Murder, We Write! Yes, most detective fiction is about solving a murder of one kind or another. A very few solve other types of crimes but then they would not be called Murder Mysteries now would they? I am often fascinated by how writers come up with the many different ways they kill off their characters. Once you start looking around you, at the people you see every day and interact with you may just find your very own fount of people to kill off. And with very little imagination you can figure out some diabolic ways to get rid of them too. My daughter wants me to start writing murder mysteries or even romance novels. I am not sure I am ready to do that but I keep thinking about it. I love to read a good murder mystery and if it has a well-written love scene all the better. She said, she would understand if I kill off some of our more unwanted family members as well. Only in my writings, of course.
So I have been paying more attention to the people I meet, the family members and friends. I have even started reading through their Facebook posts and looking through some old pictures. I have also been reading through Cold Case files and trying new writers to get some inspiration. With us traveling around the State of Florida in an old RV and staying at various state parks there are lots and lots of different places and ways to get rid of a body. I have read almost every single one of the Anna Pigeon series books written by Nevada Barr. Her, more than anyone, inspired me to want to visit state and national parks. My main character would not be a park ranger as that has been done already. You are supposed to “write what you know” and North Florida is an excellent place to expose murder, mayhem, corruption and all kinds of great fictional problems. After all the Okefenokee Swamp is just down the road. Yes, we have our own real crimes but stories are for entertainment and I would like to provide that to whatever readers I can get. Selling would be my main concern but from what I have been able to piece together you will have to give away some stories to get people to read your books in the beginning.
I may even have to add a little of the supernatural to my stories. Who doesn’t like to have powers, miracles, or unexplained things happen? Our area would be perfect for that. I know we don’t have voodoo priests or zombies like Louisiana, space aliens like New Mexico or even vampires or werewolves like Minnesota but I could probably come up with something. We do have our share of ghosts so that might be an angle to try. We may even have our own variety of Wiccans somewhere in our many acres of forest.
Do you live in a rural or urban setting? Can you not think of ways to commit the perfect crime while leaving clues for your detective to find them? What kind of detective would you want to create? Would he/she be a professional like in law enforcement of some kind or a licensed private investigator? Now, here in North Florida, we don’t have a lot of private investigators of any kind. There are more in South Florida around the Miami area. Most of our Florida published writers live in this area as well. There is more of writer’s association, groups and help in this area too. We need more of these types of groups in our area now and in the future.
Till next time….we hope you will CONTACT US with your own comments, suggestions and storylines you want to work out or even if you have a writer’s group in the North Florida area that you would like to share with us.
