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I had a great time at Murder in the Grove last weekend. The class was deeply enlightening, I got re-acquainted with old friends, and made several new ones. And my agent appointment went very, very well.

I learned so much in the master class with David Morrell that it felt like an entire MFA program had been decanted into eight hours. Though the class was on “Writing the Thriller,” the most important thing I learned wasn’t genre advice, but a point Morrell returned to again and again: “Be a first class version of yourself, not a second class imitation of somebody else.” Trying to write like someone else in the hope that you can capture their magic is futile–the odds are that you’ll fail, and you’ll have spent a year of your life on a book that wasn’t what you really want to write. Even if you succeed, you won’t have spoken with your unique voice. But, he said, “If you write the book you always wanted to write, and it doesn’t get published, the book still exists” and you did what you wanted to do.

I realized that I’d been planning to write something that didn’t matte to me. Bullet Catch, as I’d conceived it, was pretty much a Harlan Coben novel with a few minor differences. It wasn’t going to be a Salvatore T. Falco novel. I resolved to put it aside and focus on another idea, one that I was much more excited about. One that matters to me. And I’ll make it the best novel I can write. Later, I’ll take another look at Bullet Catch to see what’s in there that matters to me.

David Morrell and I during a break in the Master Class

That night, after the book signing at Barnes & Noble, I had drinks with D.P.Lyle. I met Doug Lyle at Sleuthfest earlier this year; I enjoyed sitting down to talk with him at length. He gave me several “must read” authors to check out and shared some behind-the-scenes stories of working in television.

D.P. Lyle and I between panels on Saturday

On Saturday, I hit several panels and had my agent appointment. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that she wanted to read the entire manuscript of SHE. I sent it Monday. Of course, because I am who I am, I expect a rejection to arrive in my inbox in a few weeks or months.

Meanwhile, it’s on to the next novel. I’ve been working on foundation material all week. I tackled setting and theme first, and yesterday I started developing characters. I expect to take about a month laying the groundwork. But that’s a subject for another post.