Here I'll give you a little background on each story, the germination process through which the story was born in my mind.
"God Bless the Child": God Bless was born out of several ideas. I'd always been a fan of the old private eye stories, and was taking a creative writing class at Rutgers. I had an image of Donne sitting outside a suburban home smoking a cigarette. I started to ask questions. Who was in the home? Why was Donne watching it? Who was he waiting for? Eventually the alcoholic mother came outside and the story grew from there.
"More Sinned Against": I had just completed college, started a new job, and it was only a few weeks after 9/11 when I started this story. It came at me from a few different angles. One of my strongest memories from college were a few fellow students protesting against the gentrification of New Brunswick. While this seed was germinating--I was wondering what would happen if someone was intentionally evicted with malice--my father mentioned to me that since my first story was about a child, the next one should be about a senior citizen. At the same time my former roommate was working in New Brunswick in the theater district. I had been asking about his new job, some of the details. I had all three seeds in my head and the character of Gerry was born. I was also curious about a foil, and the owner of the theater seemed like a great character, especially with her hatred of NYC so close to 9/11 when everyone was in love with the city. I thought it was a different view point. With those two characters in play, I constructed the story.
"Closure": 9/11 was weighing heavily on my mind. It was six months later, and I had refused to watch the special TV series, I didn't want to depress myself, but I was reading articles, trying to track the terrorists and still feeling the pain from the people who had died only 14 miles from my home. It was eating away at me, and I couldn't understand why. In April, I visited the Tribute of Light across the river at Liberty State Park. I loved the park and had always wanted to use it at a location. Something clicked in my mind. The story practically wrote itself, and it was a cathartic feeling. The characters were talking, the situations were clicking, and it all felt right. Yet, I was concerned. For about three weeks, I let the completed draft lay dormant. No one looked at it, no one read it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to show it. I had written the story for me, and I was afraid that I'd insult the intelligence and emotions of anyone directly involved in the tragedy. Finally, I showed it to two people to read. They immediately told me it was my best work. After that, after they said it wasn't insulting, that it was handled with class, I decided to give it a few re-writes, and the story was born.
"Get Miles Away": After the success with "Closure," I didn't want to repeat myself. There were issues at the end of that story that bothered me, especially Jackson Donne's inaction. I wanted to deal with that. After not having any female characters in "Closure" I also wanted to create a strong female character to be the focus of the story. I was always interested in the idea of a stalker or a rapist, and what would happen if you were involved with someone who was being stalked. I started to create the complex character of Beth, who seemed to be on the run from herself and from her past. Once I set Jackson Donne up with her on a date, I watched as Donne responded with frustration as Beth continually pushed him away. Unashamedly, I also wanted to give Donne a re-occurring cast, but I was surprised by a darker, more ambiguous ending, which may have taken that option away. We'll see. Hopefully, I've succeeded with this story. It was more difficult to write than the other three, and I really had to work with it. But I think the hard work payed off.
"The Long Road": I'd had enough of Donne after "Get Miles Away." I was running short of ideas, he was a bit beat up, it was time to leave him alone. At least for a while. There were a lot of things I've wanted to do in writing, and while most of them revolve around crime, I wanted to do a little leg stretching. After writing the Beth character in "Get Miles," I wanted to try and write another strong female character, maybe one who was a little more stable. I had the idea of Christine, a professional killer. I wan't sure what she was doing. Then came Memorial Day weekend, May 2003, one of the wettest weekends in memory. I had tickets to the Yankees game and was going to try to go. As I was getting on to the highway, my tires spun out and I totaled the car. Physically unhurt, but frustrated, unable to vent, I sat down at the computer that night. I wondered what would happen if professional killers got into a car accident with a body in the trunk. Mixed with the character of Christine, the story was born. I'd always like Tarantino movies, and the nicknames "Swan" and "Ferret" are my ode to "Mr. White, Mr. Pink, Mr. Yellow" of Reservoir Dogs. This story was an interesting exercise and I'm glad I found a home for it.
"God's Dice": After "Get Miles Away," I seriously considered retiring Donne, at least for a while. The ending of that story read like a good ending to me, and part of me wanted to let it go to see if I could come up with a different character, a new PI. I wasn't sure where I could go with him. Then a friend of mine brought of the option of faith. I looked at my earlier two stories "Closure" and "Get Miles" to see where I had left Mr. Donne. It seemed to me that in "Closure" Donne got hit in the professional way, losing a client. In "Get Miles" which isn't even a true PI story (he was never hired, he just happened to be a PI) I gave Donne a shot at the personal level. It seemed to me that the press would be covering both these events, a shooting in New Brunswick is big news, as is anything relating to 9/11. With Donne's name being involved in both of these things, his business would probably suffer. So where could I hit Donne next? It seemed like a good idea to examine his faith. If a man kept taking shots like Donne was, what would his faith be? I starting thinking about having Donne be hired by a priest. I was flipping through one of my Pearl Jam albums and found the title "God's Dice." Then everything: Atlantic City, a future nun, Donne's faith, the Einstein quote fell into the place and the story was born. However, as I was writing, the ending was a complete suprise, something I didn't know about until it actually happened. I actually had to step away from the computer and ask myself, "Do I really want to go this route?" I did.
"Down to the River": A pseudo-sequel to "The Long Road." It was a Friday night and I was on my way to a party in North Brunswick. It was one of the coldest weekends of the year, and my defroster was working overtime on my Honda's windshield. It couldn't keep up. I asked myself who would just sit in a car and watch a window fog up. On the radio, the Counting Crows "Holiday in Spain" was playing, and I thought to myself, the only person who'd watch the windshield fog, would be the same person dreaming of heading off to Spain. The forty five minute car ride basically fleshed out the story, and it was just a matter of typing on paper.
"Darkness on the Edge of Town": I'm going to be honest, I'm not exactly sure how this story came about. I think it had to do with reading the hype about George Pelecanos' latest novel HARD REVOLUTION, how we was willing to go back into Derek Strange's life and look at him as a younger man. Plus, at the time I was just starting my novel and this character from Donne's past, Bill Martin, kept popping up in the manuscript. He was just a ton of fun to write about. So I asked myself what his story was, who was he, how did he impact Donne's life? And then I thought of a first line, and surprisingly, it came out in my head in third person. I wrote this story longhand first, during testing at work, and pumped it out in three days. The revisions took longer, but it was definitely a worthwhile process, and I think pushed my writing skills to a better level.
"Negative Lottery": This story was born out of the "Junk in the Trunk idea. Needing to come up with an idea for something a cop could find in a trunk, my father and I were bouncing ideas off each other. I was doing the same thing with a work friend of mine. My father and I came up with lottery ticket, my work friend and I came up with a clown. The lotto ticket won out. Then I started working on character. Figuring everyone would use the driver of the car as their main character, I tried to figure out what kind of cop would find a winning lotto ticket useful. Harvey Dillard was born. After revisions, the darker ending was born as well, and that's where we stood.
"Reptile Smile": I started with the first line. I was student teaching, and every day I'd look at the attendance sheet and see someone with the last name "Brockington." And every day I'd say to one of the teachers, "What a great name that is." One of them finally replied, "Yeah, sounds like it should be in a mystery. 'Lyle Brockington.'" The first line was written that moment. Meanwhile, I wanted to know more about Bill Martin. Was he as bad as he seemed in "Darkness?" Did he change between "Darkness" and the upcoming novel? I wanted to write from his POV, and so I came up with this story.
"Limp Puppets": Unfortunately, sharing the story behind the story would give away the end. So I'm going to hold off on this one. You can always email me at dpwhite237@yahoo.com, if you'd like to know after you've read it.
"Dead Money": A short one this time. Last year my father's car was broken into. They took only the owner's manual. Asking the question why, I filled in this story's plot.
