D: "I Smell Decomp"

I have published two romantic suspense books and a third I'm finishing up on. Last year, I became interested in working on a contemporary mystery with only a little romance thrown in. Since that time, I have completed five chapters of the first of at least a three book series and have plots for a couple more.

I bet you're wondering what all of this has to do with smelling a decomposing body. Let me explain, I was driving home from my day job the other day with my windows down. Along a stretch of highway, I smelled it. Dead meat, or to be more specific, a dead deer.

Living in a rural area, deer often take fate into their own hands by darting out in front of cars going down the highway. Some make it, some don't. I personally am 0 for 2 in car-deer incidents.

If they happen to be hit by someone who likes deer meat, local law enforcement will let them take the carcass for processing. But, most drivers are so mad because of the damage to their cars, they don't want to even look at the deer. So, the bodies are left along the side of the road for the highway department to dispose of.

As a mystery and suspense writer, on the day when I smelled the decomposing animal, my thoughts were not on the poor animal, but what a nifty opening it would make in a book. A highway worker stops because he smells a dead animal only to find in his search that it wasn't an animal at all, but a dead human lying in the tall weeds a short distance from the road.

And that, my readers, is how an idea for a mystery novel is born. You know, I might have just come up with the opening for another book in my future mystery series.

Carol

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