Sleight of Hand

 

How "Sleight of Hand" began...

Many readers like to know where author's ideas come from. Sometimes the author doesn't know herself. In this case, however, she does.

About six months before I began SLEIGHT OF HAND, I went to a photography exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum. I wish I could remember the name of it, but I can't. All I remember is--it consisted of pictures of hands. Hands doing everything a hand does. Waving, conducting an orchestra, praying, smoking, picking an apple, lifting a coffee cup, making a fist, sewing on a button, sowing seeds, caressing a baby's head or a woman's breast, shooting an arrow, pulling a trigger...

This exhibit made a deep impression on me. After I left, all I could see were hands. Hands grasping a subway pole, clutching a pocketbook, turning the page of a paperback,, reaching for a hot dog. And I began to think--what would it be like without hands. Or, at least, without one hand. I even tied my right hand behind my back to see what it would be like. I lasted less than an hour. It was too frustrating. There was almost nothing I could do easily without my right hand, except sit in a chair and doze. Try it. See how long you last.

So...a story was born. What if...Jo met a character that had hurt his hand and she had been partly responsible for his injury... One thing led to another--and before I knew it--Jo was operating on a stranger's hand at an old-fashioned kitchen table, observed by a dozen cats, under the threat of a gun...


[ check out the Doctor Fenimore Mystery Series ]

©2008 Robin Hathaway


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