The development of some stories begins with oddities, such as what sparked a story. Or how the main character evolved? And my new novel, Murder of Sex, falls easily into this category with several aspects.

First, the original idea of a story began when I read of Dr. Charles K Brain’s research and discoveries in Africa (The Hunters or the Hunted: Exploring African Taphonomy). He found that at certain time period, before our ancestors had acquired the ability to create fire they were the prey of big cats, saber tooth tigers. This struck me as significant because in our current existence man is the predominant hunter. But Dr. Brain was suggesting that such was not always the case. In fact, that at one time man was the prey–the hunted.

This intrigued me for some time. But what to do with it? How to weave this into a story?

Not too much later, in the mid-90’s, I took a trip to Hawaii, specifically the island of Molokai. It was here that I observed and climbed this lava peak, which features prominently in Murder of Sex. I realized that it offered a place to commit the perfect murder, if one were so inclined.  I had also observed that men, and sometimes women, were treating intimate relationship encounters as if it were a hunt. In other words, making the opposite gender prey.

Finally, several years later, the main character of the novel, Josh Flagon, began to speak to me. I remember being in the shower after surfing and he began to tell me his story. It was a tale of obsession, redemption, and ultimately emancipation. Despite Josh being a professor of literature at a medium-sized university, he was more or less completely unaware of the prison in which he existed. What was the prison made of? His underlying sense of inadequacy, which led him to obsessive behaviors, especially with women that he dated.

There were numerous times that I was about to give up. But, at last, I had all the components for the story and I began to interlace them together. No easy task, as I had to stitch origins of species with literature with sex obsession and, of course, murder. As you may imagine it took a number of rewrites and further research into various topics. A number of years ago, I felt that it was at a good place and ready for readers, but how to market it was puzzling. It was neither a straightforward romance, nor a literary work. And this was all well before 50 Shades of Gray made its debut, which would help with the sex angle, if nothing else.

So, again I sat on the manuscript. It turned out to be a good thing, as new discoveries were made with the origin of our ancestors, reported as late as last year. I did a rewrite and incorporated these findings into the story, which better completed it.

And with 50 Shades popularizing sexual stories, I put Murder of Sex out early this year. Nevertheless, the marketing of it has been tricky, but enjoyable.

Thank you to Leslie for allowing me to share this writing adventure with her readers.