READ THROUGH CHAPTER 3 - THEN ENJOY THIS

DYING BREATH READ ALONG

DAY 1: PROLOGUE THROUGH CHAPTER 3

It all began–as many of my books do–with a casual suggestion from my editor, John Scognamiglio. “Why don’t you do a beach book?”

Because John and I have been working together since the dawn of my career, I trust him implicitly. He’s always had a great instinct for timing when it comes to settings, plots, etc.–if he mentions that he senses a hot trend, I pay attention.

So when he said “beach book,” I said, “Great!” and took off running with the concept. I had already been simmering the idea of a book about a woman who has premonitions about missing kids–and then begins seeing her own child in her visions. The time was right to use that premise.

Before I sat down to write the proposal, I had to figure out where the book should be set. I am a beach person and have visited many, in every state from New England to Florida, the Carribbean and Mexico, California, Oregon, and even Alaska. So choosing the locale was hardly a no brainer–I’m in love with too many of them!

I settled on the Jersey Shore and Long Beach Island in part because it’s close enough to home for me to visit easily, and in part because of an interesting bit of island lore. My first visit to the island was back in the summer of 1988, when a friend of mine was doing summer stock at the Surflight Theater. I learned that a legend had been born on the island: the shocking, horrific great white shark attacks of 1916 began with an attack at Beach Haven. That event went on to inspire one of the greatest horror novels (and movies) of all time, Peter Benchley’s Jaws. More recently, it was brilliantly covered in one of my favorite nonfiction titles, Michael Capuzzo’s Close to Shore. I was captivated by the idea of a serial killer trolling the idyllic beaches much like the Great White Shark had almost a century ago.

But when I wrote the prologue and first chapter about 18 months ago, I felt as though something was “off” about it. I wasn’t sure what was wrong–the writing just wasn’t flowing. I handed it to my husband to read, and he gave it back with pages full of notes and the comment, “You usually write great stuff–this is pretty bad.”

I’m not sure exactly what had gone wrong...but he was right. It was bad! I scrapped just about everything, other than the character, setting, and premise, and got back to work from scratch. The next version pretty much wrote itself–as my books usually do–and I knew it was much stronger even before Mark–and then John–gave it a huge thumbs-up.

As always, I have drawn from bits and pieces of my life, but never lift anything, or anyone, intact. Some of the characters are composites of people I have known. Others seem to leap to the page fully formed and take on a life of their own.

You’ll notice that newlywed Cam is employed as an editorial assistant in the novel’s prologue. While her character overall bears very little resemblance to me, personally, this is one element I took from my own life. I worked entry level in a publishing house as a newlywed. My salary was pitifully low and my husband and I existed on a shoestring in the early days of our marriage.

Like Cam and Mike, we decided that the grass must be greener beyond the concrete perimeter of New York City. But while Cam and Mike moved west to New Jersey in DYING BREATH, we moved East to Rhode Island in real life. We eventually grew homesick for New York City and returned when our firstborn was just a few months old.

I wanted to recapture, in this novel, that restless, impoverished era in our lives–however, I’m happy to report that our has marriage fared much better than Cam and Mike’s!

While researching my young adult paranormal series, LILY DALE, I’ve interviewed a number of mediums and psychics and have done extensive research on the topic. All that information came in handy when I decided to create my heroine who had begun having psychic visions at a young age. I had read and heard that often, budding psychics are frightened by their visions–and that they are susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse. They sometimes turn to self-medication to block out, or help them cope with, the visions.

I decided to make Cam a darker heroine than my usual stay-at-home moms, giving her a history with alcoholism and recovery. As part of the research early last spring, I checked stacks of books on AA and alcohol addiction out of the library. It didn’t occur to me until later, when one of the librarians asked me–with a little too much kind concern–“How are you?”--that my pals at the library must have assumed that I had a little problem myself. Thank goodness that isn’t the case!

Cam’s name comes from Camden, New Jersey–which I used as her hometown in DYING BREATH. That idea was inspired by a powerful ABC news/20/20 segment with Diane Sawyer, which was first aired a few years ago, and has haunted me ever since. The segment was about the children of Camden, NJ, the “poorest town in America.” An update aired just a few months ago, and I was so glad to see the outpouring from 20/20 viewers who, as I was, were moved to help the beautiful, impoverished children. You can help, too! Read more about these children here: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3837382&page=1

While the beach comes into play later in the story, I needed an upscale New Jersey suburb for the early scenes. I chose Monclair because Mark’s aunt and uncle live there (right down the street from one of Mark’s heroes, Yogi Berra!). Whenever we visit them, I’m captivated by the striking architecture of all those beautiful mansions on tree-lined streets. It seemed the perfect place to have had my heroine and her husband go when they sought a “safe” place to raise their daughter. And as my regular readers know, there is nothing more frightening than terror striking in the place where you feel safest.

Another tidbit: You know Eddie Casalino from Chapter Three? I stole his last name from my cousins Kristin, Gregg and Andrew. But I like them better. :-)

Tomorrow, we’ll read chapters 4 through 9! Look for the heroine of my next thriller, DYING LIGHT, to make her first appearance!

Meanwhile, the first person to email me before noon today at contactwcsc@yahoo.com with the name of the Pink Floyd song whose lyrics Cam applies to her own sad condition will win an autographed copy of one of my previously published suspense novels!

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