Where do ideas for murder mysteries come from?
I am presently writing a mystery series - 'the Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist series', and I often get asked where my ideas come from for book stories. You might be surprised by my writing process. I start with a location first. Yes, location. Picking a city, state, or country then allows my imagination to think of a reason for a murder mystery.
After a vacation in Belgium and the Netherlands, I knew I could reliably remember the cities of the region and the people. One of many memories of my vacation was visiting the diamond district of Antwerp, and the many chocolate stores in every city across both countries. How could I work diamonds and chocolate into a story? With a little creativity, I found my story line for CHOCOLATE DIAMONDS, my second book.
I have been to every location in all of my stories, except the Sandslide reef in my first book VIALS. I have been snorkeling in Puerto Rico, but not scuba diving. I've taken boats to snorkel reefs in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. I've snorkeled many reefs in Hawaii, so while I don't have a sense of scuba diving, I have had the joy of the colors of the underwater world.
My third book, A BRECK DEATH, is the result of over thirty years of skiing. I have always loved James Bond movies, and especially 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. In this movie, Bond skies off a cliff and a parachute opens made from the Union Jack. For a couple years after that movie, I would listen to the James Bond theme and the song for that movie - "Nobody does it better" on the drive to the slopes. It was fun to design a story around my favorite winter sport - skiing.
DEATH ON A GREEN, book four, of the series, will be release January 27, and is available for pre-order now. The story of a murder during a charity golf outing was a suggestion from my editor. I lived in Green Bay for a decade and played in that golf outing several times. It wasn't hard to turn that into a story.
Book five, my work in progress, A TAXING DEATH, is set in Sacramento, California. I have probably been to that city 20-30 times. While we have the resource of Google Earth, I think you have to have been to these places to be able to accurately describe them and the mannerisms of the people that inhabit those cities.
Book six, to be published in the summer of 2015, as yet unnamed, will be set in Dallas, Texas. I'm visiting that city next month. I plan to study people and the town to gain the material for my book. In this book, I have a friend who wanted to be a character in one of my books - she said it was on her 'bucket list'. One of her friends, suggested I "off" her as a speaker at a convention for nurses. I responded that I never kill my friends in my books. So I will 'off' a co-speaker on her panel. Now I just need to figure out who wanted this speaker dead.
Book seven, to be published in late 2015, also unnamed, will be set in the United Kingdom. I have visited the UK close to ten times and I have many readers from the part of the world. I thought a story based somewhere in the UK would be a nice tribute to both those readers and the fact that my heritage traces itself to Birmingham, England.
I have had been lucky in my travels and they continue to provide me with endless fodder for murder mysteries!
After a vacation in Belgium and the Netherlands, I knew I could reliably remember the cities of the region and the people. One of many memories of my vacation was visiting the diamond district of Antwerp, and the many chocolate stores in every city across both countries. How could I work diamonds and chocolate into a story? With a little creativity, I found my story line for CHOCOLATE DIAMONDS, my second book.
I have been to every location in all of my stories, except the Sandslide reef in my first book VIALS. I have been snorkeling in Puerto Rico, but not scuba diving. I've taken boats to snorkel reefs in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. I've snorkeled many reefs in Hawaii, so while I don't have a sense of scuba diving, I have had the joy of the colors of the underwater world.
My third book, A BRECK DEATH, is the result of over thirty years of skiing. I have always loved James Bond movies, and especially 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. In this movie, Bond skies off a cliff and a parachute opens made from the Union Jack. For a couple years after that movie, I would listen to the James Bond theme and the song for that movie - "Nobody does it better" on the drive to the slopes. It was fun to design a story around my favorite winter sport - skiing.
DEATH ON A GREEN, book four, of the series, will be release January 27, and is available for pre-order now. The story of a murder during a charity golf outing was a suggestion from my editor. I lived in Green Bay for a decade and played in that golf outing several times. It wasn't hard to turn that into a story.
Book five, my work in progress, A TAXING DEATH, is set in Sacramento, California. I have probably been to that city 20-30 times. While we have the resource of Google Earth, I think you have to have been to these places to be able to accurately describe them and the mannerisms of the people that inhabit those cities.
Book six, to be published in the summer of 2015, as yet unnamed, will be set in Dallas, Texas. I'm visiting that city next month. I plan to study people and the town to gain the material for my book. In this book, I have a friend who wanted to be a character in one of my books - she said it was on her 'bucket list'. One of her friends, suggested I "off" her as a speaker at a convention for nurses. I responded that I never kill my friends in my books. So I will 'off' a co-speaker on her panel. Now I just need to figure out who wanted this speaker dead.
Book seven, to be published in late 2015, also unnamed, will be set in the United Kingdom. I have visited the UK close to ten times and I have many readers from the part of the world. I thought a story based somewhere in the UK would be a nice tribute to both those readers and the fact that my heritage traces itself to Birmingham, England.
I have had been lucky in my travels and they continue to provide me with endless fodder for murder mysteries!
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