DS Jenna Morgan Series - Inspiration, Writing & Research
What
comes first when I create a story? – Part 1
Find Her Alive (originally titled The Keeper) Book One in my
DS Jenna Morgan series started with a long, lonely walk in woodland at twilight
at the beginning of autumn with my beautiful Dalmatian, Skye.
As we wound our way up the hillside with thick trees above
and below us, I slipped and skidded along the narrow pathway, barely wide
enough for me to pass through let alone move over if someone came in the
opposite direction.
A low mist had settled over the River Severn and the
acoustics of the gorge below me had voices carrying up the hillside to swirl
with ghostly echoes.
With a vivid imagination, I believed at first it was only
that that had my hackles on the back of my neck tingling with awareness, but
three steps forward and I stopped while Skye snuffled in the autumn leaves with
a delight only a dog would understand.
Aware that I was being watched, I turned my head to stare up
at the darkening woodland above me and my gaze clashed with another being’s.
Not just one, it turned out, but several. In fact an entire herd of the most
stunning Fallow deer, so close I only needed to take half a dozen steps to be
able to reach out and touch them. The lead deer, a large doe caught my gaze and
held me mesmerised for several minutes as everything except her eyes faded into
the background.
Eventually, I blinked and broke the spell, then moved on
with the feeling I’d been touched by magic that day.
It was some time later that my imagination wound that
incident into the story that now is Find Her Alive.
What if that hadn’t been a deer watching me? What if it had
been a human? Someone who shouldn’t have been there. Someone who didn’t want to
be seen.
The idea for Find Her Alive was born and I ran with it,
throwing words down, my fingers flying across the keyboard until the story was
done.
For this book, character driven by Fliss and her sister
Jenna, both equal partners in the creation of Find Her Alive, research came
secondary - after the first draft.
My entire family background is steeped in uniform and the
law. To me investigations, research, prodding, poking is second nature. I’m
nosey and I love to know and understand the detail. I studied Law at A level.
While writing Find Her Alive, I took an on-line university
course in forensics and loved it.
I’d like to feel that it’s worth all the huge amount of
research I do, just to write one sentence that is factually correct. To have
ex-police officers tell me that they could actually smell the halls of the
police station I write about is a thrill beyond words.
Find Her Alive is the first in the DS Jenna Morgan Series.
Available in all formats : Ebook, Kindle, Audio, CD,
Paperback
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