Inspiration

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One year I attended a holiday work party at a new hunting resort in a small, low income town in the middle of nowhere. Honestly, I thought I was going to have to navigate by stars instead of GPS to find the lodge. 

 

When I arrived, I was dumbfounded about the scale and luxuries the lodge had. I think it took me about 27 seconds to make the leap that they had to be smuggling drugs to afford the place. This is probably a good time to note, they weren’t. They are good people. 

 

However, I was amazed a couple with no money and not great jobs had been able to build the lodge. I also never dreamed it would survive, but several years later they appear to be doing great. Which makes me happy for them and realize I need to be more a glass is half full kind of guy.

 

I am also happy, because it gave me an idea for a story that would launch a series about two friends in love with the same woman. After all, I think is required every writer has a love triangle story at some point. On a deeper level, it enabled me to pose a moral question about what you would do to save your life’s dream. Something I still wonder about.

 

Best Laid Plans  

 

Justin Moore has a song called Backwoods, with a line, “Ain’t no land for sale around here.”

 

I felt the song’s writer had written it for Austin to start the novel. It seemed like such a country thing to say to an out of town developer. For a long time, it was the first line in the novel.

 

Eventually, a beta reader told me they felt the book started slow. I wanted to argue because I loved that line. Knowing that I am not a genius, I thought about what they said. 

 

For about two minutes. 

 

Then to show them changing the opening wouldn’t make a difference, I grabbed my laptop and wrote the first chapter in in about five minutes (I type fast and faster when it is good). Once I read it, I knew there was no going back. It is a bummer being wrong.

 

I’m a discovery writer, meaning I usually know how I want the story to end, and I write until I get there without knowing many or any details. However, I did think about the reason Angie would leave Chris for a long time. I didn’t want it to be something I had read a hundred times. One day while mowing grass it hit me. I loved it from the moment I thought of it. Enough that I left my yard half mowed for the rest of the day so I could type. 

 

Another change a beta reader convinced me of was the man Chris killed shouldn’t be completely innocent. So, he became a minor player in the drug trade to avoid alienating Chris from the reader. 

 

Other edits included removing a graphic sex scene and an old west shootout between Chris and Wyatt at the end. Not having Chris kill Wyatt gave him a chance to complete his arc. 

 

The most significant change was when I started, Chris and Michaela were supposed to get together. As my characters often do, they wouldn’t listen. Chris and Angie kept insisting they should be a couple, and it got to the point, I couldn’t tell them no anymore. I cave to my children in real life too. We all have flaws.