I'm so pleased with the response from the latest Book Club - I chose "Dark Secrets" for this one! The promo was perfect:
"Join our author Judi Getch Brodman on Thursday, April 11th at 7PM in the Ocean Club for a unique opportunity to delve into the intricate storyline of Dark Secrets (Mystery, romance and fashion rolled up together into an edge-of-your-seat Paris adventure!).
Discover how she crafts her stories and where her creative ideas begin. Gain insight into her journey as an author. This conversation with Judi offers a glimpse into the mind of a talented writer and the world she creates in her captivating novels. And, at the end, she might even give you a glimpse into her upcoming novel."
The group was large, engaged and had wonderful questions. I love when they provide insight into the characters... love them or want them gone! In this case, Philip should be gone. The setting descriptions also hit a homerun with the group - the cities of Paris and Boston as well as the countryside descriptions. So again, I'm very pleased with their response.
Two questions that always come up is, "How do you chose your story?" and then "How do you build your story as well as the characters?" The first question is easy to answer... in this case it was an article that I read about an apartment in Paris that had been closed for 70 years until the owner died. The photos of the inside with the items discovered were breathtaking, so I knew I had to build a story around this treasure of an apartment. And for the most part, that's how my stories start - an article about a place, a murder, serial killers, etc. Although I have written stories that have been in my mind and heart for awhile, such as "The Looking Glass Labyrinth" -- one of my favorites and my readers as well. It combined the town of my childhood summers, Wellfleet, with a chance to go back in time. It was a joy to write... researching the 1800s and the characters. If you haven't read that one, please do... tell me how you feel about it. The reviews were terrific.
Anyway, back to the second question, "How do you build the story and the characters around it?", is not so easy to answer. I really can't tell you how I came up with the Dark Secret novel around this article. I'm sure I knew I needed a male and female character... I always do. My first draft had Brielle as a spoiled young woman who I didn't even like 😖 So I needed to rewrite her as a woman who had a story... a tough story, a hard life... and who didn't want anything to do with Paris, in fact hated it and had never traveled there. Brielle appeared. She wanted nothing to do with Paris, a city that she felt had stolen her mother. The backstory begins... her mother left when she was a child, never wrote and never came back. How does she meet Jacques I ask? Maybe she could inherit the apartment? Jacques could handle the will? All of this just happens as I sit there writing... I really don't know how. And I'm a "pantser" not a "plotter" - no outline, I write by the seat of my pants, letting the characters tell their story.
At the end of the discussion, the group wanted to know what I was working on now. I currently have a time travel pirate story with a twist as well that I'm writing... told partially by the woman pirate's descendant. But there's a mystery in the Bahamas she has to help solve! I'm almost at the final draft so it should come out in less than six months!. I'm also working on the third Oyster Point Mystery with Jack and Jamie. This story started when someone asked if I had ever killed off a character... hold on to your seat with this one.
Well, hopefully that catches you up a bit on my writing. On a personal note, we lost a very dear longtime friend of my husband... a world renown oncologist. We flew to Washington DC to be with the family as he was honored.
Seize the day as they say!
Keep writing,
Till, Judi
