Writing my first and last books was motivated by love for my wife. The first one turned out to be the therapy I needed to be strong for her as she navigated another bout with cancer. My last one was an attempt at writing the type of book she liked to read. I wanted to give her a gift she’d enjoy, something with a personal touch. My greatest critic still loves me even though my writing has failed to impress her to the degree I had hoped. Despite everything, she remains my inspiration for writing these two books.
Unlike my other books, I wrote this one almost entirely for fun. There were no obvious morals, life lessons, or values inspiring my writing. I focused on a genre of reading that combines action and suspense with generous opportunities for humor. Below are three excerpts that may show that goal.
I looked through the peephole. Bell was blowing a bubble with a wad of cotton stuck in one nostril. I opened the door, and she handed me a tray with two large coffee cups from Dunkin’ Donuts. “Sorry, I forgot the key. I thought you’d be dressed by now.”
Excerpt from Chapter 2: Diamonds, Detectives, and Dummies
“You had a bloody nose?”
“Wow! You are a good detective. Sorry, I needed my coffee fix and didn’t have time to wash the blood out of the sink. Did you ever get a nosebleed?”
“Only after some guy punched me when I kissed his girlfriend.”
“Follow me, mate.” Luke led me past Hacker into the office. Under the stairwell leading to my apartment was a man in the fetal position. His hands were on top of his head, holding the remains of his Afro. “This is bad for business—unless you want to sell tickets.”
Excerpt from Chapter 20: Diamonds, Detectives, and Dummies
“We could call it The Bird Versus The Snake,” said Louisa, who followed us in with Jodie. They were still holding on to each other.
Perched on the back of a nearby chair was the beast that transformed a fearless gang leader into a crying baby.
“You’re a dummy. You’re a dummy.”
“Get that, mother….” Snake began sobbing before he could complete the sentence. That was good. Skipper already knew enough swear words.
There was a dull throbbing pain in the back of my head. I felt a bump. It was on the opposite side of the one created by my shovel wielding girlfriend. Could this be part of my new look in the afterlife? A pair of horns. Where the hell am I?
Excerpt from Chapter 27: Diamonds, Detectives, and Dummies
“Wake up, Mr. Hero.”
I opened my eyes and saw an angel. If I were dead, I must have made it to the right place because no devil could look this good. Wait a minute. That’s Crazylegs. If she made it to heaven, I have a chance. I reached up to see if my hand would pass through her. When it made contact, I felt a gentle slap across my face.
“Wake up, you fool.”
“It’s really you. What happened? How long was I out?
I had to write in the first person to model my style on another author. This challenged me since, if I kept that style throughout the book, I could only report what the protagonist actually experienced. I not only enjoyed the challenge, but it helped to keep me focused on the story from a single point of view.
There’s a fine line between plagiarism and original writing. My contention is that there is nothing new under the sun and that any writing can be traced back to someone else’s expressed idea. I was very conscious of this when I began writing a book similar in style to a Janet Evanovich book in the Stephanie Plum series. I aimed to include everything my wife liked, avoiding copyright issues. Before I wrote my first word, I listed interesting and funny characters in a typical Stephanie Plum book. Then, I created a unique character that could function similarly with a unique set of circumstances. For example, Stephanie Plum’s grandmother was replaced by an older female employee of the protagonist in my book. Like the grandmother, she did not act like a woman of her age, which created funny, if not interesting, interactions with the other characters.
It’d be great if I were cited for plagiarism, sarcastically speaking. That would imply my book has been read by someone. Of course, that isn’t the compromise I’m looking for. I aimed to find success and reader enjoyment by creatively copying a writer’s style. To some degree, I succeeded when my wife and her best friend read the book.
This was the seventh and last book I published. Each one was motivated by a powerful inspiration. In addition, this is likely my next-to-last blog. As the saying goes, everything good eventually ends. Well, at least it was good for me. Anyway, time to move on to something better. By the way, if you made it this far, thank you and congratulations. You may be the only one who has.