Books Are Magic: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘A Study In Sin’

- Guest Post by August Wainwright

1. ‘A Study In Sin’ is a modern update of a classic Sherlock Holmes tale.

When I first set out to write this series, it was mostly an exercise in dialogue. I have been working on a still untitled book for over a year now, and I continually found that my dialogue scenes just weren’t conveying the message I wanted. They lacked punch. And in that book, there is very little dialogue, so it needs to be strong when it comes up.

So I decided to take a detour to concentrate on a more dialogue heavy narrative, one from a first person point-of-view. At the time, I was reading some of the original Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and realized that a few of his stories were almost completely dialogue.

It amazed me. Here was one of the most beloved characters of all time, and he existed in this world where the “talk” was better than the “action”.

The more I read of those century old stories, the more I saw what my dialogue was lacking. I was also becoming increasingly close to the original Sherlock character and thought more and more about what it would be like to see a truly modern version of the character.

Yes, I know, Robert Downey Jr. and Mr. Cumberbatch have already done that (Benedict is awesome, by the way), but that’s not what I’m talking about. What I was interested in was taking the more subtle character flaws of the original Sherlock, and projecting them in a new light, in a new environment.

Thus, the character of Remy Moreau was born.

Remy is a woman who is a savant, absolutely brilliant when it comes to what she knows, but when you look at her for what she doesn’t know, she immediately becomes an extremely flawed character. Her choices can be unbelievably selfish and her actions frequently hurt those closest to her.

So “A Study In Sin” takes some of the elements from a 125 year old book and frames them in the context of today’s world.

2. ‘A Study in Sin’ is the first in the Remy Moreau Series, of which the next volume will be released in only three weeks.

Yep, the next volume in the series, “The St. Mary’s Cipher”, will be released about three weeks after “A Study In Sin”.

Ultimately, I don’t want to keep readers waiting. But I also want to continually craft the relationship between Remy and the other characters in the series. I’m also hoping to get feedback along the way and incorporate what the readers want to see in future volumes. My plan is to publish three shorter volumes after each book. This way, I can keep the overall narrative going in quick bursts, while crafting the larger novels that will define the series.

3. The Remy Moreau Series will follow an episodic schedule, with four episodes per season, to be released as quickly as possible.

Right, which is what I was eluding to above. I wanted to treat these stories more like a television series, than a series of books. I want the characters and their relationships to evolve organically, with reader input driving where the story eventually leads.

What I envision is having a season be four volumes, where the first is a novel, then following that up with three shorter episodes; that would constitute season one. I plan on ending the last episode of season one on a little bit of a cliffhanger, which would be picked up a few months later in season two with a full length novel.

I’ve already planned out three seasons (12 volumes), so hopefully readers will like it.

4. ‘A Study In Sin’ straddles the line between a classic mystery and contemporary romance/erotica.

Sex is sex, let me just get that out of the way. And our society seems to be obsessed with it, from both ends of the argument (if you will).

Whenever I’m talking with another writer, I always praise the idea of genre writing, especially for new authors; better to be a big fish in a small pond. In that vein, my wife (and many other women she knows) have repeatedly voiced that, although they love their chick-lit and erotica, most of it is very poorly written. It focuses so heavily on the sex, that any resemblance of plot or character goes out the window.

In my opinion, there’s no such thing as a truly powerful or memorable scene (and this goes for sex too) if you, as the reader, couldn’t care less about the characters in it.

So I wanted to create an origin story where the confusion of real life intertwines with the confusion of the mystery set in front of the main characters.

Life can be brutal and screwed up. And I wanted my book to be the same.

5. The female lead is a badass.

Yea, Remy Moreau is pretty freakin awesome.

She’s completely brilliant; her mind is more of a machine than anything else. She’s able to store and call-up information in a way that baffles most people. And she’s completely and utterly fearless – which might be because she truly believes she can outsmart and outmaneuver anyone who is put in front of her – but, whatever the reason, she’s never afraid to start a fight, or chase someone down in the streets of Washington D.C.

Remy will amaze and confuse you, so be prepared.