Writing on my latest Vasily Korsokovach Investigates novel has run over into May slightly, creating a bit of overtime that I’d not entirely counted on. As I’ve written about previously, I made a tiny tactical error a few months ago and tried to write Silenced side-by-side with Reflections. At the time, it felt like a wise move, something that would allow me to bounce back and forth as my creative mood shifted; in practice, I found it quite difficult to shift from one set of characters to another and wound up focusing my efforts on finally finishing the first draft of Reflections before completely turning my attention back to Vasily.
So I’m a bit off my normal writing schedule as a consequence; not necessarily behind, per se, but not quite where I wanted to be as I reach the midpoint of the year. That being said, I’m coming along nicely with Silenced and can see the last chapters on the horizon. As with all of my stories, I had a sense of the tale I wanted to weave (and, of course, the underlying message I wanted to convey) when I started; with the end in sight, it’s my last chance to determine how close I am to my original notion, or just how far away I managed to veer without truly realizing it. The good news is I seem to have equal parts (!) of both — the story is right where I want it to be, with some very interesting detours that help to round out the narrative. I hinted at that in my halfway point post a while back, and now feel bold enough to (maybe) make some stronger hints about what is to come in my ace detective’s future.
I laid the groundwork for the underlying story a few books back when I introduced a character that was a local reporter who tended to rub Vasily the wrong way. Not only did she cover his assault and subsequent departure from Rancho Linda in more detail than he would ever have been conformable with, she continued to be a thorn in his side after his return to duty, prodding and endlessly publishing unflattering stories about the work being done in his department. Much of this animosity takes place offscreen, of course, but I dropped in hints of it in various spots (bonus points if you can name them all, by the way) between Peril and Masks. One of my favorite things to do as a writer is to take a secondary character like this reporter and suddenly thrust them into the spotlight; readers who have been with me for a while then get treated to a slight sense of feeling as though they know this character, despite them being pretty much background up to that point. Vivian Grandchester plays this starring role in Silenced, though unlike some of my other background characters, she’s not likely to have a repeat performance (though never say never).
Grandchester started off as a placeholder, someone to pull out when I needed that cop/reporter tension in a story; as the series progressed, I found myself painting in more details about who she was and why she was so motivated to do what she did. I’ve long felt that journalists who are invested in getting to the bottom of a story are some of the bravest people in the universe; there are often many forces arrayed against them getting the truth out to the masses, with some having more of a vested interest than others. It’s tragically not an original concept to tell the tale of a reporter being dispatched to protect some sort of secret; my twist was to add more of a personal angle to the act. Who was Grandchester? Why did she have such a need to dig into that particular story? Did she know she was in danger — and confide in anyone about it? Or were there unknown other reasons tying her to a story that powerful people didn’t want told? I think by the time readers arrive at the end of the story, I’ve provided satisfactory answers to all of those questions — and maybe a few others you hadn’t thought of, either.
I think I have another week or so before this one is done; my thinking is that it will appear next Spring. I’m already thinking ahead to the next Vasily novel — and that one will (finally) have the wedding in it. I know of at least two people who are quite ready for that to happen; me? I’m going to be sad to have to stop teasing its pending arrival…
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