Writing is a Thought in Progress

What I'm Listening To: Dispatch - Headlights

What I'm Doing: Picking up excerpts from things I've written, and being utterly horrified by one of them.

I picked up Dangerous Games by Michael Prescott (the one I listed in my 'first lines' post, that I haven't read yet, rescued it out of the trash, and thought it'd be good from the first line alone.) and started reading it.

Then I realised it's kind of a crime novel; there's a murderer who's got a motive of 'getting back' at the city (LA, I think. That's where it takes place, so that is, I assume, the city he wants revenge against for some reason.) and I'm only ten pages in, so I don't know a whole lot about it.

As soon as I realised that it was a crime novel, it made me think.

Write what you know.

I watch tons, and tons, and tons of crime shows. I think, that if I ever snapped and went on a murderous rampage, I would be able to commit the perfect murder. (Note; I don't intend to go on any murderous rampages, and if I did, I certainly wouldn't blog about it. Just for the record.) But I DO watch a lot of crime shows, and I DO have an idea of forensics (that's another thing I wanted to be as a kid; or rather, an adult. Since I started watching a lot of crime shows, it passed through my head that I wouldn't mind being a forensic specialist in something.) and I DO know 'what they did wrong' in all those shows - why they got caught.

And it's put another idea into my head. (remember, inspiration in the weirdest places.)

This brings my total idea count up to eight future novels:
-One fantasy trilogy (three books)
-One YA post-apoc book
-One YA 'vampire novel'
-Two historical romances (under a pseudonym)
and now
-One 'crime novel' (also under a pseudonym)

And the funny part came when I glanced at my computer screen while casting about for a title; there was an ad in the corner that said "Perfect Timing Sale" for cars. (I'd been thinking of calling it "Perfect Murder" but then I realised that that's cliched and has probably been done already, and decided on just 'Perfect'. Then I saw the ad, with PERFECT in big letters)

So, since I am unable to keep anything to myself, (working title)Perfect is going to be about a female killer (because there really aren't very many of those, when compared to the amount of serial killers who are male. Female serial killers tend to use things like poison, and do it for things like money. One particular story about an older woman who ran a sort of boarding house, and killed her elderly tenants for their social security checks comes to mind.) a female killer who believes she can commit the perfect murder.

I think that'll be the motive. She's rich, young, and bored, with nothing exciting going on in her life. She watches some crime movie (SE7EN maybe, or Zodiac) and gets it into her head to commit the perfect murder. Just because.

(When I'm watching these crime shows, they always ask, 'whats the motive for this murder?' and I always think, 'Does there HAVE to be a motive? What if someone just woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day, or their eggs burned at breakfast? If they're crazy enough to kill someone, doesn't that make a good enough excuse?')

And there'll be a likable cop character, maybe a rookie who doesn't quite know what to do with himself and all these random murders, but is obsessed with finding the killer. Maybe it's personal, I don't know yet. But I feel a bit strange.

I have odd reading tastes, I know. (just looking at my book-stacks tells me that.) But now more than ever I'm seeing the need for a pseudonym for some of my stuff, because fans of my YA won't really care to buy a crime novel, and fans of my historical romance won't be too interested in a fantasy trilogy.

For the record, Eversong will be published under Amy (or Amber) K-, and the YA will be under A.N. K-. Romance will be Kori (de Liberte, maybe, or some variation thereof) and my crime novel will be something totally different. I was thinking of using a boys name. (Dan Brown used a girl's name, and I just get the feeling that a crime novel will be more warmly welcomed if people think it was written by a man.) My original thought was for Adam Pike (as 'Adam' is my 'boy's name' being so close to Amy, my friends received boys names too - Debbie became Danny, Jennie and Ginny both became Jimmy, things like that. Also, Pike was my mother's maiden name.)

And if you think you're not going to like crime fiction based on the description alone, give it a try. A good friend of mine is writing sports fiction. My first reaction was, "ONOES." because I didn't think I'd ever want to read it. (sports are Not My Thing in any sense of the word)
Then she let me read (and help out with) her query.

And sent me some excerpts from the story.

I am all but frothing at the mouth to read it, sports or no.

This leads me into the next post I was intending to make; an excerpts post. I'll write down the first two hundred and fifty words of Perfect and then you, loyal readers (few though you are, yet) can tell me what you think.

And I feel like I've got to throw this in here somewhere, seeing as how it will be my 'official blog' as a published author; yes, I write fanfiction. No, I'm not going to tell you where it's at. (Unless I know you personally, and then you already know, so I don't have to tell you.) Yes, my fanfiction life and my official writings will be kept entirely separate. And up until this point, where I'm not an officially published author, I will continue writing fanfiction. As to whether I continue after word on my first book comes through... I don't know. Sarah stopped writing fanfiction altogether when she got word of her book being published, but then, she'd posted primarily in her livejournal, and most of her following has stemmed from these fanfics (it's certainly how I found her) whereas my fanfics and writing life are separate from the start. Just had to throw that out there, so that it doesn't come to light some day, and totally shock people. Although if I get my way, no one's ever going to connect me, the author, to me, the internet persona who posts fanfiction online.