Backstory bit 1: Jaci and Charli, who have both read No Surrender, insist I have to write Jack Donovan’s book next. I can’t explain without spoilers, but I felt I’d written Jack into a place where I just couldn’t grasp what came next for him. Started sketching out Connor O’Brien’s story before being sidetracked by another project.

Backstory bit 2: I blogged a while back about how my giving up drinking several large Dunkin Donuts iced coffees per day seemed to have cured my insomnia. I know, right? Who woulda thunk it? Anyway, those hours of lying awake in bed were often when I’d craft and recraft scenes in my head until they were ready to be written down.

Fortunately, there’s still music and housework.

Oh wait…Backstory bit 3: I do my dishes in the morning. We eat dinner a little on the late side and after dinner’s family time, so I scrape and stack them and wash them in the morning.

So anyway, I was scrubbing my broiler pan this morning and “Hero” by Enrique Iglesias came on the radio…

Now would you die for the one you love…

…and BAM! The opening scene of Jack’s book. I’m not exactly what’s going on yet, but it’s brewing. It also gives me a chance to delve into Connor’s head a little bit more, giving a bit more depth to his character before his story.

Looking at how DG4’s probably going to open, the task of making it stand alone is going to be excruciatingly difficult as Jack and his heroine’s “backstory” is a pivotal subplot in DG3 No Surrender. I have to get all that backstory into DG4 for readers who won’t have read No Surrender, without putting the readers who did to sleep or dragging down the pacing.

Eh. The hard stuff’s for another day. Today I’m jotting notes and starting the What & Why game. I’ve got toilets to scrub yet and floors to sweep, so there may be more to come. Clearly the muse thinks I need a cleaner house today.