I really meant to write a sequel to Beyond the Shimmer Gate as my next book. I've even written 5 chapters. Grace's granddaughter is in this one. Through no fault of her own Grace escapes from men with guns through a shimmer gate pulling her granddaughter, Honey Jo, behind her. She didn't mean to. She didn't want to. It just happened and as she ran through the gate dragging the terrified girl with her she whispered, "Her mother is going to kill me for this."
But...I kept thinking about the trick or treaters and Mrs. Campbell's dark house. I thought about her blood soaked body laying inside the door they were knocking on. Then there was poor Virgil Abbot and his dog. Something needed to be done about these people and the tragic way they died.
Their houses were locked. No outside enterance. And yet someone or something had scratched and gnawed the poor souls to death. Detective Mark Soddard needed help. No way he could handle this one in the usual way.
So I got involved.
There had to be a setting. Readers want to visionalize where the story is taking place. I knew it was in Mossouri because of their soil and their history. I knew it had to do with the Ozarks. Had to be a place where there were thick woods, forest even. The only place this town could be located was Near Salem, Mo. I looked it up on a google map. Sure enough...I could tell that Archer City was right there...and I marked the area with a big star.
There's no name for the book yet. There are 7 chapters. And that's how I write a book. This town and the people living and dying in it will stay on my mind. Just below consicious thought and as if my thought pattern is liquid, they surface ever so often to be taken further.
More later, ya'll, Shelly
