The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing

I was tagged by Lesley Diehl to participate in The Next Big Thing, a blog event asking writers to talk about their works in progress. 

I’m happy to talk about my newest project.

1.What is your working title of your book?

The working title for my book is When a Young Girl Dies

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?In 2011 I published my first novel, Murder on Route 66. This is a story about a Harley Rider, Bobby Navarro, who finds his boss’ body stabbed to death and dumped in a parking lot in Tucumcari, New Mexico, on old Route 66. Bobby promises the victim’s ten-year old son he’ll do everything he can to find the killer. This story is a intended as a sequel to the first novel and, as it turns out, concerns another murder on old Route 66.

3. What genre does your book fall under?
This is a traditional mystery.
4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Bobby Navarro is of mixed ancestry, Mexican-American and Native American. I would want the part played by someone who displays these characteristics. Bobby is a biker, who loves riding solo on an open road, but he’s not covered with ink and doesn’t look like someone who belongs to a biker gang. He can be sensitive, especially when it comes to children…the victim in the second story is a young girl. He’s believable, and not an action hero. Any suggestions?

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Bobby Navarro doesn’t know if the eccentric, who told him he knew who killed the young girl really does, but he knows he cannot get her image out of his mind, and won’t give up on finding her killer.6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

While the uncompleted manuscript is not yet under contract, I do not plan to self-publish it when it is finished.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

With significant interruptions from floods and home remodeling projects, the nearly completed first draft has taken me about a year at this point.8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I think I had the old television series, Route 66, in mind when I wrote the first book of this series. My character rides alone, and on a Harley rather than in a Corvette, but there are similarities, and the spirit captured by that original series is alive and well among Route 66 aficionados to date. I can’t think of any authors I’ve read who are doing that, so I would have to compare my story to the old television series.
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I ride, I love the southwest, and the adventures one can find as they meet others.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

This is not a simple whodunit, or action adventure. It’s about a person who tries to find himself on open roads, and becomes involved in the lives—and deaths—of others along the way.