Set 'Em Up, Knock 'Em Back

Not quite but close.

I worked like a dog on an outline for a new story yesterday and damned if I didn't do nearly as much on another today.

I have another I've carried around as a follow-up to my first (third pile of text) novel. It never had quite the legs I wanted it too and over the years I let it drop. Today I picked it up in earnest as it represents a story and a style of writing I very much want published. I do not have the full outline in hand; but, I have a great deal roughed out. I've tightened the story (this week's specialty,  it seems)  over its older rambling self.

So, my story from today is the interrogation of a fellow who is believed to have staged the murder of his wife as a suicide. He's a very special sort of fellow and in that comes the story. Unlike many of my characters, he doesn't lie nor is he deceived by anything. The poor bastard sees the truth in advertising, casual conversation, relationships, love, life, the works. It's a bit of a curse but there it is. Sort of amusing that he is framed in a falsehood.

So, I've enough work to finish for the year now.

I am excited to have something genuine in the mystery/suspense vein that I can work-up and submit around town. So many of the folks I've met so far that have been very kind to me are mystery writers of one sort or another. As Chandler is one of the best American writers in my opinion, I have a great deal of respect for these folks working in mystery. I'd love to have a reason to go to Bouchercon even though I doubt I have the stuff to become a full-time mystery writer. I have a few in me, though.

I come from a neighborhood where someone who is working on his asshole merit badge might find a very angry rattlesnake in his mailbox. It happens. That sort of experience makes you understand how bodies begin to pile up. The Nemechek murders also occurred in my part of the world when I was young. This unpleasant bastard was a glimpse into what a sick SOB you can have in your part of the world.

Anyway, good day today and good set-up for some solid work I'll want very much to point at and say "mine !"