{"id":8040,"date":"2018-04-07T18:54:16","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T18:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=8040"},"modified":"2025-11-22T21:02:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T21:02:17","slug":"backstory-the-story-behind-the-first-dakota-stevens-mystery-a-real-piece-of-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/backstory-the-story-behind-the-first-dakota-stevens-mystery-a-real-piece-of-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Backstory: The Story Behind the First Dakota Stevens Mystery, A Real Piece of Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Real Piece of Work<\/em> and the entire Dako\u00adta Stevens Mys\u00adtery Series might nev\u00ader have hap\u00adpened were it not for a bad office chair.<\/p>\n

Dur\u00ading the win\u00adter of 2002-03, I was laid up in bed with an extreme\u00adly painful her\u00adni\u00adat\u00aded disc in my low\u00ader back. In addi\u00adtion to writ\u00ading every day and sub\u00admit\u00adting my sto\u00adries and nov\u00adels to mag\u00ada\u00adzines and lit\u00ader\u00adary agents, I was teach\u00ading Eng\u00adlish as an adjunct at Baruch Col\u00adlege, City Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty of New York.<\/p>\n

How\u00adev\u00ader, my her\u00adni\u00adat\u00aded disc was so severe, I had to take the semes\u00adter off. For a while, I tried to get up and write in my office in the apart\u00adment, but I quick\u00adly dis\u00adcov\u00adered that sit\u00adting of any kind made the pain worse, and so my wife bought me a lap desk, and I did my writ\u00ading in bed, propped up slight\u00adly by pil\u00adlows.<\/p>\n

I Saw the Light<\/h2>\n

One morn\u00ading, after Alexas left for work, the apart\u00adment was uncom\u00adfort\u00adably still, and I felt very lone\u00adly. With a sigh, I took up my lap\u00adboard and was about to con\u00adtin\u00adue a sto\u00adry I\u2019d start\u00aded when I glanced at the book\u00adcase across the room.<\/p>\n

A shaft of sun\u00adlight was stream\u00ading in the win\u00addow, illu\u00admi\u00adnat\u00ading the book\u00adcase shelves con\u00adtain\u00ading my favorite mys\u00adtery and thriller nov\u00adels. There, on two shelves, were all of the works by Ray\u00admond Chan\u00addler (cre\u00adator of the detec\u00adtive Philip Mar\u00adlowe), Ian Flem\u00ading (James Bond), Robert Park\u00ader (Spenser), and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sher\u00adlock Holmes and Dr. John Wat\u00adson).<\/p>\n

For the pre\u00advi\u00adous three years, I\u2019d been suc\u00adcess\u00adful in hav\u00ading my short sto\u00adries pub\u00adlished in increas\u00ading\u00adly pres\u00adti\u00adgious lit\u00ader\u00adary jour\u00adnals, but as I saw the spines of Chan\u00addler\u2019s, Flem\u00ading\u2019s, Park\u00ader\u2019s and Doyle\u2019s books glow\u00ading on the book\u00adcase in that crys\u00adtalline morn\u00ading light, I knew that those<\/em> were the books I most enjoyed read\u00ading, and that the time had come for me to write my own mys\u00adtery or thriller nov\u00adel.<\/p>\n

I got out of bed, acquired a fresh \u201cBlack-n-Red\u201d note\u00adbook from my office, and start\u00aded jot\u00adting down ran\u00addom ideas\u2014for char\u00adac\u00adter names and plots, as well as lists of \u201call the stuff I want to have in my mystery\/thriller nov\u00adel.\u201d Some of the pages from that note\u00adbook appear here.<\/p>\n

When I got that note\u00adbook, I also grabbed the first Spenser nov\u00adel, The God\u00adwulf Man\u00adu\u00adscript<\/em>. As I lay in bed read\u00ading it, I quick\u00adly real\u00adized that, as mys\u00adter\u00adies go, it was only okay<\/em>, and that my first offer\u00ading would be better\u2014possibly much bet\u00adter.<\/p>\n

Dakota and Svetlana Are Born<\/h2>\n

For the next three months, I read all of the nov\u00adels and sto\u00adries of these four masters\u2014Chandler, Park\u00ader, Flem\u00ading and Doyle\u2014in order of their pub\u00adli\u00adca\u00adtion and came to cer\u00adtain con\u00adclu\u00adsions about qual\u00adi\u00adties that I want\u00aded my mys\u00adtery-thriller nov\u00adels to have. First, like the writ\u00ading of Chan\u00addler and Flem\u00ading, I want\u00aded the writ\u00ading in my books to be stel\u00adlar. I want\u00aded great sen\u00adtences, vivid imagery, and apt metaphors sug\u00adges\u00adtive of film noir.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But instead of a \u201clone wolf\u201d detec\u00adtive like Mar\u00adlowe, or a cold, misog\u00ady\u00adnis\u00adtic spy like James Bond, I want\u00aded a detec\u00adtive duo, a mod\u00adern-day Holmes and Wat\u00adson. So I asked myself, \u201cWhat would the mod\u00adern equiv\u00ada\u00adlent of Holmes and Wat\u00adson look like?\u201d I decid\u00aded it need\u00aded to be a man and a woman, where the two of them are equals. I also decid\u00aded that, while I liked the first-per\u00adson par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpant POV of the Mar\u00adlowe and Spenser nov\u00adels, I didn\u2019t want the first-per\u00adson observ\u00ader POV of the Holmes sto\u00adries, where Wat\u00adson (for the most part) relates the sto\u00adry of each case.<\/p>\n

So I had a vision for this basic struc\u00adture: the sto\u00adry of each case would be told in first-per\u00adson par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpant POV by the pri\u00advate detec\u00adtive, and his \u201cWat\u00adson\u201d would be a woman.<\/p>\n

With the addi\u00adtion of a woman, I real\u00adized some\u00adthing else: I want\u00aded there to be sex\u00adu\u00adal ten\u00adsion and a great deal of humor\u00adous ban\u00adter between the two of them, some\u00adwhat like the ban\u00adter between Nick and Nora in Dashiell Hammett\u2019s The Thin Man<\/em>. Now I need\u00aded names for my char\u00adac\u00adters.<\/p>\n

In the note\u00adbook, I brain\u00adstormed char\u00adac\u00adter names, scenes loca\u00adtions, and plots. The name for my detec\u00adtive, Dako\u00adta Stevens, came first and eas\u00adi\u00adly. Years ear\u00adli\u00ader I\u2019d writ\u00adten a humor\u00adous sto\u00adry with a PI named Dako\u00adta Perez; back in my ear\u00adly 20s, a girl I\u2019d known in mid\u00addle school named her first born son \u201cDako\u00adta\u201d; and I filed the name away as a pos\u00adsi\u00adble future char\u00adac\u00adter name.<\/p>\n

So, return\u00ading to 2003, I had \u201cDako\u00adta\u201d but was stuck on what the sur\u00adname should be. I ana\u00adlyzed the name of anoth\u00ader char\u00adac\u00adter I\u2019d admired since I was a boy\u2014\u201cIndiana Jones\u201d\u2014asked myself what I liked about it, and decid\u00aded that it sound\u00aded like a very Amer\u00adi\u00adcan name, a hero\u2019s name. It com\u00adbined the name of a Mid\u00adwest\u00adern state with a com\u00admon, even bor\u00ading, sur\u00adname. \u201cDako\u00adta\u201d was the name of a Mid\u00adwest\u00adern state, and so I men\u00adtal\u00adly flipped through bor\u00ading sur\u00adnames: Jones, Smith, John\u00adson, White, and even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly hit upon the one\u2014Stevens. Dako\u00adta Stevens.<\/p>\n

\u201cSvet\u00adlana Kr\u00fcsh\u201d took longer to come up with. I filled page after page with pos\u00adsi\u00adble names. I knew I want\u00aded her to be Russ\u00adian or Ukrain\u00adian, and there were two women chess cham\u00adpi\u00adons play\u00ading at the time, Svet\u00adlana some\u00adthing and Iri\u00adna Krush. I liked the first name of Svet\u00adlana, but I liked the last name of Krush because it evoked the idea of her crush\u00ading her oppo\u00adnents. So, through the first draft of the nov\u00adel that became A Real Piece of Work<\/em>, Svetlana\u2019s last name was \u201cKrush.\u201d Lat\u00ader on, as I began devel\u00adop\u00ading her char\u00adac\u00adter, I decid\u00aded that her father was head of the Ukrain\u00adian Mob in New York, and that Svet\u00adlana was estranged from him, so she added an umlaut (\u00fc) to her last name.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The many oth\u00ader details that com\u00adprise their char\u00adac\u00adters came from my own expe\u00adri\u00adence and\/or inter\u00adests. Dako\u00adta hav\u00ading worked for the FBI as both a foren\u00adsic sci\u00aden\u00adtist and a Spe\u00adcial Agent came from my hav\u00ading tak\u00aden foren\u00adsic sci\u00adence and crim\u00adi\u00adnal\u00adis\u00adtics cours\u00ades in col\u00adlege, and from my almost becom\u00ading an FBI agent myself. Svetlana\u2019s sta\u00adtus as a chess grand\u00admas\u00adter came from a per\u00adson\u00adal inter\u00adest in chess, and because, for a brief time in the mid-90s, I dat\u00aded a woman who rou\u00adtine\u00adly crushed me in chess. Dakota\u2019s estate in Mill\u00adbrook, New York was based on the one my grand\u00adpar\u00adents owned in Mill\u00adbrook when I was a boy. My fas\u00adci\u00adna\u00adtion with red\u00adhead\u00aded women became Dakota\u2019s obses\u00adsion, to the point that red\u00adheads were his Kryp\u00adtonite.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat If\u2026?\u201d<\/h2>\n

The orig\u00adi\u00adnal of Paul Gauguin\u2019s \u201cVase de Fleurs,\u201d one of the paint\u00adings Ely Sakhai com\u00admis\u00adsioned to be forged.<\/p><\/div>\n

As for the plot of A Real Piece of Work<\/em>, it is large\u00adly the prod\u00aduct of ask\u00ading \u201cwhat if\u201d in rela\u00adtion to two his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal facts. In the sum\u00admer of 2003, as I wrote the first draft of the nov\u00adel, I read an arti\u00adcle in New York<\/em> mag\u00ada\u00adzine about an art deal\u00ader who per\u00adpe\u00adtrat\u00aded an incred\u00adi\u00adble scam on the art community\u2014he com\u00admis\u00adsioned forg\u00aderies of mas\u00adter\u00adworks, then sold the orig\u00adi\u00adnals and the forg\u00aderies to col\u00adlec\u00adtors on oppo\u00adsite sides of the globe. The sec\u00adond fact came to me in an arti\u00adcle about art loot\u00ading dur\u00ading World War II, and the fact that even 60 years after the war, tens of thou\u00adsands of works of art were still miss\u00ading, and for\u00admer\u00adly lost works were being found with reg\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adi\u00adty.<\/p>\n

I dis\u00adcov\u00adered these facts as I was writ\u00ading the first draft, so they didn\u2019t fig\u00adure in the book\u2019s ini\u00adtial plot. But as Dakota\u2019s voice emerged, and his rela\u00adtion\u00adship with Svet\u00adlana became estab\u00adlished, and the oth\u00ader char\u00adac\u00adters (includ\u00ading mer\u00adcu\u00adr\u00adial red\u00adhead\u00aded painter Shay Con\u00adnol\u00adly) devel\u00adoped on the page, the plot came togeth\u00ader as well.<\/p>\n

Every cou\u00adple of years I\u2019ll take a copy of A Real Piece of Work<\/em> off the shelf and flip through it, and every time I do, it feels like I wrote it yes\u00adter\u00adday. I can\u2019t help but smile at Dakota\u2019s nar\u00adra\u00adtion, his vivid metaphors, his infec\u00adtious, boy\u00adish enthu\u00adsi\u00adasm.<\/p>\n

There are many great sen\u00adtences in A Real Piece of Work<\/em>, but I think my favorite (the one that, to me, reveals Dakota\u2019s char\u00adac\u00adter bet\u00adter than any oth\u00ader and that makes me smile every time I read it again) is this:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the pres\u00adence of a shape\u00adly red\u00adhead\u00aded vix\u00aden whose hair smells like mint, a guy can stand idly by in his shorts for only so long.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I will always fond\u00adly remem\u00adber when Dako\u00adta, Svet\u00adlana, and A Real Piece of Work<\/em> were born, and today I\u2019m tremen\u00addous\u00adly grate\u00adful for that bad office chair and the her\u00adni\u00adat\u00aded disc it caused.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t read it yet, you can pick up a Kin\u00addle or print copy of A Real Piece of Work<\/em> from Ama\u00adzon<\/a> or Google Play<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* Foot\u00adnoote: The cov\u00ader of A Real Piece of Work was designed by Elis\u00ada\u00adbeth Pinio, and the pho\u00adto used on the cov\u00ader, \u201cPaint Brush\u00ades Close-Up,\u201d is by Tech109 on Flickr.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Real Piece of Work and the entire Dako\u00adta Stevens Mys\u00adtery Series might nev\u00ader have hap\u00adpened were it not for a bad office chair. Dur\u00ading\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,30,19,36,77,7,8,11,13,14,233],"tags":[242,124,94,98,99,165,131,265,109,133,134,96,155,104,150,221,92,93,355],"class_list":["post-8040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-real-piece-of-work","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-fiction","category-mystery-writing","category-novels","category-personal","category-publishingandthemarket","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series","category-writers","category-writingexperiences","category-writing-life","tag-a-real-piece-of-work","tag-amazon","tag-chris-orcutt","tag-dakota-stevens","tag-dakota-stevens-mystery-series","tag-ebooks","tag-fiction-2","tag-kindle","tag-literary","tag-mysteries","tag-mystery","tag-novelist","tag-orcutt","tag-redheads","tag-svetlana-krush","tag-writers-life","tag-writers-2","tag-writing","tag-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040","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=8040"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9886,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040\/revisions\/9886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}