It’s mysterious the way ideas come to an author when she’s writing a book. Today, I took a nap and woke up thinking about Jason, Maxie’s boyfriend. She didn’t tell him about her inheritance, or where she was going, she simply told him she was going away to think. Jason puzzled over it, but accepted her reason for wanting to do it.

It was a chicken way out, but Maxie wasn’t sure of her own feelings and felt it better to think things through first. Jason is so literal, and he’ll take her word for everything as told to him. Maxie is more the emotional sort. They are whole grain wheat bread and chocolate croissant – with almonds. They are sun and moon different from each other. Part of Maxie finds this intriguing, and part of it worries her. What to do?

So the earthquake finds Maxie just entering the beach house, and Jason working late on a Saturday night in Santa Monica. The earthquake is stronger in Santa Monica, and Jason gets quite a ride on the 12th floor of his office building.

Unknown to either to them, the earthquake triggers a landslide on the Pacific Coast Highway (the highway that runs along the edge of the ocean) and cuts them off from each other. Maxie is cut off from everything. She was going up the stairs with a flashlight in her hand, when the earthquake hit. Jason was working on his laptop in his office with the gorgeous view. not that he ever takes the time to appreciate it, but Maxie has told him it’s gorgeous, so he knows.

Here is where we leave them for the moment. Maxie in the dark on the stairs and Jason suddenly disturbed in his work by his building shaking.

What happens next? I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for another update.

Marilynne

I decided to write a new post, but when the blank space for writing came up, I panicked!  Blogging is usually an easy thing for me, but at the moment, my brain is blank.  What to do?  Quit belaboring the point and get on with it.

So, I’m going to leave this blog and write on my book about Maxie and how she photographed Su Lin dancing and how Ma came to be at the beach house.  See you later.

Marilynne

I am at the place in my book where I must flesh out my dastardly villains so I can continue the story. So far I know

• I have multiple villains
• They are Chinese
• They deal in human smuggling
• They are using the previously empty beach house as a drop off point because of the river inlet that edges the property
• They have killed people

So, now I am at the point where these villains must become real people.

• Do I want a sympathetic villain who thinks he’s not doing such a bad thing?
• Is my villain out to make money by the barrels?
• Is he new to the game or an old hand?
• Is he simply doing what he sees as a delivery? This would fit the captain of the container ship more than the person at the end of the money chain.

I think I want him to be evil himself. A very bad man who uses women the same way he would use a beast of burden. (I started to say “the way he used a dog” but he might like his dog more.)

Why does he kill the women? He’s burying them in the garden where Charlie started to make a new garden. Why doesn’t he just bury them at sea? Because he doesn’t open the container until he’s about to set the women ashore? Because too many bodies floating to the beach would call attention to his operation?

Being the writer, I get to say who he is. That also makes me responsible for his description and I’m still working on it.

Any suggestions would help.

Marilynne