We are delighted to welcome author J. W. Metcalf as our guest blogger today.
Jaime's new mystery is Wasted Space (JWMetcalf, April 2012 ebook), the first in "The Case Files of Tony Gavel".
Today Jaime tells us about what worked for him as an author.
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I have always wanted to write since I was 7 years old. I still have the first story I wrote when I was in school. I wrote things here and there throughout my life, but nothing ever worth publishing. Always had a ton of ideas, but just never did anything with them. Procrastination was my middle name. I had the character idea of Tony Gavel for a few years, but in his original form he was an Investigative Reporter working for the Daily Times. I had a few stories planned out for him and I always started them during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Needless to say I never finished any of them. Got about 20K words in or so and stopped. It was always one thing or another that I didn't like, so instead of fixing the problem I would just scrap it.
This year was different. I started a new approach to writing. I decided to make Tony Gavel a Private Investigator. I had always enjoyed mysteries. Growing up I was a big fan of Mickey Spillane (The Mike Hammer Series) and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series. I started the book Wasted Space on November 1st, 2011 and finished it April 9th, 2012. I did not write during the month of February. I wrote it every night at work during my break and lunch hour. It made work more bearable. (I work for the United States Postal Service.)
The way I wrote this book was different for me and it worked. I started with the last chapter. I knew the crime from top to bottom. Why the killer did it, how they did it, what did they gain from doing it, where they did it, etc. Once the last chapter was done, I began my book. I put myself in the shoes of Tony and went on the investigation. I knew Tony well so it was no problem for me to think like him and act like him. From there the book kinda flowed on it's own. I had beta readers to check out story flow and believability for me after each chapter so things wouldn't seem impossible or ridiculous. I had a school teacher friend do all my editing for me. My job was to just write. I was able to get almost 1200 words done in the hour and fifteen minutes I wrote each day.
Not knowing what was going to happen while I wrote was pretty exciting. A few times things popped up that I didn't plan at all. There was one point in the story when he was driving back to his office at 4:30am when something popped into my head totally out of the blue. I put it in the story. It just seemed logical for that event to happen. When my beta readers got to that point, they liked it and didn't expect it, but said it fit. I like looking through the eyes of Tony Gavel, it makes writing fun for me.
I have a whole series planned for Tony. I am calling it: From the Case Files of Tony Gavel. Then each case itself will be the name of the story. At the moment I have the first four books in my head. I just need to write them. I am currently on the sixth chapter of the second book Gone Fishing. You can read the first chapter of my book Wasted Space at my blog, authorjwmetcalf.wordpress.com. I also have a repost from an interview that Pat Bertram — the author of Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire — did with my main character Tony Gavel.
I'm looking forward to writing the next few books in the series and I hope you enjoy them.
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About Wasted Space:
When a successful business man is found dead in his home, the police rule it a suicide. However, not everyone is convinced that a man who seemed to have it all would take his own life.
Private investigator Tony Gavel is hired to find out the truth of the matter. Tony's investigation leads him from the carefully manicured lawns of the suburbs to the seedy underbelly of the Big City. As he delves futher into the case, he uncovers secrets, lies, and danger at every turn.
When an attempt is made on his own life, his friend and former partner, Officer Dwight O'Toole, gives Tony until the end of the week to solve the case before the police take over. Can Tony crack the case before the clock runs out, or will his unstoppable pursuit of justice land him in the morgue as the latest victim?
