Back in 2012, I wrote a mystery. That rough draft wasn’t much of a mystery because I was writing out of my wheelhouse. Several critique groups, rewrites, beta reads, and a professional edit later, it was published in 2023–Supreme Madness of the Carnival Season.

Then, in 2014, I realized I liked a couple of the characters from that rough draft so much I wrote a second mystery for them. Again, I wasn’t a mystery writer. I write historical espionage. So, a few mystery workshops and author panels later, I wrote a second draft, but I still wasn’t quite happy with it and put it aside. One of my goals for 2024 was to rewrite that manuscript.

Once I finished setting up the release of the eBook box set, SECRETS, and setting up the releases of its associated paperbacks, I delved into the rewrite of Mournful Influence of the Unperceived Shadow. A working title but likely to be the final one. Poe’s “A Cask of Amontillado” inspired Supreme Madness of the Carnival Season, and his “The Tell-Tale Heart” inspired book 2.

Somewhere along the line, I also decided to call this series, “The Ewington Mysteries,” but, honestly, I thought it was going to be a two-book series. Then, again, I thought Supreme Madness was going to be a one and out, but two years later along came book 2.

I think you see where this is headed.

While I was about halfway through the rewrite of Book 2 and listening to Eminem’s new album, “The Death of Slim Shady,” that writer’s constant question kept popping into my head: What if?

What if a rapper along the lines of Eminem came back to Ewington, his home town, anonymously?

What if he had a sister who died tragically?

What if he suspected the husband somehow killed her?

What if he wants to hire the private investigator from the other two books, Cody Britto, to find the truth?

But what if he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s involved because his whole music persona is that he’s a Bronx street thug who music saved from a life of crime?

Yes, this is the way my writer brain works.

This concept nagged at me. Constantly. At all hours of the day and night. To appease it, I made some notes that may or may not constitute an actual plot. It wasn’t satisfied, however, until I sat down and wrote a few scenes, around 3,500 words in total. That seemed to placate it.

Back to the rewrite. Again, it went smoothly, but a new scene for book 3 popped into my head. That would not be quiet until I wrote it to the tune of another 3,000+ words. In the midst of that, a prologue (shhh–we’re not supposed to call them that) interrupted, and I had to write that, too. Now, I have a total of 7,700 words on a third book in the Ewington Mysteries series when Book 2 likely won’t be published until next year some time. Plus, I have a standalone spy novel to work on, and another Mai and Alexei series to get ready for publication.

Oh, and Book 3 doesn’t have a working title yet, other than Ewington 3. I haven’t even decided if I’m going with a Poe story (maybe “Murders in the Rue Morgue?”) inspiration again or whether I’m going with something from “The Death of Slim Shady.”

For now, my writer brain seems to be cooperating and not interrupting the rewrite of Book 2 with more scenes for Book 3. Let’s hope it stays that way. Please. At for another week or so.

After all, I need something to do for this year’s National Novel Writing Month in November.