Thanks to Barrett (aka #1 Fan) for tagging me in her post, which you will find here – http://wordsofbarrett.wordpress.com/
Co-author Tim, dreaming up next big thing...
What is the working title of your book? During most of the writing it was Entangled, a nod to quantum physics, but then, and I can’t remember how, it mysteriously became Hold of the Bone.
What genre does your book fall under? Lesbian mystery.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? On the verge of retirement, veteran LAPD Lieutenant Franco discovers a skeleton that leads not only to her truest calling but to the darkest mystery of all.
What is the longer synopsis of the book? In Hold of the Bone, number six in the L.A. Franco series, Frank uncovers a skeleton that leads from her predictable beat in south-central Los Angeles to the wild Santa Lucia mountains overlooking Big Sur. Years ago in a case involving a homicidal Santeria priestess, Frank had been warned that she possessed powerful psychic abilities, a warning Frank quickly dismissed. But the unearthing of the skeleton coincides with a frightening recurrence of dark visions, each stronger than the last. As Frank follows the case into the rugged wilderness of the Santa Lucia Range, she is forced to choose again and again between her heart and protocol. With the unlikely aid of the dead man’s daughter, Frank confronts her own wild nature and must ultimately choose to either fully embrace her dubious gifts or live a shell of a life without them.
Where did the idea come from for the book? Damned if I know! I’m sure it’s been percolating since the inception of the Franco series. Frank mirrors my own life, albeit she usually knows what’s going on before I do, and I’ve had so many other worldly experiences in my life that it seems natural for them to have bleed over on to her. I’m fascinated by our cultural mania for the supernatural. I think it belies an unfulfilled craving for a connection to alternate realities. Humans evolved with those connections. We are hard-wired for relationships with “other worlds”. Our ancestors were as intimately connected to those alternate realities as we are to Ipods and televisions, and the connections are still there. They lurk in our DNA, in “the hold of the bone”, just waiting to be plugged in. Hold of the Bone outlines one woman’s attempt, to rephrase Timothy Leary, to turn off, tune out, and drop in to the much larger world around us.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? That’s a great question because so often when I write characters they are based on actors I like, so I picture that actor in my head the whole time I’m writing the book. Franco still remains faceless to me, but thanks to a fan I finally figured who would make a great Franco. You can see who she is at my Pinterest page – http://pinterest.com/baxterclare/who-will-play-my-characters/
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Bella Books has the right of first refusal for the Franco series. If they don’t want it I might shop it around or go indie again – I did that with my last novel and loved the autonomy of being my own publisher.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? I started Hold after wrapping up publication of The River Within, so that must have been in the spring of 2012, and I hope to be done with the draft by January or February. I only have about fifteen hours a week to write so on average I’d say it takes about two years for me to finish a book. I’m a literary turtle, slow but steady!
Who or What inspired you to write this book? I think really bad writers inspire me. I remember sitting in my tub with a very popular crime novel, one of many by a prolific author, and thinking, “My God, this is awful. I can write better than this!” That’s what pushed me to write the first Franco novel. Hold of the Bone was in part spurred by the overwhelming glut of supernatural dreck in popular fiction. All those horrifically bad vampire/zombie/werewolf novels encouraged me to straighten the record a bit by approaching the supernatural from a more valid, and for many “other-gifted” people, more realistic point of view. Granted, Frank’s psychic adventures are more extreme than mine, but as always, she is more evolved than me!
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? Besides coming to grips with her unwanted psychic abilities, Frank has had quite a few adventures between her last book and this one. Followers of the series might be curious to see what those were, but for new readers Hold of the Bone is a stand-alone read. It’s not necessary to read the first five in the series, although I love following characters chronologically.
Next Wednesday hop over to these fab authors for a peek at their Next Big Things.
Kate Genet – http://themisbehavingmind.com/
Anne Lauglin at http://www.annelaughlinwriter.com/
Alexandra Wolfe at http://wrywriter.com/
Comments 2
Hi Baxter, I noticed you still had a link up for Kissed By Venus, which, sad to say, is no longer online. You might want to remove it.
Right, duh! But I do hate removing it 🙁