by LynDee Walker of the Femmes Fatales.
“Where do you get your ideas?”
It’s a question most of the writers I know hear often. And usually, my answers about my Nichelle Clarke crime thrillers involve some amalgamation of events I covered as a reporter, headlines I’ve read, and my almost-never-silent imagination.
I have a new book—the first in a new series—out today. And this one is different.
This is the book that scares me.
Funny thing: when you spend years working around and writing about the worst indulged impulses of humanity, then you leave that behind for motherhood, nobody warns you that the tiny baby you cradle close and smother with kisses and protect with the heart of a whole pride of lionesses will grow up. Nobody mentions that she will go to school and make friends and eventually will be headed for high school and cars and complicated relationships and secrets and achieving and failing on a bigger scale than it’s possible for mom to help with.
Suddenly when I stared at the ceiling fan at 3 a.m., the things cluttering my brain weren’t auction baskets and bake sales and basketball practice, but all the twisted minds and horrible crime scene photos I thought I left behind a decade and a half ago.
When I got tired of not sleeping, I got my laptop and started writing.
This story started with a woman who has a perfect life. Her name is Erica Andre, and her world is ordered, controlled, correct, down to fractions of seconds and specks of dust. New yoga pose that sends the whole class careening onto their faces? Erica can outlast the instructor. Missing chairs for the governor’s dinner party? Erica’s got them, they’ll be there by three.
Until her assistant patches through a call from her daughter’s school on a random Tuesday, and a Texas Ranger is waiting in the office to tell her that her child isn’t coming home and her perfect world shatters into a zillion sharp, painful little pieces.
Enter Faith McClellan. She wasn’t supposed to be the main character in this book. This was Erica’s story. Or, Erica’s and her daughter’s. It was a standalone, not a new series. Faith was there to help them, find them an answer, not drive the narrative.
But the more I wrote, the more of the story became Faith’s—following her investigation, tracking down clues, figuring out why she worked for better than a decade to become one of fewer than 20 female field officers in the history of the Texas Rangers.
I felt horrible for Erica, but I wouldn't want to be friends with her. Faith, I liked. She was interesting. Tough. Driven. But also kind, with an unfailing moral compass and a good heart. Somewhere in the middle of the rough draft, she nudged Erica out of the driver’s seat and I didn’t even realize it.
I sent the book to my agent and commenced chewing my nails. I loved this book and wanted it to work.
My agent called. He loved it, too. He’s not an overly effusive guy, but I might even say he gushed.
His one concern was that Erica was too stifling, too depressing, and made the story too fragmented.
His gushing came mostly when he talked about Faith. “This cop is a great character. A franchise character. As a reader, I want to know more about her, to be inside her head and know how she sees the world, how she figures things out.” He also spoke highly of the scenes I had written from inside the killer's mind.
I opened the file back up with fresh eyes and saw that he was right. I cut Erica’s point of view way back. Then I cut it entirely. Tenley’s, too. I reworked the whole book, first line to “the end.” I took Faith from third person to first, and wound the mystery around clues she now had to find on her own because Erica and Tenley weren’t there to tell the reader things anymore. The heart of this book was Texas Ranger Faith McClellan vs. a clever killer. I made that shine and removed anything that might distract from it.
And when I was done, I had a better book and a new imaginary friend who I hope sticks around for a long while.
Faith is scary smart, loyal, and tenacious. The kind of woman who sees an injustice or a question, and makes it right or finds the answer simply because it’s the right thing to do.
She helps me sleep at night.
About the book:
Fear No Truth, 348p. Trade paperback, ebook (click here to shop)
Two dead girls. One determined Texas Ranger. Three horrifying truths.
After a series of murders, newly-minted Texas Ranger Faith McClellan races to unmask a killer lurking in one of Austin's most sacred institutions. But the insidious truth at the heart of this case is darker and more dangerous than she ever imagined.
"Terrific. Surprisingly edgy and with a twist around every corner, the skilled and talented LynDee Walker sets the reader on an unstoppable ride. Authentic, witty and compelling—I could not put it down."
—Hank Phillippi Ryan, Nationally Bestselling Author of Trust Me
Congrats on the new book and series. Definitely sounds intriguing to me.
Posted by: Mark | December 16, 2018 at 11:27 PM
Congratulations! Faith sounds like a winner.
Posted by: Liz Milliron | December 18, 2018 at 04:57 AM