Junkyard Dog: An Author’s Thoughts and a Giveaway!
Joshua Tree National Park Ranger Charlotte arrives on the scene of a car accident caused by a large dog tearing across the road. The third sighting of the animal in as many weeks, Charlotte’s interest is piqued. Armed with a bowl of dog food and a bucket of patience, she sets out to find the beast.
With the grille marks of a sedan imprinted on his broken ribs, Alex returns to the scene of the accident, scouring for prints he’d left behind when he encounters Charlotte on the trail. The attraction is undeniable, but Alex is on a mission from Hades and can’t afford the distraction.
While Charlotte continues to gain the trust of the wild dog roaming the park, Alex is caught between the woman he’s falling for and the job he was sent to do. With bodies and secrets piling at his feet, Alex is pushed to choose between the hellhound he is and the man he wants to be.
A FEW FUN FACTS ABOUT JUNKYARD DOG
- JUNKYARD DOG was my 2017 National Novel Writing Month project. I began it that October to get over the opening-scenes hurdle I always struggle through, and by December 3, the book was done.
- I had a blast writing Persephone’s scenes. Cerberus belongs to her and to Hades, and she just loves her pretty boys.
- Although I’m not visual, every book I write starts with a Pinterest board. The model I pinned for Alex was so gorgeous, I made him twins.
- Rag’n’Bone Man’s song ‘Skin‘ was the inspiration for the book. Every story I write has one song driving it, and I listen to it on repeat in the car from start to finish.
- Charlotte’s friend Max is a composite of friends I had in my university years. He’s a character you either adore or can’t stand.
FLYING BY THE SEAT OF MY PANTS
JUNKYARD DOG, like my other works, was written with a song in my head and twenty words jotted down at the bottom of the manuscript. For a Type A personality with a mild obsession with lists and organization (yes, I have a Zombie Apocalypse escape plan for 2, 4, 8, and 24 hour notice), my writing process is disturbingly unorganized.
Many authors plot and plan in word documents or pretty notebooks. They can develop their story from beginning to end, then fill it in with the right words.
I have no idea where I’m going until I type THE END.
And as a series writer, this gets interesting the further into the series I go.
JUNKYARD DOG is the first of a trilogy, so I was lucky enough to not bury myself too deep by the third book. My vampire series had me in a mild panic when I hit the seventh and realized I’d backed myself into a corner requiring some creative maneuvering.
This isn’t to say I don’t know the end of the series. I know the last scene of my eight-long vamp series. I knew the end scene of the JUNKYARD trilogy. What I didn’t know was what route we’d take to get there, and I love it. I love finishing a scene and getting weepy because I didn’t know she would do THIS or he would say THAT. I love the rush that comes with finishing an unexpected chapter and being excited to reread it later. And I love the frustration that accompanies twists I hadn’t anticipated two books ago but now have to work with.
But I admit, I do envy authors who have cool notebooks and pens and use them.
I do, however, find, it interesting that my writing is the single area of my life I don’t organize meticulously. My grocery lists are divided by store. Daily lists include ‘make coffee’ and ‘dishes’. The family budget is tweaked monthly. My desk at work has daily, weekly, and monthly lists. Our family loves to travel via RV, and I spend months plotting the route, booking the campsites, and researching the areas.
But writing a book? Twenty random words I don’t understand until I hit their relevant scene and a song on repeat for three months straight.
That said, writing is my downtime, my hobby. I began writing four years ago as a quiet in-house activity I could do whenever I could fit it in around three kiddos and a traveling husband. I channel stress through my stories (hit a peak body count of 289 during a particularly anxious month last year), and use my writing time as I use my reading time: for escape and distraction. Perhaps this is why it’s the one area of life I don’t monitor and plan. The ultimate escapism.
Are you a planner in life? Or do you prefer to fly on the wind and roll with the flow? Are you organized in one area, a beautiful disaster in another?
COMMENT BELOW TO BE ENTERED IN THE DRAW FOR A DIGITAL COPY OF JUNKYARD DOG
Thank you for reading!
Katja Desjarlais
So, my brain is very logical and loves plans and planning. (The brain loves when I put everything and anything on a spreadsheet), but my personality is messy, disorganized and given to sitting and staring into space as it wanders from one idea and thought to the next. So, while I find great comfort in planning, usually my daydreaming personality is constantly creating havoc with those plans. Like Kermit said, “It isn’t easy being green,” or in this case, it isn’t easy being me. If I was a writer, I would totally be the kind that would have the pretty notebooks filled with my story’s plans, but I would bet that my characters would veer off course the first chance they got, and I would end up somewhere unexpected. Which is why, besides the fact that I am punctuation challenged and love a good split infinitive, I could never be a writer.
Thank you for sharing your process, I found it very interesting!
“Which is why, besides the fact that I am punctuation challenged and love a good split infinitive, I could never be a writer.” Aw, I bet you could be a writer. When you see the work that is published, it gives one hope.
As for split infinitives, sometimes, you definitely want to split them. I don’t know if this story is true, but when Winston Churchill was allegedly challenged about his use of split infinitives, he replied, “This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put!”
Whoops! I meant to use that example for ending sentences with prepositions or not. My brain today… But yes, sometimes split infinitives do sound better. Writing is an art that often relies upon the ear rather than strict grammatical rules. As Elmore Leonard once said, “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
Herding characters can be more challenging than herding kittens :)
My most recently contracted book was *supposed* to be about Rhys and Audra, but Mickey didn’t like the idea, so he barged in.
And yes, when I realized where the story was going, I chastised the computer screen.
Thank you for sharing your creative process! I’m looking forward to reading Junkyard Dog.
This sounds fun. Myth remakes are something I enjoy.
What an intriguing concept – Cerebrus as three distinct characters! Very clever. And that is why I’ll forever be a reader and not a writer . . . too many books to read to have any brain space left for the creativity writing requires.
Thanks for your thoughtful post, Katja; I always find it interesting to learn how different authors approach writing.
I’m generally a planner but occasionally life gets in the way.
Thank you, Ms. Desjarlais, for sharing your writing process at AAR. As a writer myself, I am always interested in hearing about fellow authors’ projects and techniques.
“I have no idea where I’m going until I type THE END. And as a series writer, this gets interesting the further into the series I go.” Like you, I am definitely an improvisational writer. The thrill of discovery and the joy of rereading it later? You are speaking my language. With the exception of taking some notes as I think of them, I generally don’t do outlines.
Do you write the scenes of your books in order? For me, it really depends. If I get an idea for a scene, I write it down even if it takes place in the middle, end, or wherever else in the book. Somehow, I make it work. Don’t ask me how because I couldn’t give you a good answer.
I’m always fascinated by people who can write scenes out of order. I’m definitely a linear writer. If I become hung up, I have to delete anywhere from a sentence to three chapters until I can find the path again. Except I don’t know what the path is until I either get there or get back there.
Thanks for replying to my comment!
“If I become hung up, I have to delete anywhere from a sentence to three chapters until I can find the path again.” Yikes! From one writer to another, I know how much it hurts to have to delete things. That’s why I keep a separate document of notes and scenes, even if I never use them. Then editing hurts a lot less.
As for writing scenes out of order, I think it’s because my mind doesn’t work in a linear fashion. I daydream a lot, and sometimes scenes- or even partial story tidbits- just come to me. So I feel compelled to write them down. Then I have to figure out how to tie them together into a cohesive narrative. This is less of a problem with short stories than novellas, because with a short story, I can usually just run with an idea from beginning to end.
On a related note, I remember reading an article by an erotica author who said she was shocked how at erotica writing workshops- and even when talking to erotica authors- that a lot of people in the genre wrote the non-sexual scenes first and made a note in their word documents that said “insert sex scene.” She thought this was rather sad and believed it showed a cultural tendency to separate sex from day-to-day life- treating it like something wholly different from say, a fight scene or witty banter or some other type of situation characters may find themselves in. Oddly enough, when I work on my m/m novellas, I sometimes write at least one sex scene first! Since sex is the driving force of erotica, you would think that would be standard practice for the genre. Of course, all writers are different, regardless of genre.
I should probably save scenes, but then they would sit there in a document and I would KNOW they were there.
Though recently I did save one thing.
Five chapters into the first book of my third series, I realized I started the series four books in and had to back waaaaaaay up. So chapters 1-5 of book 4 are ready when I get there :D
I admire novella writers. It’s a skill I certainly lack. And as for scene-jumping, the book plays out like a movie in my head, so I have zero advanced scenes in my mind. However, I do know what emotion I want to build up to based on the song or songs on my writing playlist.
Aw, thanks for your comments about novella writers. I admire people who can write novels! The only reason I got into writing erotic novellas was because my Joey & Johnny Forever stories needed more fleshing out (har har) than a short story could provide, and the stories seem to wrap themselves up after 20,000 to 30,000 words. I can’t imagine making my poor characters have sex and pillow talk any more than they already do in each story, which a novel length would force. If I were traditionally published, that minimum 50,000 word count would force me to create a lot of filler. So congratulations to erotica and romance novelists who can pull it off.