Friday, June 11, 2010

Rats! Another WIP makes an appearance

Currently, I'm working on revising my troll wife story. I'm also working on:
The Clockwork Cat, a steampunk novel.
An unnamed cryptozoology novel.
The Monster of Dewsberry Drink, a middle grade novel.
Michael is a Verb, a non fiction article/book on parenting children with ADHD.

Last night, another work popped in. I've always known that I wanted to do a mystery where the main character has prosopagnosia (face blindness). I know it's been done, but since I have it, I want to write about it. I was just waiting for the right take on it to come along. Well, it did.

Carrie just gave a good description of the killer to the police. So it's no wonder they don't believe her when she says she can't recognize the killer. Because Carrie is face blind, she can't recognize her own mother, much less a killer she saw for less than a minute. Sure that he will be coming after her, Carrie takes a course in how not to get kidnapped, booby traps her house, and learns to shoot. When the killer tracks her down, Carrie has turned from someone who wasn't a threat to the biggest threat the killer has ever faced.

Carrie paused in her description. "I think they knew each other."
"Why do you think that?"
"Their shoulders were down when they first met. When you meet a stranger, or someone you're scared of, your shoulders go up. The dead guys shoulder's didn't go up until just before he was shot."


Yeah, it's not a mystery. More of a thriller, and it turns the "ordinary citizen out for revenge" trope on its head. I'll let the idea sit for a few days, and see if I still like it in a week or two.

There actually is a course about how not to get kidnapped. They focus on things like being aware of your surroundings, not following a set routine, and not being afraid to make a scene when your instincts tell you something is wrong. There may be some defensive driving, too. The graduation consists of avoiding a "kidnap" attempt by the course instructors.

By the way, that link for prosopagnosia is my favorite. I've been using it for years to try to explain face blindness to people.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, great post. Great new idea. I like it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks :) I think I like it too, but I'll know better in a couple of days.

    Or if it haunts me.

    Or if I get goosebumps about a scene for it.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for posting a comment! I know that sounds a little needy, and maybe it is. I mean, I don't need comment validation to know that I exist, right? But I like to know that someone else (maybe you?) has read what I wrote and felt moved enough to reply. So, thank you.