BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

Yeah…dying.

And, I don’t mean like up on stage or anything. Although, that has happened too. I once gave a workshop to about two dozen people who sat there quietly, never asked a question, cracked a smile, or even showed any expression on their faces. Apparently they didn’t find me anywhere near as amusing or informative as I find myself. So, I had no choice but to ask Morrison to turn them all into frogs. I mean, what are big sisters for if they can’t defend their little brothers from crap like that?

There I go doing that digressing thing again…I must have adult onset ADD or something. (No, not making light of the disorder at all. The way my brain bounces around I often wonder if I have a mild case of it…)

Hold on…Need more coffee…

That’s better…and see there? It didn’t take anywhere near as long as you thought it would.

Okay, so back to this dying thing…

Long about Monday afternoon the flu hit me. I’m pretty much figuring it was the flu because it was sudden–as in the symptoms literally appeared over the span of a couple of hours–and were accompanied by a fever, chills, body aches, and all the debilitating crap that comes with the actual influenza virus. And, after a few days of sweating it out, I started feeling better. So, though I don’t even play a doctor on TV (although I’ve had a few of them as characters running around in my books) I have officially diagnosed what I had as the flu. So there.

Oh…And, yes, I DID have a flu shot. I’m an old guy, so I always get one. And, I made it through the whole flu season without getting ill…Now this. Either the shot wore off, or it didn’t account for this fugged up strain…

Anyway, so the problem is that the feeling better only lasted about a day. Actually, around 18 hours at most. Then I plummeted right back into miserable. However, I think this time it is either a cold, brought about by my immune system having been weakened by the flu, or it is just some horrid aftermath of the flu virus itself. Not sure which.

I won’t go into too many gory details, suffice it to say I am horribly congested and have a nasty–and overly productive–cough. (yech!) The body aches WERE gone, but now they are back…However, I can literally trace this new round of pains directly to the violent coughing fits.

Like I said, I’m dying here. Now, aren’t you glad I shared?

Okay…I suppose I should write something worthwhile in this blog to make reading it worth your time, rather than just grouse about feeling bad. (Although, if you ask Morrison, she will be happy to tell you that after seeing my astrological chart, it’s pretty obvious that “it’s all about me,” so I suppose I am allowed to complain for a bit–yeah, big sisters pick on you too. That’s one of the downsides *grin*…So do younger sisters. Yeah, I’m talkin’ about you Madden. Guess it’s a sister thing. I’d say it was a female thing, but wives are a different story. They don’t just pick on you. They subjugate you and then use you as an oversized Ken™ doll when they feel like dressing someone up other than themselves…But that’s another story, for another blog…*LOL*)

What’s that? Oh yeah…I said I would write something worthwhile…Okay. You’re right…Guess I’d better get to it then…

So, important stuff. Hmmm…Well, this might be of interest:

Even with all this being sick and stuff I managed to finish a Rowan Gant Investigations short story for submission to an anthology which is being put out by a different publisher. Even though WillowTree has dibs on all the future novel length Rowan Gant books ad infinitum, there wasn’t an issue with the characters appearing elsewhere, which is a good thing. It allows those crazy kids to go explore other stuff and get in trouble elsewhere for a change.

I can’t really say much about the anthology right at the moment, but as soon as I can, I will. What I can reveal is that the editor really liked the story. I suppose it helps that she was already a fan, but as I’ve said in the past, editors are evil. My WTP editor is a fan too, but she never hesitates to tell me if she hates something. I can only assume that it is an “editor gene sequence” and that they all will be brutally honest. At least, that has been my experience. However, the thing about all this is that since the setting for this piece was a bit of a departure for my characters, I was a fairly worried about effectively implementing it.

Apparently I was losing sleep over nothing.

Either way, like I said, as soon as I am free to run off at the mouth I will be doing so. You know me, and since it is about me, well…just ask Morrison. *grin*

Let’s see…Did I mention that I am miserable sick? I did? Okay…just checking…

Hmmmm…Well, I don’t know if I am in a frame of mind to answer any of the FAQ/Questions of the week right now. Maybe in a couple of days…Or, later next week actually, since I am buried with writing and my blogging needs to take a back seat to that…Which means, only one or two blogs per week right now as I am sure you’ve noticed…In fact, I’ve even received email about it.

So…how about some RGI trivia? Sound good? ‘Kay, here goes:

Little Known Trivia About the RGI Series

1) Various homicide detectives and patrol cops in the RGI series who are recurring peripheral type characters, requiring little to no development but still needing a name other than “hey you”, are named for the various English/Lit teachers/profs I had in high school and college: Ackman, Golden, Osthoff, Martin, and many others.

2) Yes. The recurring character named “Murv”–the lead crime scene technician with the SLPD Crime Scene Unit–is me. Kinda one of those Hitchcockian/Kingian cameo things. (Yeah…all about me again… *snicker*)

3) The cameo character of the news helicopter pilot in The Law Of Three, while never actually given a name, was an homage to St. Louis news helicopter pilot and hometown hero Allen Barklage, who was killed in a crash September 25th, 1998. Like the character in the book answered in reply to a question from Rowan, Barklage actually was a member of the 192nd AHC (Attack Helicopter Company) in Vietnam. As if surviving that weren’t enough, he gained notoriety here in STL for not only surviving, but foiling (while in flight) an attempt to hijack his helicopter so that it could be used for a prison break. Barklage was also responsible for using his aircraft to rescue a person who had jumped from a local bridge into the Missouri River.

4) I actually thought this one was glaring, but while some folks caught it, many others did not. No, I’m not commenting on the intelligence of the reading public here. I am just observing that I may have overestimated the “obviousness” of this bit of trivia. Of course, since I “already know the answer before I write the question,” all of it seems terribly obvious to me. Anyhow, Eldon Andrew Porter, the recurring antagonist who first appeared in Never Burn A Witch, shares his  initials with a famous author. His name was derived from the initials EAP (obviously) which are the same as one of my all time favorite writers, Edgar Allen Poe.

Okay…there are many more tidbits I can reveal, but I think I’ll leave them for another day. I need to go hack up a lung then grab some more coffee.

Hope everyone else out there is feeling better than I do right now. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone…

Welllll…that’s not entirely true. Maybe I’d wish it on Barbara Albright and Eldon Porter…

MR/Murv

Real questions, real answers (Note that I did NOT say real good answers…)

1) I want to say that your descriptions of paranormal experiences are amazing. How do you visualize the physical experiences so acutely?

I actually responded to this one via email a while back, but I fear I may have misunderstood the question. I went into some depth about my enlisting my wife in acting out various scenarios from the books as I write them. In particular, and I don’t want to give anything away, but for those of you who have read Love Is The Bond do you remember that scene with Rowan and Felicity on the convenience store parking lot? Well, let’s just say we raised a few eyebrows acting that out in our driveway. Why did we act out that scene in the first place? Simple– so I would know what Rowan could see from various positions, what Felicity could see and was capable of accomplishing, and exactly how to describe what was going on.

However, I digress as usual…

In retrospect the young lady may have wanted to know how I visualize the physical effects of the paranormal experiences my protagonist experiences. If that is the case, then she probably thinks I’m a big, flaming idiot at this point for not actually answering the question she asked.

So, if her question was the one I didn’t answer, here it is for all to see: I fake it.

Actually, I suppose I am serious about that to an extent. I pretty much just operate on a set of basic assumptions then extrapolate from there. At any rate, I guess it is working.

The next few questions actually came from a High School student who is doing a book report on Harm None. I emailed my responses to him, but was impressed with several of his questions and thought others might like to hear the answers as well, so I thought I would add them to the FAQ.

2) Was Harm None your first idea for a book? If not, what was your first idea?

Well, it wasn’t my first idea for a book, no. Like most authors I have a filing cabinet full of manuscripts that have never, and probably will never, see the light of day. When I was much younger– actually in High School younger– I wrote quite a large amount of science fiction and was fortunate enough to have a few short stories published in some small genre magazines of the day. To follow through with your question, my first idea for a book was a novella length “space opera” that I set to paper. Unfortunately, a lack of life experience and an overabundance of teenage angst (and hormones) made it an exercise in futility. However, I wouldn’t trade having done it for the world. The process of writing it– no matter how “bad” it turned out– taught me much.

3) Why did you choose to have the setting of the book to be the same as where you live?

That’s simple. We write that with which we are familiar, or can become easily familiar. While I do an enormous amount of research into such things as police procedure, forensics, alternative religions, psychology, etc, there are some things you just can’t get from a textbook. Setting my series in the city where I live allows me to go out, get in my truck, and drive to a location easily and cheaply (well, with gas prices the way they are…but still, it is cheaper than a plane ticket). In doing that I can then clearly describe the nuances of that setting, and be accurate about it as well. It also lends to what is known as “suspension of disbelief”. Remember, some of the elements of my books are slightly over the top, however, if I have lulled you into a world of false reality with my attention to true detail, then you will more readilly accept the oddities I slip in under the radar, so to speak.

Note: Like it says in the front of the books, I do take some liberties with the lay of the land in St. Louis. I actually have changed the names of several parks and municipalities just to be on the safe side. Also, one of the most notable “fictions” is the coffee shop across the street from police headquarters downtown. It doesn’t actually exist. However, I wanted one there in my books so I annexed (via Literary Eminent Domain) a portion of the City Hall parking lot and built a coffee shop there.

4) How long did it take you to write this book (Harm None)?

Start to finish, including research time (interviewing, reading texts, riding with local law enforcement, etc) I write, initially revise, and rewrite a 100k – 120K word Rowan Gant Novel in right around 6 months, give or take a few weeks. It usually takes another 30-60 days of me arguing and pitching fits with my editor (well, not really, but we don’t ALWAYS agree), in order to get any of the publisher mandated changes done or rewrites completed. After that it’s time to start another one (if I haven’t already.)

5) Where were you when you wrote the majority of this book (Harm None)? i.e. coffee house, home, poetry cafe…

The bulk of my writing is done in my office at home. Back then I was working a full time job (other than being an author) so my writing was done primarily on weekends and evenings. Now, I actually must set aside time from my touring schedule to write. However, if I happen to be running behind on a deadline, my notebook computer sees action on airplanes and in hotel rooms (even while I am waiting for my daughter to get out of her “College for Kids” classes.) Still, Harm None itself was written, in its entirety, in my office at home. (The computer it was written on, however, has long since gone to the electronics scrap heap in the sky.)

6) Do you have any advice for the students of my class?

“Wear sunscreen”

If you have not yet heard that song, ask your teacher as I am sure she or he has. If not, look it up on the Internet and listen to it, or read the lyrics (use the link above).

After you are done chuckling and saying “yeah, right, that won’t apply to me,” listen to/read it again and take it to heart. All of it. I couldn’t give any better advice if I tried for the rest of my life. Trust me, I’ve already lived much of what the man says.

Okay, that’s it for this go around. I have much more writing to do so I may be scarce for a bit!

MR / a.k.a. Murv