Reverse Engineering Inspiration

April was a shit month. 

I had to say goodbye to Mr. B, the sweetest, roughest ol' tomcat I've ever known.  He had been abandoned by his mother many years ago, and he adopted me & my sis.  It's a quieter home without him.  Then I was confronted by the failure of VISION BENT in finding library readers, which said a lot about how my small Nebraska town views this half-blind freakboy.  As insignificant.  As a failure.  As shit.  Yeah, I'm probably projecting my own insecurities onto the population of my town, but small American towns aren't all Andy Griffith and apple pie, if you know what I mean.  Oh, and there was also an abundance of Spring snow to bury any good mood threatening to bloom.

Yet, despite the negative vortex, I can honestly say not all of April was shit. 

I spent the first Saturday of the month with my Dark Excursions muse and her sister.  On the second Saturday, a cousin and I took a much needed road trip.  A good deal of fun was had on both Saturdays.  

At Penny's Diner in North Platte, NE.

Then, as the month drew to a close, a bit of inspiration blew in my general direction.  I jokingly mentioned that my next book would be a coffee table book of orange underwear pics.  The idea amused me so much that i snapped a photo of my orange underwear on the kitchen table.  Suddenly, a title popped into my head and I set about designing a cover for this ridiculous book. 

Once finished, I half-looked upon my visual creation and realized this was potentially more than a fake cover to a cheeky peek into my orange obsession.  This was a real cover to a book i had not yet written.  The gears in my head began to creak to life, blowing the dust and cobwebs out of my mindscape. 

Dropping, um...2020?  Maybe? 

Hopefully sooner. 

I studied the orange and brown cover of A STUDY IN ORANGE, zooming in and out while adjusting my Mad Scientist Glasses.  My initial impression was that I captured a 1950's dime store paperback vibe.  Then the sharp edges slicing through the cover, fracturing the image, made me think of a crime drama or mystery in a film noir vein.  Last but certainly not least, the orange underwear added a lurid romance angle to the mix.

So, writing a lurid mystery-romance is what I've been doing lately and it feels good.  The process is reminding me of writing Dark Excursions.  As the words spring from my fingertips, I want to get to know these characters better, learn what aspects to their personalities they are hiding from me.  I want to inhabit their tantalizing world and explore what's around each corner. 

I may have a basic idea of the plot, but my fictional writing process is like a flexible sponge, soaking up and incorporating random elements into the story.  I know how the book begins and I have a general idea of the ending, but there's a lot of uncharted territory in between.  I enjoy allowing the characters a certain amount of freedom to reveal themselves and potentially alter the plot. 

LITTLE KNOWN FACT 

I originally didn't intend for Crop to be romantically inclined to Dinkel in Dark Excursions.  It wasn't until I wrote Chapter 6 that I realized Crop had feelings beyond friendship for the one-armed gardener.  I can't even imagine how different DE would be without that romance at its core.  

I hope the cover for A STUDY IN ORANGE, which I think is my best fiction book cover to date, will keep me inspired and motivated.  I have a bad habit of losing interest in a project, but I hate the idea of letting the cover go to waste.  We shall half-see what happens, and I'll occasionally update you on my progress.

In conclusion, April may have generally been a shit month, but perhaps amazing things can grow from excrement. 💩

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 

JLH 

P.S.  A video about my orange obsession...

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My books & blogs...so far.😉

https://thejlhcollective.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-collective.html