It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

Wherein I can't write my book so I will write on my blog and hopefully that will inspire something.

Yes, yes - I know. Wishful thinking.

Sometimes I am very good at that! I'm a cynical optimist....

Basically: I am trying the NaNoWriMo. I've always wanted to since I heard of it several years ago, and the idea is intriguing! I love challenges and I know I can write prolifically and with a deadline of sorts I could have a chance of actually FINISHING a story.

Of course, the other side of this matter is that once I commit to something with a deadline I will (and do) have absolutely no time to write.

I am unsurprised.

I will have two weeks out of this month to write fifty thousand words and why am I even trying???

So. Fifty Thousand words in a month. And I'm not really allowed to write. Yes, I'm insane.

On a side note: I love this story!!!!!

(I love all of my stories!!)

I am working on the story with Jason and Adam. Does anyone remember that? NO! Because no one reads this!

...joking. Sort of.

Do I have a title for this story? Still, nope. My working title is the title of this blog post as well, and only chosen because of the genre its set in - weird dystopic noir or something or other..... I'm not sure WHAT it is at this point.....

Because I've got other stories in this universe, I'm not combining decades and am just regulating this one to the years immediately after World War II. I'm an expert at never giving dates in my stories so that helps....

But I am stuck with the story. I like structure! I like predictability - patterns! So, five acts. Or about four - give or take. But set it up in acts. Right now I'm in the first and I'm supposed to be setting up the characters and.....

Nope.

I want to jump around in the story! Write random scenes! Write out histories! Write out backstories for the characters!

I should have just written another fifty thousand words for the Willem Karg universe - THAT grew quickly enough in a month.

(....Actually, why  DIDN'T I?? *sighs* Too late....)

So this story is...tricky. It's historical fiction that isn't really historical. The regligion centre to it is very much NOT what I am familiar with. The setting itself (organised crime and police forces) is unknown to me.

But I love the characters. I really do. And if I didn't write this I'd have to write Mera and Marser's story (which I LOVE) and I don't have the time to immerse myself in their culture again so I could write it correctly.

 The whole story came into being from a very dark, very violent, very sad, very real dream I had one night.

....and that made sense when I read my notes in the morning.

Most of my story ideas find their origins in dreams, and this is by far one of my favourites.

The story is possibly less violent in that I save the main characters' lives, but....

 Det. Adam Weiss is the main character of the book. He is the inspiration for the plot and the character study and the general mess. He is about twenty-five years old and is the sarcastic, quiet one. He is smaller, better dress, makes more money and is generally set apart from all of his colleagues - something that does not make life easy for him. He prefers his solitude though.

He is ethnically Jewish and at least doesn't practice ALL of the religion. I haven't made up my mind yet on that point..... If he does practice, he does a terrible job though - let's leave it at that.

He is an orphan, his parents were murdered and he was left in an orphanage. He was never formally adopted, but he spent much time tagging after Jason and getting unofficially adopted into that family.

He has dark humour and interests and purposefully ignores tact. He is decidedly single and has no wish to ever change that status. He thinks anyone that wants to get married is an idiot. He's a harsh teacher - preferring example rather than lessons - but his students thank him later.

He is immensely fun to write. I love my vintage, sarcastic, dark side and he was created specifically so I could pour out that side.

Det. Jason Alden is the other main character and is so much intertwined with Adam that they are BOTH the 'main characters' in this book. One couldn't be in the story without the other. Jason is the....counterweight to Adam. Where Adam is cynical/pragmatic, Jason is optimistic. Where Adam sees too much, Jason sees too little. Where Adam breaks, Jason grows. Where one is static, the other is dynamic. Where one cries the other laughs. Where one is dark and secretive, the other is bright and open. Where one is me, the other is what I would like to become.

Jason is about twenty-nine and is the elder of the two. And taller. He's also faster - Adam is more deliberate. Adam taught him just about everyting he knows though - Jason was always less curious until Adam opened things up for him. Jason is willing to leave things that work alone, while Adam always wants to see what else can work.

Jason is the reason I wasn't sure about writing this book, because Jason is a good Catholic and has been since birth. Now. The problem with this? I don't know that much about Catholicism!! I'm still much too Protestant.

...granted. I doubt I could write a good Protestant anymore either - but at least I have the background for that! I could go back and write it if I tried! But I've no....fair context for Catholicism!

But I can't change Jason. Won't change him. I'll just...not let any of my friends read the book! Problem solved....  (yeah, yeah, I know... Hardly!)

Jason Alden is somewhere in the middle of a big family, and sort of adopted Adam when they were young. He's a lot more easy going than Adam could ever be, and isn't as....dedicated to his work - he isn't absorbed in his work. He lets himself rest, and has no compunction against teasing Adam into resting as well. He holds Adam in check.

Dr. Sabrina August is....Well.

She wasn't originally in the story. She's an...addition. I sort of stole her from a friend's book (sorry!) but only insofar as her employment. And she's stolen from the Clue game in her name. 'Scarlett'.

Scarlett is twenty-three and is the Chief Medical Examiner. She pulled some strings to get the best place. Contrary to Jason and Adam, She is very wealthy and from a high family. She travels the world with her job and to help other M.E.s

She is an old friend of Adam's, but not one that Jason knows is still a friend. Adam met her once in an alley, and they both had the same twisted curiosities and so spent a lot of time together.

She's an assassin as well - a hit woman. (Told you this thing got violent...) She is a bit of a sociopath - contrasting Adam who only pretends (very well, though) to be one. She can be quite cruel.

In this world, there is a law or tradition concerning doctors that if they save a life they have the legal ability to take one. A literal translation of 'an eye for an eye, a life for a life' rule.... So she is very dangerous, as a doctor.

Nathaniel Richards is the oldest of the crew at age forty-one. He is a psychopath and a serial killer.

He is also Scarlett's assistant. She hired him when she uncovered his...'hobby', and they worked out a partnership. He just kills because he is bored and wants the challenge, so she gives him a challenge.

'Psychopath' just about sums him up perfectly. He's dangerous, he's charming, he's cold, he's polite......

(Also, for anyone getting upset about the characters in this book: I DON'T LIKE SPOILERS!!! And there's a few plot twists I'd rather NOT give away so....these are just character summaries - the plain truth. There is....a lot more grey than there is black and white in this universe....)

Maureen Todd is the reason this story is set in the 1940's. Up until then it was set in the twenty-first century; but when I wrote out her scene she was always wearing skirts and pumps with makeup and curled hair and I realised I had more fun setting it in Film Noir than in Police Drama.

So. 1940's.

She is.....Oh, she's fun. She's an innocent naive girl pining after Jason and abhorring Adam. She's convinced Jason loves her.

And she learns very, very quickly.

She is quite possibly one of my most favourite characters in this piece!!!  Oooohhhh I can't wait to write her more....

So.

There's that.

My...mess.

*sighs*

Again, I ask why in the world I am doing this??

I also learnt a bit about typewriters.

Adam is sort of the informal secretary for a lot of 'friends', and he types out/formats their reports and documents for them. So he works on a typewriter a bit.

So I pulled out my typewriter the other day and wrote a few poems on it and letters just to get the feel for one and the sound. Mine is early Sixties not late Forties - but close enough.

I learnt that I can reoil the ribbon so I don't have to replace it. I learnt that the bloody thing has no exclamation point. I learnt AFTER I finished that I can combine period and apostrophe to make an exclamation point (I never said I was a genius....). I learnt that I have to hit a lot harder than I do with my computer keyboard and touch typing as I know it is literally impossible. I learnt that secretaries had to have REALLY strong fingers and wrists good grief.....

Also.

I just typed all of this out??? But can't write my story??

How is this even fair???

I am so doomed and I am blaming you, darling.....

The Lord be with you!