Origins of themes…
The Montclair Film Festival, before Covid and before it became dominated by Colbert and his wife, featured some excellent documentaries. One was Tricks (a 3generations.org production), which had an impact on me by portraying human trafficking mostly in service to the sex trade—sex trafficking, to use the common phrase, where evil people exploit young women and girls, turning them into prostitutes and sex slaves. This is a theme I consider so important that it appears in two novels and some short fiction.
I often mention that observations leading to what-ifs and themes can be woven into plots (see my little course “Writing Fiction”—a new revision is available as a free PDF download on my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page). Watching a documentary is using observations made by the creator or director of the documentary, but secondhand observations are fair game too.
My first novel to use this theme was The Collector, #5 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” series—you can read the book summary on my “Books & Short Stories” web page. This novel was inspired in part by Tricks and my worry that buyers of stolen art can go beyond rich people desiring to own something no one else could see. This second theme brings in Esther Brookstone for a cameo appearance, a prelude to the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, which leads to the second novel with the first theme: Palettes, Patriots, and Prats, #4 in the series. (See below. Human trafficking is also a theme in the earlier Angels Need Not Apply, #2 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” series, but it’s not a major one. It’s often associated with the drug trade and immigration abuses.)
Human trafficking is an important theme. We no longer have overt and legal slavery, but it still exists illegally, and the traffickers feed its deadly maws with new victims all the time. If I were forty years younger and knew what I know now from Tricks and other sources, my life’s work might be trying to stamp it out. There are those who work toward exactly that, thankfully, and I applaud their efforts.
Palettes, Patriots, and Prats has more themes because it’s a longer novel. There’s the art trafficking theme and the themes of people falsely accused of or getting trapped in crime. There’s the theme of Putin and his cronies and the Russian assassinations. And there’s the theme of aging, especially for Esther.
Unlike some authors, I believe themes are as important as plot. I find novels without themes far less interesting than those that have them. A story is just fluff without them.
***
Comments are always welcome.
Palettes, Patriots, and Prats: Esther Brookstone Art Detective, Book Four. Esther Brookstone, ex-Scotland Yard inspector in the Art and Antiques Division and ex-MI6 spy during the Cold War, and new husband, Bastiann van Coevorden, have just returned from their honeymoon cruise down the Danube, refreshed and reinvigorated despite Bastiann’s having to handle a murder investigation as his last assignment as an Interpol agent. Esther is content running her gallery, and Bastiann works as a consultant for MI5. They hope to enjoy their active golden years together, but more adventures as sleuths await them, colliding with their idyllic existence, as they aid an American artist, try to thwart a Russian assassin, and go after the illegal art trade and human traffickers. Mystery, suspense, thrills, and intrigue once more await readers. Available at Draft2Digital’s affiliated retailers (Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc., but not Amazon or Smashwords) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor, etc.)
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
