Chapter 13 complete!

The next chapter was a little like the calm after the storm of excitement that happened in Chapter 12. It took a little longer to write, three weeks as opposed to the two weeks that it took to write the previous one. I was also busy with work and the kids on school holidays, but I think it was more because it was a retrospective instead of action.

I spent a little more time on character development in this chapter, some tension between our protagonists and the prickly police detective, and a bit of interaction between Nat and Dave. It was very heavy on dialogue, but I feel that dialogue is what gives depth to your characters. You get to see how they think, how they communicate. As their creator, it helps me to understand more of who they are.

I’ve heard a few people say this, but I don’t actually feel like I am creating the characters as much as they are revealing themselves to me. I subscribe to this view. When I write dialogue, I hear their words in their own voices. If I try to write something that doesn’t fit that, it becomes immediately obvious. It’s like they’re saying, “No, I wouldn’t say that! This is what I would say!”

I planned the story out in detail some twelve months ago, but even during that time, it has evolved slightly. The key elements have remained the same, but some of the mechanisms became evident as the story unfolded. This, like the way in which the characters come to life, feels like the sequence of events revealing the details to me as we go along.

I have two chapters planned to complete “The Body in the Building,” and so the next chapter will finally tie together all of the elements and the big reveal of who the killer is. So the calm of Chapter 13 is perhaps more the eye of the storm than the calm after it.

I can finally see the finishing post is in sight, and it has been a quite wonderful experience. Since we are at that point, I am finally going to reveal the cover artwork.

While the book is available for reading on my website, I also wanted to package it up fully as a novel for sale on Amazon. That way, people can read it on their Kindle more easily, and I might make a few dollars for my efforts.

I am really happy with how it turned out, especially since I did all the artwork myself. It seems to fit the story well and should be eye-catching enough to grab someone’s attention when they see it on Amazon. At least I hope so.

I do realize that you probably shouldn’t release the artwork before you’re finished the book, but to me, this is an incentive to help push me to finish it. I want this cover to be on the book in the Kindle Store. I’ve been sitting on it for months, and I couldn’t hold on to it any longer.

In the end, it’s probably a good thing that it has me excited in this way. It means I still very much have my passion for it, and I want to share that with you.