Creative Juices: a finite resource

a finite resource

It is true my friends, there is a finite amount of creative juices and for the past few weeks, I’ve been deploying all my juice towards non-writing projects.
[gasp!]
No, it’s true, I admit it!
First, it was my husband’s birthday and I threw myself into building a BBQ Buddy™. Yes, I am trade-marking that name because I [drumroll please!] invented it. Or at least I could not find such a thing at Home Depot, so I created one from scratch. It is a combination chest/table that sits next to our BBQ that can hold items such as charcoal and also be a resting place for plates and utensils. You can see the final product here if you are so inclined.

In addition, I have been attending a mosaic class to ascertain just how hard it would be to create a mosaic for my upstairs bathroom. NB: It is HARD. ‘Nuff said on that topic.

Finally, my parentals require my arms and Tetris skills in helping to build their outdoor patio (out of patio stone, hence the Tetris reference) so I have been spending any spare moments at their house hauling around 16×16″ stones with them.

Suffice to say that poor Portia has been sitting glumly on a streetcorner in downtown London waiting for me to refill my juice box and apply it to her latest casebook. As soon as I do, I will be back here fellow-bloggers, I swear. Until then, I hope you are all well, that you are enjoying the beautiful weather and that the juice is still flowing into your respective projects!

Daily Prompt: Your time to shine

Psssst… u awake?

As probably best evidenced by when I am writing this, I do my best work in the mornings. But like a few other of the respondents to this Daily Post (I read all your posts my friends, another thing I like to do on Saturday mornings) I often get some fantastic ideas in the middle of the night, which I scribble down blindly in the notebook I keep beside my bed.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say parents especially crave those few minutes in the morning when the house is slightly quieter… slightly less chaotic to get their thoughts in order and perhaps hammer out another scene that has been bouncing around in their heads.

For example, I return forthwith to my friend Portia, and regroup with her at King’s College where I last left her. Have a great day my friends!

 

Character Profile: Asher Jenkins

It’s been a while, but since he plays a part in this latest casebook I am writing, I thought I would give a bit of backstory to ‘Bruiser’ Jenkins next (the full list of Character Profiles can be found here).

‘Bruiser’ Jenkins

FULL NAME: Asher ‘Bruiser’ Jenkins is a retired professional boxer, and semi-retired thief. Bruiser was his name in the ring.

AGE: in 1929 he is 76-years-old, born in September, 1853.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Of African descent, though born and raised in England. Big, close to 200lbs, about 6’2″ tall, with developed muscles, even for his age. He has cataracts, and has fractured the bones in his hands so much over the years that they cause him constant pain.

LOCATION: London.

EDUCATION: Grade school in London, dropped out before grade 9.

PREFERENCES: Prefers beer, smokes copiously, eats well, and enjoys food. Good with his hands, and therefore takes off jobs in construction and building. Likes dogs, racing, gambling and women.

SOCIALLY:  Parents both dead, no spouse or children,very loyal to former partner (and perhaps paramour, that is yet unclear) Irene Jones (nee Adler), and protective of her granddaughter Portia Adams. He has spent some time in prison, probably in his twenties, and has many friends from his old life.

The Black Dragon Award

The Black Dragon award

My lovely friend Rami over at Rami Ungar the Writer has nominated me for the first ever Black Dragon award!

These are the rules as listed on his post:

1. You must have written something scary or featuring something scary in the past year. (This can range from being a simple murder mystery to a full-on zombie novel with a wizard and serial killers mixed in for variety). Note that whatever work you’ve created will be the subject of several of the questions below.

2. You must thank the person who nominated you and then link back to their  blog.

3. You must answer the 10 questions below on your own blog post.

4. Finally, you must nominate at least 5 other authors for the award and then notify them of it

FIRST and most important, here are my five nominees for The Black Dragon Award:

Scary Structures
Waiting in the Kingdom
James McKenna
The Author’s Blog
The Real Sherlock

And now, in answer to the questions (and I encourage you to go read Rami’s answers to his questions here)

1. What is the premise of the novel you’ve written? Portia Adams is a young woman who has suddenly and mysteriously inherited 221 Baker Street. Her first year in London encompasses the first three cases in the book, and involve her discovering the linkages to the famous offices, and the development of her skills as a detective.

2. How long did it take you to write it? My books are divided into casebooks rather than chapters, so the first casebook called ‘Jewel of the Thames’ I wrote in about a month.

3. Which character(s) are you most like? My sister says I am most like Portia Adams, but honestly I think ALL my characters have facets of my personality – I’m analytical and social inept like Portia, I’m loyal and stoic like Brian, I’m a journalist like Annie, I’m sometimes sneaky and anti-establishment like Adler, and I can be rude and abrasive like Sergeant Michaels.

4. What’s the scariest thing you’ve read/seen lately? The news sadly. I can’t think of anything scarier than all the stories about these poor girls being raped and their attacks being taped and posted on social media.

5. What’s something you’re reluctant to write about? I guess gore? I’m not great at writing gore, and not great at reading it.

6. If you could take characters from other works and insert them into an original story of your own design, who would you take and what would you have them do? OOh, interesting one. Since I already have a couple of characters from Conan Doyle’s stories… I would love to somehow pull in villains from other stories I have loved. If I could figure out how, I would love for Portia to go up against one of the more intellectual Sith from the Star Wars books (not the movies where Sith are all physical) or a Lex Luthor type from the Superman stories.

7. Do you envision a sequel to your novel? Like I said, since my books are compilations of casebooks, there already is a series. I’ve written 8 casebooks listed here.

8. What first got you into writing? And what got you writing scary subject matter? I’m a writer, first published at 14, it’s what I do. In terms of writing scary stuff, unlike my nominator Rami, it’s not my primary genre, but part of writing mysteries is the subject matter, which has of course meandered into the murder/death/violent side over the course of cases. I enjoy reading scary stuff though, and have since I was a kid.

9. What scares you personally? Spiders, snakes, rats, wolves, the usual of course. Falling off high buildings. Losing my loved ones.

10. What are your future plans? Good gosh, who knows? Trying to get an agent and get published is the current plan, though as time goes by, I am more attracted to the idea of self-publishing as well.

What kind of death is this?

The second brother from the animation of the Deathly Hallows from Harry Potter

Doing some more research on suicide tonight (my first post about it was back in January, you can read it here)… this time with a focus on how to tell the difference forensically between a suicide and, well, not a suicide.

First: the method (jumping off a building)

According to a really interesting site I found called ‘Lost all Hope’:

The most important factor in suicide by jumping is height. Stone² states that jumping from 150 feet (46 metres) or higher on land, and 250 feet (76 metres) or more on water, is 95% to 98% fatal. 150 feet/46 metres, equates to roughly 10 to 15 stories in a building, depending on the height of one story. 250 feet is the height of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The LAH author got his information from a book by Geo Stone called Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences, and you can read more about that here:

So interestingly, for a 95% chance that you will actually be killed by your attempt, you need to fall 10 to 15 stories from a building.

Second: the body (what is the injury pattern)

Without getting into too much gruesome detail, I looked around for some data that would help me with the physical forensic evidence from a suicide-by-jumping and found this article from the US National Library of Medicine.

The most common injuries were fractures of the thoracic and lumbar spine (83.0%) with a preference for the thoracolumbar junction. Fracture of the lower limbs occurred in 45%. The most frequent injuries were fractures of the os calcis (64.4%) and the ankle joint (26.6%). Twenty-five percent of all patients suffered from fractures in the upper limbs with a preference for the distal radius (56.6%) and the elbow (44.0%).

The article goes on to say that only 27% of the people they studied for their report died from head injuries… which of course begs the question if that didn’t kill them, what did?

Another interesting article about this kind of data is: The Study of Pattern of Injuries in Fatal Cases of fall from height

Third: the after-effects (legally and religiously) of suicide

I’m not a member of a christian religion, but I believe in 1930s London, most of the population was, so I am going to make this character a Catholic. Catholics seem to have very clear beliefs when it comes to suicide, so if this death is ruled a suicide, the character will not be allowed to have a burial with a priest at his church.

Legally, I cannot find evidence in British Law that changes how the heirs to inherit from someone who committed suicide VS someone who died by some other cause. What is clear that suicide and natural causes will fast-track the fulfillment of the will, while any suspicion of foul play will delay everything as the truth is worked out.

What if Dr. Watson’s other grandchild was a psychologist?

‘Take the red pill…’

Oh boy. I just had a really cool idea: with Portia Adams the consulting detective now operating from 221B Baker St, how cool would it be if her cousin, another grandchild of Dr. John Watson, was a criminal psychologist?

I like that idea. I’m trying to work out if this new addition to Portia’s life should be a man or a woman. Regardless, there are all kinds of opportunities here for conflict, tension, competition, emotion… the list goes on and on.

This is a story after all, and I personally LOVE it when a character links to another character from canon, it’s like an inside joke between the author and I.

I have to think about it some more, but I had to write it down cause I haven’t stopped smiling since I thought of it.

NB: Just a quick edit, I wanted to make sure it was feasible that a woman at this time could be a practicing psychologist, and yes, it seems the first woman to earn a Phd in Psychology was Margaret Washburn, and that was way back in 1894, a good 30 years earlier. Margaret Lowenfield could serve as a good model for such a character.

I feel a little Whedonesque

Those of you who are Joss Whedon fans probably understand my blog title, but those of you who don’t here is a little graphic to help you understand:

I just killed off my first major character. I feel a little gross and kind of omnipotent.

Hoo boy, let’s see how this goes!

Daily Prompt: Trading Places

I love it when the WordPress Daily Prompt is something I am already thinking about!
The challenge today is: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a member of the opposite sex for a day? What do you think life would be like?

Portia Constance Adams	Brian Dawes

I’ve been thinking lately about the difference between Portia Adams and her partner, Constable Brian Dawes. The differences in their personalities aside, what benefits and issues does Portia face as a woman in 1930s London.

Imagining her as a man is an interesting exercise in this case. For example, the fact that she is anti-social and doesn’t really care about her manner of dress or place in society would probably be more acceptable if she were a male of her income and stature. Of course, her choice of profession would be more acceptable, I’d guess that 99% of detectives at this time were male.

In addition, many of the obstacles she faces chasing down her cases would not be obstacles as a man, from the physical restraints to the assumptions made about her ‘place’ in the world.
BUT being a woman also means that Portia is often under-estimated, and is able to gain the upper hand simply through surprise. It also allows her access to people who might not naturally trust a man of her background. Finally, I think being a woman of her demonstrated intelligence (and I say demonstrated because there are many many intelligent women of course, but she has had the opportunity to publicly display her own prowess) sets her apart even more so than if she were a man amongst many other men all of whom were encouraged to flourish in her chosen field.

So that’s my take, being a male detective in 1930s London as Brian Dawes is lucky enough to be is all well and good, but Portia, she’s a class all to her own, and that’s what makes her a memorable character.

When NOT to open a query letter response

1. First thing in the morning (because it sets the tone for your day and since rejections by far outweigh “when can we meet and make all your dreams come true?” that is usually a crappy tone for the rest of your day).

2. Before bedtime because the dreams are just sad : (

3. When you’re trying to transcribe a new story (because it’s hard to keep your chin up with all those knocks comin’ at you)

4. If you haven’t eaten all day (because that bag of potato chips has ‘I support you!’ all over it)

Two ‘partials’ leading to two rejections, both very kind, but both no thank yous.

I’m going to go read ALL the blogs I follow this weekend in an effort to get my happy back. Hope you’re all havin’ a better week than me!

A title for Casebook 8: Vote please!

Once again friends, I look to you for help on picking a Title to my latest CaseBook. Which of these jumps out as as a book you would pick up?