I’m still working on “A Trail of Clues.” I have the initial rough draft completed. Well, I have all the scenes that I planned to write completed. At 46,000 words, it’s too short, and I need to build the subplot a little more. Currently, I’m in the process of re-reading what I’ve written and tweaking the story. Writing a mystery is a different animal from SciFi. There is this balance of revealing clues along the way without revealing the killer(s). It’s tough because I have to make sure the crime can be solved by a savvy reader (or at least they could think back and go: oh yeah, that makes sense, and make sure it’s not dead simple.
The other issue I’m grappling with is that I have to make sure the first book is gripping. The book has to sell the entire series. If the first one falls flat, then the series is worthless. If the first book is a real gut punch that hooks people, they’ll read on to the second book. Because of this issue, I have to make sure I spend whatever time it takes to get this one right. Even if I have to toss the entire story and start over, fortunately, it hasn’t come to that. However, I ran into an issue where the first two or three scenes dragged. To fix my problem, I wrote a new opening scene and tossed the second scene. The first scene grabs your attention.
I still need to order a custom cover for the book. Maybe I’ll get that going this week. I’d like to get all five covers done at once, but I think I’ll just get started with one cover for now. I already have the book blurb ready and all the info I’ll need for a cover.
I also came up with an embellishment for each book. I have thousands of pictures of the trails near Suncrest, so I’ll add a picture of a trail sign at the beginning of each book that will be featured inside the story. I used Photoshop to make the image look like a black-and-white pencil drawing or an old photo. The first book will have this image inside it:
In this instance, Hog Hollow is a utility road that can be used as a trail for bikes or hikers. Dogs are allowed on a leash. I usually use this trail to get to Pork-U-Pine, then maybe to Hoof-N-Boots or other trails if I’m headed to Jacob’s Ladder trail. I’m very cautious about describing how the trails connect when discussing them in the book. Not that it’s critical to the plot, but I want to make sure a reader can open up a trail map and follow along.
I have a subscription to AllTrails, but Hiking Project has free maps (Pork-U-Pine is shown at that link).
I also have to keep verifying which trails dogs are allowed on. Bolt might not be a real dog, but Q has a goal to make sure his robot dog remains a secret. There are also incidences where bikes may show up on a trail, but some do not allow bikes like Hoof-N-Boots. As the name implies, it’s a trail for hiking and horses. I like to hike that trail because I don’t have to keep a keen ear on speeding bikes. I’ve never seen a horse on that trail, but I have seen evidence of horses.
This book is not gonna write itself… so back to my writing…