The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

Hi,

I just recently joined the group and I'm embarrassed to say I was totally unaware of Goodreads. I do think I will enjoy the network immensely as a reader. I was kindly advised by Donna to write a little about the background of the book, so I am going to explain a bit about competition behind getting the book published. Before I do, I just wanted to say that for any Goodreads members living in Dublin, I am part of an Authors' night in Dubray bookshop in Rathmines, hosted by bestselling author John Connolly tomorrow evening, December 5th at 6pm.

The story behind the book also appears on my blog at http://www.davidgrahambooks.com/categ... and on my Goodreads author page.

Writing and Me
I have always loved reading and I think it’s a logical progression for anyone who is an avid reader to, at least momentarily, consider writing a book. Of course, not everyone acts on the impulse but I remember mentioning it to my wife and her encouraging me to give it a go. So, I decided ‘why not?’.

Finding the time for writing was a big challenge. We already had our first child when I started ‘Incitement’ and our second arrived before I finished. Two young inquisitive and energetic boys need attention when they need it. Additionally both myself and my wife work, so all of the normal routines that a lot of couples have to deal with applied. Obviously, there was some low hanging fruit such as the one to two hours television I used to find time for most evenings. Then you find yourself asking, ‘how much sleep do I really need?’, every hour less in bed was an hour extra on the book. Occasionally when there was time, lunch proved useful for repetitive tasks such as correcting errors thrown up by proofreads but to write something new, I needed to know I had at least a couple of hours uninterrupted.

One thing I tried not to sacrifice totally was reading. While I realized I could not read as much as had formerly been the case I thought it was important to keep reading, not just thrillers but other novels and, given the wide sweep of ‘Incitement’, particularly current affairs.

The first time I sat down to write common sense dictated I would only be able to write in a genre I enjoyed reading myself. Originally, I had a detective story in mind, having been a big fan of writers such as Robert B. Parker since my teens, but after a number of false starts, I realized that the story that was emerging was not engaging and felt very forced. It’s not to say I expected the actual task of putting words down to be easy (more on that later) but I did expect the story I was trying to tell to hold my interest.

Another genre that I had always loved was the thriller, everything from reading Robert Ludlum as a teenager to John LeCarre later on and all points in between. Whether the sub-genre was mystery, action or conspiracy, I enjoyed them equally. Once I struck upon the idea for ‘Incitement’ and started to write it just flowed much more easily. As the story progressed, a strong subplot involving a procedural investigation emerged, so the detective element definitely fed in.

Even though the story started to ‘flow’ that’s a relative term. I guess we all know what “writer’s block” is but I was surprised at the way it manifested for me. Looking at the blank page, the first thing I would decide was that I couldn’t possibly write unless my desk was tidy then once that was done I’d start to feel hungry and need a snack. Lots of other things that had to be just so occurred to me over the first few days before I realized that what I was really trying to do was avoid the moment of starting to write. I discovered that the only way to overcome the prevarication was to just write, even if I suspected what I was writing was pretty poor and would not survive a subsequent review. There is a saying which goes something along the lines of, you cannot feel your way into an action but must act your way into a feeling and it definitely applies to me and writing.

I knew the main thrust of the plot quite early and the remainder developed organically over time and improved with each subsequent draft. The two main protagonists were drawn from a combination of research and personal experience.

Originally, the story was going to be much larger and more sprawling than the 330-odd page thriller that eventually resulted. My initial idea was to tell the story of the drugs conflict from half-a-dozen perspectives. In addition to the protagonists who feature in the final book, I had, among others, a character living in an inner city struggling with addiction, an ambitious reporter covering the story and a counselor who worked in a drug rehabilitation clinic.

I realized on the second draft, after having gotten some feedback from some friends who I trusted to not sugarcoat their opinion, that it would be very difficult to write a multi-perspective story that could hold a readers’ attention. They said that they were impatient when the story drifted away from their particular favorites. As difficult as it was, I had to focus on who I felt were the most engaging and relevant characters and delete large sections I had researched extensively and become quite attached to. People who read the book will see small sections where I was able to salvage pieces that featured some of original cast of characters.

At times, the whole process was very challenging but the feeling of satisfaction when I finished was immense and the experience extremely useful when I started on my second novel.

Of course, once you complete a novel, the next step is to get it published. I had not researched this too much and optimistically selected an agent and sent off my submission. About five weeks later, I received my first rejection. After that, I bought The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and selected more agents. Again, I optimistically sent off the submissions one at a time and over the course of six months received rejections – some quite clearly form letters and some more bespoke. In the end, after about 10 rejections, one which included a requested rewrite which I duly did and then another 'no', I decided to take a break. Then I did another rewrite, pretty much changing the central structure of the book and changing the conclusion.

Between, one thing and another (work, children, life), time just drifted and I never resumed submissions then one day driving to work, I was listening to The John Murray Show on RTE1, Ireland’s national radio station. A piece came on asking whether you had ever written a book which you could not get published and was just sitting around. The competition was being run in conjunction with The RTE Guide, the largest circulation magazine in Ireland and Kazoo Publishing and the prize was a publishing package. When I got to the office, I thought about it for a while and decided ‘why not’ then submitted the book with no expectation whatsoever. A couple of months later, I received a phone call saying that I had made a shortlist of five from over 500 entries and I was absolutely stunned. I did not feel I would go further in the competition but even to get that far was a massive vote of encouragement. Then in August, the five finalists were invited to go on the air while Kathryn Thomas and two of the three judges discussed the five finalists and announced the winner. To my absolute shock I won and, just like that, my book was going to be published. Well, not quite, there was quite a bit of work to be done with copy edits, cover design and preparing to promote the book but it definitely felt I was on my way.

thanks for reading
David