A breakthrough on the fourth Venus novel

The last time I saw Paris... Rue Rampon in 2019

Back in April, I mentioned that I wasn't working on the fourth book in the Venus series, but that's all changed in July. Maybe it was the fact that I just marked the 30th anniversary of the trip to London and Paris that inspired the original trilogy, but I finally had a breakthrough in the main plot, which revolves around the character of Juliette Lacombe trying to stop a terrorist attack at the Louvre. 

Originally, the book was going to be set in 2015 – 10 years following the events of Leaving Paris – but now that timeframe is just the prologue. The main story is now set in 2025, Juliette has been retired as an operative/assassin for nearly 20 years, but is pressed back into service when global leaders at a summit in Paris attend a special exhibition at the Louvre, which is besieged by radical terrorists. 

What's interesting to me – at this point – is exploring these characters who have now "aged out" of the typical thriller novel. Juliette is 63, Diane Jacobs and her husband, Bernard Sullivan, are in their 70s. Allowing them to still kick some ass (especially Juliette, who hasn't lost her touch with a rifle) while realistically depicting their later years is a challenge. 

Of course, this wouldn't be a Venus story if there wasn't a healthy dose of magical realism, and that's where Irène, Martin and Christian come in. Irène is nearly 100 years old, but when she reappears in Paris she seems not to have aged at all and maybe looks even younger. The trio will have a smaller, but crucial, role in this book, and I can't wait to write that reunion scene between Martin and Diane. 

I'm rewatching some of my beloved sci-fi television shows – Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, and Fringe – as inspiration for some of the more "out there" chapters. As I hinted in Leaving Paris, Juliette Lacombe might be the daughter of the late Claude Lacombe, the French scientist played by Francois Truffaut in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Figuring out how to pay homage to him without being sued is also part of the fun of writing this book. 

On a final note, Google just sent me the latest visitor stats for the blog, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that nearly 10,000 people had found their way here in June. As always, thanks for reading and checking in.