How about a little Behind the Scenes blogging?
Let's start with Lucky's Charm!
In my 20s and early 30s, I was obsessed with Serial Killers. No, I didn't think they were cool or anything weird like that, it was the psychology of a killer that fascinated me. I read dozens of fiction and nonfiction books, saw every episode of Criminals Minds (twice) and honestly thought about writing a book from an SK point of view but could never really get there. Instead, Lucky was born. I had been reading Barry Eisler's Rain series while trying to come up with the next idea after writing Tiva. My first "reading love" was mysteries and suspense so I wanted to write something in that vein.
Long chats with my BFF at the time helped Lucky form into a real character with motivations, goals, and a really crappy past that screamed to be told. I originally wanted to write 7 books. Lucky 7! Get it? I had one or two line summary plots for each of them.
As you may know, I'm a pantser, and what that means is that I don't have a detailed plot or an outline to follow. Basically, it was "Lucky's trying to find her mother's killer and her family is her back up"!
For Lucky's Charm, I didn't even have a clear ending in mind when I started writing. Everything was going according to plan until Kenji showed up. I vividly remember writing the scene in the Au Bon Pain, a real place I used to eat lunch at in New York City. I remember when Lucky turned her head and saw the big man with the sunglasses. I stopped after that scene and said: "Who the hell are you?"
I had intended on Lucky finding a love interest...in like book three! No lie. But sometimes characters really do show up out of the blue. I took a day or two after Kenji showed up to figure out who he was, but I didn't want to know too much. I never do. When I picked his assassin tag, Shoukan, which means redemption, I had no idea how well it would fit into Lucky's world or how it would mold the character of Kenji going forward. It was just a cool Japanese word I wanted to use.
Somewhere, in the back of my writer brain, that word redemption became the backbone of the entire series, whereas I had always thought it would be about revenge.
After writing these books, I can honestly say my obsession with Serial Killers has faded some. I'm all about the superheroes now.
So what did you think of Lucky? Who was your favorite character? Anything you'd like to know?
Here's my favorite quote from Book 1
Your can pick up your copy here: www.amazon.com/dp/B008RG8V4Q
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