I’m in the final phases of editing for A Greyt Greyhound Rescue. The final draft will go to the publisher in early January. I’m looking forward to my first mystery being available in print and ebook formats in just a few weeks.
One of the fun parts of writing a mystery is creating characters and their back stories, putting them in a dangerous situation and then trying out different ways they might react consistent with their back stories. It’s even more fun when a character is trying to figure out a mystery while at the same time having personal challenges.
In A Greyt Greyhound Rescue, Rachel has a history of wanting to help others but also of being impulsive, even when it means putting herself in danger. Sometimes she simply acts without thinking of the consequences. At the same time, she is wondering if she can trust this new man in her life after having been betrayed in the past.
Sometimes I realize that I need to fill in a little more back story in order to explain a character’s actions in the present. Do I need to say more about her professional life or are her actions better explained by a personal anecdote. I realized during the editing process, that it seemed a little odd that Rachel would go to such great lengths to help her neighbor Carol who had been accused of stealing from her rich family. So, I added an anecdote from Rachel’s middle school years that helped explain why she would help someone in Carol’s position.
For my character Will, I had always known that he had been raised by an aunt and uncle who were not nurturing, thus making it difficult for him to sustain a relationship. But. I realized that I needed to balance that with a more positive experience that would give some hope that he might be able to be in a relationship as an adult. At some point during one of my rewrites, I added one good friend, Andrew and it turns out that Andrew had a mother very much like my own mother, Bernice, and she served as a mother figure to him. Add to that mix some neighbors who provided some nurturing for both Will and Andrew and there you go. A reason for some commitment issues in Will’s adult life but also some reason to hope that the positive impact of others remained with him.
My new challenge is writing book two in the series and continuing to develop my two main characters as well as get them involved in a new mystery. I have an outline finished and am about 50 pages into book two, tentatively titled A Greyt Deception.
Randall Wisehart 