Hi Folks! I am pleased to tell you that I have a Meet the Author event coming up. On Thursday, October 26th, I will be at the Peru Free Library at 3024 N. Main Street, Peru, NY. The event is scheduled for 4:00-6:00 pm. I am really looking forward to this. My wife and I have always liked Peru. It’s a beautiful town with orchards, rolling hills, and beautiful views over Lake Champlain. It should be fun meeting some Peruvians and talking about my books, writing process, and being an indie author. If you’re in the area, stop by and say hi.

I am making a lot of progress on the new book. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s set in my beloved Adirondack State Park and will, hopefully, exhibit some of what makes this area so special. I’m not planning a travel guide or anything like that, but there are certain locations, sites, venues, that are particular to the region. Those familiar with the area are sure to recognize them and those not familiar, well, the plan is to make them interesting/unique enough to keep the pages turning. It may even entice some to come on up and check the place out. I assure you, it’s worth the trip.

One characteristic of the Adirondacks is the fact that they can be spooky and mysterious. I know if you’re sitting in a hotel room in Lake Placid overlooking Mirror Lake and ordering room service, it may not seem so. But the Adirondack Park is so vast and so sparsely populated there are parts of it that are wild to the extreme. Between the forests, mountains, lakes, ponds, rivers, bogs, and swamps, huge sections are almost impossible to get to. Just when was the last time human eyes got a peek into these dark regions? Makes you wonder just what the heck is out there, doesn’t it? About eight years ago two prisoners from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora which is in the northern section of the Park, escaped and hid in the dense forests for three weeks before a manhunt of unprecedented size found them. Think about it. This was national news, search teams from all over the country were involved. Millions of dollars were spent on the manhunt and it took three weeks to find them. Lots of hiding places.

Many of the occupations in the Park are unique, too. I spent a lot of my childhood and younger adult life in the Syracuse area. I can’t say while living there I ever met a single logger, trapper, mountain guide, or taxidermist (Yeah, I know they can be anywhere, but still). And, as you might imagine, the people occupying some of those occupations can be special, too. And fun to write about as I create their fictional lives. Toss into this mix a “downstater” being very much a fish out of water who is in the Park against his will and has no affection at all for what many of us find so lovely, and BOOM! Conflict. Entertaining conflict, if I do it right. Add a police captain mourning the disappearance of her child from the Park fifteen years ago, a few nasty seasonal residents, a retired cop saddled with guilt over a final unsolved case, a couple felonies, a few subplots featuring these folks and I think there just may be a book there. I certainly hope so.

Yes or no, it’s going to get written. Thus far, it’s flowing very comfortably. My three published books all proceeded at different rates. Once I finally got off my butt and said, “yeah, I’m going to write a book,” the first one, Beneath the Surface, moved right along. I wouldn’t say it was easy to write, but the plot itself came quickly to me. The second one, Disturbing the Dead was a lot more challenging. I started with a crime and its effect on my characters and continued from there. Maybe I went about it backwards, I don’t know. The one published a couple months ago, Break with the Past  is a sequel to the first so many characters already exist. What was challenging was adding new information about them that supported what had come in the first novel. It’s set a couple months after the first story, but I needed more depth for the characters to keep them interesting. And I learned there are certain “rules” when writing sequels. This slowed me down. As I said, the characters shouldn’t be substantially different from the earlier book. You can’t have a volatile maniac suddenly become a withdrawn deep thinker. Also, you can’t continually be referring to what happened in that initial story. Some, yes, but the new story needs to be able to stand on its own. And you should add new characters. Not a lot, but there should be a real contribution to the story from them. I created one in particular that I am very fond of. I can see her really expanding and doing a lot of interesting things if and when there’s a third book in the series. And I like her name. Valeria. Thus far, the one I am working on now is the smoothest. As I type this I realize I’m probably jinxing myself, but…hey, I’m pleased and want to share that with you.

There you have it. Time to check a satellite hive in a nearby town while the weather is nice. 64 degrees! On October 19th! Crazy! Then more writing. Don’t forget, the Peru Free Library on the 26th from 4 to 6. I hope to see you there.