I fell forwards. The factual setting is blended with the fictitious characters and a hypothetical plot. Walking the thirty-three and a half mile Milford Track on New Zealand s Milford Track, before my birthday was a significant challenge. During the four day trek, I noted smells, sights, sounds, tastes and textures. I listened to fellow walkers, collected anecdotes from guides and hut staff and plotted what my fictitious ten year old sleuths might solve on such a walk.
All writers work in different ways.
Since my main characters were already established from previous books, researching the setting and structuring the plot were my next priorities. Extra characters would be added as suspects. The decision to use the Milford Track setting in my next book had been made prior to the walk. So I was consciously acting as a participant-observer. But when I discovered another writer, an American adult crime writer also researching , we enjoyed sharing observations.