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…