If it’s Thursday, this must be Blog Day. That being the case, here’s the Story of the Week.

It was inspired by a prompt sent in by Helga Issa Prowd.

I Hope He Follows My Advice

Kevin’s one of those doomsday guys who’s prepared for every eventuality because, as he says, “shit happens and I’m always ready.”

He stores everything in the cloud, and then he backs that up just in case—I don’t know—the cloud evaporates or something.

When Kevin mentions that he has a spare car even though he lives alone, I resist pointing out the obvious—maybe that’s why he lives alone.

He perks up when I suggest he move to Gambia or Mali.

“Do they appreciate backups?”

“Yeah they do. They practice polygamy. Imagine having spare wives. Yeah, Mali’s your kinda place.”

Prompt: A man with a plan and a pocket comb

Novel Notes: This week’s writing, like most weeks, has led to a few fun discoveries. I think I previously mentioned that I created a new character who will be my protagonist’s conduit to the Homicide Unit (since my guy works an undercover assignment). As I was designing this homicide detective (who will play a major part in future novels should this turn into a series), I wanted to give him a trait or hobby that might create a lot of reader interest—something that you wouldn’t expect of a homicide detective (particularly for a guy like this who’s pretty tough and intrepid). Turns out, he has an alter-ego that very few of his colleagues know about. He dabbles in stand-up comedy. I immediately liked the idea, even though I wasn’t sure how I would work it into the novel. Then, while I was outlining and moving scenes around, as I played out a scene in my head, I gave the homicide guy a funny line or two and he immediately opened up his notepad or phone and jotted down the line. I’ll have him make a comment to my protagonist about how he just came up with a great idea for a routine. I’ve already found a couple of places for this to happen. Could def be fun.

Stay tuned for more updates on Questionable Characters next week.

Until then…

Thanks for listening.

Scotty out