quiet. Coffee or tequila? Messy or neat?

DC: My apartment is small, but I created a makeshift office in a corner of my living room. This is where I work on my writing. It’s a small desk with my laptop and a few trinkets, cluttered with writing books, among other things. The wall behind my desk has a calendar, a corkboard for my notes, and is plastered with canvases about writing and books. Cluttered or not, this is my favorite place to write. I’m also not much of a drinker, only drinking on special occasions. However, I love my coffee and can be found with a cup beside me, usually a double-double – homemade. As for music or quiet, I can write with both. I grew up in a family of six. So, I had three younger siblings, all many years younger. The youngest is thirteen years my junior, so I tend to block out the noise, the easiest way I can concentrate.

 

 

An Excerpt:

The snow was stained crimson all around the front ofthe shed. The front wall and door were splattered in blood. Yet, my eyes wereon Catherine Baker; her head partly severed – as if the murderer attempted tocut her head off – but failed miserably at it. A few feet away, a bloody axewas discarded in the snow. Sylvester crept down and carefully examined thebody.

“Onan educated guess,” he said. “This death is but a few hours old, maybe less.”

“Thisis what I feared,” I said. “A fresh murder and we have no idea what the causeor intent here was. Will the killer strike again? That’s yet to be seen.”Edward walked up to us.

“Wehave tracks in the snow,” he said. “One is a woman’s, the others men and I canguess that they are about size ten.” I sighed and shook my head.

“Thereare a lot of men that wear size ten,” I said. “We’ll have to narrow down thelist. Yet, we don’t even have a suspect.” The photographer was snapping photosaround us.

“Whatabout the farmhand?” Patrick asked, and I narrowed my eyes.

“Whatabout him?” I asked, and Patrick sighed.

“Well,he was here during the murder, wasn’t he boss?” Patrick asked. “He either didit or he knows something.” He was right, we had to look into everything and thefarmhand was a good place to start the investigation.

“Okay,”I said. “Here’s what we are going to do,” I licked my lips and pointed to mymen. “Paul, Edward, and Curtis, you search the house for any clues. Peter,Jonathan, and William, you search the grounds with Dr. Knox and Dr. Murphy.Patrick, you're with me.”

“Whereare we going, boss?” Patrick asked.

“Weneed to question the farmhand,” I said, making my way back out front andlooking at Angela.

“MissAngela,” I said. “What can you tell us about your farmhand?”

“Daniel?”she asked. “Him started working for me family about ten years ago. Him shouldbe around here somewhere. You don’t think Daniel did this?”

“It’stoo early to be certain,” I said. “But, I need to investigate everypossibility. He was here, the axe belongs to him, and he never came runningwhen you screamed. He either is involved or-”

“He’s dead too,” Angela said, nodding.




Thank you for sharing your news and for being our guest this week, DC. We wish you continued success with your writing.

And a BIG thank you to all our readers and visitors. You’re the reason we do what we do.