Jody’s Comments (group member since Oct 22, 2013)

Jody’s comments from the Ask Jody Summers group.

How did you ever come up with the idea for Dark Canvas?

The truth is I was going out to California to visit my birthfather and had a little extra time. I had been talking to this lovely lady on-line who was from the area, so I asked her to meet for a drink. Her name was Denice Lewis. She was a retired model and was actually beginning to do paintings with the ashes of the deceased for a living. I thought it an unusual career at first and didn’t think any more of it until another friend, a month later, suggested that it would be a great idea for a novel. The thought grabbed me like an angry gorilla, and I began writing the very next day. Six month later I had 155 thousand words and a first draft of what was then being referred to as Canvas of Death. Denice is still doing paintings, by the way, and you can find her at www.denicelewisfineart.com

What about Sean’s character? Was there a model for him?

Well, yes there is and it is I. I have always been very empathetic, and it seems to be a rather unusual trait for a guy. Always being aware of other’s feelings is as natural as breathing for females it seems but gets you some strange looks when you are male. At any rate I took my own trait and augmented it enough to make it interesting. From there I added bits and pieces of others I have known to create a “Sean” amalgm.

What made you decide to start the book in the French Quarter?

That is a fairly easy one. Not only was I born in New Orleans, but it has always seemed to me that few places in the world(outside of gothic castles) generate a sense of the macabre or supernatural better than the French Quarter. It is simply a place of wonder, history, danger and mystery. Where better to start my book than such a place that I knew so well?
Do you create an outline for your plots before you write them?

Some years ago I read this same question asked of Dean Koontz, who is one of my author heros, and I was rather pleased to discover that his answer to it coincided with mine. NO. I have no outline whatsoever. I have a vague idea of a central plot but the characters create the story for me as they go and I frequently find out that even the vague plot I start with gets dramatically changed as the story proceeds. Those pesky characters. You just never know what they are going to do next.

Do you have other books in mind or in the works?

Yes. The Mask Maker is the sequel to Dark Canvas and is scheduled to be available in the next 3-6 months. After that I plan to release a religious thriller entitled The Note from Christ. I had also written a book about the end of the Mayan Calendar, but I missed the deadline so I’m going to rewrite it and utilize a bunch of the other elements from it for another story. I am currently working on the second sequel to Dark Canvas which I am currently referring to as Lost in Thought, although I have no idea if that title will make it to the finish line or not.