Please tell us a little about yourself and your writing journey.
My latest novel is
called The Davina Code. In the book, ex-cop Jack Miller inherits a house. He
also inherits a tenant. It's safe to say that he isn't pleased about either.
He's convinced Davina is doing something illegal in his house. The only problem
is - he's not sure if he wants to put her in jail, or take her to bed. Probably
both! Davina, meanwhile is up to no good. Just not the same 'no good'
that Jack suspects. She's filming a movie in his house, without his permission
and using 'borrowed' equipment to do it. It's a race to see what will happen
first - movie, jail or bed!
This book was a lot
of fun to write. I love it when characters are flummoxed by each other, but
can't run from the attraction they feel. There's this tug of war between them
and you're never quite sure who will win. And as an added bonus, while I was
writing The Davina Code, I learned a few things too. I thought I'd share my new
found knowledge with you.
Five things I
learned while writing The Davina Code:
1.
Don't tempt
fate with your plot! In the
Davina Code, the hero Jack gets his hands on a chainsaw for the first time. He
has no idea what he's doing and doesn’t check where the tree will land when it
falls. Needless to say, he trashes something important and causes chaos. I wrote
this scene a whole year before my husband bought a new chainsaw. You know where
this is going right? So far he's destroyed, two fences, part of the neighbour's
shed, one chicken coop and taken out the bridge over the stream. All because,
like Jack, it doesn't occur to him to figure out where the tree might land
first!
2.
I'm hopelessly
out of date! Davina is an
actress. A terrible one, sure, but she still wants to be famous. I modelled her
on all of the golden era actresses that I love - Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall
etc. Only to discover that no one watches that stuff any more! Some of my
readers have no idea who I'm talking about. Trust me, I get the mail to prove
it. So, either I have to rent Twilight (and I'd rather stick a fork in my
eye!) or I have to stop talking about films from the
1940's.
3.
Don't try to
multitask while writing.
While writing The Davina Code, I tried to squeeze some writing time in during
one of the school holidays . My hope was that my two little girls would leave me
alone long enough to think. Nope. They came into my office asking if they could
use something to make art. Without looking, I waved them away saying yes,
thinking - anything for a minute's peace! A while later I went to the toilet.
There wasn't one sheet of toilet paper in the whole house. That was what they'd
wanted to use to make art. A large paper mache cat, to be exact. This would have
been funny, if it wasn't for the fact my car was in the garage and we live an
hour's walk from the nearest shop. I had to improvise. I'm not telling you
how!
4.
Spell check is
a waste of time! You need
real people to read through your final manuscript before you publish it. At
least three of them, preferably more, because mistakes squeeze through. I
published The Davina Code with an excerpt at the back of it for another of my
books - Laura's Big Break. Only the excerpt was entitled, Laura's Big Beak and
the hero didn't wear a t-shirt - nope, I'd missed out a crucial letter in that
word… Not ideal! This is the second time Laura's had a big beak. I sent out a
press release with that mistake too. You'd think I'd be looking for it by
now!
5.
Make them
laugh, make them cry! I'm
known for the humour in my work. And I love making people laugh. Heck, I love
making myself laugh! But I figured out while writing The Davina Code that the
best laughs, the real belly-roll-on-the-floor-gasping-for-breath-laughs, come
after the tears. You need dark moments, intense moments for the reader so that
the humour will be a relief - otherwise it can all get a bit sickening. Like too
much cake!
Here is a taste of what happens when Jack
meets Davina for the first time:
This
was insane. And yet, she was doing it. This was exactly the kind of situation
that made Davina’s parents despair. She didn’t know why crazy things kept
happening to her. They just did. And trying to lead an ordinary, quiet life only
seemed to make things worse. She shook her head a little. Now wasn’t the time to
wonder why she wasn’t normal. Right now she had to concentrate on the fact that
she had her hand in the pocket of jeans belonging to a strange man. Jeans he was
still wearing.
“Goodness,
these are tight,” she muttered, as she tried to get a grip on his phone without
actually touching him.
He
grunted.
“I
don’t usually do this sort of thing,” she told him.
For
a brief minute she wasn’t sure what she was explaining exactly - the fact she’d
knocked him out and tied him up, or the fact she was rooting around in his
trousers.
“I
mean, I don’t usually hit people. Hardly ever. And not without
provocation.”
Her
fingers touched leather. She angled herself further over the gorilla’s body to
get a grip on the wallet. Seriously. Who wore their jeans this
tight?
“I
hope I didn’t do any permanent damage. I just wanted you to stop breaking into
my house.” She looked down at him. “You understand, right?”
His
dark eyes stared up at her.
“Sweetheart,
you have your cleavage in my face and your hand down my trousers. There is
nothing about this I understand.”
Davina
jerked back from him, pulling out the wallet. His face was as red as hers felt.
The air between them seemed warmer and she was aware of every tiny movement he
made.
“Got
it,” she said triumphantly, and to her disgust, rather breathlessly.
“Look
at the ID,” he said through gritted teeth.
She
flicked the wallet open. There he was, strained and serious, glaring at her from
his driver’s licence.
“This
is a terrible picture,” she told him.
“Yeah,
I was worried sick about what you’d think of my photo ID.”
“Jack
Miller, thirty six, that’s all it tells me.”
She
flicked through the rest of the wallet. Four credit cards, one library card,
which surprised her as he didn’t look the type that read, and one video card.
Twenty pounds and change, and a condom that expired in the 90’s.
“This
is out of date,” she told him before she could stop herself.
“I
don’t intend to use it. It’s my lucky condom.”
“How
can it be lucky if you can’t get lucky with it?”
Honestly,
the man was an idiot. She thought she heard him gnashing his teeth.
“How
is this supposed to help me?” She waved the wallet in front of him. “There is
nothing in here that says you own this house.”
His
sharp jaw clenched as his head turned slowly on a neck that was thicker than her
thigh.
“Get
the phone. I want you to call Brighton Police and ask for a friend of mine, Andy
Harper. He’ll tell you the truth.”
“You
have a friend in the police?” Her voice went into high-pitched Betty Boop
territory, which she knew wasn’t attractive.
His
eyes narrowed.
“I
was police. Eighteen years. Drug division. Brighton.”
Davina
gulped as everything within her ran around in a panic. She flicked her eyes
towards the house. He’d almost gotten in. She flicked her eyes back to him.
She’d hit a policeman?
“It isn’t so entertaining now is it?” he asked drolly.
Psst... This one is going into my TBR pile!
You can find more information on my books at my website:
Website - http://www.janetelizabethhenderson.com
Thanks for joining us today Janet! We hope to see a lot more of your work.
Imogene
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