God bless the era of ebooks.
Just four years ago
I pitched my deaf private investigator in 1700s Norway
What was the
difference? Shelf space. Or rather, virtual
vs. actual shelf space.
Historical Romantic Suspense books cross three genres – so where would a bookstore put them? A digital first publisher (ebooks with print-on-demand copies) doesn't have to worry about that, freeing them up to accept cross-genre books with unusual characters or themes. In fact, the latest numbers from Amazon show that small presses sell the majority of ebooks on Amazon, probably because of this very freedom: http://authorearnings.com/july-2014-author-earnings-report/
Historical Romantic Suspense books cross three genres – so where would a bookstore put them? A digital first publisher (ebooks with print-on-demand copies) doesn't have to worry about that, freeing them up to accept cross-genre books with unusual characters or themes. In fact, the latest numbers from Amazon show that small presses sell the majority of ebooks on Amazon, probably because of this very freedom: http://authorearnings.com/july-2014-author-earnings-report/
There were three
reasons I decided to write these hybrid stories:
1. I write
historical romance. It’s what I love to read, so it’s what I love to write.
2. I write
Norwegians. It’s time for sexy heroes who don’twear kilts.
But why a deaf man?
And why suspense?
3. I read an article
which stated that “women love a man who looks at them like they are the only
person in the room.” So I thought, who does that? A deaf man would.
Having that decided,
I needed to give him means for supporting himself. What sort of work could a
deaf man do in the early 1700s? He can solve crimes. As he says: When people
find out I’m deaf, they forget I’m in the room.
Next hurdle: Brander
Hansen does not actually speak. He and the childhood cousin brought in to be
his “ears” worked out a gesture language together. And of course, he can write
what he wants to communicate. This required some creativity on my part, to let
the reader know how the dialog was being delivered:
“Was it spoken
aloud?”
Was it written down?
Brander set the
pencil down: Perhaps I used my hands.
Now came the fun
part – deciding what the crimes should be. Murder is as old as humanity. Cain
and Abel, anyone? Theft is good. I mean, to write
about. Spying, kidnapping, stolen identities, serial killers; almost anything
happening today could have happened then.
Of course, there were
no fingerprints to go by. And limited medical knowledge. No quick phone calls
to be made, and correspondence was only as swift as the next ship’s journey.
So my hero has to be
very observant – a skill which is enhanced because he is never distracted by
sound. And he has to be very clever to assemble the evidence, and know where to
look next. Being a master at disguising his changeable looks comes in handy as
well.
His most powerful
tool, however, is the assumption that because he cannot hear and chooses not to
speak, he is a “dummy.” So he stands off to the side and reads lips. Oh, the
things one “hears.”
But Brander’s
deafness is only one aspect of his character, and not the plot of any of the
books. To write them, I had to figure out all of the same things any crime
writer needs to know: who did it, what did they do, and why. And then, how will
the evidence be discovered, by whom, and in what order. Of course, any good
suspense story has a red herring or two tossed in, so those must be figured out
as well.
Added in are the
personal stakes involved to Brander and his wife Regin in every crime – what do
they stand to lose?
Over the five books,
Brander’s character deals with a sudden wife, issues with his estranged father
and brothers, teen-aged foster sons, deadly deceptions perpetrated by his
wife’s first husband, and international intrigue.
And did I mention, murder?
