Updates and Creating Villains

I just sent "The Changeling Kill" to Write Words, Inc., to be prepared as an ebook. At present, I'm not sure if there will be a third entry in the Jack Watson Mystery series (as it is currently tagged), but the door is open for it.

Right now, it's all about the sequel to "Faces." Writing is going along swimmingly; I'm into chapter 2 and on page 25. Tracy has entered the "lion's den" although she does not know it yet, and she has met one of the baddies. It struck me as sort of magical how this villain character came out of nowhere. I had reached a point where Tracy was to meet this person and I stopped to try to figure out things like appearance, attitude, mannerisms. And went from no idea to a full picture in a matter of minutes. It started with hair, of all things. (Starting from the top?) Then I decided an air of agelessness--someone who could pass for old or young--would play well into the mystery part of the plot. Clothing came next, a sort of uniform but with personal touches.

Anyone reading this might notice I am being extra careful not to reveal too much about characters or plot lines here. My goal with this now-daily blog is to talk about what the process of writing is like for me, and who knows? Maybe when I reach that stuck-point around Chapter 8 or so, the blogging will help me work through it and show me the way to go forward.

As usual, I'm using a working title of "Faces 2" until the appropriate final title presents itself. Of course, I'd like to have it follow a theme. For "The Dreamer Gambit," the sequel follows the pattern with "The <something> <something>". For this new novel, I'm not sure if I should pick up on the Face theme, or perhaps numbers, or both. Once I get an idea, I'll do a web search on it to see if there is any other book from the last several years with the same title. Don't want to create any confusion with someone else's work.

Writing will naturally slow down a bit when I get the galley of "Changeling" to proof, but until then, I'm stealing every minute I can to keep the rhythm going.