Run Aground – Annie DeMoranville

The Evolution of TJ Wilde: Underway, Pt 1

You can leave Boston, but Boston will never leave you, white letters on black background

Boston is one of my favorite cities and my home for many years. Underway was born, not of my adventures there, but a week of new and unexpected adventures not long after I published Run Aground. My friend and I were driving around, exploring possible locations for Underway, when we came across the SoWa (South Washington) Art District. We stepped into the world I’d envisioned, yet didn’t know existed.

There TJ could find her new home, new work and maybe a new life.

Another day, exploring our old stomping grounds, I point out across the water and ask, “are those the islands you used to camp out on as a kid?” She tells me no, that the island where the old hospital is, that was in use for various things until the bridge to the island was demolished.

After I got over the shock of never having realized that after decades of walking the beach across from it, I knew it would have a starring role in the book.

Underway opens in Boston, where TJ feels most at home. Back to where she was happy. Back to where she could heal from all that had come before. It also had the advantage of steady employment and a loft apartment. Oh, and her best friend in the world.

But of course, it could not be that easy, could it?

ONE

Colby: I’m not giving up on us. XO

The Evolution of TJ Wilde: Run Aground, Pt 3

abstract painting of a man playing guitar — Mo Guitar by Maurice Evans

…and then the murders began.

Each chapter was sent out to family and friends, just so I wasn’t writing in a void. I needed their feedback, which I accepted gratefully. What I also got were demands for the next chapter and the next. Five chapters in, I realized I was indeed, writing a novel. Besides, by that time, TJ, Colby, Nick, et al, were very much alive for me and I wanted to see how their stories would end. For some, not so great…

The Evolution of TJ Wilde: Run Aground, Pt 2

Once it was established who TJ was running from and where she was running to, there were many other questions to be answered. The problem was, I didn’t want to write a novel. I had just left my job and opened my own business. There was soon to be a Great Dane puppy arriving, and house hunting…and life. A novel was a commitment.

But TJ would not remain silent. And then Colby showed up. If I were to get any peace, the road ahead for them had to be written.

TWO

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. – Michelangelo

The Evolution of TJ Wilde: Run Aground, Pt 1

I just kind of conjured them up out of my subconscious and put them in order of ascending peculiarity.
Edward Gorey

Since the TJ Wilde trilogy is completed and there are some folks new to it, I thought I might go back and explain how TJ came to be.

Believe it or not, one morning I woke up and the opening scene to Run Aground was fully formed. TJ somehow sprang to life and refused to be quiet about it.

There she was, running for her life in the morning hours, just before dawn. And where was she running to? Why, a funeral home, of course. It all made sense somehow. She explained it all:

Work Wednesday: Feeling Accomplished

1920 flapper woman on black pillow — The Enchantress by Rolf Armstrong

The rewrites for Full Sail – the third book in the TJ Wilde Trilogy – are completed and this draft feels solid enough to send off to the editor. It will be sad to say goodbye to TJ, but there are so many other stories waiting to be told.