This post contains major spoilers about my book, In Hiding. If you have not read it yet, bookmark this for later and stay away until you've finished reading it.
Otherwise, enjoy this glimpse at the writing process...
Chapter 1
- The first sentence is the only one in the whole book that I hate. The opening is the hardest part. Like in the movie ‘Throw Momma From The Train’ where all Billy Crystal had was “The night was…” I went through the same exact thing. Starting with “The city street was…” is a little homage to that scene.
- The idea for this chapter came from one of my wife’s friends telling me how upset she was when her cop boyfriend brought his gun into her house when she still hardly knew him.
- In the first draft of this story, which was radically different, Melissa dies.
- When my cousin let her friend read this chapter, she assumed it was written by a woman, which believe it or not, I took as a huge compliment.
- You may have noticed that I don’t give overly detailed descriptions of what places and characters look like. This is because when I read a book, I like to play it out like a movie in my head, even casting famous actors and actresses. I wanted people to be able to do this with my book and not get frustrated by things like, Oh wait- he has curly red hair? I can’t picture him as Brad Pitt then! I like to think my writing helps your imagination, not forces it on you. Either that, or I’m just a bad writer!
Chapter 4
- Denise and I share a birthday.
- I received a tiny bit of criticism for not making it abundantly clear that part of this chapter was a flashback. I ultimately left it in tact, because I thought it WAS pretty clear when I did things like mention the year.
Chapter 5
- Jillian was the hardest character to write. I wanted to leave her a little murky to increase the number of possible suspects, but she still had to be there as the best friend. So I think she ended up being kind of all over the place and if the book weren't already published, I'd probably go back and tweak her a little bit.
Chapter 6
-Eddie's story about "the champ" being a coward was a story the real Eddie told me. I took Mike Tyson's name out of it so he wouldn't come after me in case I made it big. LOL
Chapter 7
-The meeting. Blatant ploy to introduce all the characters. It reminded me of the murder mysteries where all the characters are in the same room.
Chapter 8
-I tried to foreshadow the relationship that Eddie and Mallory have. She's hanging around cleaning up so she can be alone with him and Arn is interrrupting them. I don't know if you can really tell or not, but that's what was intended- for you to look back later and say oh yeah...
Chapter 8
-I lifted the death of Arn's father right from the way my boss described what he was going through with his dad at the time. I put the basketball thing in there because I was trying to organize the March Madness pool at the time and felt awkward asking him if he wanted in. I thought, he probably doesn't give a shit about sports right now.
Chapter 9
-I love the internet. I got all that information about Saint James and other saints in about 5 minutes.
Chapter 10
-Detective Strollins kind of forced himself into the story. I had been sticking to a pattern of Melissa chapter, Arn chapter, Melissa etc... but then I thought of the way Davis could get back in the picture and Strollins suddenly became much more important as a character. He started out as the obligatory police presence (hard to have a murder mystery without one) and evolved into a major player.
Chapter 11
- This is such an important chapter, which is why it really bugs me that Jillian is out of character. I'm sure no one even really notices but me, but I establish that she's a fun loving flirt and then she flips out at Arn for looking at her when she has already come on to him in the past. I needed the characters to be where they were and feeling how they were feeling but I couldn't think of an effective way to do it. The punch is great though as Arn inherits my own morbid sense of humor and pays for it.
Chapter 14
- When people you know find out you're writing a book, they almost always ask it they are in it. So I gave myself a little laugh naming the mental institution after my boss and Denise's wing after my supervisor. Though I also went to Caldwell College so that's a good guess, too.
- I spent an incredible amount of time researching and reading case studies on borderline personalities. I don't know if Denise is an accurate portrayal of the disorder, but she sure has a lot of symptoms! :)
Chapter 16
- The soda machine death was lifted directly from an Urban Legends show on cable. Could this really happen? It can and has.
Chapter 17
- Seth and Arn are watching Survivor, if you couldn't tell, as "Time for you to go" is one of Jeff Probst's catchphrases. I realize now that this is a goof since Survivor isn't on in June.
Chapter 19
- I know comedy doesn't fit the mood of the story, but it's supposed to be funny that a) a reporter is taking her job at a tabloid seriously and b) the murder mystery is too far out for the tabloid to run with. Maybe funny isn't the right word. Maybe very slightly amusing.
Chapter 20
- I didn't cry like JK Rowling, but I was a little upset that I had to kill Eddie. He was the easiest to kill because I very obviously wasn't killing off a suspect.
Chapter 21
Jillian redeems herself. I said Jillian was the hardest to write, but this was one of the easiest parts in the whole book. I just wrote it off the top of my head like a heartfelt confession and it just kept going and going. It was originally a good chapter length and I was going to leave it like that. I changed my mind because I felt it was too late in the story to introduce a new perspective and it was REALLY long. So I cut it down a bit, converted it to dialogue and did what I could to save the gist of it. I still like it a lot.
- I also wanted to cast even more of a shadow of a doubt on Davis. I wanted at least one person to say, well maybe Melissa imagined it. Again, not sure if it worked.
Chapter 27
- One of my favorite things I have ever written is this chapter. No insight, I just wanted to say that.
Chapter 29
- I think the changing perspectives is really effective here. It keeps the excitement level up.
Chapter 30
- Arn getting stuck in the mud is supposed to be a callback to Melissa's dream, which doesn't really make sense since it was Melissa's dream. I suck!
Chapter 31
- My original plan was for Seth to be doing all these things under the orchestration of his mother, but the more research I did, the more I realized that anyone that sick and disturbed would not be able to become a criminal mastermind. So changes were made and Shelby got in on it.
Chapter 32
- Happy, sappy ending! Isn'tit disgusting?
Here is how everyone in the book got their name: (If I don't mention someone, it's because I just made that name up out of thin air)
Melissa St. James, Missouri- This is one of my favorite inside jokes. I named as many characters as I could after cities that have Wal-mart distribution centers in them. Not because I love Wal-mart or anything, but it was a list I had access to and it’s just easier than trying to make up names for everyone!
Davis- My old boss at TRU who said he wanted to be in my book. I joked, “Anyone who says that to me gets made evil.” Then I really did it.
Jillian Douglas, Georgia
Emmett - Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas. I don’t remember if it gets mentioned in this final version, but Arn’s friend Emmett did a lot of odd jobs, just like Emmett Otter.
Frank Searcy, Arkansas
Simon Greencastle, Indiana
Ethan (Sharon) Springs, New York
Eddie Blanco- Ed is a real person I knew at work. Believe it or not, I had to tone him down a notch. In real life, he is even wackier. I derived the name Blanco from Blank, because he’s not the brightest bulb. The character, not the man.
Jacoby Laste- just so Eddie could make that stupid joke.
Shelby, North Carolina Carr
Craig Strollins- A combination of Strahan and Collins, two NY Giants players at the time I was writing. I think I was looking at my calendar.
Gene Cullman, Alabama
Marcy, New York Sutherland, Virginia
Captain Seymour, Indiana
Dr. (Mount) Pleasant, Iowa
MORNINGWOOD
