Let the writing begin!

Actually, this is not the first novel I write. I have written perhaps a dozen or so, but only one has been published (as an ebook at Untreed Reads). A second novel is in the hands of the same folks at Untreed Reads, and I am writing a third.

Now, this third novel is quite a departure from the subject matter of the two I mentioned above. While those two are about a Mexican detective named Guillermo Lombardo, this third one is a strange bird.

It started out as a memoir about my coming to France to live and all of the incidences of that crazy time. I wrote about 220 pages of it, sent queries around to various agents and had NO positive responses.

One agent was kind enough to give me some advice: forget memoir writing unless you are a disgraced politician or a former rock star!

So, I put it away and went on to write my other novels, "An Inconsequential Murder" and "The Minister's Secret".

"An Inconsequential Murder" is about a detective, Guillermo Lombardo, finding that the murder of a young man is linked to a vicious war between the groups that would have drugs legalized in Mexico and those that oppose legalization, among them some agencies of the US.

The second novel is set in Paris. "The Minister's Secret" is about a man who is cultural minister of France and who inherits art stolen from French Jews during the pogroms of July 1942.

Both or well written detective fiction novels, easy to write and fun to put together but I still wanted to do something with the material I had gathered for my first book, my memoir.

Then, one day, while editing my second novel, I got an idea:

What if I used the material from my memoir to create a novel. If no one wanted my memories, then I could use them as the basis for a work of fiction.

But, but, could I just pretend the book was just fiction and try to sell it as that? No, not really because it had not plot, no real characters, just descriptions of the people I had met when I first came here. So, how could I use the material?

I will tell you what I did when I post my next article, "The Man Who Sells Books By The Kilo"

Regards,
El Escritor