by jphilo | Mar 17, 2023 | See Jane Dig!
Adding flesh to the bones of See Jane Dig! has been keeping me busy. For those of you who are wondering what bones I’m talking about, you may want to read this post to get your bearings. What comes next in this post will make much more sense once you do.
Here’s what is involved in adding flesh to the bones of See Jane Dig!
- Creating a new project for See Jane Dig! using Scrivener software, making a folder for each anticipated chapter, and writing summaries from the notecards mentioned in the previous post.
- Filling in calendars from the year the story takes place with the progression of the chapters along with very brief notes of the action. This may seem redundant, since the chapter summaries contain the same information. However, I’m very linear and function best when the action of the entire plot is accessible without having to click back and forth between folders.
- Studying the map of the county which is the model for Tipperary County and counting the miles between “Little Missouri” and the dig site, as well as between “Tipperary” and the dig site.
- Opening to a fresh page in the trusty composition notebook where I scribble ideas and notes about each book in the West River Series and sketching a map of the dig crew’s camp and the dig site. Since it’s fiction, the details can be changed, but the map helps me envision the action and keep descriptions consistent.
The next step in adding flesh to the bones of See Jane Dig! is creating characters and writing their backstories. I’ll describe that process in a future post. In the meantime, I’ll be thinking up names for the professor and five college students who make up the dig team. If you want to suggest possible names for 3 women and 2 men born between 1957 and 1960, as well as their professor born in 1945 leave them in the comment box!
by jphilo | Feb 15, 2023 | See Jane Dance!, See Jane Dig!
See Jane Dance! and See Jane Dig! are trucking along, and it’s time for an update on both. Let’s start with See Jane Dance! The last post about that book was clear back in December when I was still revising the first draft. So much has happened since then, and it’s all good.
The completed manuscript of Dance! is being scrutinized by the Midwestern Books concept editor. Her preliminary feedback assured me that the manuscript is not a worthless heap of trash. (BTW, this is every author’s worst fear regardless of the success of previously published books.) She’ll probably send her suggestions for improvement in the next month or so. When she does, it will be drop-everything-and-work-on-revisions time. The faster those are completed and returned to the publisher, the sooner the manuscript gets into the publication pipeline and the sooner it will be scheduled for release. Those details may be available this spring, so stay tuned.
Now on to the fourth book in the series, See Jane Dig! In previous posts, I described my dinosaur dig research and an interview with a real life paleontologist who lives in the area where the series is set. In the first of those posts, I mentioned that the plot for See Jane Dig! was a tad thin. As in almost non-existent. Today I am happy to report that is no longer the case. Can you hear me shouting “Yahoo!”?
This development began with a few sessions of me brainstorming plot points for See Jane Dig! I also printed a calendar of the months when the story will take place––it begins the last week of April 1978 and concludes near the end of May. I jotted down a few of the brainstormed plot points, the ones that had to occur on certain dates, on the calendar. Last Friday afternoon, I got together with the concept editor to add meat to the bones of what I’d come up with.
I spread out the calendar. She wrote down the results of my brainstorming session on notecards as I read them out loud. Next, we divided the table into 5 columns, corresponding to the book’s five acts, and laid out the notecards where I thought they belonged. For the next few hours we filled in the blank spots (and there were many) with more events, and moved cards from here to there until we were satisfied. Finally we assigned dates to the events and grouped notecards into chapters, with some cards being single chapters. That’s when you heard me shout “Yahoo!”
Now for a peek into See Jane Dig!:
- The action begins during a field trip.
- Jane’s rattlesnake shovel, first seen in See Jane Run!, reappears and is put to good use.
- Another of Jane’s primary grade students, whose age has not reached double digits, drives a vehicle.
- Velma discovers a substance worthy of greater hatred than glitter.
- The action ends on the last day of school.
I hope that whets your West River Mystery appetite for the time being. Between now and the next update rest assured that See Jane Dance! and See Jane Dig! are trucking along.
by jphilo | Feb 2, 2023 | See Jane Dig!
Hiram standing beside a casting of the head of Stan, a T-Rex found in Harding County. The casting is housed in the Buffalo, South Dakota Schoolhouse Museum. Stan is one of the most complete T-Rex skeletons found to date.
I’m digging this See Jane Dig! research more than I thought possible. Maybe you caught that in previous posts here and here. But last week, my excitement rose to new heights during a phone call with an honest-to-goodness paleontologist. Not just any paleontologist, but one who lives in Harding County, the model for the setting of the West River Mysteries.
I found him by emailing the younger sister of a former student. Had we not moved back to Iowa in 1985, she would have been my student the next fall. She still lives in the area, and I asked her who could pinpoint where the dinosaur remains mentioned in different newspaper clippings had been found. She pointed me toward the paleontologist.
What?!?
My next step was to make a list of the digs in question based on the information in the clippings. The step after that was to study the county map the parent of another former student sent a while back. I wanted to get my bearings about where the digs might have been located before picking up the phone. The final step was to screw up the courage to pick up the phone and call.
That was the hardest part. It was also the coolest part.
After I introduced myself as a former Harding County resident and dropped the names of kids I’d taught (Who knew being a school teacher could be such a door opener?), he answered my questions. He also told story after story while I circled things on the map and scribbled notes. One of his stories confirmed the plausibility of what I hope will be the major conflict in See Jane Dig!
Now there was a true-to-life reasons for the book’s bad guys to do bad guy things.
Before our call ended, he told me where his office is in Buffalo. I said my husband and I might visit him next summer when we go to Harding County. He didn’t say no. In fact, he said he’d like that. Which is the ultimate reason I’m digging this See Jane Dig! research.
I have a new Harding County friend.
by jphilo | Jan 12, 2023 | See Jane Dig!
Researching dinosaur digs for See Jane Dig!, Book 4 in the West River Mystery Series, is occupying the time I usually devote to writing. The picture shows the sources I’m digging into:
- Newspaper clippings from Nation’s Center News. The weekly paper has been covering news in Harding County, South Dakota for decades, and I’ve been a subscriber for many of them. Once I read an issue cover to cover, I clip out any articles that could inspire a story line or are related to an idea already in the works. Like the dinosaur clippings pictured here. They are amazing!
- Digging Dinosaurs by John R. Horner. This book was published in 1988 and has been out of print for years. Thankfully, I found a copy on Amazon and snapped it up. That turned out to be a wise choice. The events it covers span 1978-1985, the same years we lived in Harding County, and the same time period as the West River Mysteries. Horner recounts his work at the famous duckbill dinosaur dig in central Montana, which included nests full of the remains of juvenile duckbill dinosaurs and intact, fossilized duckbill eggs. Those dinosaur fossils are different from those found in northwestern South Dakota, but the tools and processes used are the same. It’s hard to beat a primary source document from the right time period.
When finish these sources and add them to what Hiram and I learned on last summer’s paleo tour, at the end of last summer, it’ll be time to plan out the story––plot points, new character sketches, and such. At least I hope that’s what happens because the only ideas I have now are as follows:
- The action happens in the spring.
- There is a field trip to a dinosaur dig.
- Something bad happens.
- Someone dies.
- Jane and the sheriff solve the mystery.
It doesn’t sound like much now, but trust me. if Book #4 is half as interesting as researching dinosaur digs for See Jane Dig!, you’re gonna love what Jane gets up to next!
by jphilo | Dec 31, 2022 | Mystery Update, See Jane Dance!, See Jane Dig!, See Jane Run!, See Jane Sing!
Introducing the See Jane Run Advisory Board gives me great pleasure. The board’s formation came about when the 7 and 4-year-old grandchildren were back seat passengers in our car a few days after Christmas, 2022. Hiram was driving so I directed all my attention to the following conversation. It began when the 7-year-old became curious about the box on the seat between him and his sister. It contained copies of See Jane Run! and See Jane Sing!. The 7-year-old opened the box and used his burgeoning reading skills to read the titles, emphasis on burgeoning as you’ll see below.
“Is Seejane the girl on the front of these books?” he asked.
“Yes, but since there’s a space between ‘See’ and ‘Jane’ it’s pronounced ‘See Jane.'” I explained.
“Oh, I see. Jane is the girl. Why are there different covers?”
“Because they’re two different stories. The first is See Jane Run! and the second is See Jane Sing!”
“What kind of books are they?”
“They’re mysteries. Jane catches bad guys.” I added a bunch more, but all of you have heard the spiel, so there’s no need to subject you to it again.
The 4-year-old piped up. “Are you going to write more of these books?”
I told them about the upcoming titles, See Jane Dance! and See Jane Dig! With that the floodgates of their imaginations burst wide open.
“Grammy, you should write See Jane Christmas!” said the 7-year-old.
“That’s a great idea, and there’s actually a Christmas program in See Jane Sing!”
Back to the 4-year-old. “How about See Jane Halloween! instead?”
“I have a better idea,” said the 7-year-old. “See Jane Underground! where they go to London and catch bad guys in the underground subway.”
“Or See Jane Invisible Hole! where they dig a hole and it’s invisible and Jane jumps in and the bad guys don’t see it and they fall in…”
The 4-year-old went on and on, but I missed the gist of her plot line because my mind was on how anyone would see Jane do anything in an invisible hole.
“Grammy,” interrupted the 7-year-old. “You could make Jane statues to sell. And tee-shirts.”
“And earrings,” added the 4-year-old. “And you could give Jane a sword and a shield and a gun to shoot bad guys,”
“Jane doesn’t like guns. She doesn’t own one.”
The 4-year-old gasped and after a dramatic pause proclaimed. “You could write See Jane Freeze! and Elsa from Frozen could freeze the bad guys.”
“How would you two like to be members of the See Jane Advisory Board? I’ll serve treats at meetings.”
“Yes,” they shouted as my husband pulled into the garage.
That, dear reader, is the humble beginning of the See Jane Advisory Board. Leave a comment if you’d like to join the team. I’m not sure how much we’ll get done at our meetings. However, I can assure you that our gatherings will be entertaining and there will be treats!
by jphilo | Sep 1, 2022 | See Jane Dig!
See Jane Dig!, will be a dirty business, when I get down to writing it the fourth book in the West River Mystery Series. I learned this lesson on a morning spent looking for fossilized tortoise shells and crocodile teeth while scrambling around the rocky, washed out terrain pictured above. Friends and colleagues who would have voted me ‘most likely to avoid dirt, sweat, and hiking” probably don’t believe I would do such a thing statement.
But I did, and it goes to show that authors 1) will sacrifice all for their art, and that 2) they are crazy people.
With that truth established, let’s circle back to the morning Hiram and I spent digging in the dirt for fossils. Or to use terminology preferred by the good people at the Pioneer Trails Regional Museum in Bowman, North Dakota,* on our paleo site tour. Our guide was Darrah Steffen, the museum’s paleontology curator.** We followed her by car about 30 miles west and slightly north of Bowman to the site of the paleo tour in Slope County. Then we followed her on foot to what she called a “micro site,” which looked like this.
Not quite the dinosaur bones sticking out of bare earth I had pictured. Quite a disappointment, in fact, until we got the hang of spotting bits of rock just a little different from the surrounding dirt and debris. Like these, which Darrah identified as 65 million-year-old fossilized crocodile skin.
We didn’t find any crocodile teeth, but our eventual haul included fossilized tortoise shells, more crocodile skin, petrified wood and reeds. Then we headed back to the town for lunch and and afternoon in the museum’s paleontology lab. We used specialized paleontologist tools*** to clean the fossils. Once they were squeaky clean, Darrah put them under the microscope so we could see what the they looked like up close and personal. Here’s a magnification of the crocodile skin.
Amazing, huh? Finally, Darrah took us into the lab’s inner sanctum and showed us how they will label and store the fossils found during our tour. She told us about the inland sea and its coastland which included the far western North Dakota, far western and northen South Dakota, and eastern Montana.**** She also answered my questions about the tools and processes used in the late 1970s when See Jane Dig! will take place.
The plot particulars are a mystery to me at this point, since I’m still slogging away at the first draft of See Jane Dance! What I do know about West River Mystery #4 is this:
- The dinosaur dig will be somewhere in fictional Tipperary County, which is located in real dinosaur country.
- Jane will take her students on a spring field trip to the dinosaur dig.
- Jane’s students will assist their teacher up and down the ravines, much like my husband helped me.
- Dinosaur dig tools include pick axes, sledgehammers, and dental picks so there will be plenty of murder weapons available.
- See Jane Dig! will be a dirty business. Murder mysteries are like that.
- Book #4 will release in late fall of 2024 or early 2025.
What do you think of the of dirty business Jane is getting herself into?
*Bowman is a real town, about 68 miles north and a little west of the fictional town of Little Missouri in fictional Tipperary County. Bowman is the county seat of Bowman County, just over the border in North Dakota.
**She holds an undergrad degree in geology and a master’s in paleontology and could teach Jane a thing or two.
***Tap water and toothbrushes.
****This area is rich in dinosaur skeletons, including stegosaurus, triceratops, T-Rex, and hadrosaurus.
