Encyclopedia Brown, Clarissa Draper's Book!, and a Meme About My WIP

ad news this week: Donald J. Sobol, creator of Encyclopedia Brown, has died:

"Encyclopedia's success wasn’t only due to his problem-solving prowess. Credit his best pal (and girl Friday) Sally Kimball: older, stronger and sometimes smarter. She also could stand up to Bugs, and was Encyclopedia's bodyguard. That was a novel premise, to give that role of “the muscle” to a girl."

I wasn't great at solving the mysteries, I have to admit. But I loved going "ohhhh, of course!" when I finally read the answer.

I've always loved mysteries, and tried my hand at writing a murder mystery short story a few months ago. The storytelling itself needs major editing, but I think the mystery is intriguing...

Speaking of mysteries, I finished Clarissa Draper's The Scholes Key the other day.

three of the books I've read this month

"All across London, single mothers are vanishing. Margaret Hill, mother of two, walks out of her house and is never seen again. A month later, Carrie-Anne Morgans takes her two-year-old son for a walk in the park and disappears, leaving him alone in his stroller. Lorna McCauley leaves her London flat in the early hours of the morning to buy medicine for her sick child and does not return.

Newly-promoted Detective Inspector Theophilus Blackwell is assigned the case of Lorna McCauley, that at first seems to be a simple case of mid-life crisis and child abandonment.

Elsewhere in London, MI5 analyst, Sophia Evans, is working undercover to catch an animal rights group responsible for targeted bombings. As her case (and her personal life) fall to pieces, she receives a strange envelope in the mail. It contains a picture of Lorna McCauley s lifeless face along with a daunting code.

Now the police and MI5 are forced to work together to stop the murders, and Sophia must find her way into the terrifying mind of a serial killer."

If you're looking for an intriguing mystery involving codes, and an original cast of characters (love Theo Blackwell's heartbreaking backstory), grab this one!

Tag!

Thanks to Melissa for the Be Inspired tag!

1. What is the name of your book? I hate to say it, but rather than talk of Rome, Rhymes and Risk (which I haven't turned to in two weeks now (bad ROW80er!) or even Out of the Water, which is out on queries, I'm going to blab about my shiny new idea, which has no title as yet, but is referred to in a most original fashion as Fred and Lyne's Story.


2. Where did the idea for your book come from? This scene came from a dream: A man and a woman in a store room in a cave, with the door barred, and antagonists on the other side of the door, doing their darndest to get in. Somehow I knew that the man had been a beast, and that there were even more evil creatures in the depths of the cave, and they had to be defeated somehow.


3. In what genre would you classify your book? Contemporary Paranormal Romance. My first!


4. If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose? Here's where it gets tough. Originally, I'd considered Roman Grosjean the racer for Fred. But then I saw a random photo of Henry Cavill (I've never seen him act!), and thought, maybe he could play Fred. But I have no idea about Lyne, yet. I know what she looks like, but haven't come across her image anywhere.


5. Give us a one-sentence synopsis of your book. Not one sentence, but forgive me, I wrote this mere seconds ago:

When Lyne, fresh out of graduate school, accepts a position at an archaeological dig at a seaside cave site in England, she might have signed up for more than she expected. The beast who guards the caverns gets too close for comfort, but rescues her during a disaster at sea. When she kisses him in gratitude, he turns into a man.

Now he wants her to be Beauty to his Beast, but the evil force at the heart of the caverns is bent on revenge for the loss of its servant. Can Lyne work with the beast long enough to defeat the horror of the caves? And what happens when she finds herself falling in love?

 I'm sorry, Nathan! I have to ask these rhetorical questions as I'm still writing the book - I don't know the ending yet!

6. Is your book already published / represented? Not yet finished. To wit:

7. How long did it take you to write your book? I've got over 10,000 words and I've been drafting for a month now, in every morning since 1 June (except for one three-day weekend) (ROW80 check in!). Still a loooong way to go.


8. What other books within your genre would you compare it to? Or, readers of which books would enjoy yours? Er, I don't know. Perhaps Kait Nolan's Red, which was a take on Little Red Riding Hood. If there are other books that sound similar that you think I should read, please let me know!


9. Which authors inspired you to write this book? Well, besides the original version by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve... My own dream, I suppose. And possibly the fact that I spent a month reading a tale here, a tale there, out of Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales.


10. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book. I gave away quite enough with that synopsis/blurb/teaser. I've been thinking of it as the druids/beauty and the beast/1000+ year curse/legend modern archaeological romance.

If you've read this far, consider yourself tagged (if you like)!