Today was very productive! I proofread Chapter 11. Twice. What can I say, I’m thorough. Speaking of thorough, I also conducted a little light research. My main character, Lyla Kyle has killed in the past and I needed some local police jurisdictions that are near Philadelphia, PA, but wouldn’t exactly communicate with each other. I found three that were sufficient and added the University of Pennsylvania as a fourth (they have their own police force) because it is Lyla’s alma mater… and, well, she had to start somewhere, right? Once I chose my jurisdictions, I needed to know if they used a Medical Examiner or a Coroner (their duties are pretty much the same, its really a to-MAY-to/to-MAH-to type of thing). Once I found that out, I looked up which County office each jurisdiction reported to. Piece of cake! Except for UPENN. Googling “UPENN Coroner” didn’t really work out for me. I tried calling the UPENN Police Department’s General Information line, but strangely they didn’t seem that eager to help me. In fact, they even sounded a little skeptical when I tried to explain that I was an aspiring novelist who just wanted to get her facts straight about which Coroner would handle a dead body found on their campus. Gee, I hope they don’t send Homeland Security to my house…
But, in the end, I simply altered my google search and learned that Philadelphia’s Medical Examiner’s Office is actually located on UPENN’s campus in the Perelman School of Medicine Complex. Score! I already have a character from the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office! Now I can tie it in with Lyla’s first kill! Oh the excitment!
In other news, I began the bare bones process of writing Chapter 12 and will begin working on that tomorrow. Until then, here is a summary of Chapter 2 (some of which has been moved to chapter 1 as part of the fleshing process), as promised:
Lyla heads to her date with Alex Livanos. As she’s driving, she reminisces of the beautiful summer day she met him. During friendly banter and flirting, she had noticed he was married. When she asks him out and he agrees, she knew she had her next victim.
journeyofjordannaeast 