What We're Writing: Julia Plans Ahead

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: So, I took several days this week to work on planning the rest of the holiday season and to figure out next year. What's on my calendar? What are my priorities? What do I want to accomplish, and how will I get there? And if you're thinking, "Gee, Julia, planning ahead is not something you're known for," dear reader, you are correct. I am evermore a work in progress when it comes to rowing upstream against my natural tendencies, which seem to have been set in college, when I only ever thought about Monday's homework at 10pm Sunday.

The growth I have seen, however, is in realizing whenever I do plan, calendar, schedule or pre-load, I'm always happier and less stressed. Not to mention liberated from the guilt that occurs when I've completely forgotten that blurb I was going to write, or don't remember a friend's birthday until  three days after the event.

 One area, however, where I've always planned ahead is in my novels. No, not by outlining - although I always know what the end scene is going to be, I'm usually completely in the dark as to how I'm going to get there. What I do plan ahead for are useful cast members. Plot events that plant a seed for the next book. Actions characters take that are going to pay off or explode in their faces three books down the line.

So for instance, in my first book, I introduced two side characters, the director of the local infirmary and the county MD. I specified the first was gay, but didn't reveal they were partners until the next novel, when that fact threw my heroine into the search for the people who beat up the coroner. In my last book, Kevin Flynn, the young cop now working for a hate-crime task force, is undercover tracking white supremacists. It was very much a third-tier plot in HID FROM OUR EYES, but if you read to the end, you probably have a good idea that the next story up was going to focus on, yep, white supremacist militias. 

Planning ahead for the future in Millers Kill, I'm considering where Kevin is going to go at the end of this current novel, and what is Russ's profession going to be now he's not a cop anymore? Since lawyers and law enforcement often work well together, I thought it might be a good idea to introduce an ambitious young prosecutor - Yíxīn"Joy" Zhào - and then sit back and see what happens. Well, it turns out she's stepping out of her office and getting involved in things she never planned on.

Yíxīn slowly pivoted about, then nodded. “Okay, I'm done.” They stepped outside into the falling snow and waited while Tiny relocked the door. “I thought you said a couple of inches.” The lawyer kicked at where the fluffy white stuff had already covered the grass.

“Don't complain. It'll cover up our footsteps.” And just like that, as if cued by a malevolent stage director, Cal's truck drove into sight from the lane.

“Oh, shit.” Yíxīn stared as the truck rolled into its parking spot. “What do we do?”

Tiny turned around and moaned. Clare felt like all the breath had left her body, replaced by icy water.

Cal got out of the pickup. He stood there for a moment, as if trying to process what he was seeing. Finally, he said, “What the hell? Tiny?”

He walked toward them, and Clare could see the point where he spotted their footsteps leading to the back door and put the pieces together. “What. The. Hell!” He lunged forward and grabbed Tiny's arm, hauling her towards him. “You been in the downstairs? You brought strangers into my house?” She shuddered, sobbing. He shook her, hard, jerking her back and forth.

“Let her go.” Clare stepped forward. “We're only here because she's worried about you. She wants to keep you safe.”

“Safe?” He hauled Tiny closer to him. “Bitch, I'm the one who decides what's safe or not! Who the hell do you think you are, getting between a man and his wife?”

Yíxīn held her phone up. “Let her go or I'm calling the cops right now. And we can have a conversation with them when they get here about your previous arrests for domestic violence and your assault and battery conviction.”

“Who the hell are you?” He still had Tiny's arm in a vise-like grip.

“I'm a lawyer.”

What do you think, dear readers? Might she be a good addition if she relocated to Millers Kill? And do you enjoy seeing seeds dropped in one book sprout in another?