The other day, I am at my doctor’s
office for a complete physical. This means that I have a little more time with
him than usual. As it happens, I am also in the midst of a rewrite on the
fourth Emily Taylor Mystery.
Seventh Fire tells the story
(finally) of what happened to Emily and Langford in Vancouver. Some fans have
mentioned that they disliked the references to their past, when this has
nothing to do with the plot. I obviously didn’t do my job well enough for those
who missed it.
Emily’s motivation for becoming an
amateur sleuth in The Bridgeman had everything to do with her past. She is
terrified that the media and police presence in their idyllic hideout,
Burchill, will lead to Langford’s unmasking. For now, the couple wants–no,
desperately needs–to remain incognito. They’ve been through too much; they are
trying to heal. The Bridgeman
In Victim, Emily is struggling with
the secret. She can’t feel as close to May as she would like, since she is
withholding so much of herself from her friend. Her interaction with Agnes Lake
is a gift that wouldn’t have happened had she not faced the source of her
unhappiness. Emily’s meeting with Agnes coincides with the search for May’s
Aunt Oona. Not only that, the discovery they make allows a financial freedom
that they would not have otherwise had. All the stories are closely
intertwined. The hovering personal history has a direct impact. Victim
Although Legacy barely mentions the
past at all, Emily’s childlessness was caused by what happened in Vancouver and
is the reason she gets so involved with the Sanderson family. When she and
Langford end up being parents, Emily finds the strength at last to deal with
the legal issues they’d abandoned. Legacy
Thus the thread does have a purpose
within each of the plots, moving Emily to act and react.
Seventh Fire is the culmination of
the couple’s growth, from hiding and an attempt at healing through anonymity,
to revelation and confronting the legal tasks.
However, back to my doctor’s
office, where I am undergoing that joy of joys, the Pap test. I like to have an
idea for distracting myself during especially compromising situations. I tell
my doctor that I have another question and he says, ask away.
“If someone were strangled to the point of death, but
technically did not die, instead, they were cut up by their murderer and bled
out, would you say they’d died of strangulation or exsanguination?”
He looks up at me, his eyebrows
raised, and says, “Should I be worried about you?”
I privately think that perhaps he
should be worried about someone else, lest I decide to test the theories on an
unsuspecting victim. Instead, I laugh, and explain that I am editing my fourth
novel, and this question has come up.
He does ask two things.
One, do not use his real name.
Two, make him tall, dark and
handsome.
Little does he know, that's how I picture him anyway. Especially the night before an exam such as this one.
Little does he know, that's how I picture him anyway. Especially the night before an exam such as this one.
1 comment:
heh - love that last paragraph! And the photo.
Post a Comment