Painting a Word Picture

The world is full of real-life mysteries; things that we can’t explain. That’s OK with me. I think there should be some things left to the imagination. For example, those ghost lights I mentioned the other day. Now, there are lots of theories  but do they really explain them? And is there any rational reason for that something glimpsed out of the corner of the eye or that sudden chill?  What is it? And why do we sense it?

When I write a mystery, I have to grab the reader’s imagination and pull him or her into a scene, rather like a painting piques the interest of an onlooker. For example, in The Cemetery Club which I wrote with my co-author Barbara Burgess: “A brilliant bolt of lightning lit the sky, hovering long enough to make the trees beside the highway stand out for a split second like some eerie black and white painting. In that instant, I saw inside the metal bulk beside us. ..The car contained not one man but two.”

Or, in the second Darcy/Flora book, Grave Shift, again written with Barbara: “Spring Creek hurried southward, hugging the rocky hillside before disappearing among the trees. Somewhere in those trees, two whip-poor-wills called…An owl hooted softly and a chorus of crickets announced that autumn was on the way out…An alien, crackling sound broke the stillness. A foot had stepped onto crisp, dry leaves somewhere close by. My scalp prickled.”

Writing a  mystery is fun. Yes, it is challenging and sometimes it is as hard to find the exact word as it is for an artist to come up with the needed shade or tint. In fact, sometimes it seems that the word I want just does not exist. But to create a world that has a problem and be able to solve that problem, to get inside the heads and hearts of the characters; that is satisfying and invigorating. It’s what keeps this author of mysteries writing. There’s always a new idea, another plot that is begging for my attention. And, of course I’m happy to grab my supply of descriptive words and action verbs and on the blank canvas of my word processor, start splashing on the color.