A Pink Fuzzy Welcome for Joelle Charbonneau

Our guest today is Joelle Charbonneau. Joelle lives near Chicago with her husband, two-year-old son and one cat. Although a storyteller at heart, Joelle has also performed in a variety of Operas, musical theatre and children's theatre productions. Joelle's first comedic mystery, Skating Around the Law will be released this fall by St. Martins. Joelle, what have you got for us today?

THE END IS JUST THE BEGINNING .When I first started writing, I did it for fun. I had no idea if I’d even get to THE END. Those words seemed so distant. I just focused on putting one page in front of the other and hoped that some day they would get me where I was going. Wherever that might be.

No one will ever read that first book,(and that is a really good thing), but I learned the value of getting to the end of a story. No matter how certain you are as a writer of where the journey is going, you never really know how it ends until you get there. At least, I don’t. THE END used to mean relief that I had scaled the mountain. Nowadays, the mountain is only the start of the journey. THE END is actually a beginning of sorts for me because that’s where the real fun starts.

Some writers get bored with a story once it unfolds on the page. Revisions and edits are up there with root canals and Chinese water torture. I must be a masochist. I love revising. Revising means I get to turn my story into a real book. I love looking at character development and questioning whether I’ve used the right words to describe the smell of a roller rink or the hat an ex-circus camel is wearing. It is only after I have the raw material of the full story that I can sculpt and chisel away at it and turn it into a finished product.

I just finished my most recent story this weekend. My heroine solved the murder, helped her friends and went through a lot of angst with family and her love interest. But was it the best story I could tell? Nah – but it will be. I’m going to tear my hair out analyzing sentence structure and chapter hooks and you know what – I’m going to love every agonizing moment of it. I’m nuts. That’s probably why I’m a writer. ........

EXCEPT........
"Is something wrong, Brittany?"

Brittany's black-lined eyes shifted toward the bathrooms behind us. "I think someone is
sick or something in the girl's bathroom."

I rolled my eyes. Of course someone was sick. Eating junk food and then racing around
in a circle was enough to make any hyperactive kid puke.

"Okay." I gave the girl a smile. "I'll go take a look."

I dodged a few kids zooming toward the refreshment area and pushed the girl's bathroom
door open. Except for the music, everything seemed quiet.

The bathroom smelled of Pine-Sol and hand soap. My nose didn't detect any vomit.
Hopeful that Brittany was mistaken, I braced myself for previously chewed pizza and began
pushing open the stall doors. Nothing. Next one. Nothing. I reached the handicapped stall.

Four down. So far so good.

I gave the door a nudge, peered in, and almost passed out. My knees trembled. My
stomach did a triple gainer, and I leaned against the stall door for support. On the stall floor, not
moving, was handy Mack. His arms were wrapped around the toilet tank. And his head...well I
think he put his head in and shook it all about. His face was somewhere below the water level
and he wasn't moving. Both were very bad.

I heard the door swing open behind me. The click of heels was followed by a loud "tsk."
Doreen's voice chirped, "Damn, Rebecca. This is going to kill the rink's market value for sure."
To learn more, visit Joelle at her website
www.joellecharbonneau.net.