Authorpreneur Dashboard – David Biddle
BEYOND THE WILL OF GOD: A Jill Simpson Mystery
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Somewhere in the heart of Central Missouri, mysterious music filters through night-darkened farmland. The dead body of an Amish teenager launches a police investigation that leads to a great deal more than a simple homicide. Elvis is seen roaming the countryside. A young, drug-addled clairvoyant arrives in the area, confused about the power improvisational psychedelic music has over human consciousness. Police Sergeant Jill Simpson teams up with Philadelphia tabloid reporter Franklin Harris to tie all of these issues together. They will stumble into mysteries far more important than anything they could have imagined. Beyond the Will of God is a murder mystery rolled up in the secret of music and then wrapped in questions about the power of the human mind. This is a thriller rolled into magical realism and speculative visionary fiction…totally off the literary grid. If you’re looking for something quite different, this is probably the novel for you.
Book Bubbles from BEYOND THE WILL OF GOD: A Jill Simpson Mystery
Building a Miracle
Ever since I realized that tabloid supermarket newspapers like "National Enquirer" were these weird fake gossip and tall-tale engines, I've wondered about the mindset required to edit and write for them. Dotted throughout this story are short little moments illustrating the business-end of that whole world -- cynicism and exuberance all bound together. To my knowledge we've never had a TV show or novel that takes on the inside of that world. Since BWG plays with the idea of conspiracy theories and fanciful cosmic games, tabloid news has a big part to play in this story. There are numerous little moments in the novel where the reader gets a burst of my thoughts on that world and how it drives mystery for all of us.
King Jones: The Real King of Pop
The impetus for this story came from the horrible question: why have so many cultural heroes died so young -- from John Lennon and Janis Joplin to Martin Luther King and the great bluesman, Robert Johnson. In thinking this mystery through, I wondered, "What would happen if Michael Jackson" died, too." I wrote the first draft to include a number of extended passages describing MJ's death by suicide. That original draft was composed in the early 1990s. By 2000, when it was time to hand the manuscript off to first readers, I was worried about being so explicit about Michael. He was taking a lot of heat (in real life), being accused of a lot of horrifying things. So I changed his name to King Jones. Read about King Jones here in this passage as he come back alive in the Red House.
The Invention of Soundtracking
I was at the mall for a really long time once with work buddies. We were Christmas shopping during a weekday afternoon. I think our bosses were at a conference out-of-town. Five of us took a long lunch in the food court and then spent money on our loved ones. It was a weird scene. We worked for an energy consulting firm, so the group was composed of engineers and planners. All guys. The mall was wafting fabulous music through the concourse speakers -- Pink Floyd, The Who, Chicago, Steely Dan, early Elton John, Neil Young. We heard this great progressive rock wherever we went. And then they played something weird I'd never heard before. It seemed like Jimi Hendrix sitting in with a group of movie soundtrack musicians — all sorts of ambient synthesizer, quiet beats, sustained sorrowful brass notes, and this scrabbling, searching, ponderous wailing guitar on the run, coming and going. To this day I don't know what it was they were playing. I've never heard that music again. But it made me wonder: What if malls hired bands to play live music? What if there were bands just playing live in hidden places everywhere? What if they could watch us through closed-circuit video and play to our every move?
An Ancient World Waiting to Return
One of the main characters in this novel is the humid rural landscape of central Missouri. A 20 minute car ride from Columbia lands you in a sea of rolling hills. Get out of the car and you are alone in the midst of nowhere, the thick sent of weeds and crops at war with each other, entwined in the misty heat. Or are you alone? It really feels like there's more out there than just grasses and barns and trees and insects. It's a world with an ancient soul. A world connected way back in time. A world trying to regain its hold on human beings. That world, pulsing with insect dissonance and scented with baked earth, conjures up so many half-fears and flashing moments of odd perversions. You are able to believe anything, conjure anything, hear anything, and see anything. We all know about the idea of the Heart of Darkness, but what about the Heat of Solitude? What about those of us with minds that just need a subtle rise in body temperature to be open and willing for anything -- including The King himself?
Black Helicopters Are Out There
Among other things, "Beyond the Will of God" pays homage to pre-Internet conspiracy theories. For a while there in the days of paramilitary militia groups and secret communal religious enclaves, the myth of secret government black helicopters was a big deal. Some people believed these machines were used by the United Nations to spy on U.S. citizens. Others thought that wildlife and environmental laws were being enforced by silent, secret, dark helicopters that only flew night missions. These machines would take out those who defied the EPA and Interior Department like an alien spacecraft might. This excerpt with "Smokey" Hughes comes early in the book and serves to introduce one of the two sets of bumbling antagonist groups. Black helicopters are one of about a dozen different conspiracy myths that show up in "Beyond the Will of God."
How it all begins
Frank Harris is in search of the Missouri River in the middle of the night. Looking for a giant snake in the darkness couldn't say more to the reader about what they are in for. Rivers represent time, creation, and the connecting force between human beings and the divine. As he searches, he listens to the radio playing classic progressive rock. This book is about the power of that music. At the end of a particularly illuminating Allman Brothers song, we learn that Elvis has spotted wandering the area's farm country. Harris has flown in to report on this. The story is off and running.
