Several years ago, I came up with a great idea for a novel. 

 

Set in Korea during the last days of the Korean conflict, a US Army intelligence officer has been assigned to accept the defection of a high-ranking North Korean general. The US officer walks into a North Korean village, disappears into a hut, and then the hut explodes. 

 

Fifty years later, the officer’s grandson shows up in Oregon ready to cause trouble. How did he get there? Why is he there? Can he be stopped?

 

The novel, which later became The Brothers Pendergast, Book IV: Suppositions, might seem eerily similar to The Manchurian Candidate, but there are many plot twists, which, I hope, make it stand out from The Manchurian Candidate.

 

There was, however, one big issue. I had no characters, no concepts, and no foundation developed for the novel after the initial two pages.  I had a name for the anti-hero, and an idea of how he got there, but after he walked into the hut in Korea, there was nothing.

 

I had an idea for Suppositions, and felt it could become a fantastic mystery, but I needed to write The Pendergast Prerogatives (renamed to The Brothers Pendergast, Book I: John) to create my Sherlock Holmes.