WHY OLIVE PARK?

Where do stories come from? 

Were you to perform a literal autopsy on a story in an attempt to discover the genesis of the story and hopefully unearth the original zygote of an idea that started it, you would find that the original spark often bears little resemblance to the final story.

So it is with Olive Park, the first book in an unplanned trilogy. It began life in 2008. The original idea, (before a title or an ending or any definitive text) started with twin boys and their widowed father. Their adventure was planned to have them be the only two on Earth to discover what they think is a plane crash deep in the woods of Pennsylvania. The book opens with the boys working in their family’s small apple orchard at dusk when they see what they think is a star or a meteor steak across the sky and disappear into the woods. No one else sees it and no one believes them, even their father. So they go on adventure to find it themselves. And they do find it. It is intact. In one of the craft’s windows, they see movement. You’ll have to read the rest of the story when I write it.

But that isn’t Olive Park. That is only the germ of an idea with a mystery story involving two children. Not sure how, but that story morphed into Olive Park. Possibly because Olive Park’s protagonists are two children, one of whom is a courageous kid-against-the-world. And the kid, named M in Olive Park, is one of my all-time favorite characters. He embodies the courage and determination and smarts of a young teenager whose circumstances have relegated him and his younger sister to the bottom of life’s barrel. Throw in a mystery and a villain that is a ruthless serial killer and whose sights have settled on M and his sister as the next victims and you have the gist of Olive Park.

And as any author will tell you, often the characters take over and it is the author’s job to rein them in. It was a struggle with Olive Park characters because they are distinctive and headstrong and were continually getting themselves into situations and expecting me to figure out their exit.

The response to Olive Park on first publication was gratifying with almost all 5 star reviews. As important, it secured three awards (Best Mystery of 2012 from the Global E-Book Awards, Bronze Medal for Popular Fiction 2012 E-Lit Awards, and it was listed as one of the Top 5 Mysteries of 2012 by the Reader’s Favorite awards). Based on the response, the adulation went to my head, and even though I hadn’t planed on writing a trilogy many readers demanded to know how the story continued. So Crimson Park and finally Angel Park were written and they completed the Park Trilogy.

Subsequently, two of the detectives in The Park Trilogy moved from Sacramento to Seattle and opened their own private investigation firm. Then began the Diamond and Stone Mysteries, with two (Girl Number Four and Honey Suckle Rose) of the eight planned books in the series already out. And yes, there is much more trouble ahead for the two. Someday I will also go back and find out what happened to the two kids in The Park Trilogy and tell their story as well.

Most writers of merit I believe, never throw anything they write away. Whatever doesn’t seem to fit in a particular story is archived and often resurrected and placed in a more appropriate tome. Often individual chapters become short stories as many of mine did. So many that I gathered and published them under the title The Silver Moon and the Evening Tide, with my wife also making an award-winning contribution.

Someone asked about my writing process. Believe it or not, I start with a title. Absolutely, even before I have a story to match it, I have named the book. Some are better than others but if they originally spoke to me, I go with them. For example, the planned titles in this next series are – The 24th Reel, Rumor of Clowns, The Widow Black and The Over Under.

And no, there is no one place from which all stories are born I’m sure. For me, many stories come when I am half asleep/half awake. A writer’s tragedy is that many fabulous ideas are lost to midnight laziness – not bothering to rouse oneself enough to write those great ideas down, so come morning there is the frustration of knowing something earth-shaking was conceived and yet… and yet… it just cannot be recalled.

As a practical matter I try to outline as much as I can but as I say, the characters often write much of their own story and I am often just the scribe and later, their editor. Never their master.

That’s it. I need to get back to churning out a few more thousand words today. If someone on the Moon ever reads this, think of me and all the other creative types and support them because the imagination of generations of authors has not only told great stories, but imagination has also landed us on the Moon. And probably, by now, far beyond.    

Peace. C.J. Booth. February 15, 2021. From Earth