Random Thought: I’m a master of multitasking – I can waste time, procrastinate, and do nothing all at once.

Since I’m so deep into the latest draft of my novel (more on that below), I’m having a tough time stepping away long enough to spend time creating new 101-word tales, but what I definitely can find time for is elevating some of my older ones. The tweaks are small, but when you’re working on a piece of real estate as tiny as these tales, I really believe incremental fixes can be like adding a ballroom to the east wing. Too soon? With that in mind, here’s, “It Wasn’t What He Said—Redux.” I’ll say more after you have time to read it.

          It Wasn’t What He Said…

I walked in and spotted Johnny at the bar—alone.

“What did you do this time?” I asked.

“What makes you say that?”

“Because you’re drinking by yourself. How’d you piss Stacy off?”

“She crashed her skateboard and took eight stitches to the tongue.”

“So how’d that get you in trouble?

“I dunno. I may have imitated her a bit. I asked why she’s pithed off at me and if she wanth a Thlurpee from Theven Eleven. I even offered to lend her my thcooter.”

“You sound like the perfect boyfriend.”

“Thanks,” Johnny said.

“Or maybe the perfect ath-hole,” I added.

Prompt: Pithy

Even after I thought I’d finished my fine-tuning, I stepped away for a bit and when I came back to the story, it felt like something was still lacking. I always strive for good twists, character arcs or tables being turned. The version I was about to release into the wild didn’t really check any of those boxes. In the version you just read, I kept the “ath-hole” joke, but instead of having the boyfriend wonder if he was the problem, I thought it was a lot more satisfying having his friend call him out on it and use the joke against him. I’ll be curious to see what you think about it.

NOVEL NEWS & NOTES…

I had a breakthrough this morning. It might seem like much ado about nothing to you (and you may be right), but it caused me a lot of angst as I tried to figure out a solution. I thought I had one, but after doing the research today, my aha moment was that I was overthinking it.

Here’s the short version: My original protagonist is an undercover cop who, naturally, uses an undercover name when he’s dealing with criminals. In this case, his name is Blake, while his real name is Cal. Besides the undercover cop, I also have a co-protagonist (a homicide detective named Ski), I was numbering each chapter, followed by the name of the character whose point of view is featured. For example, Ch. 3: Blake; Ch. 4: Ski, but if the chapter was where Blake wasn’t being sneaky (like when he’s at the PD), I named it Ch. 5: Cal. Same character, but I flipped to his real name. I was trying to keep things real, but I also feared it could be way too confusing for readers. My revelation came when I studied a John Sanford novel yesterday involving two great cop characters he writes about, Virgil Flowers and Lucas Davenport. When Virgil was working undercover, he was still described as Virgil. It was only when his undercover partner was talking to him or about him that he was referred to as Willie, his undercover name. Much simpler. Much better. If Sanford can do it, so can I. Let simplicity reign!

In other news, my last post mentioned having some interesting information I’d share next time. Welcome to next time. While this isn’t going to launch me into the stratosphere of the crime writing world, it might offer up a significant opportunity for me to gain a lot of exposure with fellow writers. At the end of February, I’ll be attending Left Coast Crime, a convention for crime writers and readers. The event moves around every year. Last year it was in Denver, and next month it’s in San Francisco. The big news is that I’ll be participating on a panel called “Getting it right,” and we’ll be chatting about authenticity in writing. I’m the only cop/P.I. on the panel, but I’ll be with accomplished writers who each bring their own experiences to the discussion. I’m really looking forward to meeting a lot of great people, answering questions, and hopefully being helpful to fellow members of my scribe tribe.

Until next time..

Thanks for listening.


Scotty out

PS: Wanna catch up on the posts you’ve missed? Click on link below.