OMN Welcomes Crime Novelist Kurt Kamm

Omnimystery News is pleased to welcome author Kurt Kamm, whose third crime is Code Blood (MCM Publishing, November 2011 trade paperback).

Today Kurt writes about how he worked his way through the storyline of his latest mystery. And he's also giving one of our readers a chance to win a copy of his new book; see details below.

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People who read my novels always ask me how I develop my plots. I have heard that some mystery writers create a detailed outline of the events in each chapter, and know exactly how their mystery will end before they write the opening sentence. I have tried to do this several times and it has not worked. I find myself unable to start with anything more than a general premise. Once I have that idea, I can imagine the opening events and soon the main characters are living out their own lives within the mystery. All I do is listen to them in my head and write their stories. Sometimes I try to tell them they are making mistakes, or that they are painting themselves into a corner, but they never seem to listen. Sometimes I have to really assert myself to help them out. Confidentially, I'll tell you they tend to ignore me and never say thanks.

Photo provided courtesy of Kurt Kamm

In my latest firefighter mystery, Code Blood, the novel begins with an unusual accident in front of a restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. A speeding pickup hits a metal light pole and when the pole comes down, the jagged edge severs the foot of a woman standing nearby. This was an actual event as described to me by a Los Angeles County Fire paramedic. He went on to tell me that the foot was missing for almost half an hour until it was found wedged under the engine compartment of the truck. This was enough to get me started.

The first thing I imagined was a weird guy coming out of the restaurant with the remainder of his dinner in a doggie bag. What would happen if he decided to pick up the foot and take it home? What kind of creep would do that? If he took home a severed foot, what other crazy stuff was he doing? Maybe he was involved with a gang of Russian body parts dealers?

What would happen if the responding paramedic was on his first run? Could he accept the fact that his patient's foot was missing? When he found out she died on the MediVac helicopter, what was his reaction? This is a guy who has dedicated his career as a firefighter to saving people and now he's a paramedic and loses his first accident victim. How does he feel? The least he can do is find her foot, right?

As I worked my way through the story, other characters materialized. A Chinese graduate student doing stem cell research, an exotic dancer with a full upper body tattoo, and some crazies from the underside of Los Angeles—all appeared when the story needed them. They were actually doing their own thing and just happened to get involved in the events of my mystery. I enjoyed meeting some of them; others were a menace to society.

I always have to do some rewrites and some backtracking in my plots, because my characters rarely cooperate. I do have more damn fun meeting these people and trying to figure out what they will do next.

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Kurt Kamm is retired and lives with his wife in Malibu, California. He spends much of his time with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and attends many of their training exercises and classes. His previous firefighter novel, Red Flag Warning: A Serial Arson Mystery (2010), won three first place mystery fiction awards. He is currently working on his fourth firefighter mystery, Hazardous Material. Learn more about Kurt Kamm and his books at KurtKamm.com.

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About Code Blood:

Colt Lewis, a rookie fire paramedic, is obsessed with finding the severed foot of his first victim after she dies in his arms. His search takes him into the connected lives of a graduate research student, with the rarest blood in the world and the vampire fetishist who is stalking her. Within the corridors of high-stakes medical research laboratories, the shadow world of body parts dealers, and the underground Goth clubs of Los Angeles, Lewis uncovers a tangled maze of needles, drugs and maniacal ritual, all of which lead to death. But whose death?

 

For a chance to win a copy of Code Blood, courtesy of the author, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Kurt Kamm: Code Blood" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code (8227) for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends 11/23/2011.)