Secrets

I think what I would have done in hindsight before writing The PriVILEged is to do storyboards. It just seems that it would have made things easier to visualize as the writer, especially considering that there are numerous themes in the book that I admit were difficult to integrate.

For example, there are three Denver police detectives (The Three Pigs) who are trying to solve the first confessional murder and have no idea that these murders are about to go global.  How are three detectives from Colorado supposed to continue on the trail of global murders?  See what I mean?  It would have been a good thing to storyboard first and resolve and could have saved me a year or two of writing and editing.

I also did battle with "How" the detectives would discover the truth and solve the murders with the use of sophisticated puzzles. Again, I'm not so sure the story required such elaborate puzzle-solving but I elected to keep the puzzles after I'd found a sound way to connect the puzzles to the detectives and thought the storylines were finally melting together with a life of their own.

It took more space in the book than I'd originally imagined to illustrate themes of detective relationships, Matty's relationships with his family, the impact of sexual abuse on a child and how often adults turn their heads in disgust of the victim while embracing the perpetrator, and the most complicated theme was why tell this story?  I would eventually find my reasons and produce a work that I could be proud of and unique to the mystery/thriller genre.

We may never know why the church protects the priests from pedophilic behavior but the one thing The PriVILEged does do is reveal how far the church is willing to go to conceal secrets.