So, What’s It About?
August 28th, 2006 | Published in Writing | 6 Comments
Every time I tell someone, that I am working on a book, that is the first thing they ask: What’s it about? A natural question perhaps, but nevertheless one I find myself trying to avoid answering. At least directly. And at least until now.
In the past, I have started working on many different ideas. Some have been nothing more than a few notes on a piece of paper, others have managed to reach synopsis-stage or maybe a few tentative pages of text. But as soon, as I have told someone about my fantastic idea, it is dead. It is as if part of me goes: Okay, we’ve told that story now, it’s time to cook up a new one! And from that moment on, I find it impossible to go back. So, the last couple of novels (the last of which I scrapped for other reasons), I have made it a point not to talk about the plot ahead of time.
Now, however, I am so far into the third draft of The Ghost Killer (working title), that I feel it’s safe to reveal a few secrets:
Frank Cash lives alone in a rented apartment in Seattle, drives a Mustang and often gets his dinner from his neighbor, to whom he is just another mouth to feed. He also happens to lead a team of homicide detectives. As the story begins, he is presented with the body of a beautiful and successful woman, raped and violently murdered in her home. Soon, it becomes apparent that the murder may not be an act of mere sudden rage. And the victim may not be as innocent, as she first appeared.
Ten years earlier, at end of the conflict in former Yugoslavia, a young man returns from the war to find his home and family gone and his sister brutally murdered. Verging on the brink of madness, he puts himself on a quest to restore the family honor, the only thing he has left to fight for. It is a quest that puts him on a long journey through his own plagued mind and a dangerous world of crime and sin.
Though the two of them are as different as night and day, both have suffered, fought and lost in the past. And both of them are chasing a ghost killer.
August 28th, 2006at 9:22 am(#)
And now I’m really intrigued.. Looking forward to getting my brain wrapped in the story..
August 28th, 2006at 7:32 pm(#)
third draft huh? be interesting to see how things have developed.
August 29th, 2006at 5:18 pm(#)
Wow. Sounds full on. I’m really impressed.
September 16th, 2006at 10:18 pm(#)
[...] For the better part of a year, I have been working on my first novel in English, a crime novel set partly in Seattle, partly all over Europe. Needless to say, I am not household name in the English speaking part of the world (or in the non-English speaking part for that matter), and faced with this and my experience from the first book, I have started thinking about ways to generate interest ahead of actually having anything published. Not that I even know if anyone will want to publish my book yet. [...]
October 7th, 2006at 11:44 pm(#)
[...] Plot og baggrund er tidligere beskrevet på min engelsksprogede blog. Se posten So, What’s it About? og de andre ting, tagget med Ghost Killer. Tags: krimi nanowrimo skriverier [...]
October 8th, 2006at 2:07 am(#)
I really am looking forward to seeing the finished book
Congratz!