The seed of a story

My Hero

Why does someone become a writer? I suppose there are people who become writers as a way of making money, especially in these United States, where making money is always a matter of status and urgency. In fact, some Americans would say that making money is the only reason to do anything. I know that was not my reason.
For me, writing has been a calling in the spiritual sense.

I have written earlier about my first conscious ambition: to be a jet fighter pilot. Yet, that ambition was one that was imposed on me by the environment in which I grew up and the occupation chosen by my father. I actually was a part of the United States Air Force during my entire childhood. Yet, that ambition was not what motivated me all my life. I know now that if I had become a pilot, I would have written stories about the experience and drawn pictures of it; indeed, that is what I did do during my childhood when I could only imagine the experience.

From a very early age—three, when I wrote my first poem; five, when I drew my first picture—art and literature have informed my life. When I started school, my childhood peers  remarked on my ability to draw and to tell a story. My drawings were often chosen to hang on the bulletin boards in my elementary classes, and my stories and poems were usually the ones the teacher chose to read to the rest of the class. In Japan, mother hired a Japanese artist to come to our house and teach me and my sister art. He had a limited English vocabulary, but he had an intensity of will which he transferred to me. He would set up a still life, point and say, “Look! Look!” and we would begin drawing. If we missed something like the parabola of a shadow, he would trace it with his hand and say, “See! See!” He knew the difference between looking and seeing. When his stint as a teacher ended, he gave our grades to mother: “She—ok. He—ichibon, number one.”

I have always been (thanks to mother) a reader and an observer. I gobbled up books and devoured scenes, and had an ability to remember both. My belief has been that I must tell the truth as I see it regardless of how painful it is.

This idea transfers to fiction, even science fiction. In the series Interplanetary Secret Agent, I wanted a drive for spacecraft that seemed reasonably possible. I thought it through this way. Benjamin Franklin gets our regard for discovering the principles of electricity, without which modern society with all its glories and faults would not be possible. From electricity come all the modern conveniences, leading eventually to electronics, which allows us to have computers, television, wireless communication and robotics. In space flight, however, the best we’ve come up with so far is rocket propulsion which is wasteful and toxic and unstable. That wouldn’t do. Other proposed forms of propulsion include nuclear and plasma drives, which are costly. My idea is that if we could create an easily polarizing metal alloy, we could use all we know of electricity, magnetism and electronics to propel ourselves from heavenly body to heavenly body. The inhabitants of the Za System have worked this out; I call it electromagnetomics (explained in Chapter 5 of Interplanetary Secret Agent: Book Two: Huppof).

Halfway through the manuscript, I wondered if any scientist was considering this type of drive, so I Googled my concept. Lo and behold—scientists in MIT’s Department of Nuclear Physics were working on such a concept, although on a smaller scale. They were developing the drive to move satellites around their orbits. I emailed the head of the department and attached a copy of Chapter 5, “Electromagnetomics.” He did not reply, but I’m sure he’s very busy with his project. My email probably either amused or annoyed him. At any rate, my idea was viable.

So how do ideas come to a writer? Mine often come as a visual image around which a story evolves. Often they come as a result of an encounter with someone else that opens my mind to a different reality. Sometimes I dream them and awake in a fever to write. Sometimes I read something and it sparks a story. That is how the Buck Jasper Mystery series began. I had read something about a tontine; I realized that a tontine would make a perfect setup for a murder mystery. I worked out the mystery, wrote it, and it came to 80 pages—not enough for a true novel. However, I also needed a detective, so I worked out a detective to tell the story. The detective would be based in Miami, his partner and secretary would be Hispanic—the secretary, in fact, would be a Santeria priestess. The detective would be in love with someone who was not reciprocating as he had hoped. Developing the characters added a lot to (1) Tontine, which finished at 185 pages.

I had not intended to write another mystery; however, the characters had become living beings that inhabited my mind. They would suggest other mysteries to me. Buck in my mind would say, What about this? I could solve that case. In short order came (2) Encomienda and (3) Trust—all fairly short mysteries. I realized that all of them had titles that reflected some kind of business or contractual arrangement. I decided to keep that going for all the titles.

Then the series changed. The books became longer and the stories more complicated and the agency began to change just as businesses do in actuality: (4) A Meeting of Minds—a serial killer challenges Buck to stop him; (5) Severance—a man is accused of beheading the boss that fired him; (6) Possession—a routine property retrieval turns into a battle with smugglers; (7) Raiders—a sexy celebrity and magnate wants her home invaders caught and her property returned; (8) Deletion—a seemingly senseless murder digs up a past of drugs, sex and rock and roll; and (9) Silent Partner—a onetime celebrity wants Buck to prove that her ex-husband killed her former assistant (this last one is based on a dream that a student had and told to me).

So, my mind is filled with images and rhyming lines and narratives. They come at me all the time.
Incidentally, of the first three mysteries, most readers tell me they like the second one best, so I have decided to serialize Encomienda on my blog. I plan to include a chapter each week, beginning next week.