This is the Way I Roll
This past week has been an emotional roller coaster. Aside from my surgery, which kept me nearly flat for a week, the news has been all over the map. Up and down, and down and up. Most of you know my stand on certain issues and I’ve had to ignore some Georgia cousins who felt a need to rant and preach. So, other than the research I’m doing for my novel, my online presence has been minimal.
And then, there’s my dad’s will. Today is the final day for anyone to contest it. And there have been some threats. We’ll just have to wait and see.
My dad basically disowned and disinherited two sisters. We share the same mother and father. They couldn’t care less. Both have been estranged from the family for decades. The eldest of them wrote a really nasty letter about my dad to his wife and mentioned me in a most derogatory manner.
She always wanted to be an only child. She left home at fourteen (only spending four years with my dad after my mom’s death), and I haven’t even seen her but once, briefly, at my grandmother’s funeral in 1985. She doesn’t even know me, or my life experiences, so I can’t imagine the source of information that she used to determine her malicious point of view. I have a great relationship with my dad’s lovely wife. We just had to laugh about it and move on.
I thought it was in really poor taste to so vehemently attack my dad (and me) to his grieving wife. The nearly thirty years he’s spent with his wife have been joyful years. He didn’t die at 78 the same man he was at 28. Forgiveness is not a word in some people’s repertoire, much less an act of their heart and soul.
We haven’t been fishing since my surgery. I miss being on the water. It’s such a serene experience. The birds, dolphin and manatees. The motion of gentle waves. The friendliness of the boat people. My spiritual rejuvenation. I’m looking forward to Thursday, when we hit the deep water.
My time has been spent on my novel. I write or research for a couple of hours and then rest a couple. I’m at Chapter Eleven, and 17, 818 words. I’ve broken it down into three Acts, like a screen play. The transition between the first two Acts was seamless.
Act One focused on introducing characters, setting the stage, the inciting incidents. Bizarre and frightening things are happening to my main character and her family. One three year old murder has evidence…then Jillian, one of the main characters, has two clairvoyant nightmares, two more murders occur. One staged like the one three years ago. The third has a totally different M.O. We’ve just discovered the murders are connected. My protagonist, Bill Meleague, G.B.I. Liaison and former retired crime scene investigator, has met a psychic medium who is an old hippie chick, Dr. Saraswati Vidya, Sara for short, and she is a retired paranormal psychology professor from Emory University. He’s fighting his own demons and he and Sara develop more than a working relationship.
Act Two will focus on the motions of the adversaries. The antagonists take center stage as Jillian tries to harness the powers of the “gift” that has been bestowed upon her. Jillian’s nightmares worsen. The pace picks up as six or eight more people have to die. She witnesses the murders through the eyes of the killer. Complications arise.
List of Suspects:
Band Members:
Sterno, a pyromaniac and family member of Jillian’s boyfriend (drummer)
Joseph, a schizo, reclusive, withdrawn character (guitarist)
Razor, The band leader and Satan worshiper (lyricist and singer)
Eric, Jillian’s son (bass guitarist)
Christoph, a Criminal Science major at a local college (keyboards and synthesizer)
Other suspects:
Tony, Jillian’s boyfriend, a music producer from California that she grew up with at a children’s home
Jillian in a fugue state
An elusive stranger who shows up at every performance of the band, Satanic cult member who idolizes Razor
Are you familiar with the Night Stalker from the mid-eighties?
If you are, you’ll have a front seat in this book.
Everything comes to a head at the end of Act Two beginning of Act Three with the climax.
Act Three:
Jillian has grown from a quibbling, frightened, emotional wreck into a powerful force.
Another main character learns a valuable lesson and slays a dragon (figuratively speaking).
Two characters have to give up someone meaningful to them in one sort of way or another. (No spoilers.)
Filed under: My Novels, Writing Process/WIPs Tagged: current events, dad's will, Night Stalker, novel progress, recuperation, sister's letter, spiritual rejuvenation, surgery, Suspects, Three Act Structure
