Being a Thief Benefits My Writing by
Debra H. Goldstein
I am a
thief. On a regular basis, I steal characteristics, mannerisms, physical traits
and even anecdotes from people I meet or observe.
What do
I do with my loot? It’s worthless on the resale market. Without even asking, I
know no fence will touch my haul. My options are limited. Either I can hide my
stash in my brain for future use or immediately incorporate parts of it into my
present work in progress. I’ve used both methods.
In One Taste Too Many, the first of
Kensington’s Sarah Blair cozy mystery series, RahRah, a Siamese cat, is an
important character. For readers to enjoy RahRah, there had to be more
description than “the cat purred,” but I didn’t know how Siamese cats behave.
There was only one solution – steal cat data from a friend who has a beautiful
Siamese cat. She thought I was doing simple research, but during the two hours
I spent with her, she anecdotally described her cat’s normal and quirky
behaviors, physical look, and toys. I walked away with a gold mine of
information. Almost all of it found its way into One Taste Too Many to make RahRah a well- rounded and realistic
character. Even better, from the way I described the beauty and coloring of her
cat, the Kensington artist, who designed the book’s cover, caught her cat’s
appearance for perpetuity.
The
information gained was immediately incorporated into One Taste Too Many. That wasn’t the case with my 2018 Anthony and
Agatha short story finalist “The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place,” (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
May/June 2017). In that story, I used information pulled from the stockpiles in
my brain.
Set in
the civil rights era in Birmingham, Alabama, Ms. Dixie’s place is a house where
the sheets are changed more than once a night. The story includes the death, in
one of the bedrooms, of a politician who campaigned against the red-light
district, but frequented it. To write the story, I used what I know from living
in Birmingham but the street with the brothel is modeled after one I observed
in the 1970’s in Atlanta, Georgia. At that time, every local politician
embraced cleaning up the red-light district, but many were well known to be
visitors to the street’s adult stores and brothels. A third part of the story pulled
from the recesses of memory was its most colorful character, Ms. Dixie. She is
a composite of two people I met at different times in my life coupled with the
flavor of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With
the Wind’s Belle Watling.
In
order to be able to have enough memory and current observation material to
bring my writing realistically to life, I have no choice. I must steal from the
minds and experiences of others. What about you? Do you expand your writing
with bits and pieces of other people’s lives? Do you like it when an author
adds extra details?
Judge Debra H.
Goldstein is the author of One Taste Too
Many, the first of Kensington’s new Sarah Blair cozy mystery series. She
also wrote Should Have Played Poker and 2012 IPPY Award
winning Maze in Blue. Her short
stories, including Anthony and Agatha nominated “The Night They Burned Ms.
Dixie’s Place,” have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies including
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Black
Cat Mystery Magazine, and Mystery
Weekly. Debra is president of Sisters in Crime’s Guppy Chapter, serves on
SinC’s national board, and is president of the Southeast Chapter of Mystery
Writers of America. Find out more about Debra at www.DebraHGoldstein.com .
One Taste Too Many Buylinks:
Thanks Debra!
Debra will give away either a print or an e-copy of ONE TASTE TOO MANY to one lucky commenter! Just leave your name and email address in our comments section. winner will be chosen by random. org on January 25th. Foreign entries are accepted, but winner will receive e-book ONLY.
