Writing Process - Building a Thriller Novel

When I started writing this current thriller novel I wrote over 150 pages of backstory.  By doing this I learned who my protagonist was, where he came from, and what he would face at the start of the novel.  I also gave my character depth because I knew him personally.  In the backstory, none of which made it into the novel, I invented the antagonist and dreamed up the depth of agony this person would spread throughout the novel. 

One night in August 2012 after a full day of activities at the Killer Nashville writers conference I sat alone in my hotel room thinking and writing notes about a new book.  Earlier that night I’d shared a table at the awards banquet with a handful of professional authors.  An older woman who wrote mysteries and had originally written for television sat on my left, and on my right sat Bruce DeSilva, the Edgar Award winning crime novelist who wrote “Rogue Island” and it’s sequel “Cliff Walk”.

I’m working on this new book now while the first book is in the hands of my freelance editor.  When my first book becomes published I envision this second novel becoming book two in the series.  I now have a total of three books ideas outlined and slated as follow ons in the series.  Each of them competes for my attention against a full-time job, a nearly finished debut novel, and all the other pursuits I'm engaged in.

The new book involves technology, something I was involved in for over twenty years of my life.  I’m the kid who took apart his tricycle in the garage and watched his father work on the car, and when he reached a challenging point in reassembling the carburetor I’d perk up and tell him which part when where.