Learning the Craft, and Trying Again

Now resolved to the fact that writing a story wasn’t as easy as telling stories from my childhood exploits to my kids, I set out to learn how to write fiction.

At first, I subscribed to writing publications, and purchased and studied several books on “how to write fiction”. In my opinion, among some of the best of these were “The Elements of Fiction Writing” series from Writer’s Digest.

Finally, after several months of study, I decided to try actually writing something again, but didn’t even think about Kennison’s Foil. Instead, being a mystery and thriller fan, I was thinking in that direction and in search of an idea that would get the juices flowing.

Then, while traveling from the Cincinnati, Ohio area, over to Indianapolis, Indiana, I read a newspaper article about some young men’s bodies being found dumped in rural parts of Indian, and Ohio. I have read that one of my favorite authors, John Grisham, hates doing the research for his stories. Turns out, I don’t. In fact, I love it, maybe too much!

That same newspaper article I read linked the dead men to a gay bar in Indianapolis. That intrigued me, so there I headed in search of a story. Keep in mind I’m still in my early to mid forties at the time, still capable of taking care of myself, and of defending myself if ever required. In other words, I was fearless.

My first and only venture into a gay bar was quite an experience, and a story unto itself. One of the first things I saw as I sat at the bar was a notice on a bulletin board warning; “Someone is killing us! Be careful who you leave with!” Now, I have to say, that if I was gay, that’s a warning I would not have taken lightly!

Anyway, I learned all about the killings, much about the gay lifestyle, and club scene, and much, much more. I was honest with the bar tenders about why I was there, and they, and a few patrons were very accommodating with their knowledge of the killings, and helpful with the background for my fledgling story idea.

So, I began writing this story about a serial killer who is killing young gay men in Indianapolis. My main characters were Sandra Palmer, an unmarried female police detective, and her black partner, Maurice Whiteman—a notorious womanizer.

I wrote and researched as best I could, got about a third, to half way through, when I figured out once again that I didn’t yet know what I was doing. Back to learning once again, but this time the “how to books” were supplemented with live writing classes, as well as input from two writer’s groups.

A side note:
They finally caught the killer of those young gay men from the Indianapolis area. His name is Larry Eyler, and his killing spree was documented in the book, “Freed to Kill”, by Gera-Lind Kolarik. Turns out, that besides the gay bar in Indy, I was close to where the killer was on several other occasions as well. One of his favorite burial grounds was in a field right down the road from one of my best customers—one that I visited regularly. And he frequently ate at a truck stop diner where I always took those customers for lunch.