Help! Torn Between Two Men

July 1, 2012, Earl Staggs enchanted us with his tale of teaching kindergartners about being a writer. From Fort Worth he is again adding to our pleasure, as readers and fellow writers, with his ongoing series of two men, different, honorable, intriguing, likable—Adam Kingston and Tall Chambers. After Earl and I discussed what might be a thought-provoking topic for his visit to Crime Writer's Chronicle today, I reread both novels, MEMORY OF A MURDER and JUSTIFIED ACTION, to make sure I had in the front of my mind the two personas that ground his crime novels. This year I've watched several readers storm the barricades, crying to this author, "More, please!"—and am delighted Earl is going to comply—with more of Adam Kingston and Tall Chambers in the near future! I read a lot of NYT bestsellers and find that most of these books lack the touch Earl Staggs has . I do not finish many of the bestsellers—but I have read his books twice! Do you hear a message here?

As a fellow southerner, today I am "mighty pleased" to welcome Earl and Adam and Tall back to our increasingly popular blog—Crime Writer's Chronicle!

Thelma Jacqueline Straw

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The title of this post would be great for a Romance novel, don’t you think? Since I write Mystery, not Romance, I suppose I’d better explain who the two men are and why I’m caught in a conundrum. Or is it a quandary? A quagmire, perhaps. Whatever it is, I have an important decision to make and you may be able to help.

Adam Kingston is the first of the two men crying out for my attention. Adam’s a quiet, unassuming kind of guy who doesn’t look for or start trouble. Unfortunately, trouble comes to him. You see, Adam was once an FBI Special Agent.

After a near-fatal auto accident, a strange thing happened. During his recovery, Adam discovered the accident had jarred loose some latent psychic abilities. Doctors and Professors with lots of initials after their names told him it’s not unusual for a traumatic incident to do that. He began to get flashes. Not hot flashes. His flashes were quick mental images of things that happened in the past. For example, if he touches an object related to a crime or visits a crime scene, he may get images containing clues to what happened. Sometimes the images are so vague, confusing and enigmatic he has no idea what they mean. Those experts with all those initials also told him that’s not unusual for psychic images. It’s not an exact science, they explained.

Instead of returning to the FBI, Adam became a private investigator. Now he works mostly on cases for the FBI and other law enforcement agencies and they keep him fairly busy. His gift is often helpful in solving cases, but it always comes down to good old fashioned police work.

Adam first entered my life in a short story called “The Missing Sniper.” We hit it off right away and when the story was published, a lot of readers liked him, too. The response was so encouraging, I decided to give Adam his own novel. The result was MEMORY OF A MURDER. Many more readers became fans of Adam and have asked me when there will be a sequel.

That’s part of the problem plaguing me.

The other part of my vexing situation is Tall Chambers. Tall spent twenty years in the Army, mostly in the Middle East as a Special Services officer. After the Army, he joined a secretive agency which made good use of his skills and experience. The agency tracks down terrorists and puts them out of business before innocent people are killed. If the terrorists want to meet Allah and collect their virgins, the agency puts them in the express lane.

Tall Chambers began taking shape in my mind shortly after the horror of 9-11. He was an embryonic fixture in my imagination for several years. At first, his story was about taking out terrorists. Eventually, that became only the backdrop and Tall’s personal life became the focus. While Tall was taking care of business, someone close to him was murdered. He put everything else aside and devoted his skills and experience to finding the killer and setting things right. Writing Tall’s story was a great opportunity to explore people who do what he does and how it affects their everyday lives.

A few months ago, Tall’s story was published as a novel called JUSTIFIED ACTION. Reaction from readers and reviewers has been fantastic. That, of course, raises the question of a sequel. Will there be one? Of course. Tall and his crew have a lot of stories to tell, so there is no reason why there can’t be a series.

Adam Kingston is also a perfect candidate for a series.

The two men are quite different, but both are exciting, challenging, and fun to write. While Adam is more of a laid-back kind of guy, Tall’s responsibilities require him to go where the action is and meet it head on. Adam is more the cerebral type. He looks before he leaps. Tall leaps and shouts “Look out!” on the way down.

And therein lies my conundrum. Or my quandary. Or quagmire, or whatever you want to call it.

Which sequel should I write first? I can’t do them at the same time. I don’t write that way. I have to concentrate solely on one project until it’s finished.

Should I spend the next few months on a sequel for Adam because he came into my life first? Or, since Tall is new and fresher, should I concentrate my time and efforts on getting him out there again in a new story?

If you’ve ever had to choose between two men in one way or another, maybe you have some advice or suggestions to offer.

Earl Staggs
earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net
http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com

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Earl Staggs earned a long list of Five Star reviews for his novels MEMORY OF A MURDER and JUSTIFIED ACTION and has twice received a Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year. He served as Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Magazine, as President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, is a contributing blog member of Murderous Musings and Make Mine Mystery and a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars.

Marilyn Meredith's Rocky Bluff Characters

Our returning guest, F. M. Meredith, a/k/a Marilyn Meredith, writes two police procedural series. Dangerous Impulses is the ninth in her Rocky Bluff P.D. mysteries and Raging Water was the twelfth Tempe Crabtree, resident Deputy Sheriff of Bear Creek, in the mountains of California. Marilyn (I’ll just call her by her given name) describes her police procedurals as on the cosy side. Yet all the classic elements are present: convincing policemen performing as expected, an intriguing (even exotic) setting, and crackling-good story. Her procedurals are ‘exotic’ to me—a writer of NYPD procedurals–since set in small rural locales far from Big Cities. Rocky Bluff, the setting of Dangerous Impulses, is a fictional beach community between Ventura and Santa Barbara. Like the best of our genre, though—McBain’s 87th Precinct, Wambaugh’s LAPD—Marilyn uses a recurring ensemble of cops and locals so we settle in and feel at home while following their latest trials, public and private.

Robert Knightly

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Because this is the last blog stop for my tour for Dangerous Impulses (#9 in the series) I asked for a suggestion as to what someone would like to know about the series. The answer was, "What inspired the characters?"

Officer Doug Milligan is the main character in the first book, Final Respects. In many ways he resembles my son-in-law who served 15 years in law-enforcement before losing his life in the line of duty. Not in looks of course, nor in the unhappy marriage, but they have similar attributes and definitely the same kind of love for the job. Anyone who has read any of this series knows life changes Officer Milligan matures and he becomes Detective Milligan.

Doug’s first wife’s description is the same as a neighbor of ours who no matter what she wore looked like a model. Fortunately, our neighbor had a much better personality.

Lt. Tom Gilbreath is the main character in Bad Tidings (second book) and I must confess he’s a dead ringer for a good friend who was not a police officer but our kids’ high school vice principal and truant officer. His wife in the book has many of the personality characteristics as my friend’s wife—but that’s where the resemblance ends.

And yes, I did fashion the most dreadful Cal Sylvester in Fringe Benefits after an obnoxious cop who lived in our neighborhood years ago. No, he didn’t figure out a plan to kill his wife, but he wasn’t a nice man.

Stacey Wilbur has a lead part, if there is such a thing in a book, in Smell of Death. She doesn’t look like anyone I know, but her strength and perseverance are based on two female police officers that I know. Despite her vow to not date anyone of the Rocky Bluff P.D. she becomes interested in Doug when she helps him on two cases.

No Sanctuary features two ministers, composites of pastors I’ve known over the years, and two churches—one is exactly like one I went to as a kid, the other similar to one I visited.

Rick Strickland plays a part in all of the books, a handsome womanizer who is a publicity hound—at least that’s how he starts out. Life change for him in the first book and he probably matures more than any character in the series—though he does have his shortcomings. I don’t really know anyone like him, but the publicity hound aspect came from a police officer my son-in-law told me about.

Gordon Butler debuts in Fringe Benefits. He’s not really like anyone I know, but he’s become a real person to me. Despite, or perhaps because of, being a by-the-book police officer, nothing ever turns out well for him and he ends up being the butt of many jokes. In No Bells, the love of his life turns out to be the main suspect in a murder case. He’s become a favorite among my female readers.

Abel Navarro has a big family and I’ve used his family’s dynamics in many side plots in various stories. When it came time for a new Sergeant to be chosen, he knew Felix Zachary would probably be the one—though it doesn’t work out that way. Both these men have personality components and family problems that I’ve witnessed in one way or another among my relatives (yep, I borrow from them too).

Though in most cases, the characters are not based on people I know, I’ve taken a bit here and there from the different officers and their families that I’ve known from the time we had many police families in our neighborhood. The police officers that I’ve met through my association with the Public Safety Writers Association have given me ideas too. (I met Robert Knightly at a PSWA conference—and no, none of the characters in my books are based on him.)

Once I’ve decided upon a character and started writing about him or her—no matter what inspired me, the character will morph into a different being who takes on a life of his or her own.

A bit about the latest in the series, Dangerous Impulses:

An attractive new-hire captivates Officer Gordon Butler, Officer Felix Zachary’s wife is befuddled by her new baby, Ryan and Barbara Strickland receive unsettling news, while the bloody murder of a mother and her son and an unidentified drug that sickens teenaged partiers jolts the Rocky Bluff P.D.

Contest:

The person who comments on the most blog posts on this tour may have a character named after him or her in the next Rocky Bluff P.D. crime novel or choose a book from the previous titles in the series.

Rocky Bluff P.D. Series:

Though each book in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series is written as a stand-alone, I know there are people who like to read a series in order. From the beginning to the end:

Final Respects
Bad Tidings
Fringe Benefits
Smell of Death
No Sanctuary
An Axe to Grind
Angel Lost
No Bells
Dangerous Impulses

Marilyn Meredith
http://fictionforyou.com/
http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/
On Facebook and Twitter as MarilynMeredith