Behind the Scenes: On The Doorstep of Domestic Abuse
Chaser is the first book in my Jinx Ballou Bounty Hunter series. If you haven't yet read it, don't worry. I promise I won't give away any spoilers. But it might make you enjoy it a little more learning about how I approached this opening scene.
The opening scene in any book is pivotal. The author usually introduces the character, giving a glimpse of who they are.
In this case, Jinx is a professional bail enforcement. I wanted to convey that she was good at what she did. I also wanted to make her seem a little edgy, but not unlikeable.
When we first meet Jinx. She's pounding on the door of a dirtbag named Freddie Colton, one of the defendants she's been hired to haul back into custody. Except it's not Freddie who opens the door, but Vanessa Nealey, his physically abused girlfriend.
I'm not sure what inspired me to choose Vanessa for this scene, but I did draw on my own experiences as a victim of domestic violence. Write what you know, right?
In the scene, Jinx is flabbergasted by the Vanessa's refusal to help Jinx drag her abusive boyfriend back to jail. Not only that, Vanessa has repeatedly dropped the charges after every domestic violence call and taken him back.
This is something that baffles most people who haven't been in abusive relationships, and it certainly baffles Jinx. But I've been there.
Sometimes, your mind can get all twisted round and you can be convinced that the abuse is your fault. That certainly happened to me. I kept thinking that if I was just thoughtful enough and loving enough, he would treat me better. But the harder I tried, the worse he got.
My ex-husband's abuse got so bad that it drove me to attempt suicide twice. Luckily, I survived. I repeatedly left him, then stupidly took him back over and over. Codependency is a bitch.
Fortunately for me, I eventually left my POS ex-husband for good, and about a year later, fell in love with my wife. We've been happily married 26 years.
In the story, Jinx and her team use their bounty hunting skills to track down douchebag Freddie and eventually slap the cuffs on him. But the arrest doesn't go as smoothly as Jinx would have liked.
What happened exactly? Well, to answer that, you'll just have to read the book. Go on! You know you want to.
