The Creation of Spy Within

I was just starting into writing while working full time in insurance, mother of a 2^nd grade and 9^th grade boys, and going to school full time pursuing a Business Management Degree with Saint Leo University. I think as a stress outlet I was listening to a lot of music specifically Angels and Airwaves during the AVA movement (find your creativity.) With that encouragement from AVA that everyone has a creative outlet just find it, as well as my first professor with Saint Leo pointing out I had an interesting writing style, I decided to try and write something. I like others thought I had to start with the beginning in mind, have a full outline, plan about the story and that always stopped my creativity. Often on my commutes home or exhausted working mom morning showers my mind would go to a scene of some sort. I believe this pressure valve developed as a child of parents who moved me often, changing schools sometimes 4 times in one school year. I was painfully shy so every time I had to push myself to get out there and make new friends. On those off times usually before school started/new to the neighborhood or on the long road trips we would do from Southwest Missouri to Southern California I would escape to my head. I would entertain myself with a running story. Until it ran out of course then I would start a new one. Always an avid reader as a young person and off and on in my adult life I always felt disappointed as to where stories went. Found myself wanting to rewrite parts. Not let the story end “that” way. I’m sure we all do that, but it started to become more pressing upon me. I had managed to put together a bad Rock N Roll Romance called “Laura’s Illusion” based upon all those love songs Tom Delonge wrote to his “hot” wife as he likes to refer to her. I started with one scene in my head. I felt the urge to write it down because I thought, “Wow that’s good.” Then as I went back to the scene, I found myself adding more after and then before. Before I knew it, I had a very long, very sappy, romance with a twist. I felt so good about finishing a book for once in my life, but it was a mediocre attempt at writing. During the same writing spell, I had another scene come into my head during a commute. I was not feeling well, stuck in traffic, wondering where I could pull over to upchuck wishing cars would get out of my way. I was just miserable. Once again, I escaped to my head and imagined them all floating away up into the sky due to loss of gravity. Except my car of course, only I would be able to stay grounded and get home safely. Once I was home and feeling better, laying on the couch my mind kept circling back to a “What if gravity could leave sporadically? What if suddenly we didn’t have gravity?” Then I imagined the scene, the very first gravity scene in Spy Within where they are outside, barely get inside, before gravity leaves the area. I imagined everything in the living room and everyone floating up and what that would look like. I was inspired as I had another scene I really liked (just like in my bad romance) I had just to write it down. At that time, I did not have the story line just the scene, all the feeling that went with it, fear, angst, and Spy Within was born. I wrote initially with only the couple and only up until her fall. I was stuck on her fall because here is where I had to decide who was causing the gravity leaving. Was I going with alien or was I going with enemy. I couldn’t commit either way. Then I had something happen at work, I blamed my extracurricular activity of writing because I couldn’t blame work (means of living), my kids (the love of my life next to hubby) or my schooling which I enjoyed and wanted to do more than ever. I deleted the first draft of Spy Within. I mean deleted deleted…all the way gone. It wasn’t until many years later my oldest, Zachary, reminded me of this book I had written. I was out of school now; the kids were good and pretty self-sufficient he encouraged me to get back on Wattpad and continue to work in my creative writing. So, I did. I re-created Spy Within from memory but the second time it came out so much better. I added the foster teens. Why? I had been volunteering through church a lot in addition to all my other things and met, served with, many families that fostered kids. I loved the heart to foster someone in life and those kids, those very special kids in this foster system. I am hearing many of you love Emma. Well, Emma is real a girl. She was not a foster kid, but she was a kid I had been around at church and she went to school where my youngest went to school. We had ended up doing a couple trips where Emma was present one to the Tenderloin in San Francisco to serve the homeless, the next time was the 8^th Grade Trip to Washington DC. She ended up sitting right next to my youngest Chad who was in front of me. I think he had a crush on her as I also too enjoyed Emma. She was so sure of herself, so bold, she was extremely confident. If you tried to compliment her too much it annoyed her, she already knew she was something. Was she very similar to who I have in the book, close, but I may have exaggerated a couple of things. As for Ted and Travis I suppose I base them a lot on my own two sons. Neither of them was in the High School Rodeo but I live in a town with the only High School Rodeo in California, how could I not include that in my book. As for Sam, well I feel very close to her, so I believe she’s part of me. Kevin, yes, I did base him loosely on my husband in a lot of ways. We both were never in the armed forces, but both our fathers served in either WWII or Korean War. We support our military and my appreciation for our armed forces is reinforced in this writing.  As for Thomas J, yes, he is also loosely based on a real person, actor Thomas Jane. I saw him participate in a podcast on the Expanse where he had a pipe in his mouth, he couldn’t leave it alone. I was inspired as I was stuck on the story, and I needed someone to come alongside the family to help them out of the chase. Thomas J was born. Scenes are based on the area Lincoln, CA and if you are driving around the 10 miles radius you would see some landmarks I have pointed out like the High School Rodeo, the Blue Oaks Movie theater has the “mock gun tower.” That is another part I had to add in the book, a second tower, so I could split the group up giving the opportunity to plan the Thomas J delay without being overheard. Anyway, this book was super fun to write, and rewrite, and rewrite. Yes, lots of rewriting and I could still rewrite more on it as I look at it now. Instead, I’m rewriting on the sequel. Keep giving me feedback on what you liked on Spy Within, what you would like to see on a sequel. I even plan to do a prequel if that would be something people would want. Thank you for reading about the making of Spy Within.

 

 

 

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