Book One of my Committing Justice Series – COMING SOON late 2014!

Entendre is not yet available for purchase.

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My Novel Pitch:

Female Dexter meets the Sex Files.

One Sentence Novel Synopsis:

What if a single mother embarks on a vicious vendetta against a local sex offender after her child is allegedly abused?

Ten Themes Explored in Entendre: 

1. To what extent would you go to protect your child?
2.  What does it take to turn a mom into an avenger?
3. What if the justice system of our culture is not enough to protect our children?
4. What if punishment for all sexual offenders is too stringent and breaks confidentiality?
5. What if a religious counsellor tries to set up the mother just to satisfy her own sense of justice?
6. What if psychological torture is used instead of physical torture?
7. What if the Bible is used as an equalizer or in support of torturing “sinners”?
8. What if the mother has a history of psychological abuse and emotional trauma?
9. What if a prior sex offender was unjustly tried and sentenced, but is left with the scars and lifetime record?
10. If a mother feels justified in teaching sex offenders a lesson?

How I Wrote Entendre…

November 10, 2011 – Writing new characters for a novel is a challenge, though one of the most fun parts of the story building.  I completed an extensive tailored questionnaire for my five main characters and some tidbits about the minor characters.  I use pictures of real people to give me a sense of who each character is.  Each character sketch requires one day of writing to complete – about 4,000 words of description. I also write character tension sketches for each of my main characters.  What is every character’s relationship like with every other character in the book?  This is what it looks like on my wall (below).

Character Tension Sketch

November 17, 2011 - The Storyboard -  Have you ever wondered how an author plots a story?  This is my storyboard for Entendre.  It takes me three days to plot a story after writing my characters.  The board looks like a menagerie of colors, but each post-it note refers to a character, a scene, an emotion, or location.  Each rectangle of the grid stands for a scene in the book.  Since Book One: Playing God, I have streamlined my board-plotting process.  This is a portable plotting board instead of plastering our apartment wall.

Entendre - Noir Thriller Novel Storyboard

November 24, 2011 - All of those post-it notes inform my writing for the scene summaries.  I write a lengthy synopsis for each scene in the book.  Each synopsis included dialogue, character sketches, descriptions, setting, point-of-view, and timelines.  Though this may be labor-intensive, it allows me to revise the novel more easily.  Each synopsis is a scene/chapter which ties together to tell the succinct story.

Ditching my Post-It Notes now!

November 30, 2011 - After using my post-it notes for the scene summaries, I get to throw them all away.  This is a high point in my writing process! The first draft for Entendre is complete.  I averaged about five scene summaries per day.  I think I’m finally getting the hang of this outlining and drafting process.

Spring 2012 - This book is simmering on the creativity back burner while I second draft Playing God.  I will begin the second draft of Entendre in the Summer 2012.