Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Irony

Mystery writers like to keep their readers in suspense and do the equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of the hat with a surprise ending. I'm no exception. I enjoy writing a nice twist to the end of the story (hopefully one the reader did not anticipate) as well as reading authors who accomplish the same.

I also enjoy the use of situational irony in my writing. When I wrote BLOOD PORN, I introduced the character of Oliver. He was a probation officer with whom Sharon had briefly worked before she joined Brad's detective agency. I got the idea for the character from a guy who had lived next door to me in my college dorm. He had lost his sight from birth, but enjoyed enhanced use of all of his other senses.

Fellow students would try to trick him, for example sneaking into his room, but he had come to know our footsteps and frequently called us out (to our amazement, I might add) when we were attempting to fool him.

The irony of Oliver's involvement in BLOOD PORN, was that in spite of all of the "sighted" people who had viewed an illegal porn video in an effort to determine where it might have been filmed, Oliver "heard" a distinctive background noise. This led to solving the case.

In another irony, I turned that same character into a love interest for Sharon. As to their future, I can only say, "stay tuned." Because Life's a Mystery.

No comments:

Post a Comment