I had fully intended to write a thriller. A woman in danger type thriller, with my character using all means at her disposal to escape and hide from those who want her silenced. And this worked in the planning stage.

I have a strong female main character who is intelligent and street-wise, a range of villains with different reasons to hunt her down and various means to eliminate her. I have well-researched, Europe-wide backgrounds where the chase is situated and a love interest to keep my heroine from going insane with the tension of it all.

But the climax scene – where my lead character is confronted by one of the main villains – has turned into something from a horror tale!

It could be that I have been reading too much horror fiction. It could be that I am working on a horror short story alongside this novel. Or it could simply be that I have no other way of getting my female lead out of the confrontational situation (and carrying the plot to its final, dark conclusion), than to bring in the supernatural.

So, what I am faced with right now is a thriller which suddenly turns into a horror story – just like From Dusk Till Dawn (although not as gory).

IF this sounds far-fetched (and definitely unwise), I must explain that some of the secondary characters where my heroine comes to rest, thinking she is safe, are creepy to say the least. And, as these characters are based upon some real people I have observed, therein lies my dilemma.

I love these secondary characters (although love is probably not the best word…) and know that they are believable, and to take away their creepiness also takes away what fascinated me about them in the first place.

Perhaps I should move my female lead somewhere else with new supporting characters. Or better still, use these creepy characters in a follow-up novel. I certainly do not want to abandon them.

Or perhaps I should simply have my female lead doing a snake dance. That seems to solve a lot of issues in From Dusk Till Dawn 🙂