{"id":6137,"date":"2014-08-17T21:59:21","date_gmt":"2014-08-17T21:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=6137"},"modified":"2014-08-18T01:13:17","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T01:13:17","slug":"when-your-fetal-book-starts-to-kick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/when-your-fetal-book-starts-to-kick\/","title":{"rendered":"When Your Fetal Book Starts to Kick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since mid-June, I\u2019ve been earnest\u00adly at work on the third Dako\u00adta Stevens mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel, but it was\u00adn\u2019t until last week that I felt the fetus that is the new book begin to kick.<\/p>\n

\"babytype\"

Baby get\u00adting start\u00aded as a writer on an L.C. Smith Coro\u00adna.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve heard moth\u00aders, some of them friends of mine, describe the thrill of feel\u00ading the ges\u00adtat\u00ading baby kick for the first time. Many of them have told me that as soon as that<\/em> hap\u00adpens, the fact that they\u2019re bring\u00ading anoth\u00ader life<\/em> into the world becomes very real for them.<\/p>\n

The lit\u00ader\u00adary equiv\u00ada\u00adlent of a baby kick\u00ading in its moth\u00ader\u2019s womb is when a writer is in the mid\u00addle of a sec\u00adond or sub\u00adse\u00adquent draft of a work, and the writer is star\u00adtled by some\u00adthing that comes out on the page. By star\u00adtled I don\u2019t mean that what comes out is nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly shock\u00ading<\/em>, but it\u2019s sur\u00adpris\u00ading in some way. The char\u00adac\u00adters do some\u00adthing unex\u00adpect\u00aded. A scene the writer had\u00adn\u2019t imag\u00adined before sud\u00adden\u00adly unfolds in front of him. Or a line in the nar\u00adra\u00adtion or in the dia\u00adlogue knocks the writer on her heels and makes her say, \u201cDamn\u2026this is real\u00adly becom\u00ading a book.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the past two months, I\u2019ve had sev\u00ader\u00adal of these moments, but a few stand out as true sur\u00adpris\u00ades that made me laugh or smile inward\u00adly in aes\u00adthet\u00adic plea\u00adsure.<\/p>\n

Mind you, some of these lines might not affect you the way they have me, but that\u2019s because I\u2019m<\/em> the one car\u00adry\u00ading this baby, not you. :)<\/p>\n

Fol\u00adlow\u00ading are just a few<\/em> of these moments from Dako\u00adta 3<\/em>. (By the way, I had a title for the new nov\u00adel but did\u00adn\u2019t like it, so I\u2019m work\u00ading on a new one.) I hope you enjoy these lit\u00adtle kicks as much as I have.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t worry\u2014there are a lot more where these came from.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\n
\"Dakota_and_Svetlana_billboard\"

To bor\u00adrow from the old James Bond movie poster tagline, \u201cDako\u00adta and Svet\u00adlana will soon be back, and bet\u00adter than ever!\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

From the New Dako\u00adta Stevens Mys\u00adtery Nov\u00adel by Chris Orcutt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In all, since our last case a cou\u00adple of months ago, Svet\u00adlana had man\u00adaged to win four chess tour\u00adna\u00adments and write a sec\u00adond chess book. Mean\u00adwhile, I hadn\u2019t even dropped off my dry-clean\u00ading yet.<\/p>\n

A pair of Ital\u00adian men in their 20s who could have been mod\u00adels for Armani walked in wear\u00ading belt\u00aded black leather coats and ribbed black turtle\u00adnecks. They had that fash\u00adion\u00adably unshaven look and enough styling prod\u00aduct in their hair to be a fire haz\u00adard.<\/p>\n

For a fat guy, he moved light\u00adly and fast, and before I could react he got off a decent punch. It only grazed my ribs, but it still felt as if I\u2019d been hit by an 80 mph fast\u00adball. In reply I thrust from my legs and put a hard con\u00advin\u00adcer into his gut\u2014a blow that would have buck\u00adled a small\u00ader man and heaved him off the ground\u2014but in this case my fist felt as though it was sucked into Swedish mem\u00ado\u00adry foam.<\/p>\n

Sher\u00adi\u00adlyn was that rarest of redheads\u2014a wavy auburn red\u2014and all it took was one toss, one quiver, of that hair to make me shove Rea\u00adson into an oncom\u00ading bus.<\/p>\n

From the moment my head\u00adlights swung into a rut\u00adted grav\u00adel park\u00ading lot and raked across a build\u00ading with fad\u00aded clap\u00adboard sid\u00ading, I knew the kind of restau\u00adrant we were in for: the kind that serves dispir\u00adit\u00aded cof\u00adfee in brown, hour\u00adglass-shaped mugs and that spells plu\u00adrals on the menu using apos\u00adtro\u00adphes (e.g., \u201cburger\u2019s\u201d). Regret\u00adtably, I was right on both counts.<\/p>\n

A young woman sat at a barstool behind the desk. She had but\u00adter blonde hair pulled back in a smart updo, and the sheen of it was almost blind\u00ading. In con\u00adtrast to the hair\u2014as if she were delib\u00ader\u00adate\u00adly \u201cde-pret\u00adty\u00adi\u00adfy\u00ading\u201d herself\u2014she wore large black-framed glass\u00ades. I think the look was called \u201chip\u00adster,\u201d and I didn\u2019t care for it.<\/p>\n

The two Asians sat bolt upright in sep\u00ada\u00adrate dou\u00adble beds. They wore noth\u00ading but tighty-whities and were eat\u00ading Ken\u00adtucky Fried Chick\u00aden from buck\u00adets between their legs. Their hands froze with drum\u00adsticks on the way to their mouths, and they gaped at me as I held the gun on them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

*<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoyed these baby kicks, these \u201cpre\u00adviews\u201d of the new nov\u00adel. I plan to release the nov\u00adel this Christ\u00admas, and it will be avail\u00adable for pre-order in late Novem\u00adber. Please check back here for updates. Thank you for vis\u00adit\u00ading.<\/p>\n

\u2014Chris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since mid-June, I\u2019ve been earnest\u00adly at work on the third Dako\u00adta Stevens mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel, but it was\u00adn\u2019t until last week that I felt the fetus\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,3,19,76,11,13,14],"tags":[120,136,98,99,138,131,137],"class_list":["post-6137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-craft","category-fiction","category-process","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series","category-writers","category-writingexperiences","tag-authors","tag-authorship","tag-dakota-stevens","tag-dakota-stevens-mystery-series","tag-drafts","tag-fiction-2","tag-gestation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6137"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6159,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6137\/revisions\/6159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}