Maurice Draine - Page Turning Suspense

Maurice Draine is an indie author with a passion for creating stories in the dark suspense, dark crime, and horror genres. But at the end of the day, he just loves to come up with story ideas that make amazing books and keeps his readers coming back for more. When he is not writing storylines, he is thinking of new storylines he can turn into entertaining novels. He is pretty much consumed by his story ideas, and if he does not outline them fast enough, the ideas haunt him in his dreams begging to be outlined immediately. He has come up with some of the most interesting story ideas and has kept his readers entertained. As our Author of the Day, he tells us all about his book, Honor Thy Mother.

Please give us a short introduction to what Honor Thy Mother is about.

When nineteen-year-old Lauren Patrick left home to attend a party, little did she know, she would never arrive… Hours later, she wakes up in a hospital being interviewed by the police. After Lauren tells them what happened to her, and describes a monster who is Ted Bundy-like, the police are skeptical of her statement. After a weak investigation is launched, where the police find no suspects, no witnesses, and the case gets closed in record time, the mysterious man vanishes without a trace…

25 years Later… Rue Patton, a rookie cop for the Minneapolis Police Department, and also the daughter of Lauren, is hot on the trail of a copycat mimicking the crimes of the same guy who vanished two and a half decades ago. In the process, she makes many enemies, even at her own precinct, goes down a rabbit hole she cannot return from and makes an earth-shattering discovery about her mother that will change Rue forever...

What inspired you to write this story? Was there anything that made you want to tackle this?

I saw a news story/or a tv show back in 2016, where a woman was sexually assaulted, got pregnant by the guy, and he got away. I was captivated, and horrified at the same time by the story, and wanted to create a similar one. But, wanted to catch the guy and bring him to justice by the child he created. The child honors their mother by catching the bad guy, so the book became named Honor Thy Mother.

Tell us more about Rue Patton. What makes her tick?

Rue Patton is driven by the strength of her mother, Lauren Patrick. Rue grew up watching her mother struggle with what happened to her, and never fully giving up, and eventually, making a full mental and physical recovery. Rue was Lauren’s strength during these hard times. Now that Rue is an adult. Her mother is her strength.

Rue was raised to be very strong, and an independent thinker. A woman can do anything a man can do, so Rue decides to be a police officer. As she gets older, she learns what happened to her mother, and how she was brutally attacked and almost killed. Now as an adult, Rue is driven by a deep passion to protect women and young girls from people who wish to exploit them for deviate desires, or money.

Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?

I used to be a pretty high-level online gamer. My console of choice back then was the PlayStation, and my game of choice was Madden football. I won many online league tournaments. I gave up gaming to have more time to write. I do not regret it, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made professionally.

Readers say this book kept them at the edge of their seats. How did you pull this off?

Well, everything starts off by telling a tough but interesting story. Also, I made some of the darker parts very detailed in order to help the reader feel, how Lauren felt she was being attacked early on in the book. Some readers expressed that this part was hard to read, and I agree with them. It was hard for me to write. But when this story was first thought of, the attack had to be in there, and I had to make it detailed to invoke emotion from the reader, and gain sympathy for Lauren. I wanted to try and show them how a victim can feel in situations like that and how they can feel helpless. Also, I use the old technique of cliffhangers, and red herrings to send the reader on wild goose chases on who the antagonist could be. That was fun.

Did you plan out the entire plot before you started writing, or did some of it just "happen" along the way?

I am a heavy outline guy. Sometimes my outlines can reach 5000 words. I like to have a high-level blueprint of what I plan to write. By doing this, it helps my writing process move along much faster when I actually start typing the middle parts of the story. Even though my outlines are pretty detailed, there is still room in these outlines for something spontaneous to come to my mind, and to be added to the storyline late. That is very important to do. If you’re going to do outlines, don’t make it so detailed to the point where there’s no room for spontaneous ideas to come to you while you’re in the middle of the writing process. Don’t be afraid to add something into the story that you did not originally put in the outline.

What was your greatest challenge when writing Honor Thy Mother?

The hardest part was going back-and-forth on how detailed to make the opening attack scene. I really struggle with that, it wasn’t easy for me to write. But I just kept going back to the original idea of the story. That helped me see that writing this raw and tough scene was appropriate and had to be written.

This is the first book in the Rue Patton series. Can it be read as a standalone? How do the other books in the series tie in with this one?

Yes, this book can be read as a standalone book. I plan to do a six or 10 part for this series. Each book will be connected, but have a separate storyline each time. So each book can be read as a standalone book. Think of law and order, where the characters do not change, just the cases do. As my main character, Rue Patton goes through these books, I will create more interesting cases for her to stumble on, and solve.

Interesting cover. Tell us more about its design.

So when I was thinking of a book cover, my mind just kept thinking of scenes. I didn’t just want any old book cover. I wanted my cover kind of dark, and I wanted the cover to be from a scene that would occur in the book. In this case, the cover is the scene after the opening attack happens. Even with book 2, which already has its cover completed, that is also a scene from book 2. I think all my book covers going forward, will have vivid scenes on them from the actual book.

When starting on a new book, what is the first thing you do?

Well, when new ideas come to me, I immediately create a logline for the new idea. From that log line which is usually 1 to 2 sentences. I create a mini synopsis (a half a page long) that has a beginning, middle and end of the store that’s in my head. After those two steps, then I immediately go into fleshing out the story more, building on the characters, and creating new ones to help carry the story home. I don’t do the world-building until the end. Some writers build the world first. But for me, the story, and the plot come to me first so I complete those parts first. I usually already have a character in mind as well. Not all of them though. After I have these steps done then I have enough to do a full outline. And when I do my outline. I just let it flow. I do a complete information dump onto the page. I don’t worry about punctuation, spelling anything, I just zone out and just pound out words until I get to the end of the story. It takes me about 1-3 weeks to complete the outline.

Do you have any interesting writing habits? What is an average writing day like for you?

I’m still pretty new in my creative writing career. As of right now, I actually don’t write every day. I’m working toward that goal. With writing being such a delicate art form, I can only write when I’m feeling creative and inspired. If I don’t feel creative or inspired that day, I would just spin my wheels and get nothing done. So, I have learned to not even sit down unless my creative juices are in overdrive and I feel a fire in my eyes, and my belly. I usually feel like this about 2 to 3 times a week only. I’m working to get my drive up to six times a week so I can write more stories. I have so many more to tell.

What are you working on right now?

I’m actually working on the sequel to Honor Thy Mother. It will be called Honor Thy Mother: Awakening – Book 2. In this story, it will touch a little bit on how book 1 ended, but then it dives right into a brand-new case that can be read as a standalone book. Every book in the series will be a brand-new case never mentioned before. Each case will get more interesting, more clever, and more dangerous, and the stakes will be raised each time.

Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?

Readers can interact with me on Twitter, and on Facebook. Below you will find my handles for both:

⦁ Twitter – @LMDRAINE

⦁ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MauriceDraineBooks