Getting Started by Lida Sideris
I was done with Book #2 in my Southern California Mystery series and at the starting point for #3, trying to figure out what to write. Did I sit behind my computer and hope for the best? Or did I carefully plot and outline the various movements of the new story? Hoping for the best is not an option. And plotting ahead isn’t much fun for me. I like to be surprised by the twists and turns. So I tackle writing a novel, or any large project, by cutting it up into pieces.
My initial focus is
on the opening scene. In MURDER: DOUBLE OR NOTHING (#3 in the series), I
picked the location first – a movie studio in Culver City that bore a similar
resemblance to the old MGM studios, a setting I knew from my own days of
working on the former MGM lot. Why not open with my heroine watching a scene
being shot? Something was bound to happen while she was mostly minding her own
business. Of course, mystery fans know sleuths seldom mind their own business.
Heroine Corrie
Locke is a newly minted lawyer who works at the film studio. She’s also the
daughter of a late, great PI and together, they’d cracked a few high profile
cases, which makes her a little more than an amateur sleuth. In chapter one, Corrie’s
on her way to a meeting when she gets distracted by the filming. It’s a
fictional murder attempt…or so she thinks, until the murder turns real right
before her eyes.
The first chapter
is the one I work on the most. It sets the tone for the story. I write the rest
of the novel the same way. I select the setting for each chapter and drop my
heroine in. In my latest, I’ve put her everywhere from a studio sound stage, to
the Malibu home of a movie legend, to the coroner’s office, to name a few. Then
I insert action, twists and turns, and the story unfolds. It isn’t always easy,
but it helps to have recurring characters whose personalities I know well. And
I keep my eye on the goal of having fun!
Here's the blurb:
Corrie Locke, newbie lawyer and daughter of a late, great PI, is learning the ropes at the Hollywood movie studio where she works--and where things are never what they seem. Life imitates art when a fictional murder attempt turns real--right before her very eyes.
With more than a little
help from friends and a crazy movie legend, Corrie trips down a trail littered
with wisecracks, mysterious messages, and marginally legal maneuvers to track
down the killer. Meanwhile, clues keep disappearing and Corrie makes an enemy
whose deadly tactics keep escalating. Will her impromptu sleuthing skills be
enough to catch the mysterious assailant before he takes her down?
Bio:
Lida Sideris is an author, lawyer, and all-around book enthusiast.
She writes soft-boiled mysteries and was one of two national winners of the
Helen McCloy Mystery Writers of America scholarship award. MURDER: DOUBLE OR
NOTHING is the third installment in her Southern California Mystery
series, published by Level Best Books. Lida is also the author of The
Cookie Eating Fire Dog, a picture book for ages 4-8. She lives
in the northern tip of Southern California with her family, rescue dogs and a
flock of uppity chickens. To learn more, please visit: www.LidaSideris.com
Website and social
media info:
Twitter: @lidasideris
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