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Featured Author -
September 2005
Margaret Maron |
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Featured Author -
September 2005
Margaret Maron |
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Once upon a time (shortly after Gutenberg invented his press), I was in the middle of writing my first novel when I suddenly realized that the intended killer could not so much as kill a spider even if she had a can of insecticide in her hand. Rather than go back and change her character to one less tenderhearted, I looked around and discovered somebody standing in the background, waving madly, who volunteered to be my killer. I took a second look and realized that not only was he a better suspect, he had a stronger motive and a much more clever way of doing the evil deed. I only had to change two sentences in the first half of the book to effect the switch.
It gave me a greater appreciation of my subconscious, an independent worker who seems to beaver away at alternative constructions even while I’m happily minding my own business.
What does all this have to do with Rituals of the Seasons, the 11th in my Judge Deborah Knott series?
About five books into the series, readers started writing me, "When is Deborah going to realize that Dwight Bryant is not her brother?"
But the letters kept coming and I thought, "Where on earth did they get the idea that these two should become romantically involved?"
So I finally went back and reread all their scenes together and guess what? Dwight’s known all along he wasn’t her brother. (It took a few more books and driving off a mountain for Deborah to reach the same conclusion.)
So now my subconscious is guest of honor at the wedding reception, while my conscious mind is sulking in the corner and won’t even lift a ritual glass of champagne. (There’s probably a moral here somewhere, but darned if I see it.)
Learn more about Margaret Maron and her books at www.MargaretMaron.com
Mugshot Archives
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ON LISTENING TO ONE’S SUBCONSCIOUS 
I smiled and tossed it off because I had her very happily involved with a game warden down on the coast and Dwight was just someone to hang out with when neither of them had plans for the weekend. In fact, he was a leftover from my first NC book, Bloody Kin, because I was too lazy to invent another sheriff’s deputy; and then I gave him a long history with Deborah’s brothers so that he could be her eye into what was happening with the latest murder investigations. He treated her like a pesky younger sister; she had him categorized as just another brother.