I am going to take you on an episode of how some of my books are created. The journey from sitting in my living room to the placement of my story characters into an active and thrilling storyline. Let’s begin with Tom Banks as he brings us “Standing Guard.”
Tom lives on his vegetable farm, alone. Tom has lost his wife, son, and daughter and now sells vegetables to keep his land. The book goes into how these all left him at different times and how they left him lonely. He is working his crops when the sound of two cars striking each other, beside his garden, gets his attention. When it is over, one car lies on its roof, with an injured young woman lying there unconscious. The rescue culminates with the young woman being transported by helicopter to a trauma center. Evidence at the scene and the second driver leaving the scene brings up an attempted murder conclusion for the police. This is further supported by Tom’s being shot at when the driver returns at night. For Tom, who is a Vietnam veteran, this means war.
The actions he takes to protect himself and Cindy Farr, that was the woman injured as someone tried to kill her in the car, takes on some of the training from his military days. It becomes a cat and mouse game between the two factions of good and evil. Several people lose their lives in the battle over the course of time as the police seek out the one that is really trying to kill both Tom and Cindy. The reason becomes clearer when Tom remembers having found a wedding band at the scene of the accident. Then the hunt is on for the owner of the ring as the one who is trying to get it back by killing people if necessary. The sheriffs, detectives, and Tom soon find out who is trying to kill them but there is no proof of his guilt yet. They will find the proof over time and stop the killing.
The character, Tom Banks, is purely fictitious to me as well as all the other characters I create. The storyline of a hero and a villain are common in the literary world. I only bring in some aspects of my characters that I want to maintain as I create them. I do not have them use profanity because I don’t feel that is a necessity in life so I don’t have it in my books. I do bring in the concept of violence and trauma to build the story into an exciting, action-packed story. I tend to bring on the feelings of all the characters and reactions to violence as well as the feelings of loss from the trauma.
I found Tom from the days of my youth. I found him as I try to teach people to look at more than one side of the story that life brings you. I personally related to the hero side of the story and added some Vietnam veteran action as well with the training he used to fight an unknown foe. That is how we find Tom “Standing Guard” in a modern world.