Confused by the thread title? Yeah, I was too when I realized that I should have thought of... Well, let me start in the right place.

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My novel, Confessions, began as an idea years ago. A pretty linear mystery, actually, where the protagonist, Michael Jerome, a priest and Chicago police chaplain, is confronted with a revelation that tests his faith and drives him toward a resolution that might be justice--or vengeance. I knew how it started. How it would end. And most points in between, other than those happy accidents of creation that come as surprises while actually writing.

Then, I talked to someone about it. As I was writing. They looked at me and said something like this: 'Wouldn't it be interesting if it turned out Michael barely knew his sister at all?'

Without giving too much away, let's just say that Michael's sister, Katie, was, in many ways, the driving force behind the story. His love for her was complete, and would remain so, but if I was to embrace this suggestion I had been offered, it would mean that Katie herself would become a parallel mystery that was to be unraveled.

I kicked myself for not coming up with this myself.

Linear is not always bad. It allows a story to race along. But parallel adds depth. In the case of Confessions, it allowed Michael to become an even more complex, and real, character, who must deal with a brotherly love that suddenly seems superficial while he seeks justice for Katie.

These are the sort of wondrous changes that a reader never really knows about. But they are the a ha! moments that writers crave. The moments that make telling stories fun, and fulfilling.

If you're interested, Confessions is available from the following online retailers:

Amazon  Amazon Paperback  Amazon UK  Amazon DE  Barnes & Noble  Borders AU  Sony  Apple iBooks