That time I got trapped in an elevator, and got AN idea
The Driskill was built in 1886.
The number one question writers are always asked is, “From where do you get the ideas for your stories?”
The fact is, story ideas come from any number of places and in any number of ways. Sometimes it’s a family member or friend who says just the right thing to get a writer thinking. I’ve got people in my life who give me the best murder plots. Most of the time, I’m impressed. More recently, I’ve begun to wonder if maybe I should be a little alarmed. I try not to think about that! Other times, an idea comes from a feature in the newspaper or on a newscast. True crime books, shows, and podcasts have become a wellspring of inspiration. Some ideas originate from other stories by turning the story on its head, simply asking, “What if this isn’t what really happened after all?” Case in point, the book/musical/movie Wicked. What if the wicked witch of the west in The Wizard of Oz wasn’t really bad after all? What if the wizard was the evil one and framed Elphaba to be evil? But some of the best ideas come from a writer’s own experience. An expected death in the family. A harrowing trip to the store. A vacation that went sideways from the beginning. The opportunities are as numerous as the experiences we have. As author Jennifer Brozek puts it, “I see story ideas. All the time. They’re everywhere. Just walking around like normal ideas. They don’t know they’re stories.”
Such was the case for me when I wrote Partners in Crime: The Driskill Hotel Mystery.
Writing a new story means doing a bit of research, and for me, that means, in part, visiting the hotels in which I set the story. I have to visit the resort before I can send Jaxson and Holiday there, and it’s a lot of fun traveling to a hotel and exploring it through the lens of storytelling. When I visited Wentworth Mansion in Charleston in preparation for Seven For a Secret Never To Be Told: The Wentworth Mansion Mystery, I knew straight away that the murder would happen on the inn’s iconic spiral staircase. And I knew the denouement in the closing pages of the book would take place in the hotel’s parlor. The parlor is exactly the kind of place I imagined Hercule Poirot revealing the killer in one of Agatha Christie’s mysteries. Researching the hotels brings up all kinds of ideas for character and plot.
The Driskill’s 13-story tower under renovation.
In my research for Partners in Crime, I made three trips to Austin’s Driskill Hotel, and I imagined a new dimension of the story with each visit. The first time, I got the general lay of the land and made some mental notes about what I wanted to do with the story and how I’d use the hotel’s features. I knew a murder had to happen in the LBJ Suite, the most luxurious room in the hotel. I decided I would have Jaxson and Holiday running around the thirteen-story Driskill Tower, the newer (and by newer I mean 1920s newer) part of the hotel, looking for clues and dodging housekeepers. And of course, they had to interview suspects and put together the clues in the hotel's iconic Texas-themed bar.
Imagine my surprise when, on my second visit to the Driskill, I discovered the hotel under renovation, the 1920s tower torn apart, and the iconic Texas-themed bar off-limits. By then, I’d heard about this bungalow at the top of the tower, and I was determined to try to work that into the story. Despite the renovations, I discovered at the end of the hall on the top floor of the original building was a door leading into the construction site. And it was unlocked. This was not unusual. Hotels often provide plenty of access to areas of their campuses that are being remodeled.
Like Jaxson and Holiday, I ventured inside to search for this bungalow and found myself at the top of the tower, only to discover that the rooftop access was locked. By then, I’d found the gold-plated elevator and was quite surprised to find it working. That is, it worked until it reached the second floor, where I found the opening blocked by a large sheet of thick, opaque plastic. I hit button three, and the doors closed, but the elevator didn’t move. I hit another button, and another, and another, and the elevator remained as still as a sealed sarcophagus. In desperation, I punched button two again, and the doors shot open. Knowing it was either go through all that plastic or spend the night in a spooky old elevator in a spooky old tower that was under renovation, I broke through and found myself in a strange room I couldn’t immediately recognize. Thick opaque plastic covered the walls and ceiling and floor. It was like being on the set of an old X-Files episode. Or maybe a “kill room” on Dexter? On a large yellow cylinder wrapped in plastic, someone had written the word “EXIT" with an arrow pointing to the left, so that’s where I headed. I ran into a large wall of plastic with a small crawl space at the bottom. I dropped to my knees and pushed through the sheet of plastic only to find another, and three or four more after that. Finally, on the other side, I stood and realized I was in the old Texas-themed bar. Before me was the actual iconic wooden bar with its stars. And to my right was a door to the street. You didn’t have to ask me twice to bust through that door to the outside. Fresh air never felt so good.
The Texas-themed bar at the Driskill under renovation and wrapped in plastic.
Immediately, I knew I would send Jaxson and Holiday on the same search I’d just been on to set up the use of the bungalow and the tower’s renovation for later in the story. I would incorporate the renovation into the plot.
By the way, on my third and most recent visit to the Drikill, I discovered that the tower is now fully renovated, but the original bar was still being redesigned. But this was news to me: the hotel had opened a second bar called The Victorian. It occupies the same space where the bank used to be when the hotel opened, just below the LBJ suite, the same space that held a discotheque in the late 1970s. A disco at the Driskill? I don’t know. That just doesn’t jive, you know what I mean? The hotel did it right with this new bar. By the way, the Victorian has great ambiance and delicious burgers.
Now, as I turn my thoughts toward Galveston’s The Grand Galvez, I’m on the hunt for new ideas for Jaxson and Holiday. And I’ve already got a few rummaging around in my brain. The Grand Galvez has a ghost story too, and I have a feeling that idea will definitely make its way into the novel.
Have you gotten your copy of Partners in Crime? It’s FREE just for subscribing to my monthly newsletter, and that subscription is free too. Go to www.DerekWheelessAuthor.com today and drop down to the fill-in box for Partners in Crime. Then check your inbox or junk mail or spam for a confirmation email. Click on your confirmation, and you’ll receive a link to download the story. It’s that simple.
And remember, you can also order Seven For a Secret Never To Be Told from Amazon. It’s in print, ebook, and audiobook.
That’s all for now. See you next month!
The Driskill’s Texas-themed bar wrapped in plastic and only one way out!
“Across the lobby, past the ornate marble floors and towering gilded columns, was a magnificent bifurcated grand staircase, over which presided a life-size portrait of the hotel’s founder, cattle baron Colonel Jesse Lincoln Driskill.” - Partners in Crime: The Driskill Hotel Mystery
Partners in Crime is FREE for subscribers, and it’s FREE to subscribe! Go to www,DerekWheelessAuthor.com today and sign up. When you do you’ll receive my monthly newsletter “Partners in Crime Reading” and Partners in Crime: The Driskill Hotel Mystery. It’s all about how Jaxson met Holiday. It’s daring. It’s dangerous. And it’s delightfully fun!
When Jaxson and Holiday are invited to a gorgeous old inn in the heart of beautiful historic Charleston, the couple jumps at the chance for the perfect romantic getaway, only to discover that the pleasures promised come with a price. Along with the carriage rides, the fine dining, and the spa appointments, they must work with Holiday’s six best college friends to solve the twenty-year mystery of the murder of one of their own.
But when a body is found inside the mansion, and when Jaxson is asked to find the killer among them, the married sleuths soon realize that uncovering the clues to a day nobody can forget will mean digging up a past nobody wants to remember. Everyone has their secrets, even Jaxson’s new wife.
To find the killer, Jaxson and Holiday will need to risk their lives and their new marriage. Can Jaxson trust his wife to be the woman he thought he married? Can Holiday trust her husband with the secret she once buried? And, most importantly, can the newlyweds expose a killer before he or she stops them from revealing a secret that was never supposed to be told?
