More Poison in Your Coffee?

Final Author's Note and Sequel News

             

              When I first started this project, I wasn’t taking it too seriously. This is only the second story that I’ve ever completed in my life, the first being a short story called “The Secret Admirer”. So my thinking was I’ll start up something quick, easy, and simple to hone my writing skills and to test whether I CAN complete a novel length story. I went through a lot of firsts with this book. The first time I wrote a novel, tried my hand at mystery, and tried my hand at humor. And this is also notable as the first time I ever worked in first person (I find that I’m better in third, but this particular story works best as first). Somewhere along the way, however, I really started enjoying Evie and her friends. And thus somewhere along the way, my mind started forming the next mystery.  

            I like Evie Harper. I like her friends and family, and I like her story. I want to see more. So…my brains all ready coming up with the next plot. A continuation of our spunky heroine, if you will. It’ll be a while though, since I not only have editing on “More Poison in your Coffee?” but also a whole different novel and a short story in front of it. I don’t mind sharing where the plot would head. So here’s a little preview of what’s been scrambling around in my brain as far as a sequel:

            Evie Harper is invited to a wedding and not just any wedding. The wedding of her best friends’ eldest brother. That’s right; the Cho’s first child is finally getting married to the girl of his dreams. Nothing on Earth could possibly tarnish this beautiful November day, right? Everything was going great until Harley, the Cho’s rebellious middle son, comes walking through the door with a stripper on his arm. And Evie thought she was going to be the biggest spectacle of the day! Evie spends the day seething. It’s expected since Harley was her first love, even though the age difference made it comically one sided, but otherwise the wedding goes off without a hitch. So imagine everyone’s surprise when the next day the stripper is found dead in Harley’s bed...strangled…and completely naked. Naturally the police assume that it’s some kind of erotic play gone terribly wrong, but the Cho’s know Harley isn’t a violent man. Impulsive, disrespectful, and a womanizer sure, but he’s never been violent. Harley swears he stepped out of the room to go on a booze and condom run and that she was alive and “orgasmically happy” when he left. It’s a good thing they happen to know a coffee shop owner with a track record for snooping and a nose for crime. As Evie digs deeper into the life of Kim the stripper she discovers that the exotic dancer had quite the past; one that involved drugs, prostitution, and gangs. Who knew the life of a stripper could get so dirty?

Things to go over:

>Evie and Manny start dating. (Yes, she wasn’t imagining it, he was flirting)

>Family as a central theme.

>More on Henry and Evie’s childhood and friendship.

>We delve a little deeper into Johnny’s past.

            Speaking of Johnny he was actually intended to ride into the sunset at the end of this novel, but I decided halfway through that he was an important ally for Evie to have. I mean, with all his odd jobs, he not only has an amazing network of people he knows, but he also has a wealth of valuable talents (such as lock picking).

            I’m going to be honest; I like him and his grouchy raggedy ways. He’s a fun character to write for. One of the major things I have to do before the sequel is to adjust certain personalities. Give Evie a couple more flaws and maybe make Manny more realistic (you know, do a little research on actual police protocol). For the most part, their personalities and the world they live in is good.

            Since this novel was originally intended to be a standalone project, I have no trouble admitting that it has flaws. Part of the reason is because I only put about a quarter of my brain power into it while I worked on other things. So, you know, I made the mystery simple. I had our victim in a closed space, with all the suspects surrounding him and I had him be really mean so the nature of the mystery was easy for me to write and easy for readers to follow.

            Now that I’m invested, next story I’m putting 100% of my brain into it. It’s going to get more complicated and it’s going to get dirtier and maybe more edgier. I’m going to get harder on Evie. She’s only going to hear about the murder next time, instead of witnessing it. And she’ll have to start from there. But as I said, I’ve got a vampire/werewolf novel and a short story about plastic surgery and self-esteem to write first.

            If you made it this far, you rock. If you didn’t, that’s cool too. For the 1 ¼ people who are actually reading this: Let me know if anything confused you or didn’t make sense as I want to make sure I’ve filled in all the holes. Got a suggestion? Leave it; I might consider it since I’m making the adjustments for the next installment. What did you like? What didn’t you like? Do you even care?

            Until next time Wattpad.

[Update: Book 2 is now available on my page. Title: 'Look but Don't Choke']