The Writing of BLONDE DEMOLITION
by Chris ReddingEveryone asks writers where they get their ideas. It isn’t an easy question. The answers vary with each author and can even vary with each book.
Blonde Demolition, a thriller with some romance, is my latest release. This book is the confluence of two ideas. One is that Robert Crais wrote a book called Demolition Angel. I loved that title. Bought the book solely on the title and of course enjoyed it. He is Robert Crais after all. So I wrote the book I would have called Demolition Angel, but of course I couldn’t call it that. Thus was born Blonde Demolition.
The other is that for many years my husband’s volunteer fire company hosted a fair to raise money. Games, rides, food, and beer. The guys who ran the beer tent were an exclusive group, and I was one of only a few women they let pour beer. We called them The Beer Gods. They often bugged me about writing a book about them. When I searched for a location to begin Blonde Demolition, I came upon the fair. Think about how hideous it would be to set off a bomb during a local carnival. Maybe not a big target, but there isn’t a lot of security, so one could easily plant a bomb. And no one would be expecting it. Thus was born the beginning of Blonde Demolition.
I had a lot of fun writing this book. The tension between Mallory and Trey kept me going until I wasn’t sure if they were going to resolve their differences. Trey is your typical bad boy. He knows about women, but he doesn’t really know about relationships. Mallory is damaged. She was an orphan who had never been adopted and therefore didn’t truly understand what family meant until she joined the fire company.
This made the story all that more interesting for me. Using my home state of New Jersey made the setting come alive. I knew the places I used very well.
As writers, we are absorbing items all the time. Places, ideas, plots. We never know when we will use them. They are part of our arsenal as writers.
If you plan to write, you also need to be an observer of the world around you. You never know when you’ll happen upon a character or a setting that you think you’ll use in a book. I often think about where I’d hide a dead body in the most innocuous of places. (Crayola Factory!) Never stop looking around. That’s the best advice I can give a writer.
I hope you’ll enjoy the end result. Blonde Demolition.
Hook:
Mallory Sage lives in a small, idyllic town where nothing ever happens. Just the kind of life she has always wanted. No one, not even her fellow volunteer firefighters, knows about her past life as an agent for Homeland Security. Former partner and lover Trey McCrane comes back into Mallory's life. He believes they made a great team once, and that they can do so again. Besides, they don't have much choice. Paul Stanley, a twisted killer and their old nemesis, is back. Framed for a bombing and drawn together by necessity, Mallory and Trey go on the run and must learn to trust each other again―if they hope to survive. But Mallory has been hiding another secret, one that could destroy their relationship. And time is running out.
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Chris Redding lives in New Jersey with her husband, two kids, one dog, and three rabbits. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. When she isn’t writing, she works part time for her local hospital.
Other Books by Chris Redding:
Corpse Whisperer
The Drinking Game
Confessions: Volume One
Incendiary
A View to a Kilt
Links:
http://chrisredddingauthor.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/chrisreddingauthor
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