Hey all. Gerry Boyle here. A quick post this week because I’m headed for the finish line on THE DEAD SAMARITAN, a crime novel set in Ireland. This is the collaboration I’ve mentioned before. I’m here in America (most of the time). Freelance writer and blogger Emily Westbrooks (also my daughter), is on the ground in Dublin. It’s a good team. I think it’s a good book. Hope you all get to judge sometime soon.
More on the details when it’s done (I’m superstitious about talking too much about works in progress). Today’s post is about process and this one is coming together differently than any of my other mystery novels.
Every book is different, of course. I’ve written novels in one draft, one shot, no revision at all (DAMAGED GOODS). I’ve written novels where I’ve changed villains in the rewrite (DEADLINE). I’ve written novels where a third of the original ms. has been left on the cutting room floor (BORDERLINE).
But I’ve never done one like this one, which is being written in layers. I’ve been doing some video work in my magazine job, some voice over, script writing. I’ve also been watching the video editor work his magic, weaving sound and video, splicing and dicing. It’s fascinating and fun.
I’ve also been reading about painters and their process, layering on of paint, a final addition of light and color bringing the work to life.
And maybe some of that rubbed off because SAMARITAN is being written in a long burst of dialogue. Very little expository anything. Always moving. The dialogue and action driving the book along.
That’s layer one. Then comes blog posts and text messages (key to this one). Then some more Irish-izing of the dialogue (lots of Irish friends ready to help out there. Hello, Dublin northsiders!). Then some fleshing out of the landscape.
And voila. The complete story, hopefully seamless and smooth.
Will I write the next one like this? Apply this process to the next Jack McMorrow or Brandon Blake? Probably not. But we aren’t stamping out cookies here folks. And has this one been fun? It’s been grand.
In PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, the first Brandon Blake novel, Brandon gets a full dose of bad guys. A brawl in a funeral home introduces him to Joel Fuller, a sociopathic hustler. Fuller is fresh out of jail and determined to take Brandon out—after Fuller and his sidekick Kelvin shake him down.
Rocky isn’t a tough guy. He’s a skinny little kid with crooked glasses, and he shouldn’t be homeless in Portland, Maine. When McMorrow and Roxanne pluck him from under the stomping feet of a gang of street kids, Rocky latches onto McMorrow–and drags him into a world of murder, both old and new. Why is McMorrow protecting Rocky? The cops want to know. Why is Rocky on the run? McMorrow wants to know. Why does death follow in Rocky’s wake? Jack and Roxanne need to find out before they’re added to the list. 
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