Six Rivers County

You know you're a writer when your mind keeps waking you up with a story idea. I both love and hate the experience. I love it because it reminds me that I'm on the right track of my life. I hate it because it's like a nagging mommy interrupting your dreams to make you get up and work. Since the idea has nothing to do with Smoked or the North Coast of California, I have put it aside in a document file named Rawbits after a faux cereal once hawked by Garrison Keillor. If I did not, it would haunt me, interfering with Smoked, so I would not get anything accomplished on either. I wonder how other writers handle this kind of intrusion on their work. Do you set aside time to work on the new idea while you work on the original opus the other part of the day? Let me know. I'm always curious to see if there are better ways to handle intrusive ideas and characters. That reminds me. I have neglected the historical aspects I wrote about to get my blog started so many...

Richard Widmark. Now, what could Mr. Widmark have to do with my mystery novel, Smoked ? A lot, actually. He is the inspiration for Sam Terwillager, Deputy Sheriff of Six Rivers County. I have this picture up on my bulletin board, and when I think of Sam, I look up and there he is. Now, of course, you have to picture him with thicker, redder hair and a stronger chin, but otherwise, this is Sam. Mr. Widmark has played some hard-boiled detectives in his day. Sam, however, is more Zen. (Not the new Italian detective, but the Buddhist kind of Zen.) Sam spouts haikus. Some his own and some from old Basho, the ancient haiku master of old Japan. He has an eye for nature and sees every flower and tree along his patrol routes. Like any literary detective, he has his darker side. He is a widower who can't forget his late wife who died of cancer and he feels he let his military father down by not joining the Air Force. But, he studies his koans and meditates. He is a loyal friend to Mary F...