Additional Character and the Book Dedication

I'm not revealing any huge secrets, but I planned to base a character in Footprints in the Sand on someone who has always been very important to me, but I needed someone's approval to do this. I got that approval a few days ago - so JD will be in the book. He's going to be a great friend to Nathan (the hero) and I think he will play an important part in helping Nathan solve the mystery of the kidnapping. The character will be his own "person", but there will be parts of his personality and behavior that will be familiar to people who knew the person he is based on.

I've also decided who to dedicate the book to, but now I will have to craft a great written dedication. Thankfully, I have all kind of time to figure that out :)

I also found some awesome resources and tips for parents to help them prevent kidnappings - and I'm planning to include those in the back of the book along with internet links for much more information.

Several other projects are taking up my writing time right now, but ideas for this book are simmering :) I've also got post it notes with ideas all over the covers of a couple of notebooks.

I read How to Write a Damn Good Mystery and all kinds of interesting story ideas cme to me while I was reading, so I jotted the notes down and stuck them to the front of the book. It looks really funny, but there is only one idea that I might not use :)

Time to get back to work for a client - hoping to share more soon :)

Nikki Leigh

Kidnapping Information Research

In between working, I've been on a search for kidnapping investigation information. At an author event in October I met a local author who is retired from the FBI, so I emailed him and he sent me a great list of the things that need to be done when a kidnapping is reported. I printed that out and will definitely use it while I'm plotting the story.

Tonight I got an idea about a keyword combination for Google and it got me into a section of the www.missingkids.org website that I hadn't found before. There is a wealth of info on their site and especially if you click on the "resource" links. I found this PDF which is a training manual for police officers which should be helpful and they have a couple of checklists. This is the link -
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/ResourceServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=643 and click on Missing and Abducted Children (English)

I also located some tips for parents etc that I'll include in a special section in the back of the book. In any of my mysteries, I want to find a way to share information I find that can be helpful to readers. This should be some great information for parents and others :) I work hard to have authenticity in my novels, but this will go a step beyond what my readers are used to.

I'm also reading "How to Write a Damn Good Mystery" and making all kinds of notes. You should see the front of the book, I keep adding post it notes with story ideas that pop into my head while I'm reading :)

Nikki Leigh