Lately, we have been talking about Windshadow and my publishing journey. But that book is now in a holding pattern until the publisher is finished checking it and I get the galleys back. (Galleys are the manuscript in book format that I will then proofread for the last time.)

So now we will talk about my Work-in-Progress, Death in Corfu (the working title) in which I am up to my Ionian skies.

By now, you know I write what’s called Romantic Suspense, which means murder, mayhem, a lot of eye contact, and inappropriate touching. And it’s the most fun I’ve ever had writing.

I’ve written romance for years and yes, there were things people used to call (while looking down their noses) formulas. Now they’re called plot points, and we talk openly about them and make damn sure we have them.

The same is true of mystery. Given that romantic suspense is my choice for tele-viewing and my favorite reading genre, I have learned the mystery structure. The expected plot points, if you will, and I am damn sure gonna use them.

Many of you have heard me mention Save The Cat, the plot structure device devised by screenwriter Blake Snyder. It breaks a story down into Acts and Beats within the Acts. Using this device, I can build a complete novel, see where the holes in my plot are, and fix them. (See my board in the featured image above.)

Save the Cat (ask me why it’s called that, and I am sure to wax rhapsodic for a few minutes, using the TV show Reacher as my example. Ask me why Reacher, and I will wax rhapsodic for a few minutes about HIM) also may be laid over The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, which is based on The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, which breaks the story of character transformation into 12 steps, and has formed the basis for a zillion movies from The Wizard of Oz to Star Wars.

But I digress.

The big rule of writing in general, but genre fiction in particular, is Give the Reader What You Promised. In romance this is a happily ever after or a happy for now ending. In mystery the rule is solve the murder, catch the bad guy, and see that justice is served.

So we have plot structure for TWO stories, plus the reader expectations for TWO genres, mashed together in the panini press of my mind until they make a book. Intertwining them and keeping it all straight is incredibly complicated and wakes me in the night to jot down notes for the next day’s writing session.

I could have chosen something simpler. I could have written War and Peace in the 21st Century.

I am now about 5/8ths through Death in Corfu and there are plot strings hanging out all over. I take turns pulling them, trying to make sure they all get a turn:

1. Don’t forget about the person who walked down the hall at 10:00.
2. How did she get to the olive grove the first night?
3. Who is Konstantin?
4. Don’t forget about Greta.
5. That alibi doesn’t work.
6. Set up another phone call with her kids

Then there are the B-list characters in the book. They are the police, the other people in the villa, the family of the murdered woman, the man who owns the villa and his daughter. They all have to have personalities and backstories. They have to move through the scenes doing “business.” They come and go providing sounding boards for the main characters, they are suspects, and eventually one (or more) will be the murderer.

I just have to make sure I tied all those loose strings into tidy bows that my readers (you guys, I hope) will appreciate. When you close the book, I want you to say “Aww, they finally got together” about the romance, and “Hey! I never suspected her!” to the mystery.

Then I will have done my job. ;And I can start plotting the next one.