Trivia from PATRICIA

This is a post I first published on the original blog, which I’ve removed. I decided to polish it up a bit, make a few changes and re-publish it here. Here I felt like plunking down a little bit of trivia, things that you probably didn't know about my first novel, PATRICIA. But now you’re getting them straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak hehe. Warning: Contains SPOILERS!! If you have not yet read my first novel, PATRICIA, don’t continue on until you do read it. If you would like to read it, links are at the end. The skeleton key: When I was writing the novel I didn’t plan AT ALL for Carrie Anne to find the skeleton key in her pocket. And that is such an important part of the plotline, and I didn’t even plan it. I actually wrote the scene where she was taunting the girls with their skeleton key, when she had them locked up, because I remembered that Patricia had thrown her skeleton key to the floor in disgust. So I thought it would be neat if Carrie Anne picked it up and taunted the girls with it. Then she put it into her pocket because it was the most convenient place to put it. Then both she and I forgot all about the skeleton key. Later when I was trying to figure out how she was going to get out of the cage, all of a sudden I just had a BRAINSTORM and all of a sudden I remembered she’d put the skeleton key into her pocket! I had forgotten all about it! So you can see, I didn’t plan that amazing and fortuitous and miraculous piece of luck for Carrie Anne AT ALL. It just happened! In fact, for that matter, even the existence of a skeleton key at all is totally fortuitous and unplanned for. I had the idea that I wanted some boys to be sneaking in at night, and it occurred to me that the best way for them to sneak in would be if someone possessed a skeleton key. That’s how the skeleton key was born. But if I hadn’t had that idea, I would have thought of some other way for the boys to sneak in, and then the skeleton key would never have existed. I also didn’t plan for Patricia to throw the skeleton key to the ground and then for Carrie Anne to pick it up. It just happened. Miss Bray and her homemade bombs: Although all the characters are made up and as far as I’m aware, none of them was inspired by anyone I knew (although you never know, the subconscious always weaves out some pretty weird things.......), my chemistry teacher in high school was really called Miss Bray. In her case, Janet Bray, not Joyce Bray as in the novel. She taught us how we could make a real bomb in our own homes (or garages). I was impressed that a…

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What I Hope to Accomplish With a Story

I’ve realized, observing people — people I don’t know, out on the streets, living their lives, as well as my own friends — that the majority of people live routine, mundane lives, where every day is pretty much the same as all the other days, punctuated by occasional problems. And people who read books do so mostly so they can get away, escape. And for a few hours share in the lives of other people who live exciting lives and do things that THEY, the readers, never do. Or also, they read books for the satisfaction of reading about people whose problems get solved much more tidily and easily than those of the readers. The intrigue of discovering HOW they solve their seemingly unresolvable problems.On the one hand I’ve been blessed to have lived a fairly exciting and unusual life, with a lot of travel and a lot of out-of-the-ordinary experiences. And on the other hand, I’ve always had a big imagination, and my favourite game ever since I was a kid has always been “So what happened next?”, inventing long serial stories for myself.So this is the first and main thing that I strive to accomplish by writing stories: to entertain, to help people have a good time and get away from their routine, ordinary lives and problems and to forget about their own — what they consider to be — dull existences for a while. (Although experience has shown me that usually what one person considers to be a dull, unexciting activity probably seems pretty unusual, different and new to someone else.) At any rate, if I’ve succeeded in doing that, then I consider that I’ve been successful, and I’m happy.

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