WOODBRIDGE, VA–SUMMER, 1995. Nathan’s Run was a done deal and the marketing push to launch it was beginning to spin up. The pressure was on to submit my next book (as yet untitled) before the February, 1996 publication date as a hedge against a reality check that Nathan might not perform up to expectations. (Advances are often higher when reality is not a factor.) I was pounding away on the thriller that would become At All Costs, in which Jake and Carolyn Donovan had been exposed as longtime fugitives and now needed to flee for their lives while finding a way to prove their innocence.
In one of the early chapters, I needed an FBI agent for what I call a utility character–a walk-on that does the job required and then retreats to the literary union hall to await their next gig. I named the character Irene as a nod to my bride’s deceased mother (whom I never met). I gave her the surname Rivers because I needed a name and that was as god as any.
Those were the days when I pretended to outline my books with the result invariably turning out to be rambling, over-complicated plot lines that also invariably straighten themselves out and convinced me that I’m not an outline kind of guy. Irene Rivers ended up with a much larger role than I’d anticipated, and by the end of the story, she’d killed off a deputy director of the FBI. Cool stuff.
FAIRFAX, VA–SUMMER, 2008. With Six Minutes to Freedom in the can, and freshly inspired by all the research into Special Forces operations, I started hammering away on No Mercy, which would become the first of my long-running Jonathan Grave thriller series. I needed Jonathan to interact with a malleable but deeply honest FBI director. This character would know that Jonathan doesn’t play by the rules, but that he always finds himself on the side of the angels, so the FBI director would grease the wheels a bit for him from time to time.
I needed a name until I realized that I already had a name. Irene Rivers had fallen off the page for a decade since At All Costs, so why couldn’t she have become the director of the FBI? So now Irene, call sign Wolverine, spent 16 books lending aid to Jonathan Grave–and receiving considerable aid from him in return. In the novella, Soft Targets, I even show how Jonathan and Irene came to know each other and why they trust each other so much.
BERKELEY COUNTY, WV–SUMMER, 2023. In Jonathan Grave’s world, where time neither advance nor retreats, Anthony Darmond has been president of the United States for all 16 books. He’s beyond corrupt, and when people cross him, people disappear. Irene Rivers can’t take it anymore. Though it will likely cost her the job she loves, she conspires with Jonathan to take the Darmond administration down.
But as Emerson said, when you come at the king, you must kill him.
Now unemployed and disgraced, Irene Rivers decides to leave the Washington rat race and retire to he family estate in . . . wait for it . . . West Virginia. But she has a past that won’t go away, and she no longer has the security detail that will protect her and her family from retribution.
Which is why I just signed a two-book deal to launch a new series centered on Irene’s efforts to assimilate into her new surroundings and deal with threats that are both old and new.
The funny thing about playing with your imaginary friends is that they don’t always go home when you tell them to. I’m really excited about this. Look for the first Irene Rivers thriller in early 2025.
What about you? Do characters and story lines you thought you’d finished with find their way back into your new stuff?
I innocently wrote a short story back in 2014 titled “Acobe Walls.” A few months later, the POV character tugged on my sleeve. “Don’t you want to know how I got here (to a saloon in “Adobe Walls”)?
Of course. And Leaving Amarillo, my first novel was born. That followed by Longing for Mexico and South to Mexico became a trilogy, and I was sure I was finished. I wrote other novels in other genres.
One day Wes showed up again. “What about the early years?” So I wrote three prequels to Leaving Amarillo. Then I wrote a sequel to South to Mexico. The series ended with 12 novels.
But Wes returned one more time. “Y’know, there’s a 16-year gap between Books 2 and 3.” So I started the Wes Crowley gap series. Today there are 20 Wes Crowley novels in all.
But also an SF series in 10 books, an ongoing crime-fiction series for which I’m currently writing the 13th book, a detective/PI series, an action-adventure series, and a bunch of one-offs. Seventy-seven novels and counting, and currently blessed to be in s streak of 18 or 19 days with over 3000 words every day. Plus 9 novellas and over 230 short stories.
Congrats on finding another character (or her finding you) for a new series. That is truly a great feeling.
I wrote a 6 book historical series about a young woman, Kit Shannon, determined to practice law in turn-of-the-last century L.A. It ended in 1908. I then wrote a stand alone that largely takes place in early 20s Hollywood. I needed a lawyer, and what do you know? There was Kit Shannon, still practicing law.
My Blackthorne, Inc. series has an ensemble cast, and those walk-on characters have ended up with their own books. Sometimes what you’ve written comes back to bite you … I was going to use Grinch as a lead in my third book and when I went back to check on anything I’d already mentioned, his name had come up in only one line in When Danger Calls, the first book. But that line was, “I told Grinch not to use his kid’s birthday as his password.” Now I had a kid to deal with, and that changed the entire story.
The book I’m writing now is about a street debt collector reluctantly turned private detective. I wrote an oddball utility character in the first chapter who my lead must collect from. His whole role was simply to show my protagonist as a debt collector and now halfway through the novel he’s an official, bona fide sidekick.
I’ve reused names a couple times, including the new WIP i’m noodling at. Since I’m not published, I can easily call the original carriers of the names dead.
I like to use meaningful names in my books. My paternal grandmother had a sister named Irene who was a big influence on me in my young years. I called her “Aunt Reen.” When I included two young girls in my third Watch series book, I named them Reen and Joanie. (Joan was my cousin and best friend growing up.)
Those two characters were a hit with readers and they made sure I knew they wanted to continue, so I’m working on a middle grade mystery series now.
Such good news, Mr. Gilstrap! I will impatiently await Wolverine’s series. She deserves her own spotlight for sure.
I don’t have enough books on my author plate to re-use anything, but maybe I’ll get there some day.
So, question: can you give me a hint about Jon…any more in his series coming our way?
And, I like your stories so much that I just picked up Nathan’s Run and At All Costs I’m about 1/3 through NR, and I’m hooked.
Have a great day, TKZers!
Deb, the next Jonathan Grave book, HEAT SEEKER (though I just heard today that that title might be changing), is in the can. It will hit the stands late next summer, early autumn.
I hope you enjoy the early books. I’m not one to go back and read my older works, so I’ll be interested to see if you note a change/evolution in my writing style. Thanks for your very kind words.
“I’ll be interested to see if you note a change/evolution in my writing style.”
I’m wondering the same thing, John. I’ll let you know.
Good news about Scorpion!…thanks!!