I’m often asked about the plot of my novel, which isn’t a big surprise, yet I’ve never really taken time to explain it in my own words. Jaden Baker is a psychological thriller, and if you’re wondering what makes a book a psych-thriller rather than a mystery or action thriller, I pulled a definition from Wikipedia (at the risk of being trite, for citing a definition in the opening of a post):
An excerpt from Jaden BakerWilliam tossed him into his room, and Jaden collided with the door as it slid shut. The anger he felt was real, even though he was following his first rule of resistance when beneficial. He’d scored a tiny victory in keeping Dalton out of his head for one more day. Today’s rebellion rekindled his desire for immediate freedom.
Imagination has no limits; physics does.In my novel, Jaden Baker, the title character can move things with his mind. Before I wrote the story from start to finish, I studied this ability, its strengths, its weaknesses, and most of all, its limitations. If a character could move something with his mind, what laws did it obey? If Jaden could do anything, and he was without constraints, where was the drama and the tension of the story?
Libby needed drugs. Obvious signs of misery approached, and if she didn’t get her hands on four ibuprofen soon, she would spend the rest of the day in agony, cursing the heavens and all its residents. Restocking her mobile pharmacy (her purse) with a dozen pills for situations like this had never slipped her stupid mind before. Except today. She hated herself. Continue reading