Chapter Three

Well, I've been excited about my newest project ~ the mystery. I knew I wanted to do this book, a far cry from my normal very wild Sabrina Strong series. Way back in the fall I had taken out a very old manuscript (about 10 years old), and was looking through it. My main character's name was JanVladislav in this. I liked the name but better yet I came up with a totally new name: Jansen Crosse - thus this is called my Jansen Crosse Murder Mysteries. If there actually will be more than one.

Anyway, I had some characters figured out, borrowed, if you will, from the former novel (which, BTW was a vampire novel--eh-hem).

I, of course needed a MURDER to solve. I also had to figure out the basics. You know the...
WHY?
WHO?
WHAT?
HOW?
WHEN?
...questions. I needed the murder victim(s), and the basic mystery plot. I had to know the who/why/how/when stuff; in otherwords who did it and why.

I also had to totally leave behind whatever ideas were in the vampire novel and just allow myself time to relax. After being off the job for about a week, the ideas began to naturally slam into me at the normal time they always do--when I've lain down to go to bed!

Of course! That's it!

I grab my recorder and begin rattling off my ideas.

At this point of writing (two days) I'm into chapter 3, but I see I need to lead my two detectives--Jansen has a partner, Detective Evans, off on some wild goose chase (a false lead). I've aready planted a clue and interrupted it with introduction of another character who will be a main player in the whole sceme of things.

I'll need a red herring--have not yet decided on them as yet, but I'm working on this. I may have it by tonight.

But the one thing that I did hold on to was the mansion, and an old tunnel that leads from the old mansion to this very old church--or, if I decide later that there is no tunnel (another false lead), but a hidden room inside a hidden room where slaves were given a place to stay during the Civil War erra... all of this I will consider and decide as I go along.

The mystery is harder to plot, of course. I need to know when and where to plant certain clues, how to minimalize them by certain tricks of the traid. I'm still learning how to write a mystery, actually. I know I like to read them.

Have you read any really good mysteries lately? Want to share which ones? I happen to like Janet Evanovich, But I could use something with a male main character.