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BEHIND THE SCENES OF WRITING PINKY SWEAR 

 

The plot line for Pinky Swear came out of the blue, at an interesting time, and from an unexpected inspiration.  The inspiration, not for the plot, but for writing the book itself, spurned from reading the prologue of Lee Child's first Jack Reacher novel.  It was very long and I was temped to skip it, but not having read a Lee Child book before, I did not know if this would foreshadow what was coming in the book, or not.  It was all about how he lost his job and decided to take up writing.  Child gave insights into how he builds plot lines, characters, gives characters names, etc.  For me, it was inspiring and I just let my mind go.  As I did, an unexpected plot line began to take shape.  I had ideas for other fiction novels  which have percolated for years.  This one was not even close to the plot of the other novels. 

 

So, where was I?  I was with my wife, brother and sister in law on a three day trip to Las Vegas.  We had bid on it at a local fundraiser.  It was October of 2017.   Not what you’d think of as a quiet and secluded place to start developing the plot for your first novel.  As we sat at gaming tables, went to shows, sat by the pool…wherever we were, whenever it was, my mind was churning away on the plot line that was building in my head.  I could not find a scrap of paper in our room, so I was desperately working to commit all of my ideas to memory, so when I got home I could get them down and start writing.

 

Our third and final night in Las Vegas, as we emerged from Penn and Teller, and headed by Uber back to our rooms at New York- New York, we began hearing of a shooting taking place. The first reports did not have much detail.  There had been a shooting and they were looking for a couple of suspects.  Streams of emergency vehicles going by us in the direction we were headed told us things were much worse than we could imagine.  Long story short, we ended up in a lockdown at the Monte Carlo, as we could not get into New York-New York and had wandered into the Monte Carlo to get off the streets.  A few of the folks at the concert where the mass shooting occurred, who had fled that area ended up in the Monte Carlo.  They were easy to spot in the crowd.  They had an entirely different color to their faces, and a look that was hard to describe.  It was easy to see, they were in shock.  They were all also, working through abject fear to locate a spouse, relative or friend they had been separated from.  They were frantically trying to call them and learn if their loved one or friend was alive and well. Fortunately, they all were. They shared horrifying stories of people sitting near by who had just been shot.  They described how they tried to help but as shots rained down on them, they fled for their lives.  You could sense they felt guilty leaving injured people behind, but no one was casting blame on them. 

 

Needless to say, the plot line for Pinky Swear had taken a back seat.  After getting back home, and settling in that week, I was able to jot down plot line notes that had been swirling in my head. 

 

The following Sunday, a wild windstorm hit northern California.  The fierce winds were not one directional, but coming from all directions, moments apart. It was almost as if it was made up of thousands of twisters, and as they rolled by, they pushed and pulled everything in its path in all directions.  TV, internet, cell phones and land lines were all out by mid afternoon. We could still access Facebook on our phones, and began learning of multiple fires starting up about 25 miles south of us.  We worried for our relatives and friends living in that area. About 10 pm that night, we looked out a window and saw huge flames. They appeared 50 yards away, but turned out to be about 2 miles away.  We immediately got my father and his lady friend, who lived next door, evacuated and threw picture albums, etc in our car. Over the next hour or two, it became apparent that the fire had pushed west away from our town of Calistoga. We had no idea that it would soon be racing into Santa Rosa like a title wave, taking lives and property at a staggering rate.  We ended up being evacuated for about a week. We were very fortunate.  Between a confluence of multiple fires, close to 60 lives lost, 6000 homes destroyed, along with multiple businesses, we are still running into people in our community who share they lost their home in the fires.

 

When we got home, and life settled back down into the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years, I was determined to get my book written.  Over the next two months, I got the draft down.  I had heard that the editing process could be arduous, but did not realize it would take so long.  Time would get chewed up by life’s happenings; grandchildren births, aging parent; travel; part time work; on and on.   I found an editor, Esther Baruch of Finishing Touches, who was gracious in working out my writing kinks, misspellings, etc.  Since writing the draft, I also found time to finally read that first Lee Child book and many more.

 

As the draft was being cleaned up, I was able to share it with a couple of book clubs, and some friends and relatives.  Both book clubs were women’s clubs; my wife’s and one of my daughters.  Feed back was light and sketchy.  One thing I think I knew, but was reinforced, was that some book clubs are more social and actually reading a book is secondary. What came through was that some of the ladies felt it was more of a ‘guys’ book. I spoke to some folks in the industry and asked if I should do some re-writing to make it more attractive to women readers.  All of the industry people I talked to were women. I was advised not to change the book.  They said to stay true to my writing style, and while my targeted audience may end up being men, there will be plenty of women who like this type of writing/plot/etc.  If you are a woman reading this book, I hope you’re enjoying it. If not, please think of a woman, and men in your life who might and refer it on.

 

When reading the book, readers may wonder about the recipe’s that are shared by Hunter’s mother.  These recipes are our family favorites my mother cooked for years. After Mom passed 2006, the grandkids worked to compile them and printed them up in a book they titled, “Mom’s Comfort Foods”.  While Mom did not invent these recipes, as a Home Economics teacher I am sure she put her own touch on many of them.

 

While the Corona Virus outbreak and quarantine created some more hurdles to getting Pinky Swear launched, it also gave me some true focus time to get it launched.  One of the final hurdles was the jacket cover design.  A photo shoot was being scheduled, and then canceled with our shelter in place orders.  My photographer is standing ready and eager to make the cover photo what he calls, epic.  In the meantime, my wife put her talents together and did an initial cover design.  It looks great and we’ll use it for the first launch, with a plan to swap out covers at some date uncertain. 

 

The second book is in the works, as the adventures of John Hunter continue.