tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47190120718975682452024-03-13T23:21:37.332-07:00Hook'em and Book'emWhere mystery readers, writers & law enforcement connect.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-51838299948095520782016-05-05T15:00:00.000-07:002016-05-05T15:00:40.675-07:00Deadly Designs: An interview with novelist Nike Chillemi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>By Mark Young</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Crime fiction
author Nike Chillemi’s spunky private investigator, “Ronnie” Ingels, just can’t
stay out of trouble. As the name implies, <i><a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/deadly-designs/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Deadly Designs</span></a></i>, picks up where Nike’s
serial-debut novel, <i><a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/harmful-intent/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Harmful Intent</span></a></i> leaves off—Ingels finding trouble in all the
wrong places. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A geeky radio
commentator’s conspiracy views and pro-Israeli stance may have led to the
disappearance of his wife and young daughter. He hires Ingels and her partner,
Texan deputy Dawson Hughes, to find his family and return them safely home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nike’s historical
suspense <i><a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/burning-hearts/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Santuary Point</span></a></i> series, set in the 1940s, and her <i>Veronica “Ronnie”
Ingels/Dawson Hughes </i>novels series have a few things in common—plenty of bad
guys, crime and romance. Dubbed a Crime Fictionista, Nike has a passion for
writing and reading crime fiction. She has just released the second Ronnie
Engels novel, <i><a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/deadly-designs/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Deadly Designs</span></a>.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Nike,
thanks for joining us to discuss your latest novel and to get an update on your
writing career. Let’s start with what kind of trouble Ronnie Ingels has gotten
into in <i><a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/deadly-designs/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Deadly Designs</span></a></i> and a little about her background. Can you give us a
brief overview?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> Ronnie grew
up in Brooklyn, NY. She works for a small private investigation firm there. In
addition to being a Texas deputy, hero Dawson Hughes is also a former Army
Ranger who now moonlights for a clandestine government organization many
senators don't even know exists. Because of the terrorism angle, this
organization becomes involved in the search for the missing model and her seven
year old daughter. Along the way, they run into despicable villains.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Tells us
about your two main characters—Ronnie Ingels and Dawson Hughes. How did they
meet? How has their relationship developed? Will their differences strengthen
or weaken their feelings for each other?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> Ronnie and
Dawson met in book one when Dawson nearly accused Ronnie of having murdered her
cheating newlywed husband. Of course, he soon realized she didn't commit the
crime and found he had to protect her from the real killer. Since Ronnie takes
a lot of chances, this was no easy task. Ronnie is looking forward to seeing
Dawson again, but when she learns the police have not yet been called in on
this missing persons case, their relationship looks like it's in trouble. As
they hunt heinous villains, they sort through their feelings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Are you
taking a break or working on something new now that you have released <a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/deadly-designs/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">DeadlyDesigns</span>,</a> the second book in the <i>Veronica “Ronnie” Ingels/Dawson Hughes </i>series?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> I'm working
on book three <i><span style="color: magenta;">Blood Speaks</span></i>, in which Ronnie and Dawson are engaged to be
married. In chapter one Ronnie thinks her life is perfect. Of course I have to
mess that up with a murder, which involves conspiracy theories and throws way
back to the JFK assassination for clues as to the murderer's true motivation. I
make Ronnie and Dawson work at finding this wanton killer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Where can
readers find you online? Are you still involved in writing conferences and
other writing organizations?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> My blog is
<a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Nike N. Chillemi ~ Crime Fictionista</span>.</a> I'm on Twitter as <a href="https://twitter.com/NikeNChillemi" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">@NikeNChillemi</span></a> and on
Facebook at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nike.chillemi"><span style="color: magenta;">https://www.facebook.com/nike.chillemi</span></a>. I'm still very much
involved in the <a href="https://graceawardsdotorg.wordpress.com/category/christian-fiction/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Grace Award</span></a>, a Christian readers' choice award. I'm its
founder, Chair, and a judge in the Action-Adventure/Western/Epic Fiction
category. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> As I
recall, you drifted away from the traditional publisher path to venture into
the indie, self-publish world. Where are you on this journey?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> I'm still
publishing indie. I want to write it the way I feel it and not have a
publisher's editor's changing things for PC reasons. That said, I write
Christian fiction, but the series is one of contemporary detective stories and
it can get a tad gritty. I do have professionals I trust giving me input and I
also highly value the feedback of Christian BETA readers. In my 1940s mystery
series and in my contemporary series, I've tried to be authentic in handling
crime scenes and investigations. I tackle sophisticated themes in a tasteful
way, I think. I've never had a single complaint in a book review. In fact, I've
had all five and four star reviews.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> What have
you liked most about this new direction you have taken? What have you liked
least?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> I like the
freedom I have. I like setting my own publishing schedule. I have to do all of
my own marketing and publicity, but then I really had to do that even when I
had a publisher.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> On your
website, <i><a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Nike N. Chillemi ~ Crime Fictionista</span></a></i>, I read where you obtained back
you rights to your <i>Sanctuary Point</i> series, a historical murder-mystery placed
in the 1940s. Will you be able to re-publish them through your <i><a href="https://crimefictionistapress.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Crime Fictionista Press</span></a> </i>in the future?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> Yes, I'm
planning to republish the 1940s <i><a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/burning-hearts/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Sanctuary Point</span></a></i> mystery series.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> What advice
can you give new authors just starting out on this writing journey?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> Keep
writing and then write some more. Get involved in a critique group to get
valuable feedback from other serious writers. Read the best authors in your
genre. Don't copy them, but note how they handle words, phrasing, dialog, and
the like. And when you discover your voice, don't allow anyone to talk you out
of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Nike,
Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to give us an insight into you
writing life and to give readers a better understanding of your latest novel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Bio:</b> Nike Chillemi has
been called a crime fictionista due to her passion for crime fiction. She is a
member of <i><a href="http://www.acfw.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">American Christian Fiction Writers</span></a> (ACFW)</i>. She is the founding board
member of the <i>Grace Awards</i>, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian
fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">She's an <i>Inspy
Awards</i> 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category and a judge in the
2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic
suspense categories. She wrote monthly book reviews for <i><a href="http://thechristianpulse.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">The Christian Pulse</span></a></i> online
magazine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Her recent
contemporary detective story <a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/harmful-intent/" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: magenta;">Harmful Intent</span></i> </a>won the <i>Grace Award</i> 2014
in the Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller/Historical Suspense category and has
been called: sassy, witty, gritty, and uplifting. Her historical suspense
<i><a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/burning-hearts/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Sanctuary Point</span></a></i> series brought on a crime wave that swept the south shore of
Long Island during the 1940s (<i>Burning Hearts, Goodbye Noel, Perilous
Shadow</i>s, and <i>Darkest Hour</i>) won acclaim and awards. You can find out more
about Nike at her website: <i><a href="https://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Nike Chillemi~Crime Fictionista</span>.</a></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-83937017076258405522015-10-15T05:00:00.000-07:002015-10-15T05:36:29.516-07:00Circle of Lies mystery novel released today: ‘Fat Louie’ character chats about Tom Kagan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="color: red;">By Mark Young</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: orange;">[The
latest Tom Kagan novel, </span><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Circle-Lies-Tom-Kagan-Novel-ebook/dp/B015S1FRX0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1443282750&sr=1-1&keywords=Circle+of+Lies+%28A+Tom+Kagan+Novel%29"><span style="color: magenta;">Circle of Lies</span></a></i><span style="color: orange;">
will be released today in digital form through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo,
iBooks, Smashwords, and IngramSparks. Hardcover and paperback formats to follow
very soon.]<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
caught up to our <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Circle-Lies-Tom-Kagan-Novel-ebook/dp/B015S1FRX0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1443282750&sr=1-1&keywords=Circle+of+Lies+%28A+Tom+Kagan+Novel%29"><span style="color: magenta;">Circle of Lies</span></a> </i>character
in California—Sergeant Art Crenshaw of the Santa Rosa Police Department’s
Organized Crime and Intelligence Section (OCIS)…wow, that’s a mouthful. Anyway,
Fat Louie—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “—hey,
buddy, that’s not my name. If you can’t be civil in this interview—“<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“—sorry,
sergeant. That just slipped out. It won’t happen again.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “Yeah,
well, Tom Kagan came up to me later and apologized for calling me that behind
my back. Just because I have aspirations to become a lieutenant, and my
backside is a little…oh, just forget it. You can call me Art, Crenshaw, or
sergeant, but just because you are the author doesn’t mean you can make a joke
at my expense. After all, even supervisors have feelings.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Okay,
okay, cool your jets, Artie. Like I said, it just slipped out.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “Authors
don’t make mistakes. They have to be very specific about the words they use. You
just wanted to give readers a little laugh at my expense. Just because you have
that power over us characters doesn’t mean you have to be mean.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “Gee
whiz, Artie, for a cop you have thin skin. Why can’t you be more like Kagan—tough,
blunt, no nonsense.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “You’d
be sensitive too, Mark, if you had to try and supervise a cop like Tom. I mean,
the guy’s a supervisor’s worst nightmare. Never know what he is going to do or
say; and the trouble he gets into is enough to make me lose what little hair I
still have. He attracts trouble like a magnet. I never know what he is up to.
And that gives me nightmares."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“But
he always lands on his feet.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yeah,
one of these days he’s going to bite the big one and I won’t be able to protect
him. He’s a good cop—none better—but he is the reason our department keeps
re-writing our rules of conduct. He’s broken just about every one of them
getting the case done, and I wind up having ton of paperwork trying to save his
butt.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Okay,
what about his last case in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Circle-Lies-Tom-Kagan-Novel-ebook/dp/B015S1FRX0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1443282750&sr=1-1&keywords=Circle+of+Lies+%28A+Tom+Kagan+Novel%29"><span style="color: magenta;">Circle of Lies</span></a>?</i>
Didn’t he do a fantastic job?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Crenshaw
gives me a quizzical look before answering.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “For
an author, you are some kind of stupid. You want me to tell your readers
everything Tom did in this novel. If I do that, no one’s going to want to read
the story.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I
didn’t mean to tell them everything Tom did. Just give them a hint of the
trouble Tom faced."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Crenshaw
shifted his ample behind in the chair as he thought about everything that had happened
in the last few months.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Well,
I would say that Tom came as close to dying as he has in any police action
since he joined the department thirty years ago. For a moment there, I thought
they were going to kill him. And if he survived those killers, I feared he
might end up in prison for the rest of his life. Now, that’s what I call ‘high
stakes.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“How
did this all start?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “Hey,
writer-man, you can tell them better than I. After all, you made this all up in
that twisted head of yours. You tell them.”<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “Hey,
Artie. Drop the attitude or I just may write you out of the next novel.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “See,
that’s the attitude I was talking about. Now that is just down-right
threatening. What? You going to get me killed in the next book?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Worse!
Maybe I will make you in charge of all internal affairs cases. Everyone will treat
you like you have the plague.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “You
think being a supervisor is much better. Always looking over everyone’s
shoulder. Telling them all the things they can’t do. Being a supervisor is not
a bed of roses. Always on the outside. Never being trusted. Never one of the
guys.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Let
me share a little secret with you, Artie. Kagan actually thinks you are an okay
guy. He felt sorry for joining the other guys with that Fat Louie joke. He
stopped calling you that after the <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HLT2G00"><span style="color: magenta;">Broken Allegiance</span></a>
novel</i>."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “He
told you he likes me? Are you on the up-and-up, or is this one of your author’s
lies you just came up with.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“No,
I’m being straight with you. From my lips to God’s ears…it is the truth.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Crenshaw
gave me a look like he was trying to figure out whether I was telling the truth,
or I was setting him up. I think being the author is like being an internal
affairs investigator—no one trusts you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “Okay.
Here is how the case started. Tom got a call from a buddy of his up in Seattle
about an armored-truck heist and a murder. The victim turned out to be Tom’s
old partner at SRPD years ago. The guy was retired and he was working as a
driver to make some extra coin. They shot him point-blank. Later they realize the shooting
may have been about more than the robbery. It appeared to have been racially
motivated. Jason—the dead guy—was black.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “So
how did Kagan get involved?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “The
Seattle cop gave Tom a lead in our neck of the woods. Once Kagan got his teeth
into the case, there was no turning him back. I tried several times to give it
to the FBI—but that son-of-a-gun keeps finding ways to land in the middle of
the investigation. I warned him. The FBI warned him. Even the bad guys tried
to get him to stop. But like I said, there was no reasoning with that guy. Tom was going to do it his way. Even taking
his gun and badge away—which the chief did at one point—Tom continued to search
for the bad guys until…well, I can’t tell your reader that or it would give
the story away. Let’s just say Tom got into a heap of trouble. And he had an IA lieutenant looking for anyway to bring him down. Inside the department and
outside, Kagan had enough problems that a reasonable man would have just walked
away."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “But
not Tom?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Crenshaw
ran a hand over his thinning hair, a look of frustration painted on his face.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “Look,
oh powerful one! I’ve played along here telling your readers about this novel
since you have me over a barrel. But enough is enough. I’ve got a desk full of
paper from Kagan’s latest fiasco. I’ve got to make sure that he doesn’t have to
face off with that IA lieutenant again. So why don’t you run along and harass
one of your other characters.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <b>MARK:</b>
“I thought we were developing a little connection here.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Yeah,
when pigs fly.” He started to rise, then sat back down. “Hey, I heard you are
leaving town and heading back to Idaho, to the Nez Perce reservation. Does that
mean you won’t be back for a while?” He shot me a look of hope.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “I’m
going to drop in and check on Travis Mays and the gang up there. But I will be
back soon, to monitor Tom and the rest of you. I don’t want to leave you guys
to your own devices—without a little of my authoritarian supervision.” I gave
him a big smile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Disappointment
rained on Crenshaw’s features like thunderclouds, dark and foreboding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CRENSHAW:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “Oh,
joy.” He stood, looking down at me. “Next time, promote me to lieutenant and
give Kagan another supervisor to harass. I’d like to sit the next one out on
the sidelines.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
just shook my head. Crenshaw needs a little R and R; particularly since I have an
idea what kind of trouble Kagan is going to get into next time. Crenshaw will
have his hands full. Oh well, an author has got to do what an author has got
to do. And I have all kind of ideas that will give Kagan and the others a run
for their money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-80966867222318902682015-10-02T09:20:00.000-07:002015-10-02T09:55:44.762-07:00Home Grown Terror: Author Peter Klismet's book about the largest manhunt in the West<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">By Mark Young</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HqHdwTQ8h68/Vg1-AM_fmEI/AAAAAAAACr4/qhhZsFXEjCA/s1600/Pete%2Bblack%2Band%2Bwhite%2Bpic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HqHdwTQ8h68/Vg1-AM_fmEI/AAAAAAAACr4/qhhZsFXEjCA/s320/Pete%2Bblack%2Band%2Bwhite%2Bpic.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Author Peter M. Klismet’s latest book, <i>FBI Diary: Home Grown Terror,</i> reads like
a crime-thriller fiction novel. Bullets flying. Stolen vehicles. Camo-clad
terrorists. High-speed chases through rural America. One of the greatest
manhunts in American western history winding up in some of the most rugged lands
this country has to offer. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Former FBI special agent Klismet writes about this
event from the inside—as a participant in a manhunt for three cop-killers that
disappeared into an unforgiving wilderness. It began Friday, May 29, 1998 on
a warm spring morning on the streets of a small town in southwest Colorado.
What started as a traffic stop for a suspected stolen truck became a fight for
survival for many officers and an event that shocked the entire region.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Welcome author Klismet to Hook’em and Book’em!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
Pete, thanks for returning to this blog to discuss your latest non-fiction
book, <i>FBI Diary: Home Grown Terror. </i>It
has been over two years since you wrote a guest blog for us about your first
book, <i>FBI Diary: Profile of Evil,</i> and
your experiences as a criminal profiler for the bureau. Tell our readers a little
about your latest book about home-grown terrorists in Colorado.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PETE:
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
thank you, Mark, for having me back on your blog, which is one of the best ones
around.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In May of 1998, a small
cadre of three young, anti-government, paramilitary</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hp2x39WpFGA/Vg1-Qios00I/AAAAAAAACsA/P0p8PHkIDXA/s1600/FBI%2BCOVER%2BC%2BWITH%2BSEAL%2B1%2Bmay12%252C%2B2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hp2x39WpFGA/Vg1-Qios00I/AAAAAAAACsA/P0p8PHkIDXA/s400/FBI%2BCOVER%2BC%2BWITH%2BSEAL%2B1%2Bmay12%252C%2B2015.jpg" width="268" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> extremists were spotted in
a stolen water truck by an officer in Cortez, Colorado, and pulled over to the
side of the road. One of the men jumped out of the truck with a fully-automatic
weapon, peppering the police car and Officer Dale Claxton with round after
round of bullets. And then the chase was on. The three men commandeered a
flatbed construction truck, and wrought a path of destruction as they were
chased by police cars, sheriff’s deputies and state patrolmen. The men put
seven police vehicles out of commission and shot two more officers before
racing forty miles into the forsaken desert
wilderness and canyons near the Four Dorners. It became a national news story,
not unlike the recent prison escape in New York State. With over five hundred
officers from state, federal and local agencies, as well as Indian Reservation officers,
it is still considered the largest manhunt in the history of the modern West.
And it is a search which took nearly a decade to conclude.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> I
can only imagine what it must have been like trying to work within the confines
of a manhunt that encompassed local, state and federal agencies from a
three-state area. In the book, I thought you were very forthright about some of
the problems that developed between these agencies. How did you manage to get
the job done without losing your cool? What were some of the challenges you
faced?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PETE:
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fortunately,
coordinating the search teams was not my responsibility, nor did I have a role
in the ground search for the three killers. My job was supporting the
investigation, identifying the three men, and working to build a prosecutable
case once they were found. Regrettably, that never occurred, which is one of
the more compelling parts of the story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In doing some fairly
extensive research for the book, however, I did interview a number of people
who were directly involved with or coordinated the search efforts. It has
saddened me to see many times over the years how people’s egos can get in the
way of getting the job done. There was constant disagreement between numerous
agencies, even including the Indian Reservation police. The FBI, the sheriff of
a small county in Utah, the National Guard, and even the governor of Colorado,
among others, were constantly in disagreement over how the search was to be
conducted. Whether or not this contributed to the eventual resolution of the
case is not known. But there was more than enough drama to go around, and at
times it put the lives of searching officers at risk.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
You write about this tragedy from a unique position. What were the motivating
factors prompting you to sit down and relive this experience?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">PETE:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> While I was in Cortez, I vowed to write a
book about this case ‘someday.’ I had collected a considerable number of reports,
some of which I wrote. I took over thirty pictures, some of which are inside
the book. I collected news accounts for over a year. When a cop is killed, it
becomes a personal issue for other cops. It took me almost seventeen years to
complete the book and to keep the vow I made. I’m glad I did to venerate the memory
of Officer Claxton.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
Hindsight is always easier than living in the moment as things are happening
all around you. Looking back, what would you have done differently in this
manhunt to locate these suspects quicker?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PETE:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Other
than the bosses constantly being at odds, I don’t know what else we could have
done to make the search easier. In hindsight, as you say, it turned out to be
an unresolvable search, except for an incident when one of the three fugitives
shot at a deputy sheriff and then killed himself. While we didn’t know it at
the time, our efforts proved to be meaningless into the final resolution of the
case. Let me simply add that it was plain luck, as often seems to happen, that
the entire matter was resolved. But it was some very dramatic luck as the book
points out.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
Your book raises some interesting insights into possible motives driving these
criminals that may have prompted them to commit these acts. Do you think that
some of these motivations might reach a broader group of receptive people in
light of what has happened to this country over the last seventeen years? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I think we can all agree that our rights to privacy
have shrunk considerably since 1998, and the reach of government has grown beyond
anything we could have imagined. People who might not otherwise think about
living off the grid, for example, might have reconsidered their opinions based upon
recent national trends. Certainly this broader group of citizens would not
applaud what these three criminals did in Colorado, but they might share the
frustration and fear that our government has overstepped its bounds. What are
your thoughts?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PETE:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Actually,
these three had something of a fan club, and there were many people in the area
with anti-government feelings who would have gladly helped them escape if possible.
Since it was a national story and got major news coverage from all the large
media outlets, people of a similar ilk around the country express their
approval in many ways. I’d have to say these three men, like Timothy McVeigh,
felt the government was far too oppressive and perhaps they believed they were
the leading edge of a revolution they thought would follow. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A lot of these
anti-government sentiments started back in the 1980’s with the Farm Crisis in the USA. However, one could also
argue it started much earlies, and that the Civil Rights Movement in the 50’s
and 60’s contributed, as certainly did the Vietnam War. We have more than a few
issues facing our country right now, and it will be interesting to see which
one surfaces as the next threat to the country. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
How would you classify your three suspects—Jason McVean, Robert Mason, and
Monte Pilon? Do they fit in the category of domestic terrorists, or did their
anti-government rhetoric just lend them self-aggrandizing justification to
commit common criminal acts of robbery and theft for personal gain?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PETE:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> That’s
really a good question because we tend to ascribe ‘mastermind’ status to some
of our criminal, most of whom are anything but. In this case, we have one leader
and two bonehead followers—but all of them were equally violent. Toward the end
of the book, I analyze all of the different theories as to ‘why’ they did what
they did. While we’ll never know, my analysis brought the facts down to one
common denominator—committing a robbery of large scale. I think I make a case
for this, and I still don’t think I can be talked out of it.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> What
have you been up to in your writing career since your last contact with us here
on Hook’em and Book’em?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PETE:
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
between this book and <i>FBI Diary: Profiles
of Evil</i>, I published another book entitled <i>FBI Animal House</i>. This one chronicles some of the madcap adventures
of my class at the FBI Academy, has plenty of funny stories of our antics, and
truly exposes the fact that FBI agents are really people, just like everyone
else.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
Can you share with us any books that you might be working on for future
release?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PETE:
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After
several meetings with myself, I have started writing a bok with a rather
unique, and hopefully ‘catchy title’—<i>Sleeping
With Torpedoes.</i>” Before I ever went into law enforcement, I was part of the
crew of an old, World War II diesel/electric sub marine. We had plenty of ‘adventures,’
and two interesting tours off the coast of Vietnam during the war. It’s
something of a memoir, as are all my books, but really only amounts to a
four-year slice of what has turned out to be a fairly interesting life.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
Where can people go to find out more about your writing, or to buy your books?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PETE:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Probably
the best way is to check my website, which is<span style="color: red;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.criminalprofilingassociates.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="background-color: #444444; color: red;">Criminal Profiling Associates</span></a>.<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> I get quite a few ‘hits’ and referrals to assit law enf</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">orcement agencies with
unsolved cases on the site. But I also try to keep my readers not only posted
on what I’ve been up to lately, but profiles of all my books. It’s a good
website, I think, mainly because my wife designed it!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
Any other thoughts or comments you would like to make before we part ways?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">PETE:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> You
know, I’ve been thinking about this lately. There is something about the
concept of ‘retiring’ I simply don’t get. You hear a lot of retired people say
how busy they are, but I think a lot of it is less than true. Maybe busy
sitting around and watching the daily soap operas. I truly am never out of
something to do. In the last week, for example I spoke before a group of about
200, and a second group of 50. We took a bunch of books with us and sold the
majority. I’m constantly doing that type of thing to promote my books, and I do
a fair job of keeping my publishers happy. Plus, I’m trying to work on my
fourth book, and have several others in mind. I am also an on-air consultant to
CNN, MSNBC, and couple of local television stations, newspapers in Colorado,
and even Canada’s version of CNN, Canadian TV. When something big happens, I am
often called and appear on anyone of the outlets. I‘d like to get out and play
some golf, but I have a hard time doing it. I doubt I’ll ever truly retire
until I find myself on the south end of the grass. But as I tell Miss Nancy, I
have way too much stuff left to do to die!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
Again, thanks for joining us, Pete. Best wishes on the success of your latest
book.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">*********<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.4px;">Peter M. </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Klismet served his country with two tours in Vietnam
on submarines. Following military service, he earned a college degree, then
worked for the Ventura Police Department in Southern California. While there,
he attended graduate school, earning two master’s degrees. He was offered and
accepted an appointment as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In a twenty-year career with the FBI, the author was
highly-decorated, served with distinction in three field offices, and received numerous
awards and recognition from the FBI. Klismet was selected to be one of the
original ‘profilers’ for the FBI, perhaps the FBI’s most famed unit. Before his
retirement, he was named the 1999 National Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: orange;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: orange;">Following his retirement, he accepted a position as an
Associate Professor and Department Chair of a college Criminal Justice program.
Having now retired from that, Pete and his wife, Nancy, live in Colorado
Springs, Colorado.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-80583344359220313552014-11-04T09:53:00.001-08:002014-11-04T09:53:42.576-08:00Just released: Bestselling author's latest book tells how to make a living as a writer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>By Mark Young</b></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x9EeU9piZKU/VFgm-3vnu5I/AAAAAAAACpw/kVFx8S79Fiw/s1600/jsb-ragged-frame-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x9EeU9piZKU/VFgm-3vnu5I/AAAAAAAACpw/kVFx8S79Fiw/s1600/jsb-ragged-frame-2.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>James Scott Bell</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An interview with novelist James Scott Bell regarding his latest how-to book on writing might—at first blush—seem a little off topic for this blog about cops, crime and novels. You are right, but let me plead my case. I feel strongly enough about this just-released book that I've chosen to break the rules this one time. There comes a time in any writer’s career where they find themselves fighting off feelings of discouragement and disillusionment. I believe that <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-38/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">How to Make a Living as a Writer</span></a> (HLW)</i> can be one of those tools that helps writers regain solid ground in their publishing career.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This book goes well beyond what the title suggests—selling books and making money—by giving a writer a holistic approach to writing. Writing quotas, time management, and creating a workable business plan are just a few of the topics discussed in <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-38/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">HLW</span></a></i>. Jim writes from experience as both a traditionally published author and as an indie author. His twenty-year career includes many novels, anthologies, books on writing, and a weekly contribution to the popular blog <i><a href="http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2014/11/writing-what-you-love-and-earning-what.html#.VFggAvnF98E" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">The Kill Zone</span></a></i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is a privilege to have James Scott Bell with us today to discuss his latest book on writing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Jim, thanks for joining us here on Hook’em &</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qeTON7is6cg/VFgnRAhu0cI/AAAAAAAACp4/zn40GuPB1Ew/s1600/how-make-living-writer-online-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qeTON7is6cg/VFgnRAhu0cI/AAAAAAAACp4/zn40GuPB1Ew/s1600/how-make-living-writer-online-cover.jpg" height="320" width="199" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Book’em once again. What prompted you to write this book? Who do you consider to be your target audience?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> I have always been about helping writers not only write better, but write with an eye toward making actual money. I believe in professionalism. I believe it’s quite all right to make a living doing what one loves to do. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In my case, it was writing. When I started out to pursue this dream, I didn’t think the odds were so great. But it’s what I wanted to do and I never stopped, and I managed to make it my career.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">With this book I wanted to pass along the principles I used that I think will help all writers who want to be pros.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK: </b>What is the most important message you want writers to glean from this book?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> That you have to think of this as a business. You have to put some rational thought into this if you want it to give you a return. When I began to pursue writing as a career it was after several years of being a lawyer and also running a successful small business. I had learned both study and entrepreneurial skills. These were invaluable to me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The good news is that these principles are not difficult to understand or put into practice. The trick is in the doing of them. That’s discipline. I explain how to be disciplined in the book.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> In <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-38/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">HLW</span></a></i>, you debunk the idea that only a few chosen writers ever succeed in this business. Why are you so positive that new writers can actually make a living at this game?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> Because the playing field has changed drastically in the last 7 years. The Kindle was introduced in 2007. The next couple of years saw writers starting to self-publish on Amazon with great monetary success. At the same time, there is still a traditional publishing industry, which I continue to be part of. The key is there are options now, and the writer who approaches things systematically, with a commitment to quality, improves his or her odds of making significant bank.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> In a chapter titled <i>The 7 Things You Absolutely Must Have to Succeed</i>—you cast doubt on the concept that writers must have talent to make it in the writing game. Please share your take on this issue with our readers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> What I actually say is that talent has to be there, but it’s the least important quality. There are many, many naturally talented writers out there who never make it. There are a number of reasons for that. One is that they rely on the talent but never master the craft. Or they’re the sort that “just wants to write” and never think about being businesslike.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the other hand, there are always those who may not be as gifted who work hard and work smart, and they surpass the “unrecognized geniuses.” That’s true in anything—sports, schooling, the arts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> In another chapter—titled <i>Running A Successful Business</i>—you discuss creating a business plan. How can this help to focus a writer to look at the bigger picture?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> Every successful business has a plan. That plan may change, it may morph, it may be thrown out for another. But you have to have a direction and steps to take that are reasonably related to your goals. I give a sample plan in the book that anyone can adapt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Later in <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-38/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">HLW</span></a></i>, you discuss the importance of time management and how to squeeze more time in a writer’s busy schedule. There are those writers just starting out who may be ‘contemplating’ writing their first novel. They may have a fulltime job, a family to take care of, or other commitments that make their hope to write seem like an impossible dream. They may take a look at <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-38/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">HLW</span></a></i> and say, “Wow! I can never accomplish all this.” What would you say to them?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> I deal with that. The key is finding out how much you can reasonably write in a week, taking into account all the other responsibilities you have. That becomes your weekly quota of words. I suggest upping that number by 10%, to stretch yourself. But keep it. Be zealous about it. I know there are some writers out there who think a quota is a crimp on their style. I beg to differ. I’ve had a quota ever since I started and it’s the biggest key to any success I’ve happened to achieve. As Robert B. Parker put it, the most important thing a writer does is produce the words.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Based upon all the topics you’ve discussed in <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-38/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">HLW</span></a></i>, is there one area in your own writing career that you found hardest to master? Why?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> It’s hard for me to single out one thing. A writing journey is a series of challenges, and you do what you can to overcome them. I’ve always felt I could learn anything I needed to know in order to succeed, and the rest would be up to hard work. I don’t believe in pure luck. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I will say I’ve always been interested in the mental game of writing, too. Learning how to handle rejection and keep going, things like that. Most of it boils down to slaying expectations and concentrating on being productive every day. Every moment you’re writing in flow is a moment you’re not worried about things you can’t control.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Where can writers purchase <a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-38/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">How to make a Living as a Writer</span></a>?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> The book is available as an ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. The print version is available <a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-38/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> You have taught at a number of writing seminars nationally and internationally, and hosted your own writing seminars. What are a few of the most common questions you encountered from writers attending these sessions?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> Many people want to know about structure, if it really matters that much. I tell them to try making an omelet without eggs and a frying pan. It’s not that structure is a rigid slave master; it’s that it works for connecting readers to stories. So once you understand it you can feel free to mess with it all you want, just know that the more you mess the less you’ll sell.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I also emphasize that you don’t have to try to copiously outline an entire novel before you write it. You need freedom to be creative. But creativity alone is not enough. Throwing eggs on the road is not art. Breaking them one-handed into a bowl, scrambling them up, putting them in the pan and throwing in selected cheeses and spices, that is art!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Speaking of writing sessions, you teamed up with two other men— agent/author Donald Maas; and Chris Vogler, movie/novel consultant and author of The Writer’s Journey—to help others improve their writing skills. What do the three of you try to teach at these retreats? Where can a writer go to find out more information on this?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> If it was only Vogler and Maass, I’d call this the best storytelling conference going. I am pleased to be part of it. Vogler leads off with his mythic take on storytelling, providing the wide universe of what connects us deeply to a work of fiction. I follow with my specifics on the critical areas of fiction—plot, structure, character, scenes, dialogue, voice, theme. Maass comes along after and gets the writers into the nitty gritty of their works-in-progress, prompting them to deeper and better stories.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the fourth day, the three of us lead a chapter by chapter analysis of a great novel that everyone reads beforehand. At this upcoming session it will be <i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">People can find out more at the <a href="http://free-expressions.com/story-masters/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Story Masters site</span></a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Any last words of wisdom to share with writers struggling to gain traction in this writing game?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JIM:</b> Recognize that it IS a game. A good game, a fun one, and one that can pay off if you know how to get the odds in your favor. That’s what my teaching is all about, getting people to a place where their chances for success improve. It takes time and it takes practice, but so does anything worthwhile. So I counsel writers to write until they die. That about covers it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Jim, thanks again for taking the time here to share your thoughts about the writing business. I am sure your latest book on writing will be a success. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Writing friends, be sure to check out <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-38/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">How to Make a Living as a Writer</span></a></i>.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">*******</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>James Scott Bell</b> is the #1 bestselling author of <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-8/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Plot & Structure</span></a></i>, and thrillers like <span style="color: magenta;"><i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-32/index.html" target="_blank">Don’t Leave Me</a></i>, </span><i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-14/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Blind Justice</span></a>,<a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-17/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Deceived</span></a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-20/styled-4/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Try Dying</span></a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-2/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Watch Your Back</span></a></i>, and <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-3/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">One More Lie</span></a></i>. Jim is currently at work on two series: pulp style boxing stories featuring <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-23/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Irish Jimmy Gallagher</span></a> </i>and the vigilante nun series <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-23/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Force of Habit</span></a></i>. Under the pen name K. Bennett he is also the author of the Mallory Caine zombie legal thriller series, which begins with <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/Zombie%20Legal%20Thrillers/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Pay Me in Flesh</span></a></i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jim served as fiction columnist for Writer's Digest magazine, to which he frequently contributes, and has written four craft books for Writer’s Digest Books:<i> <a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Plot & Structure</span></a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/index.html" target="_blank">R<span style="color: magenta;">evision & Self-Editing</span></a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">The Art of War for Writers</span></a> </i>and <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Conflict & Suspense</span></a></i>. His <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Write Your Novel From The Middle</span></a></i> was an instant #1 Amazon bestselling writing book. A former trial lawyer, Jim now writes and speaks full time. He lives in Los Angles and blogs every Sunday at <i><a href="http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2014/11/writing-what-you-love-and-earning-what.html#.VFggAvnF98E" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">The Kill Zone</span></a></i>.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-87244715217291038952014-07-15T16:51:00.000-07:002014-07-16T10:33:00.948-07:00A Novelist With HARMFUL INTENT: Interview with Nike Chillemi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0Op_K72lxwA/U8WCkssaztI/AAAAAAAACnQ/SlleyYQNp-4/s1600/NikePix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0Op_K72lxwA/U8WCkssaztI/AAAAAAAACnQ/SlleyYQNp-4/s1600/NikePix.jpg" height="148" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">“A rolling stone gathers no moss” is an old proverb attributed to a Latin writer of maxims in the 1st Century. These words would aptly describe our guest today—bestselling novelist Nike Chillemi. She is a writer with boundless energy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Since Nike last visited us over a year ago, she has released a new novel, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harmful-Intent-Veronica-Ronnie-Ingels-ebook/dp/B00K3Y7X4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1405451098&sr=1-1&keywords=Harmful+Intent" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Harmful Intent (A Veronica “Ronnie” Ingles/Dawson Hughs Novel)</span></a></i> as an indie author, jumping from classic historical murder/romance novels to a story of contemporary mayhem and romance. She started her own publishing entity, <a href="http://crimefictionistapress.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: magenta;">Crime Fictionista Press</span></i>,</a> which just released <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harmful-Intent-Veronica-Ronnie-Ingels-ebook/dp/B00K3Y7X4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1405451098&sr=1-1&keywords=Harmful+Intent" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;"><i>Harmful Intent</i> </span></a>in May. Never slowing down, this writer is also a member of the Christian Indie Novelist (CHIN) network; involved with the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) organization; and founded and co-chaired the Grace Awards book contest each year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Wow! Nike, the first question that comes to mind is when do you find time to write? You seem to be involved with more organizations that there are letters in the alphabet. What is the key to getting your writing done?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> Most of the time I write every day, or do research. I spend a lot of time researching. I like to get details right. If real life interferes and I can't write for a day or two, or more, I make sure I get in a writing marathon. I'm not a writer who can crank out two-to-three books a year. As an indie author, I'm trying to release a novel every ten months or so. That way I can keep all the other balls in the air.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Above everything else, one of the most driving forces for an author are the latest novel they just released or the one they are working on. Your latest novel,<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harmful-Intent-Veronica-Ronnie-Ingels-ebook/dp/B00K3Y7X4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1405451098&sr=1-1&keywords=Harmful+Intent" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;"><i> Harmful Intent</i></span></a> came out last May. I know there exciting things to share surround this novel. First, tell us about the story. What is <span style="color: magenta;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harmful-Intent-Veronica-Ronnie-Ingels-ebook/dp/B00K3Y7X4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1405451098&sr=1-1&keywords=Harmful+Intent" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: magenta;">Harmful Intent</span></i></a> </span>about?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b><span style="color: magenta;"> <i>Harmful Intent</i> </span>is the first in the Veronica "Ronnie" Ingels and Dawson Hughes novels. Ronnie is a Brooklyn private investigator who thinks her marriage of one year is nearly perfect, except her motivational speaker hubby travels too much. She finds him in Abilene, TX, in the arms of her college BFF, then he's found dead. Deputy Sergeant Dawson Hughes has the feisty, armed to the teeth PI as one of his prime suspects, until be begins to think she is in danger and he finds he wants to protect her. As in all my novels there are quirky secondary characters, but this novel is far more zany than historicals I've written. But don't let that fool you. The story goes from a hilarious scene to a chilling one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK: </b>Most of the story takes place in Texas. How did you—a New York writer—prepare to write ‘Texan’? How did you capture those nuances in dialogue that gave readers that sense that they are in the company of characters from Texas?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> I think I have a facility for dialect. I can hear the Texas drawl in my head. But I didn't leave it to my innate ability. Research, research, research. I listened to hours of Kenneth Copeland's teaching tapes which can be found online. He uses certain expressions and drops tidbits about Texas…and a few of those found their way into the novel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> I loved your sassy character, Veronica “Ronnie” Ingels as she tried to come to terms with events shaking her life. Is this a character you created from a compilation of several real people, or is Ronnie a total figment of your active imagination?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> There are a few ugly things lurking in Ronnie's childhood. She's fully aware that her dad blatantly and repeatedly cheated on her mom, then abandoned the family. There are other memories she can't quite bring to the foreground that haunt her. She even dreams about them, but can't quite put her finger on them. That will be further developed in later books in the series. Ronnie is a character created from my imagination. I know a few young women who had ugly childhoods and who were nearly crippled by the abuse. They struggle to survive. Ronnie has a career and can take care of herself, but these girls prompted me to write a character like Ronnie. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Up until the release of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harmful-Intent-Veronica-Ronnie-Ingels-ebook/dp/B00K3Y7X4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1405451098&sr=1-1&keywords=Harmful+Intent" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Harmful Intent</span></a></i>, historical murder and romance novels had been your cup of tea. Four previous novels under the Sanctuary Point series—<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Burning-Hearts-Sanctuary-Point-Book-ebook/dp/B0050PJSTY/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1405451683&sr=1-4&keywords=Burning+Hearts" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Burning Hearts</span></a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Noel-Sanctuary-Point-Book-ebook/dp/B006LTHI1I/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0B99FHM5YPV3ETBZHXVY" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Goodbye Noel</span></a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Perilous-Shadows-Sanctuary-Point-Book-ebook/dp/B008JLF1Q0/ref=pd_sim_kstore_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0Z242XYGF7B84SHT47EH" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Perilous Shadows</span></a></i>, and <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Darkest-Hour-Sanctuary-Point-Book-ebook/dp/B00BE9N6XE/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1CSGG6VTRPNCJWSJAB4J" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Darkest Hour</span></a></i>—have all been set in the post WWII era. Tells us what led you to write this latest contemporary murder series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> I love the 1940s. It was an elegant time in American history. Ordinary Americans had style and a can-do attitude. It was an exciting time and I loved writing about it. But after four novels, I thought it was time for a change. I wanted to write gripping mystery stories, but also deal with relevant issues that face people today. Although, to be honest, I think people in the 1940s grappled with the same issues we do today. However, there was a national feeling of dignity as they walked the walk. I pray America can get that sense of worth back.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Let’s switch gears. Your previous novels have been published by <span style="color: magenta;"><i><a href="http://www.desertbreezepublishing.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Desert Breeze Publishing, Inc</span></a></i>.</span>, but your latest novel is an indie-release through your own publishing entity, Crime Fictionista Press. Can you tell us a little about your reasons behind this major change in your publishing journey?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE</b>: I wanted to write this novel in double first person. Ronnie's point of view, then Dawson's, both in first person. I couldn't find a publisher who wanted to do that. Also, I wanted to write it my way. I sound like Frank Sinatra here. But seriously, Ronnie and Dawson are not together at the end, nor do they get saved. I didn't want to have to follow any formula. I just wanted to write the story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> What are you learning as an indie author and publisher that you did not expect going into this latest venture?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> I didn't know how exhilarating it would be when <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harmful-Intent-Veronica-Ronnie-Ingels-ebook/dp/B00K3Y7X4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1405451098&sr=1-1&keywords=Harmful+Intent" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Harmful </span><span style="color: magenta;">Intent</span></a></i><span style="color: magenta;"> </span>was released as an indie effort. I also didn't know how easy it would be to work with Amazon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Would you share with us about the kind of novels we can expect from you in the near future? Will you be using<span style="color: magenta;"> </span><i><a href="http://crimefictionistapress.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Crime Fictionista Press</span></a></i>?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> <i><span style="color: magenta;">Deadly Design</span><span style="color: yellow;">s</span></i> is next in the Ronnie/Dawson series. This second novel kicks off with the disappearance of a young mother and daughter. This novel ventures into the world of high fashion with the possibility that terrorists are pulling all the strings. The novel will be published by <i><a href="http://crimefictionistapress.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Crime Fictionista Press</span></a></i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Not that you don’t have enough to do, but are you still involved with the American Christian Fiction Writers organization? Tell our readers a little about this organization and how you are involved.</span><br />
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</b><span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE: </b>Yes, I'm still involved. I have led an ACFW critique group for serious writers (many already published) for a number of years. In 2013, I wrote a mini-class on building suspense in a story for their at-home-conference (for those who couldn't make it to the annual conference). I try to participate in their email LOOP when I can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Another project I recently learned about through you is the unique Grace Awards literary contest of which you are founder and co-chair. What is the purpose of this awards? How does it work?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> The Grace Awards is a reader generated literary awards. It's staffed entirely by volunteers. We're sort of the little engine that could of literary awards. There is no fee the author has to pay to get his/her book entered. Readers nominate all the entries. In fact many finalists don't even know they've been nominated until we contact them. I'll bet you were surprised when your<span style="color: magenta;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HLT2G00" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: magenta;">Broken Allegiance</span></i> </a>was a finalist in the Mystery/Thriller/Romantic Suspense category. We allow readers to choose the finalists. In that way no group or clique can control the outcome. Readers have to submit a 35-word reason why they chose the novel. This is how we determine they've read the book. Some of our readers give a NY Times book review. We do have talented judges pick the winners. That gives a good balance in the selection process. Our judges always write a review of the novel for the winner and finalists in each category. They bring out the many good things in the story, and also point out where it could be strengthened. Part of the mission of the Grace Awards is to help improve the quality and scope of Christian fiction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Yes, I was blown away that someone anonymously recommended my novel. And you are right, I recieved a review that gave me good suggestions to make the next novel better. In looking through your biography, I noticed that you belong to the Christian Indie Novelist (CHIN) network. Frankly, this is the first time I heard of it. Can you tell us a little about this group, when it was formed, and what its objective might be?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> I'm not a founder or administrator of this group, only a lowly member. CHIN is a Yahoo Loop. We help each other with marketing, give support to each other, share technological knowledge, industry news, and much more. Any Christian indie author, Christian world-view author, inspirational author can become a member. You simply have to ask. One way is to join the CHIN group on Facebook and then ask to be a member of the Yahoo Loop.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> There is a lot of controversy waging in the publishing industry. The current negotiations between Amazon and Hachette is just one of many issues that writers must face as they try to get their books sold. What do you see as the short-term future in publishing? How will this affect writers, publishers, and the cottage-industry of editors, designers, and formatters?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> I'm often surprised that I'm doing as well as I'm doing in this industry. Though, I have honed my craft and paid my dues. Amazon has been very good to me. They are author friendly and I pray they remain so. I hate to admit, there's an impish (maybe even childish) part of me that enjoys seeing Hachette get its clock cleaned by Amazon. The big publishers had a death grip on the industry. They determined who would get published and who would not. Sometimes a little guy with a great book got through. Most of the time the fiction authors who were best sellers were all in the in-crowd. They were married to an exec in the publishing company, or went to college with them. Or were married to someone in media. I once looked at biographies of the most popular authors and did a study on who they were married to and what their spouse did for a living. It's an eye opener. New York City is the epicenter of the publishing world and there's been a lot of elitist back scratching. However, Amazon is a game changer. Because of Amazon, Mark, you and I were given a chance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Yes we were very fortunate to be given this opportunity to publish on our own terms. I am very appreciative. From a writer’s perspective, what do you see as the role of an agent in this evolving industry? Are they needed?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> I have no need for an agent at this point in my career. I do everything through Amazon. If one of my novels were to be optioned for a movie (please God), then I would definitely need an agent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Enough with the heavy questions. Here is a light one. How do you let off steam when you’re not writing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> I let off steam by reading a good murder mystery or thriller. I like to walk my dog. Walking is very good for the body and mind. In the summer I putter in my garden. I grow tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, basil, and mint. I also have roses. When my rose bushes first bloom, I like to sit out on my deck with a cup of tea and look at them. This is very relaxing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Thanks for joining us, Nike. We have seen a glimpse of your busy schedule. Any last pearls of wisdom for writers just starting out on this road of writing and publishing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>NIKE:</b> Be true to yourself. If you're a newbie and come across a free or inexpensive writing course, take it. But don't get married to it. Use it as a tool, one of many you will find helpful on your writing journey. Read the top writers in your genre, not to copy them, but to study them. Find your own unique voice and style and don't let anyone talk you out of it. If you're a Christian writer, check in with the Holy Spirit and see what He's got to say about what you're writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Bio: Nike Chillemi</b> has been called a crime fictionista due to her passion for crime fiction. She is a member of Christian Indie Novelists (CHIN), and the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). She is the founding board member of the Grace Awards, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">She's an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category and a judge in the 2011, 2012, 2013 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories. She writes monthly book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Her recent contemporary detective story<i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Harmful-Intent-Veronica-Ronnie-Ingels-ebook/dp/B00K3Y7X4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1405451098&sr=1-1&keywords=Harmful+Intent" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Harmful Intent</span></a></i><span style="color: magenta;"> </span>has garnered acclaim and has been called: sassy, witty, gritty, charming, and yummy. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Her historical suspense Sanctuary Point series brought on a crime wave that swept the south shore of Long Island during the 1940s (<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Burning-Hearts-Sanctuary-Point-Book-ebook/dp/B0050PJSTY/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1405451683&sr=1-4&keywords=Burning+Hearts" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Burning Hearts</span></a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Noel-Sanctuary-Point-Book-ebook/dp/B006LTHI1I/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0B99FHM5YPV3ETBZHXVY" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Goodbye Noel</span></a></i>,<span style="color: magenta;"> <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Perilous-Shadows-Sanctuary-Point-Book-ebook/dp/B008JLF1Q0/ref=pd_sim_kstore_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0Z242XYGF7B84SHT47EH" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Perilous Shadows</span></a></i></span>, and <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Darkest-Hour-Sanctuary-Point-Book-ebook/dp/B00BE9N6XE/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1CSGG6VTRPNCJWSJAB4J" target="_blank"><span style="color: magenta;">Darkest Hour</span></a></i>) won acclaim and awards. You can find out more about Nike at her website:<span style="color: magenta;"> </span><a href="http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: magenta;">Nike Chillemi~Crime Fictionista</span></i><span style="color: black;">.</span></a></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-62194952832832607582014-05-04T15:19:00.000-07:002014-05-04T15:32:35.094-07:00Globe-Trotting Thrillers: Interview with Barry Award-winning author Brett Battles<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>By Mark Young</b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Brett Battles</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Readers: Keep your eyes focused on this rising indie author. Thriller novelist Brett Battles paid his dues struggling to survive in the legacy publishing arena for a number of years before deciding to throw his hat into the indie publishing arena a few years ago. Brett offers readers a variety of thriller novels filled with unique characters—a man who disposes of bodies as part of his espionage work; a feisty female bounty hunter who never gives up; and a former soldier reluctantly drawn into life-threatening situations to save others—to describe just a few. Always expect the unexpected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A world traveler, Brett brings these experiences drawn from his global wanderings onto the pages of his novels. Engaging characters, exotic locations, and page-turning suspense all blend together to make these thrillers a must-read. I have found his novels to be very entertaining. Intrigued, I contacted Brett by email to see if he might share a little about himself and his writing here on Hook’em & Book’em.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Brett, I am amazed at what a prolific writer you </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">are. At this rate, you might surpass James Patterson. At last count, twenty-two published novels since your first thriller appeared in 2007. In the last four months, you’ve released <a href="http://www.brettbattles.com/takedown.php" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Take Down</span></a> (December 2013), <a href="http://www.brettbattles.com/dream-sky.php" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Dream Sky</span></a> (January 2014), and last month, <a href="http://www.brettbattles.com/discarded.php" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">The Discarded</span></a>, a Jonathan Quinn thriller. How do you keep up this pace?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> The threat of self-waterboarding. Works every time. That and, well, writing is my job. Like everyone else who works, I need to do it every day. So when I finish one book, I don’t wait months or years to start the next. I’m usually onto it within a few business days at most. Being self employed means I have a real taskmaster for a boss!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Tell us a little about your latest thriller,<span style="color: yellow;"> <a href="http://www.brettbattles.com/discarded.php" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">The Discarded</span></a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> I wanted to write a story about an operative who has retired but is still haunted by a job he did, and continues to look for answers. I decided to use Orlando’s (Jonathan Quinn’s partner and girlfriend) mentor as the old op, so, of course, Quinn and Orlando and gang get pulled into the mystery. It’s about regret and greed and doing the right thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Your main character—Jonathan Quinn— has a rather unique occupation. What insight can you share with us about him? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> Quinn’s what they refer to in the espionage business as a cleaner. Not the assassin type cleaner, though he is very skilled in that area if necessary, but the kind of cleaner you call when you have a body that needs to disappear permanently. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Given Quinn’s occupation, one might question whether he has a moral compass in life? If so, what would it be?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> In broad strokes, Quinn tries to work for clients he believes are good as opposed to evil, though he can’t always be 100% sure of that. Plus he is driven by a very strong need to do the right thing, which is why he often gets pulled into situations that go beyond his basic job description.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Beside the Quinn series, you have written the <a href="http://www.brettbattles.com/project-eden-series.php" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Project Eden Thrillers</span></a>, the <a href="http://www.brettbattles.com/logan-harper-series.php" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Logan Harper Thrillers</span></a> and the <a href="http://www.brettbattles.com/alexandra-poe-series.php" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Alexandra Poe</span></a> novels—the last co-written by author Robert Gregory Browne—among other works. Tell us a little about each.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> Sure. I’ve been fascinated with virus/end of humanity stories since I was a kid, and always wanted to write my own. Project Eden is the result…humanity is on the brink of extinction, and man is pulling the trigger. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Logan Harper is a series about a man who is trying to simplify his life by moving back to his hometown after a bad divorce and years working for a defense contractor, to work as a mechanic in his 80 year old dad’s auto shop. The thing is Logan is very good at helping people in trouble, whether he likes to admit it or not. His father Harp, though, is more than willing to get his son involved in things Logan would rather not even know about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Alexandra Poe…love her. She’s a tough as nails </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">bounty hunter that has reluctantly taken on work at a defense organization specializing in retrieving wanted individuals no matter where in the world they might be. Her hope is, by doing so, she will learn information that might lead her to her father—a fugitive himself, who disappeared a decade earlier.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Which authors have most influenced your writing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> So many. Initially I would say the greats of sci-fi—Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, to name three. They were my gateway into becoming a lifelong reader, and taught me the power of wonder and adventure. Other influences over the years include, Graham Greene, Robert Ludlum (earlier stuff through around Bourne Identity or thereabouts), Stephen King (huge influence), and Dean Koontz.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Though probably the author who had the most influence was William Relling, Jr. Not for anything he wrote, though he did write some great stuff, but because he was first my teacher at a class I took through UCLA extension, and then leader of the writers’ group I was in when I wrote THE CLEANER, my first published novel. He, more than anyone, help me to understand how to write a good story. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Your web site bio indicates that you have traveled extensively throughout Asia and Europe, locations that factor into your writing of the Jonathan Quinn series and other novels. Are you a rolling stone just wanting to expand your universe or did you purposely travel to these places to add depth and color to your writing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> It’s a little bit of both. I LOVE to travel, so writing interesting locations into my stories was automatic. Not sure I even thought about it as a “thing.” I will now sometimes purposefully go somewhere I want to include in a book, while sometimes I go somewhere and decide, hey, this would make a great setting. That I can marry my love for writing and travel together makes me very happy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> If you could only pick a couple of locations to re-visit, where would you go?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> There are few places I’ve visited that I wouldn’t want to go again! But to narrow it down…hmmm…Vietnam, definitely. I was there about fifteen years ago, and know a lot has changed, so I’d love to see the difference. And how about Finland? I was there in the winter and would like to go when there isn’t ten feet of snow piled everywhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Tell us a little about your writing journey. As I understand it, you first began with legacy publishers and at some point began to pursue the indie publishing route. What prompted you to switch from traditional publishing to indie publishing? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> As most know, the publishing industry has gone through a lot of changes in the last several years, and will probably continue doing so for the foreseeable future. I did five books for Bantam Dell/Random House. When I was working on books four and five, the two people who were my biggest supporters at the imprint (my editor and the head of Bantam Dell) each left within four months of each other leaving me with a new team that was not invested in my work. When it came time for a new contract, they decided to pass, which is just part of business. It was also fine as I would have probably passed on any offer they may have made. It was time to move on. The question was where. I had at first thought about shopping around for another publisher, but was also intrigued by the growing indie publishing movement. Several friends—J.A. Konrath and Blake Crouch to name a couple—had been having success in this new area, so I decided to give it a try. It was a bit touch and go in the first few months, but since then I haven’t looked back. Love the indie life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> As mentioned above, your writing life must take up a lot of your waking hours. When not writing, how do you like to spend your leisure hours if you have any?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> I do have a little. If I didn’t, I think I’d go completely crazy. I spend it many ways…spending time with my kids, catching up on TV shows I like, hiking, playing with my dog, movies, hanging out with friends, travel, the occasional video game…things like that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Your education and work experience prior to full time writing seems to revolve around the television and the movie industry. How do your educational background and past jobs influence your writing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> I think the way working any job would, life experience, meeting different types of people, being exposed to situations that could be extrapolated into situations that can be used in stories…things like that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Where do you see the publishing industry headed? What roles will writers, publishers, editors, agents, and others have in this new world?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> I believe the rise of the independent author is a change that’s here to stay. Will traditional publishers still be around? I think they probably will. But I also think authors will continue to gain more power, and have more choices. Publishing will continue to evolve, and it will be interesting to see where it is in five years. The thing I do know is that the two most important things in the publishing world are readers and writers. And since readers need stories to read, authors will always have work to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> What advice would you give new writers trying to get their first novel published?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> Make sure it’s the best it can be. Decide which avenue to being published you want to pursue, and go for it. And, most importantly, start writing the next book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> What can fans of your work look forward to seeing published in the near future? What projects are you working on?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Brett:</b> Several things are stirring around. A new Project Eden novel before the end of the year. Perhaps a new Quinn, also. And, if all goes according to plan, a standalone in the near future. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark:</b> Brett, thanks for joining us. We look forward to re-acquainting ourselves with Jonathan Quinn and all your other characters in the coming year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Brett Battles is a Barry Award-winning author of over twenty-two novels, including the Jonathan Quinn series, the Logan Harper series, and the Project Eden series. He’s also the coauthor, with Robert Gregory Browne, of the Alexandra Poe series. You can learn more at his website: <a href="http://brettbattles.com/"><span style="color: yellow;">brettbattles.com</span></a></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-37532984881108225302014-04-01T15:36:00.000-07:002014-04-01T16:22:54.131-07:00Narco-Traffickers, Murders & Mexican Cartels: All in a day's work for cop-turned-writer C.L. Swinney<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>By Mark Young</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Author Chris Swinney—writing as C.L. Sweeney—pens stories drawn from his own experiences. His day job is catching bad guys and whenever he can grab a few extra moments—he writes about them. Chris’ non-writing job is as a detective with a sheriff’s office in California. He has been loaned out to work on a Department of Justice task force focusing on drug trafficking and violent crimes. As an author, he writes crime thrillers, his debut novel <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/C.-L.-Swinney/e/B00DSWIANQ" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Gray Ghost</span></a></i> released a few weeks ago and his second novel </span><i style="font-size: x-large;">Collectors </i><span style="font-size: large;">coming out later this year. It is always refreshing to read fiction written by someone who has lived the life</span><span style="font-size: large;">—y</span><span style="font-size: large;">ou know the cop-stuff is dead on. Chris is one of those writers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mark:</span></b> Chris, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us here on Hook’em & Book’em. Tell us a little bit about your day job as a detective with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office in California.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span></b> First, thanks for having me on Hook’em & Book’em. Now, a little bit about my job. I’m assigned to a DOJ Task Force as a representative of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. We basically do everything, from street level dealers and crimes against people to large scale narcotics and homicide investigations. This basically means we try to plan our days, but normally something else pops up that needs to be handled.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Mark</b>:</span> As a crime fiction writer, I am highly interested in your expertise in cell phone forensics. On television and in the movies, viewers have grown accustomed to having law enforcement use cell phone technology to track down and catch bad guys. Everything from retrieving cell phone conversations to backtracking a person’s movement based upon tower pings and other contrivances. Tell us where reality leaves off and fantasy begins with cell phone forensics. What does law enforcement hope to gain from cell phone forensic? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span></b> Without giving up too much information, I’d say cell phone forensics has gotten better and has led to solving crimes. Some of the stuff you see on TV is a little exaggerated, but I can tell someone with a cell phone forensic background has schooled them on what to do and say. Law enforcement is always behind in this technology, however, and we struggle with knowing others (NSA and secret squirrels) have the ability to assist local law enforcement, but they choose not to share the technology. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mark:</span></b> You are a narcotics detective assigned to work a task force operation with the Department of Justice. Tell us about these duties. Who do you team up with? Who are your general targets—street level traffickers, organized crime groups, Mexican cartels?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span></b> We team up with anyone who asks us for help or we work together as one large team. Some days we can’t get to our own work because major issues spring up, but, it’s satisfying when we’re successful. Among the other interesting things we do, I get to process clandestine labs, which helps keep the community safer. We also work organized crime groups, cartels, and essentially anyone doing bad things from San Francisco down to Monterey.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mark:</span></b> What do you see as major drug trafficking trends? Years ago, cocaine exploded on the scene and flooded the market. A short time later, meth became a serious problem within our communities, later morphing into crystal meth. And heroin, which has plagued us forever, is always lurking out there looking for more victims—i.e., tragic death of Hunger Games star Phillip Seymour Hoffman last month. What are you seeing now as an emerging threat to our communities?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span> </b> I hate to say this, but ALL the drugs are on the streets in an alarming amount. In the San Francisco Bay Area, crystal methamphetamine is probably the most used and seen, but recently I found two kilos of cocaine on a guy, so you can’t dismiss cocaine. We have young people using heroin because it’s cheaper than OxyContin. And, we know heroin is being used, but we tend to focus on the crystal methamphetamine. As far as a trend, I’d say we’re not getting the support we need from the community or the people with the money these days. Having said that, we don’t give up and we continue to try to make the surrounding communities safer. Not really an “emerging” threat, but one that needs to be discussed, is the rampant abuse of pharmaceutical pills. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mark:</span></b> As part of drug trafficking investigations, you are sometimes required to use wire taps to gather evidence. Explain to our readers the reality of this investigative technique, its limitations, and how it differs from what we see on television or in the movies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span></b> The wire taps I’ve worked have been wild, from complex narco trafficking to murder for hire. However, they are very difficult to obtain and we tend to keep the entire process a secret. As far as the TV shows or movies I’ve seen featuring wire taps, they’ve been a little off. We don’t “flip a switch” or snap a finger and start hearing phone calls. It takes months to develop these types of cases.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mark:</span></b> Let’s switch subjects and talk about your writing life. Last </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">year, you came out with your debut novel, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/C.-L.-Swinney/e/B00DSWIANQ" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Gray Ghost</span></a></i>, a crime thriller that takes place in the Bahamas where your main characters discover their fishing guides died in a mysterious explosion. Give our readers a little taste of what to expect?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span></b> I’ve always had a passion for the outdoors and law enforcement, so I took personal experiences and what I see every day and wrote a novel. I wrote inverted, that is, the reader knows fairly early on who the bad guy is, but I leave enough doubt and concern to provide a climatic ending.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mark:</span></b> How did you come up with the idea for this plot?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span> </b>While flying into Andros, Bahamas, I noticed several downed planes on the tiny runway. I asked the locals about the planes and quickly learned about the narcotic trafficking occurring on the island headed to Miami. I interviewed and spoke to law enforcement, coast guard, and locals. Then, I just mulled the idea for years while life sort of took over. Fast forward eight years and I get into law enforcement-eventually working narcotics. It took four years for the novel to get published.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mark:</span></b> I would imagine your day job takes a big bite out of your time. What kind of writing schedule do you follow?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span></b> My writing schedule is as chaotic as my job. I write any time I can. Sometimes I speak out loud in my car into my cell phone recorder when I’m sitting on surveillance. When I get home, I help with the kids and try to write after that. When I have something that needs to be completed or an upcoming deadline, I buckle down and get it done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mark:</span> </b>What is your next writing project? Where are you in this process?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span></b> The next novel in the Bill Dix series is called Collectors. It’s written and I’m editing it now. I was able to feature a mentor of mine in the novel, Koti Fakava, who passed away unexpectedly leaving his wife and five kids. I’m donating the proceeds from Collectors to Koti’s family. I can’t describe how excited I am about this project. I’ve been able to get some great support, and the book is contracted. It should be out sometime in August.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mark:</span></b> Since you have one novel under your belt, what have you learned about the publishing and marketing business? Are there some things you might change or do differently this next time out?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span></b> I’ve learned quite a bit about the industry in the last five years. Publishing and marketing is a very difficult business. There are publishers out there that will prey on people who desperately want to see their work in print. I think if you continue to write and write well, you will get published. I think if you stick to your work and find an audience for it, you will become successful. I think it’s amazing to get published, but the real work comes with promoting. There are over ten million books on Amazon; somehow you must find a way to compete with all of them. As far as what I might try differently, I did that when I found a new publisher. I’m hopeful that I can be successful and keep my sanity while continuing to entertain readers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mark:</span></b> Where can readers find you in the social media world? How can they reach you if they have any further questions?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">Chris:</span></b> I’m a big social media guy. I’m on <a href="https://twitter.com/CLSWINNEY" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Twitter</span></a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/clswinney" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Facebook</span></a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?trk=contacts-contacts-list-contact_name-0&id=56326699" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Linked-In</span></a>, Instagram (clswinney), <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+CLSwinney/posts" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Google+</span></a>, and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7166400.C_L_Swinney" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Goodreads</span></a>. If you can’t reach me on these sites, you can reach my via email at swinster11@yahoo.com</span><span style="font-size: large;"> Thanks again for this wonderful opportunity!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">About the Author:</span></b> Chris Swinney (C. L. Swinney), is currently assigned to a Department of Justice Task Force that investigates a myriad of cases ranging from street level drug dealers and bank robbers to homicides and complex Mexican Cartel cases. When criminals run, Chris is called to find them. He puts his unbelievable experiences and everyday life as a Detective into his writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Chris officially began his writing career when his feature article was published in Fly Fisherman Magazine. After this, his work continued to appear in PointsBeyond.com, Alaskan Peninsula Newspaper, California Game & Fish, and again in Fly Fisherman Magazine. He's now a contributor to PoliceOne.com, the nation's premier law enforcement online magazine.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-64242494546208125232014-03-18T16:17:00.000-07:002014-03-18T16:17:50.684-07:00BROKEN ALLEGIANCE (A Tom Kagan Novel) has been unleashed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">By Mark Young</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Stop the presses! I completely forget to share my latest bit of news. I have a new novel out!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Can you believe I forget to tell you about this? I have been so busy working on my next novel, posting other authors’ new releases and other blog-related interviews—I completely forget to let you know about my own novel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I apologize.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Release of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HLT2G00" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Broken Allegiance (A Tom Kagan Novel)</span></a></i> may be known to those of you who pal around with me on other social media sites. However, I just realized that some of my reading friends might only cross paths here on <i>Hook'em & Book'em</i>. They may not know that another of my mystery, suspense, police procedural novels has been let loose on the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here is the down-and-dirty:</span><br />
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<i>Police gang detective Tom Kagan sought justice for more than ten years, leaving him a broken man. His only reason for living—the woman he loves and the badge he swore to uphold. When a man is brutally killed in a vineyard on the outskirts of Santa Rosa, California, it sparks a series of events that test what’s left of Kagan’s resolve to protect and serve. </i></span><br />
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<i>Secrets from the past thwart Kagan’s efforts to unravel a series of killings sanctioned from within the walls of California’s highest security prison. From the lush vineyards of Sonoma County to the shores of beautiful Lake Tahoe, the detective must outsmart a killer who is moving in for one epic killing spree. </i></span><br />
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<i>Leaders of the notorious Nuestra Family prison gang are fighting for power, a struggle that spills out onto the streets of California. Kagan joins forces with Special Agent Hector Garcia, a feisty supervisor of the Special Services Unit for the California Department of Corrections; Diane Phillips, a beautiful and hard-charging prosecutor; and Mikio Sanchez, a former gang member marked for death. Through the eyes of cops and gangsters, readers are able to glimpse the seldom seen workings of the gangster underworld. </i></span><br />
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<i>Broken Allegiance is about treacherous lies, broken promises, and shattered lives—about life, death and a man’s honor.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Does this pique your interest? If so, you can find a copy of <i>Broken Allegiance</i> through Amazon’s Kindle Store <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HLT2G00" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">here</span></a></b> or in print through Createspace <b><a href="https://www.createspace.com/4458108" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">here</span></a></b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Grab a copy. A sequel will be coming out right on its heels. Next time, I will be a little quicker letting you know when another novel is released.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Promise! Cross my heart and hope to… Huh, I think I’ll stop right there. After all, I do write crime novels.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-8680730983596045172014-01-13T09:48:00.000-08:002014-01-13T15:35:11.949-08:00Getting Inside A Cop’s Head: Interview with Ellen Kirschman, Police Psychologist<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">By Mark Young</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aJVJKIOd7rA/UtH6WQYC2AI/AAAAAAAACUc/3pE6aFWoROM/s1600/Dr.+Ellen+Kirschman.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aJVJKIOd7rA/UtH6WQYC2AI/AAAAAAAACUc/3pE6aFWoROM/s1600/Dr.+Ellen+Kirschman.jpeg" width="214" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Ellen Kirschman</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fiction writers are always trying to figure out what makes a cop tick. What makes cops run toward danger rather than fleeing from danger? Are there any psychological motivations and stresses that might make a law enforcement officer crack or cross the line between law abider and law breaker? How far can their characters be pushed in the novel until their world collapses?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"> There are a few writers who have been granted a rare glimpse into the cop culture—their motivations, their fears, and their worst nightmares. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Police Psychologist Ellen Kirschmen is one of those unique individuals who has gained access to police culture for more than thirty years. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ellen wrote about cops in her doctorate dissertation titled <i>Wounded Heroes</i>. Her first book, titled</span><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/i_love_a_cop__what_police_families_need_to_know_119520.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">I Love A Cop: What Police Families Need to Know</span></a></span><span style="font-size: large;">, was motivated by her desire to help law enforcement families cope with the stresses of the job. Later, Ellen wrote </span><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/counseling_cops__what_clinicians_need_to_know_119549.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Counseling Cops: What Clinicians Need to Know</span></a> </span><span style="font-size: large;">to help mental health professionals and others to know how to relate to cops. Several months ago, Ellen came out with her first mystery novel,</span><a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/burying_ben__a_dot_meyerhoff_mystery__119568.htm" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank"> <span style="color: yellow;">Burying Ben</span></a><span style="font-size: large;">, a story about a female police psychologist trying to survive the police culture as a civilian, a woman, and a political liberal. The world of main character Dot Meyerhoff is turned upside down when a rookie cop by the name of Ben—whom she is counseling—unexpectantly commits suicide and leaves behind a note blaming Dot for his death.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK</b>: Ellen, welcome to Hook’em and Book’em. I would personally like to thank you for helping those in law enforcement face the psychological challenges of the job. In my career, I have witnessed the damage the job has done to these officers and I know the barriers you must have faced during your career. Thank you! </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">That being said, I also must add that I know that in some cases harm has been inflicted on officers when psychologists did not understand the police culture, they violated confidences, or when police departments used these psychologists as a means of discipline to force the cop off the job.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I imagine it is a fine line you must tread when trying to help these officers and their families. Before we get into this subject more deeply, please explain to our readers how you became a police psychologist and what are the goals of this unique professional?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN: </b>I was working as a clinical social worker in a psychiatric clinic. Several of my clients were married </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">to cops (this was a long time ago when there were few women officers) and the stories they told about their home lives were quite distressing. When I asked my clients to invite their husbands to a session, not only did the husbands never show up, their wives quit therapy soon after. All this piqued my interest: what was it about the job that created such problems for families? More out of enthusiasm than experience, I put together a class called "I Love a Cop" at my local community college. The first session was filled to capacity and there were 40+ women on the waiting list. I had stumbled into an unfilled need. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There are approximately 250 police psychologists in the US. By that I mean those whose practices are primarily devoted to public safety and who belong to recognized police psychology organizations such as the police psychological services section (PPSS) of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Over the past several years, the profession has received recognition as a specialty by the American Board of Professional Psychology. In brief, the goal of the profession has been to apply behavioral science principles that are ethically and empirically based to problems facing law enforcement at both the individual and organizational level. The four basic domains of police psychology practice are assessment, organizational consultation, intervention, and operational assistance. Many, if not most, police psychologists have assessment practices. My background is in the consultation and intervention domains. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK: </b> The police culture is very guarded for obvious reasons—public scrutiny, possible civil or criminal sanctions, and fear for the safety of their families to name a few. It would seem your success in helping officers might depend upon how they got to your office—voluntarily seeking counseling or department-mandated Fitness For Duty (FFD) evaluations. Please define the differences between the goals of voluntary counseling and FFD evaluations?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> My practice has always been voluntary. In fact, I spent twenty-five years consulting to one agency where my office was located on the flight path between the briefing room and the locker room. This was an unusual decision made by the officer-led task force who hired me. They wanted to normalize counseling and make it part of healthy self-care. Officers had the option to see me in a private location as well. I did a lot of counseling "on the hoof." Apparently, standing up and talking while leaning on the doorsill doesn't count as therapy. Neither does talking in patrol cars or in the locker room.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There are two major differences between voluntary counseling and FFD evaluations. 1) In an FFD the client is the agency who requests the FFD, not the officer; and 2) There is no confidentiality for the officer in an FFD. In voluntary counseling a clinician could lose his or her license for violating confidentiality. The only exceptions are when the client is a danger to self or others, abusing a child or an elderly person, or incapable of caring for self.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Under what conditions are FFDs ordered by the police departments?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> FFDs have never been my speciality. Your readers are best served by checking out the <a href="http://www.iacp.org/portals/0/documents/pdfs/Psych-FitnessforDutyEvaluation.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">FFD Evaluation Guidelines</span> </a>published by the PPSS. According to those guidelines the purpose of an FFD is to determine whether the employee is able to safely and effectively perform his or her essential job functions. A FFD is considered when there is an objective, reasonable basis, founded on direct observation, credible third party report, or other reliable evidence, that the employee's ability to work safely and effectively is in question. An FFD should never be used as discipline. Nor, for that matter, should mental health providers ever be used as stand-ins for decent supervision.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK</b>: Let’s switch gears for a moment. You have just released your first novel titled<a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/burying_ben__a_dot_meyerhoff_mystery__119568.htm" target="_blank"> <span style="color: yellow;">Burying Ben</span></a>. What is the gist of this novel?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> Dr. Dot Meyer has barely settled into her new job as department psychologist for the Kenilworth Police when Ben Gomez, a troubled young rookie that she tries to counsel kills himself. Overnight, her promising new start becomes a nightmare. At stake is her job, her reputation, her license to practice, and her already battered sense of self-worth. Dot resolves to find out not just what led Ben to kill himself, but why her psychologist ex-husband, the man she most wants to avoid, recommended that Ben be hired in the first place. Ben’s surviving family and everyone else connected to him are determined to keep Ben’s story a secret, by any means necessary. Even Ben, from the grave, has secrets to keep. By the time she uncovers the real reasons behind Ben’s suicide and brings the people responsible to justice, Dot has not only resurrected belief in herself, she has also acquired some surprisingly useful new skills: impersonating a public official, burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> What motivated you to write this story?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> I was delusional. After writing two non-fiction books, I actually thought it would be easier to make things up. It isn't. I've always worried that a client of mine would kill him or herself and I've wondered how I would cope with the guilt. Writing <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/burying_ben__a_dot_meyerhoff_mystery__119568.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Burying Ben</span></a> gave me a chance to work this out on paper. Writing fiction is payback time. I get to take pot shots at cops, at my fellow psychologists, at my ex-husbands, and myself. Lastly, and most importantly, it is time to talk about police suicide and the fact that officers are two, perhaps three, times as likely to kill themselves as they are to be killed in the line of duty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> You found switching from non-fiction to fiction to be challenging but I suspect you are having fun. Am I right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> Very challenging but a lot more fun. Writing non-fiction is a journalistic endeavor. The challenge is to get your facts right and present them in an understandable, readable package. Fiction requires the writer to capture the reader's imagination so that he or she is locked into the story, cares about the characters and wants to know how the whole thing turns out. Non-fiction readers can pick up a book and put it down again at will. A good novel should have the reader baring her teeth at anyone or anything that interrupts her before she finishes the story. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Just prior to the release of <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/burying_ben__a_dot_meyerhoff_mystery__119568.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Burying Ben</span></a>, you and two other colleagues released a non-fiction book <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/counseling_cops__what_clinicians_need_to_know_119549.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Counseling Cops: What Clinicians Need to Know</span></a>. Is this strictly targeted toward clinicians, or would others—like fiction authors—find this book of value in understanding cops?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> Several mystery writers have told me that they own dog-eared copies of <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/i_love_a_cop__what_police_families_need_to_know_119520.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">I Love a Cop</span></a> that they use for inspiration. I think <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/counseling_cops__what_clinicians_need_to_know_119549.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Counseling Cops</span></a> could be equally helpful. The book is targeted toward anyone who counsels law enforcement officers; in addition to mental health providers that would include chaplains, medical doctors, and peer supporters. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK: </b> What was the purpose behind writing <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/counseling_cops__what_clinicians_need_to_know_119549.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Counseling Cops: What Clinicians Need to Know?</span></a> Can you provide us an example as to why this book is necessary?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> The purpose of writing <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/counseling_cops__what_clinicians_need_to_know_119549.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Counseling Cops</span></a> was to create culturally competent clinicians. My two co-authors are both retired officers as well as psychologists. Their experiences on-and-off the job make this a much richer book than had I written it myself. As you know, cops find it very difficult to ask for help. They're supposed to solve problems, not have them. To a cop, having problems equals being weak. So when pressure mounts and an officer finally reaches out for help, he or she deserves to see a provider who understands cops and the culture in which they work. Here are two examples from the book of how things can go wrong: </span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">"Tracy was looking for a therapist. The first therapist he consulted teared up and didn’t think she could bear listening to the kinds of challenges he encountered at work. The second therapist reassured Tracy that he understood the impact of carrying great responsibility because many of his clients were CEOs of large organizations. Tracy responded in anger. 'When a CEO makes a mistake, the company loses money. When I make a mistake someone dies.'" The therapist Tracy finally chose was a combat veteran who knew firsthand what it meant to put your life on the line and the costs of doing it year after year." P. 6.</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">"Bill had been in two shootings that resulted in his killing two suspects. He was having nightmares and seriously considering quitting police work in order to avoid the possibility of a third deadly encounter. His department EAP referred him to a local clinician who had a lot of experience, none of which involved law enforcement. This was Bill’s first-ever counseling session. The therapist listened to Bill’s story carefully. When Bill was finished talking the therapist asked him “So, are you ready to stop killing people?” Bill left the session very upset. It wasn’t until he talked to some of his friends who had been in therapy that he learned how inappropriate and un-therapeutic this question was and accepted another referral to someone familiar with the police culture." P.8</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> What are some of the more prevalent issues you deal with when a law enforcement officers walks through your door? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> As you said earlier, trust and confidentiality are probably the biggest hurdles to forming a therapeutic alliance. In terms of clinical issues, or common problems, cops probably don't vary greatly from their civilian counterparts. I don't know of a scientific answer to your question, but I'd say family problems probably top the list. The issues we cover in <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/counseling_cops__what_clinicians_need_to_know_119549.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Counseling Cops</span></a> are alcoholism, substance abuse and addiction, depression and suicide, trauma, organizational stress and betrayal, family issues, growing old on the job, sleep deprivation and shift work, and something we call the Emergency Responder's Exhaustion Syndrome which is a combination of depression, exhaustion, isolation, and anger. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> A lot has changed in the law enforcement community in the last 30 years—including the way stress-related issues are understood and handled by officers and police departments. What are some of the positive changes you have witnessed that might help these officers survive?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> Critical incident debriefings are common these days. They vary, of course, in effectiveness, but they are way more helpful than choir practice. Large urban departments and many smaller ones now routinely provide access to low cost confidential counseling as well as police chaplains. In my opinion, one of the best changes is having well-trained and well-managed peer support teams. Cops like talking to other cops, if they can be trusted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> What are some of the areas that law enforcement might do a better job in helping these officers cope?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> I would like to see every agency, big and small, have a confidential peer support program including family members, family orientations at first hire and again every five years, a chaplaincy program, supervisors who are knowledgeable about spotting mental health issues and compassionate when talking to their officers, and easy access for officers and their families to culturally competent, confidential, low cost counseling. I'd like to see police academies devote more time to teaching officers how to manage stress and develop resilience, and I'd like to see field training programs incorporate behavioral science principles and promote wellness, both physical and psychological. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> What suggestions would you give authors trying to create plausible and realistic cop characters? What sources of information would you suggest?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> You mean after reading my books? Go on a ride-along. After all these years I still learn something new every time I do. Attend a citizens' academy. You'll learn a lot and have an opportunity to interact with officers. Volunteer at your local police department. Whatever you do, don't watch cop shows on television. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Any other suggestions as to how these authors might obtain a better understanding of this closed culture?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> Learn about guns. Practice on the range. Try your hand at a firearms training simulator (FATS). If you're qualified and have the time to invest, consider becoming a reserve officer or putting yourself through a police academy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Are you still a practicing police psychologist or are you pursuing other goals at this point in your life?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> I no longer have a private practice. I do continue to teach peer support, self-care for cops, give workshops for public safety families, and for clinicians who want to work with first responders. My biggest commitment is to the <a href="http://www.wcpr2001.org/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">West Coast Post Trauma Retreat</span></a> (WCPR) for first responders with post traumatic stress injuries (PTSI). I volunteer to do four six-day retreats a year. If any of your readers and their spouses or significant others are suffering with symptoms of PTSI, I encourage them to find out more about this amazingly effective, all volunteer, peer driven, clinically guided program at <span style="color: yellow;">www.<a href="http://wcpr2001.org/"><span style="color: yellow;">wcpr2001.org</span></a></span>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> What is ahead in your writing career? More fiction? More non-fiction?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> More fiction. I've just completed the first draft of the second Dot Meyerhoff mystery and I can't wait to start revising. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> What would be one thing you’d like to share with new police officers just starting out in their career?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>ELLEN:</b> Remember, this is a job, not an identity (nobody wants to hear that, especially not rookies). Work hard to find some balance in life. Police work entails a lot of negativity. Negativity is contagious. Try not to catch it. Remember that all you can control in life is your professionalism and your integrity. Don't waste time trying to change anyone else. Keep your expectations realistic. You may love the job, but it won't love you back. Most importantly, know the difference between your work family and your real family. Your work family can (and will) be fickle. If you treat your real family with respect, they'll be there when the job isn't. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for giving me this opportunity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Ellen, thank you for joining us here on Hook’em & Book’em.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">*******</span></b></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Author and writer, Ellen Kirschman, MSW, PhD, has been a police and public safety psychologist for over 30 years. Ellen’s work with first responders has taken her to four countries and 22 states. After giving up her private practice, Ellen spends her time writing, teaching, and volunteering as a clinician at the<span style="color: yellow;"> <u>West Cost Post Trauma Retreat </u></span>for first responders. Her first book, <span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/i_love_a_cop__what_police_families_need_to_know_119520.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">I Love a Cop: What Police Families Need to Know</span></a>, </span>has sold more than 100,000 copies. Her next book, <span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/i_love_a_fire_fighter__what_the_family_needs_to_know_119569.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">I Love a Fire Fighter: What the Family Needs to Know</span></a> </span>was penned after the tragic events of 9/11. Her next non-fiction book, published this year, was <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/counseling_cops__what_clinicians_need_to_know_119549.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Counseling Cops: What Clinicians Need to Know</span></a>, the third in the ‘Need to Know’ series. Just released,<a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/burying_ben__a_dot_meyerhoff_mystery__119568.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;"> Burying Ben</span></a>, is her first foray into the fiction world of writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ellen lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, a photographer and a retired remodeling contractor. In their spare time, Ellen and her husband enjoy hiking, traveling, and cooking. Find out more about Ellen at her web site at<span style="color: yellow;"> <a href="http://www.ellenkirschman.com/"><span style="color: yellow;">www.ellenkirschman.com</span></a></span>.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-81502115454663076422013-12-24T22:13:00.000-08:002013-12-24T22:13:00.367-08:00MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the City of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2: 10-12)</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-22879729168462642382013-10-18T15:00:00.000-07:002013-10-18T15:00:00.620-07:00Catching Burglars: Ex-Cop-turned-Author Writes From Her Passion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>By Kathy Bennett</b><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">[Editor's Note: Author Kathy Bennett writes from her own police experience. She served 29 years with Los Angeles Police Department. And if that was not enough experience, she married a cop. Find out more about Kathy at her own web site </span><a href="http://www.kathybennett.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">here</span></a><span style="color: orange;">]</span><br />
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Everyone who has a job knows that there are some aspects to the job that you like better than others. If you’re a baker maybe you don’t like baking the cake but you enjoy applying the icing. Perhaps you work as an auto mechanic. You aren’t fond of replacing brakes, but tearing apart a car's engine and putting back together again provides you a great sense of accomplishment.<br />
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Police officers are no different. Some officers love to write tickets. Others like working with the community to solve ongoing problems. For some officers, spotting people driving stolen cars or detaining suspects holding narcotics gets their hearts racing.<br />
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The suspects I liked to target were burglars. It didn’t matter if they were burglars who invaded a person’s home or if the suspects broke into cars. For me, the attraction was the fact they worked 24/7. Even more incentive was that burglars are hard to catch. What can I say? I like a challenge.<br />
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One of the more memorable arrests I made I was working with another female officer whose name also happened to be Kathy. She was my favorite partner ever. We’d just started working together and were assigned to the ‘morning watch,’ which many other departments and professions call the graveyard shift. Most officers working the morning watch enjoyed patrolling in the dead of night and the ones who worked it year after year were a tight-knit group. We were newcomers, and had to prove ourselves.<br />
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There was an industrial complex where businesses were getting hit several times a week, and had been for months. Kathy and I decided our first shift together that at some point we’d go over to the industrial complex and park in the shadows and see if anything developed.<br />
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I was driving our black and white patrol car, and we slowly cruised past the many closed businesses in search of a good ‘hiding spot.’ We passed by a building that had a chain-link fence enclosure attached. The fencing had privacy slats, but that didn’t prevent Kathy and me from spotting a guy prowling around.<br />
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After detaining him, we determined there was a business in the complex that had been burglarized, and that the suspect was in possession of two large key rings containing about a hundred of regular door keys along with dozens of vending machine keys. The suspect was a transient and had no explanation for the many keys he had with him. Along with the keys, we had evidence from the business that had been burglarized to book him, so we hauled him to jail. That was the first of a number of good arrests we made on morning watch. During our first month we were readily accepted into the fold and were well respected by our co-workers. Kathy and I worked morning watch together for the better part of seven years.<br />
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Another time, there was an area where the division had a high incidence of burglaries of items from motor vehicles. Somewhere around three o’clock one morning, Kathy and I were driving through the 'hot' area with our lights off and, lo and behold, we saw a car parked in the middle of a dark street. We nabbed three young men who all went to a religious school together. They were in the process of breaking into a car, and once we’d taken them into custody, we got them to show us the fourteen other cars they’d broken into. The boys were arrested and booked. Needless to say, when we called the kids' parents to come pick up their felon sons, the parents weren’t happy at all.<br />
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In my latest book, <i><a href="http://www.kathybennett.com/books/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">A Deadly Justice</span></a></i>, my personal itch for capturing burglars led me to create a team of<br />
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sophisticated burglars as adversaries for my main character, LAPD Detective Maddie Divine to uncover. But in order to keep my story authentic, Maddie and her partner, Jade, get involved with other investigations as well…just like it happens in real life. What Maddie doesn’t know is that investigating the burglars may reveal a secret in her own life she’s tried desperately to bury.<br />
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Kathy Bennett is no stranger to murder and mayhem. She served twenty-nine years with the Los Angeles Police Department - eight as a civilian employee and twenty-one years as a sworn police officer. While most of her career was spent in a patrol car, she’s also been a Firearms Instructor at the LAPD Academy, a crime analyst in the “War Room”, a Field Training Officer, a Senior Lead Officer, and worked undercover in various assignments. Kathy was honored to be named Officer of the Year in 1997.<br />
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Kathy's debut novel,<span style="color: yellow;"> </span><a href="http://www.kathybennett.com/books/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;"><i>A Dozen Deadly Roses</i></span></a>, and her second book, <a href="http://www.kathybennett.com/books/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;"><i>A Deadly Blessing</i></span></a> became bestselling ebooks at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.<i> </i><a href="http://www.kathybennett.com/books/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;"><i>A Deadly Blessing</i></span>,</a> is the first book in a series featuring LAPD Detective Maddie Divine and was named a Best Nook Book Original for 2012. Law enforcement personnel laud Kathy's authentic stories of crime and suspense for 'getting it right.'<br />
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Kathy's third book,<a href="http://www.kathybennett.com/books/" target="_blank"><i> <span style="color: yellow;">A Deadly Justice</span></i></a>, was released in September of 2013. She's currently working on her fourth novel, <i>A Deadly Denial</i>.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-49104091051180685782013-10-15T04:00:00.000-07:002013-10-17T07:52:08.921-07:00Heart Failure, romance medical thriller by Richard L. Mabry, MD<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">When her fiancé’s dangerous secrets turn her world upside-down, a beautiful doctor must choose between her own safety and the man she loves—and thought she knew.</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Carrie Markham’s heart was broken by the death of her husband two years ago. Now, just as her medical practice is taking off, her fresh engagement to paralegal Adam Davidson seems almost too good to be true . . . until a drive-by shooting leaves Carrie on the floor of his car with glass falling around her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">When he confesses that Adam isn’t his real name and that he fled the witness protection program, Carrie is left with an impossible choice: should she abandon the fiancé she isn’t sure she really knows, or accept his claim of innocence and help him fight back against this faceless</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">EXCERPT FROM <i>HEART FAILURE</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">…He reached across to hug her, and she turned to find shelter in his arms. They stayed that way for a long moment, and the trembling inside her slowly eased. “What…what was that about?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Nothing for you to worry about.” Adam’s voice and manner were calm, and Carrie felt comforted by his very presence. Then, as suddenly as the turn of a page, he released her and swung around to face forward in the driver’s seat. His next words were terse, clipped. “We have to get out of here.” He reached for the ignition, key in hand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Wait a minute!” Carrie pulled her cell phone from her purse and held it out to him. “We can’t leave. We need to call 911.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Adam took her arm, a bit more firmly than necessary, and pushed the phone away. He shook his head. “No!”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> She flinched at his response, at the tone as much as the rebuke. “Why? Someone shot at us. We should call the police.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Look, I don’t have time to explain. Let’s go.” Adam’s voice was low.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What’s the matter with him? She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Twice she started to speak. Twice she stopped.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Adam turned the key and reached for the gearshift lever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Carrie saw his jaw clench. She was terrified, but Adam wasn’t so much scared as —she searched for the right word—he was cold and determined. The sudden change frightened her. “If this was a drive-by, we need to report it. Maybe the police can catch them before they kill someone.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Just let me handle this,” Adam said. “Right now, let’s get you someplace safe.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Although Adam’s voice was low, there was an intensity to his words that Carrie had never heard before. “You have to trust me. There are things you don’t know, things that make it dangerous for me to deal with the police right now.” He pointed to her seat belt. “Buckle up and let’s leave. I’ll explain soon.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Carrie wanted to argue, but she could see it was no use. She put away her phone and fastened her seat belt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The lights on the theatre marquee went out. In the distance, a siren sounded, faint at first but growing louder. “We’re out of here,” Adam said. He put the car in gear and eased out of the parking lot, peering through the starred windshield to navigate the dark streets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Carrie studied Adam as he drove. Most men would be shaking after such a close encounter with death. But he wasn’t. Why would that be? Was he used to being shot at? She shook her head. That was plain silly. But how well did she really know him? They’d only been dating a few short months. She glanced at him again. Maybe she didn’t know him as well as she’d thought. That scared her even more than being shot at.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">They rode in silence for a few moments, and during that time, Carrie recreated the shooting in her mind. Her talking about ice cream. The look in Adam’s eyes, as he stared past her. Then something clicked—something she hadn’t realized before. She turned to Adam. “You pushed me down before the shots were fired. You didn’t react to the shots. You knew they were coming.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Adam glanced at her but he didn’t respond.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Carrie thought about it once more. “I’m sure of it. You shoved me below the dashboard before I heard three shots. How did you know what was about to happen?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">He continued to peer into the night. “I was backed into the parking space, so I had a good view of the cars moving down the aisle in front of us. A black SUV pulled even with us, and the barrel of a pistol came out the driver’s side window. That was when I pushed you down.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Lucky you saw it.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Adam shook his head. “Luck had nothing to do with it. I’m always watching.”</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Richard Mabry is a retired physician, past Vice-President of the American Christian Fiction Writers, and the author of six published novels of medical suspense. His books have been finalists in competitions including ACFW’s Carol Award and Romantic Times’ Inspirational Book of the Year. His novel, Lethal Remedy, won a 2012 Selah Award from the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference. His medical thriller, Stress Test (Thomas Nelson), garnered rave reviews from Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly. Richard’s latest novel, Heart Failure, releases on October 15.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You can learn more about Richard at his website: rmabry.com. He can be found on GoodReads, Twitter, and his Facebook fan page is “rmabrybooks.”</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">WHERE TO BUY <i>HEART FAILURE</i></span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-2655961533047767592013-10-05T21:53:00.001-07:002013-10-05T21:53:27.300-07:00Interview: Medical thriller novelist Jordyn Redwood<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>By Mark Young</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Medical thriller novelist Jordyn Redwood has not been idle since we last visited a little over a year ago. At that time, Jordyn had just released her debut novel from the Bloodline Trilogy titled <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2767" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Proof</span></a></i>. Since then, she has released two more in the series; <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2940" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Poison</span></a></i>, published in February of this year; and <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=3081" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Peril</span></a></i>, hitting the bookstores last month.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jordyn writes from experience. She is a registered nurse, working in emergency departments or intensive care units for the pasts twenty years. She teaches advanced resuscitation courses and has taught all levels of medical providers regarding pediatrics. She describes herself as a “medical nerd by day,” reading medical textbooks for fun. She write a very popular bog</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://www.redwoodsmedicaledge.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Redwood's Medical Edge</span></a></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">for those seeking to know the fine line between medical reality and fiction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have invited Jordyn back to Hook’em & Book’em to tell us about her novels and what she had learned about the publishing industry since her last visit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK</b>: Welcome, Jordyn. It is heartening to see an author doing so well in this challenging era. We look forward to reading about your corner of the fiction world. Let’s start with an overview of the Bloodline Trilogy by focusing on some of the key characters. Who should we start with?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN</b>: Mark, it’s so great being back on Hook’em & Book’em! I remember when you first started this blog and it’s great to see all your success.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dr. Lilly Reeves is the heroine in <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2767" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Proof</span></a></i>. She’s an ER physician and the victim of a serial rapist. When DNA testing sets him free her journey begins to prove his guilt assisted by southern charmer Detective Nathan Long. During a hostage crisis in <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2767" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Proof</span></a></i>, we meet SWAT captain Lee Watson. In <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2940" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Poison</span></a></i>, Lee helps Keelyn Blake, a survivor of the <span style="color: yellow;"><i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2767" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Proof</span></a></i> </span>hostage situation and now his fiancée, figure out a mystery when a hallucination of her father’s comes back in the real flesh. In <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=3081" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Peril</span></a></i>, Lilly discovers she has a sister, Morgan</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Adams. Lilly’s famous neurosurgeon father, Dr. Thomas Reeves, is performing a medical experiment and Morgan is held hostage by a few research subjects to get him to disclose why they are sick which brings Lee and Nathan on the scene again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Are there other characters you would like to introduce to readers?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> Drew Stipman is one of my favorite secondary characters. He was wrongly convicted in <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2767" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Proof</span></a></i> and sent to prison. An early readers group connected so much with him that he was written into all three books. Drew was that lone character without much tie to family and he got somewhat of a happy ending at the end of the series. I would like to share more of his story. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Your latest novel, <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=3081" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Peril</span></a></i>, was just released last month. Here is your trailer about this novel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> In <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=3081" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Peril</span></a></i>, Dr. Thomas Reeves is creating super soldiers by enhancing their memory. Unfortunately, the experiments go awry and a few research subjects take Morgan Adams, and the Pediatric ICU, hostage to get him to disclose why they are suffering nightmares, hallucinations and even death. His newly discovered daughter doesn’t have much will to live at the moment. Morgan’s infant daughter was murdered and she feels she could have—should have prevented it. On top of that, she’s now sick and needs a kidney transplant to save her life. Peril is Morgan’s story of overcoming great loss, connecting with her husband again and finding the will to live despite living with great sorrow. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> As I read a description of <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=3081" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Peril</span></a></i>, I came across these two sentences which caused me to want to read more—even if I don’t have a clue about what “enhanced NMDA receptors” are all about. Here are the lines:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An elite unit has received neural grafts from fetal cadavers of genetically altered brain cells with enhance NMDA receptors. The results are remarkable…until the recipients begin suffering hallucinations, nightmares, paralysis…and death.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This does not sound good. Tell me how you came up with this idea? Daytime reading of all those medical textbooks?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> Absolutely! In each book of the Bloodline Trilogy, there is a medical phenomenon I explore. In </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2767" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Proof</span></a></i>—what if DNA testing set a guilty man free because he had a genetic defect. And yes, that can really happen. In <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2940" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Poison</span></a></i>, can hypnosis cause someone to do something evil? In <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=3081" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Peril</span></a></i>, is there such a thing as cellular transfer of memories and if there is—what does that teach us about life?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cellular transfer of memories is where recipients of organs remember or experience memories or tastes of their donor. It’s got lots of anecdotal support in medical literature. We know memories are biologically based—we just don’t know exactly how that biological process for creating memories works. Because of this there is lots of room to explore the ethical implications behind it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I read lots of non-fiction for my fiction stories and I was completely fascinated by Mind Wars by Jonathan D. Moreno which gave me the idea for the experiment and military angle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Okay, let as move onto your second Bloodline Trilogy, <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2940" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Poison</span></a></i>. Tell us a little about this story? What are your characters facing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2940" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Poison</span></a></i> delves into what we believe about</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> truth, what influences truth, and if we believe a lie as truth how that affects our lives. What I love most about <i>Poison</i> is that Keelyn Blake is a body language expert and her fiancé is hiding a big secret. The interplay between the two of them as she “reads” his nonverbal communication really heightened the tension in the novel. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> All three of your novels have been published by Kregel Publications. How did you connect with them? What did you do to get their attention?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> After Proof was finished I was able to get an agent, Greg Johnson, with WordServe Literary. He submitted my book proposal to Kregel and they picked it up. What I’ve heard one of my editors say when I asked her this question was my medical expertise was a plus in writing medical thrillers because they knew the information would be reliable and I had somewhat of a platform started with my blog <i><a href="http://www.redwoodsmedicaledge.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Redwood’s Medical Edge</span></a></i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Can you share with us perceptions you had about publishing that might have changed since you have three novels under your belt? Any surprises?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> Of course, I dreamed about getting to quit my day job a few short months after <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2767" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Proof</span></a></i> was published. Financially, I haven’t been able to do that. I quickly determined I wasn’t going to make James Patterson type money but what surprised me is I wasn’t even making twenty-five percent of my part-time nursing salary. There is work on the road to publication and there is also work at building a readership. Each takes six-ten years. Even more surprising is that most authors are working other jobs and will probably have to always do so. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Once you were accepted by a publisher, what steps did you take to help get the word out about your novels? Social networking? Speaking engagements? Website presence?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> I have done all the above. The best marketing lesson I’ve learned is that it takes six-ten exposures to an author and/or their book title for a reader to make a decision to buy. By incorporating all these things I’m hoping to do just that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Some writers have a perception that once a publisher latches onto their novel, all authors have to do is keep on writing. That the publisher would take care of all the rest. What has been your experience?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> I don’t think anyone in the publishing business (authors, agents, or marketers) would say authors get to sit in the backseat as far as marketing. I had a great working relationship with Kregel and I feel they did support marketing the book by buying advertising, supplying me with postcards to mail out, developing a book trailer, Facebook party and providing advanced reader copies to get people excited about the story. That being said, there were some things I wanted to do as well that I financed myself. For instance, I hired a publicist for Peril strictly for pitching broadcast media outlets. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> What is your next project now that you have had a moment to catch your breath from Peril?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> I’ve developed a fiction trilogy around the phenomenon of near death experiences (NDEs) that I’m hoping will get picked up by a traditional publisher. No word yet. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Any words of advice that you could give new writers?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> The road to publication is hard work but it is also worth all the hard work. If your words can speak to just one person—you are a successful writer even if you’re not making a lot of money. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>MARK:</b> Again, thank you for taking the time to tell us about your writing career. We look forward to your next step in this writing game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>JORDYN:</b> Mark, I always enjoy being with your readers. You’re a true friend on this publishing road and I’m very thankful for you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jordyn Redwood is the author of the Bloodline Trilogy novels <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2767" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Proof</span></a></i>, <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2940" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Poison</span></a></i> and <i><a href="http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=3081" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Peril</span></a></i>. She is a registered nurse with extensive experience in emergency department and intensive care units for more than 20 years. She writes medical thrillers base upon these experiences and from her enjoyment reading medical textbooks. Jordyn hosts the widely-read blog, <i><a href="http://www.redwoodsmedicaledge.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Redwood’s Medical Edge</span></a></i>, where she answers medical questions for fiction writers and readers. She lectures about medical issues and fiction writing, including a popular lecture titled Medical Mayhem: Strategies to Accurately Depict Medical Fact in Fiction. Find out more about Jordyn at her <a href="http://www.redwoodsmedicaledge.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">web site</span></a>.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-77813567330262905472013-09-14T14:12:00.000-07:002013-09-14T14:12:07.602-07:00SWEET DREAMS: A Thriller by Bestselling Author Aaron Patterson<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0GMLFrDZ2i8/UjTPOp7oh1I/AAAAAAAACMk/Ezypbihf8TA/s1600/Entire-Sweet-Dreams-Updated-Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0GMLFrDZ2i8/UjTPOp7oh1I/AAAAAAAACMk/Ezypbihf8TA/s320/Entire-Sweet-Dreams-Updated-Cover.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">[Editor's Note:</span> <span style="color: yellow;">SWEET DREAMS</span> <span style="color: #b45f06;">is currently on sale for .99-cents through Bookbub as an eBook. Here is the link to Amazon: </span><span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Justice-Revenge-Appleton-Thriller-ebook/dp/B001N0LLP4?tag=bookbubemailc-20" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">SWEET DREAMS</span></a> ]</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Mark Appleton</b> is living the American Dream. Beautiful wife, loving daughter, and a high paying job in New York City. But when his family are killed in a accident he must reinvent himself. A year later in the midst of putting his life back together, Mark finds out that his family was killed and it was...No accident. Mark will stop at nothing to hunt down the men responsible for the death of his family and what he finds will change his life forever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Kirk Weston</b> is a Detroit detective. He hates his job, his ex-wife, and his life. He is hand selected to help the FBI on a high profile case and just when he thinks things could not get any worse...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">They do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">* * * Book 1 in the WJA series is,<span style="color: yellow;"> SWEET DREAMS</span>, Book 2,<span style="color: yellow;"> DREAM ON</span>, and Book 3, <span style="color: yellow;">IN YOUR DREAMS </span>are also available! * * *</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">REVIEWS:</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"I loved this book. It kept me turning one page after the other at a fast pace. Aaron Patterson is one of my favorite authors. I have read many on his books. Hoping to read all of them in my lifetime."--Amazon Reviewer</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"<span style="color: yellow;">Sweet Dreams</span> was a book I read in 2 days. I truly enjoyed the read. It kept me wanting to know more. I'm looking forward to Part 2 of the WJA Trilogy!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">--Sharon Adams, Novi, MI</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Suspense, thriller with a perfect ending, leaving me wanting more. An on the edge of your seat, all night read. I most certainly will be reading "Dream On."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">--Sheri Wilkinson, Sandwich, IL</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"New authors come and go every day. Very few come on the scene with the ability to weave a tale that will make you sad to reach the end, longing for more. At a time when the world needs a real hero, Patterson delivers big with the WJA's Mark Appleton--an unlikely hero for the 21st century."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">--The Joe Show</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Aaron Patterson spins a good tale and does it well."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">--W.P.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"<span style="color: yellow;">SWEET DREAMS</span> is packed with action, suspense, romance, betrayal, death, and mystery."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">--Drew Maples, author of "28 Yards from Safety"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">* * *</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: yellow;">SWEET DREAMS</span> is an intense hard-boiled thriller of approximately 95,000 words / 395 pages. This book also contains the following bonus material: Excerpt from <span style="color: yellow;">DREAM ON</span>, by Aaron Patterson.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Aaron Patterson</b> is the author of the best-selling WJA series, as well as the Breaking Steele series. He was</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4wpLUZkOAbo/UjTPpzNa2dI/AAAAAAAACMs/-usuH43D89Q/s1600/aaron2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4wpLUZkOAbo/UjTPpzNa2dI/AAAAAAAACMs/-usuH43D89Q/s320/aaron2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> home-schooled and grew up in the west. Aaron loved to read as a small child and would often be found behind a book, reading one to three a day on average. This love drove him to want to write, but he never thought he had the talent. He wrote Sweet Dreams, the first book in the WJA series, in 2008. He lives in Boise, Idaho with his family, Soleil, Kale and Klayton. Aaron is an educator for Indie publishing and is the Co-Founder of StoneHouse University and speaks all over the country on subjects like eBooks, Amazon and the Future of publishing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Visit Aaron's blog at <a href="http://theworstbookever.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: yellow;">TheWorstBookEver.blogspot.com</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Follow Aaron on twitter at<a href="https://twitter.com/Mstersmith" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;"> twitter.com/Mstersmith</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Join Aaron on<span style="color: yellow;"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/aaron.patterson.923?fref=ts" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Facebook</span></a></span> too!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Aaron Patterson CEO</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">StoneHouse Ink/StoneGate Ink</span><br />
<a href="http://www.stonehouseink.net/"><span style="color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">www.stonehouseink.net</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.stonegateink.com/"><span style="color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">www.stonegateink.com</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-13046725630576644132013-08-16T14:06:00.001-07:002013-08-16T14:06:24.702-07:00Children Entrapped Into Prostitution & Pornography: Understanding the Problem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RVCkONLD1RU/Ug54hfWla8I/AAAAAAAACLM/6R7q_LSrC6I/s1600/SHAME+The+Story+of+a+Pimp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RVCkONLD1RU/Ug54hfWla8I/AAAAAAAACLM/6R7q_LSrC6I/s320/SHAME+The+Story+of+a+Pimp.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">[Editor's Note: Our guest blogger today is author Joe Haggerty, who served as a police officer and detective with the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department for over 35 years. His area of expertise is investigations into the sexual exploitation of children, specifically those children victimized by criminals trafficking in prostitution and pornography. He also served as a senior investigator for the U.S. Attorney General's Commission on Pornography. He authored a novel titled </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="shame: A Story of a Pimp" style="color: red;" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">SHAME: The Story Of A Pimp</span></a><span style="color: #b45f06;">.</span><span style="color: #b45f06;">]</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">By Joe Haggerty</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After spending 27 years on the streets of Washington, D.C. primarily investigating the sexual exploitation of children in prostitution and pornography and interviewing over 5,000 prostitutes and hundreds of pimps, I found the following to be the most common methods used by pimps to keep their victims on the street.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Understand that the primary targets of the pimps are young women who are runaways or throwaways. I estimate that 85-90% of the women on the street were recruited before their 18th birthday. The youngest I personally encountered was 12, but I know of younger victims.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Love and security is probably the most powerful hold the pimp tries to establish. Frequently these young women have lacked attention or were sexually or physically abused by a family member or a trusted friend of the family. Pimps will shower their victim with attention, providing her the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sexual advances will be limited to the victim’s consent, although I’ve known pimps who set up their victim to be raped and he comes to her rescue. He creates a total dependence upon him, not usually with drugs, although drugs may be used as part of the seduction process. He pays for everything—rent, clothes, food, lawyer and female necessities. He creates structure in her life—when to get up, how much money she is supposed to earn a night (quota), what clothes she wears, time limits with tricks/johns/customers, the use of condoms and when she can come off the street each night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Understand she turns over one hundred percent of the money she makes to the pimp and she works the street everyday even during her period or pregnancy. She is required to follow specific rules for which a violation will result in a beating. This creates a false sense of security and the mistaken belief that she is loved. To a pimp</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">—</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">love is money.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Threats and violence are methods used by more physical pimps. It may have been threats or violence by the pimp that forced her on the street in the first place. After a month, more or less, she has lost all self-respect. Conservatively speaking, she has had sex with 120 different men. At some point the pimp’s threats against her fall on deaf ears, but in his initial seduction process he learned who had been the most significant person in her life. He knows where she lived previously. His threats of violence are now directed toward that significant person whether it is a family member or a close friend. She would now be responsible for the well-being of a person she cared about. If she actually had a child of her own, the pimp has the greatest leverage to keep her on the street and frequently he controls who takes care of the child. The Stockholm Syndrome and the Battered Wife Syndrome are common in these situations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I cannot tell you how many times I heard a young women justify her life in prostitution by saying she was only going to work for a couple of years. She believes at the end of that time period her man will marry her and they will settle down to a conventional life. Many of these women still believe in the American dream, but seldom achieve it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Although a pimp may have more than one victim on the street, in their world these victims are considered his wives. The women will refer to each other as wife-in-laws. In that respect if a women refers to another woman as her wife-in-law then you know they work for the same pimp. Some women successfully leave the street and their pimp. They either go to jail and the pimp abandons them, they marry a trick or they find Jesus. Unfortunately, many become drug addicts or alcoholics, are murdered or commit suicide. Right now there are at least 12 states investigating serial killers whose primary victims are prostitutes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In my book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shame-The-Story-Pimp-ebook/dp/B00AG0BJ3G/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1376680223&sr=1-1&keywords=Shame%3A+A+Story+of+a+Pimp" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">Shame: The Story of a Pimp</span></a></i>, which is fiction, but based on a number of cases I was involved in, you’ll learn what the street is really like. You’ll learn how the pimps rule the street, how they will sell their victims to other pimps. Like the pimps I described above, Shame preys on young women who he uses and abuses. Falling in love is a huge taboo for a pimp, but Shame does and is betrayed. This drives him to murder and eventually to a court of law. A Detroit policewoman and a D.C. Vice Detective gather enough evidence to have Shame arrested, but the trial doesn’t end favorably. Street justice is sometimes the best justice and Shame is faced with the wrongs of his past.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">JOE HAGGERTY</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was a Metropolitan Police officer in Washington, D.C. for 35 years. From 1973 to 1997 I worked as a vice detective, primarily doing investigations of the sexual exploitation of children in prostitution and pornography. In the mid 80’s, I was selected to be a senior investigator for the U. S. Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography and wrote a portion of the final report. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I worked with the DC homicide squad and homicide detectives from Arlington, Virginia and the Virginia State Police in a series of prostitute homicides that took place in 1989-90. From 1998 until 2005 I was an in-service training instructor at the department’s academy. I was the co-founder of a grassroots organization initially dedicated to rescuing kids from the prostitution streets and was chosen by Children of the Night in California as one of the top ten police officers in the country in rescuing child victims of prostitution. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have a published novel, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shame-The-Story-Pimp-ebook/dp/B00AG0BJ3G/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1376680223&sr=1-1&keywords=Shame%3A+A+Story+of+a+Pimp" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">Shame: The Story of a Pimp</span></a>,</i> which tells the fictional story of a pimp from birth to death. Although I used real incidents from several of my cases, I changed names, locations and circumstances. I refused to write a non-fiction novel about the sexual exploitation of children as I felt it would further exploit them. However, I tried to portray the way the prostitution streets really are and the violent and exploitive nature of pimps. I have been married 33 years, have six children and 11 grandchildren. Email: gudgerray@aol.com. </span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-27366692497889663182013-08-02T06:00:00.000-07:002013-08-02T09:56:17.474-07:00BEYOND RECOGNITION: An LAPD Helicopter Pilot’s Story of Survival Over Adversity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="color: #f6b26b;"><span style="font-size: medium;">[</span><span style="font-size: large;">Editor’s
Note: We are privilege to have Ron Corbin as a guest today, a man who served
during the Vietnam war as a helicopter pilot, surviving two tours of duty
in that war-torn country before serving another six years as an LAPD police
officer and pilot. Corbin’s
flying career with LAPD ended when he and another police officer crashed in the
mountains above Los Angeles, leaving his trainee dead and Corbin with 2nd and
3rd degree burns over 70 percent of his body.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #f6b26b;"> He
left LAPD, continued college and graduate studies, and later served with Las
Vegas Metro Police Department. </span><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Recognition-ebook/dp/B00BVDXPJ8/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374966646&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Beyond+Recongition+Ron+Corbin" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Beyond Recognition</span></a></i></span></b><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: yellow;">, </span><span style="color: #f6b26b;">among other
things, </span></b></span><b style="color: #f6b26b;">is about his love
of flying and his story of survival over adversity.]</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #e69138;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: red;">By Ron Corbin</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">After two tours in Vietnam as a chief warrant officer pilot flying Huey “slicks,” the Army offered me a direct</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">commission to a 2nd lieutenant if I re-enlisted. With no end in sight to the war, accepting “Uncle Sam’s” offer would mean another combat tour. I decided not to push-my-luck,” and signed-out.</span><br />
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To make a living as a husband and father, I returned to my old job in Southern California at UPS, putting on hold my career ambition of continuing to fly. While watching TV one evening at dinner time, a recruiting ad came on for LAPD. In the commercial, the helicopters flown by officers assigned to the Department’s air unit flashed across the screen. I looked at my wife, Kathy, and asked her what she thought about me joining the police department.</span><br />
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She wasn’t too keen on the idea, knowing the hazards of being a police officer. She suggested I look into the City or County Fire Department and trying to fly for them. To me, having to be a fireman first with no guarantee of ever getting to be a pilot didn’t seem any safer of a profession than being a street cop. So in my warped sense of humor, which at the time seemed logical to me, I justified my thought by saying that “I had been shot at in Vietnam, so being shot at as a cop won’t be that big of a deal. Running into a burning, smoked-filled building seemed to be a stupid idea, so I’d rather be a cop.” And with that, I started the process of becoming a Los Angeles Policeman in 1971.</span><br />
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After a few years fighting crime “Adam-12 style” on the streets of LA, I was one of the first two or three former military-trained pilots to be accepted into Air Support Division (ASD). Eventually I became one of their flight instructors.</span><br />
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During my two-year tenure as an ASD police pilot, my military training and past experience became a contention of jealousy and resentment by the unit’s chief pilot. I was called an “F-ing jet jockey.” More bitterness evolved when I was appointed by the training sergeant to be an IP under the chief pilot’s supervision.</span><br />
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Ironically, not wanting to be a firefighter due to the dangers of fire, I ended up receiving 70 percent 2nd & 3rd degree burns from a helicopter crash. It was June 11th, 1976, and I was the instructor pilot (IP) training another police student pilot. While landing to a pinnacle in the mountains separating the San Fernando Valley from the greater LA basin, our Bell 47-G model helicopter experienced a loss of power. We crashed and rolled down the mountain 167 feet in a ball of fire. My trainee, Jeff Lindenberg was killed, and I was fortunate to survive.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Due to my injuries, continuing need for skin graft reconstructive surgeries, and years of required rehab, I was pensioned-off from LAPD. At the age of thirty, I was faced with an uncertain future. My two greatest loves, police work and flying, had been taken from me in the blink of an eye. I was also suffering tremendous “Survivor’s Guilt” from the accident. Telling my side of the story would help with closure.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
So, after thirty-six years, I finally decided to document some of my memoirs about my accident and the investigation. Having written only a few short magazine articles before, I never really considered myself as being an author for a major book. But, published or unpublished, I knew that doing so would leave something for my children and grandchildren to remember me…and it would expose the truth of what really happened that fateful day. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you’ve got something to say.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Recognition-ebook/dp/B00BVDXPJ8/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374964612&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Beyond+Recongition+Ron+Corbin" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Beyond Recognition</span></a></i> was written to expose the truth of what happened in my accident. Rumors and speculation from hangar talk formed among the other pilots and observers in the unit. A lot of misinformation was given to the widow of my trainee, Lesa Lindenberg. As a result, she naturally shifted blame to me as the IP who was charged with keeping her husband safe. I wanted an opportunity to set the record straight.</span><br />
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Upon researching the transcripts from the investigation, I discovered that the post-accident investigation could not determine a cause; so typically, blame was slanted towards pilot error.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
During the Board of Inquiry that was formed to investigate and interview, several interesting things occurred. The chief pilot took advantage of my hospitalization and traumatic amnesia to feed the board members lies and misleading statements that reflected negatively on my judgment and the flying skills of my student pilot.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
The NTSB investigator, to this day, has never interviewed me, yet submitted her report as a matter of record as to what she thought the physical evidence was that led to the cause. As the IP and sole survivor, I find that quite intriguing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
And lastly, when litigation convened between the City of LA, the LAPD, and corporate attorneys representing Textron, Lycoming, and Bell Helicopter, a vital piece of wreckage recovered at the accident scene “mysteriously disappeared” from all the other pieces retained for investigation. This was nothing short of a “cover up” to protect and shift accountability of others’ responsibility and involvement.</span><br />
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<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Recognition-ebook/dp/B00BVDXPJ8/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374964612&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Beyond+Recongition+Ron+Corbin" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Beyond Recognition</span></a></i> goes beyond physical appearance that I exude with all my burns and scars. It goes beyond comprehending that military pilots have training and experience that cannot be duplicated from learning to fly at the local airport. It goes beyond the tolerance I needed to accept unwarranted blame for the accident by peers and friends. And it goes beyond understanding what it is to suffer a lifetime of “Survivor’s Guilt.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ron Corbin served two tours in Vietnam as an Army helicopter and instructor pilot. He received numerous unit and individual ribbons for combat action, to include being awarded the Air Medal 31 times, once with a “V” device for valor. Honorably discharged in 1969, he joined the LAPD as a policeman and pilot/instructor pilot for the Air Support Division. Retiring from LAPD after an on-duty helicopter accident, he finished his college and graduate education.</span><br />
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He holds a Masters in elementary education and a Ph.D. in security administration with an emphasis in terrorism threats to America’s nuclear resources. Joining the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in 1993 as a crime prevention specialist, his specialty was Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). He attended training in this discipline at the National Crime Prevention Institute, University of Louisville. His CPTED subject matter expertise led him to be interviewed in Reader’s Digest, Sunset Magazine, PetroMart Business and Las Vegas Life magazines.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
He also was responsible for publishing Metro’s in-house training journal, the Training Wheel. Ron has been a contributing columnist to Las Vegas Now magazine as well as a guest lecturer on Royal Caribbean International Cruise Lines, addressing citizens’ personal safety issues. He is the previous author of stories published in several anthologies, and recently authored <i><span style="color: yellow;">Beyond Recognition</span></i><span style="color: yellow;"> </span>(Oak Tree Press), a memoir about his helicopter crash with LAPD. Ron retired as LVMPD’s academy training manager in 2011. He and his wife Kathy have three children, six grandchildren, and live in Las Vegas.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-50290530757796573842013-07-24T14:16:00.000-07:002013-07-31T13:14:21.702-07:00Serial Killers and Criminal Profiling<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">By Pete Klismet</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">[Editor’s Note: Criminal profilers conjure up all kinds of images to the average Joe. Movies, television shows, and novels have often given us misconceptions of this special breed of investigator. Our guest writer today can help us understand this part of law enforcement because that is what he is trained to do—profile criminals. Pete Klismet, is a retired FBI criminal profiler who teaches, writes, and provides consulting services on this subject.]</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">“How’d you know that?”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“Are you some sort of a psychic?”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“Do you have a crystal ball or something?”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Anyone who has been trained in criminal profiling and has worked with law enforcement agencies, or has taught about the concept in college, has heard all of these comments. And many more. The word “profiling” conjures up some sinister images in people’s minds, and seems almost devilishly frightening to some, but yet fascinating to others.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">WHAT IS CRIMINAL PROFILING?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Criminal profiling is the art of developing a behavioral profile of an offender based on evidence from a crime scene, and many other factors involved in an investigation of a violent crime. Profiling is sometimes done by a forensic psychologist -- someone who has studied the criminal mind. However, since the mid-1980’s, the FBI has assumed a prominent role in the use of this technique. A profile may then be used by police departments to assist in apprehending the criminal. But a criminal profile by itself, rarely solves a crime. In most cases, that is accomplished by old-fashioned detective work.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A profile is intended to be a behavioral portrait of an offender. If done correctly, the profiler may be able to determine ‘why’ a person committed the crime he did. If ‘why’ can be determined, then we may have motive, and thus help identify the person who committed the crime. There is a lot that a crime scene can tell a profiler about the person who committed the crime. This is especially true in homicide investigations. Criminal profiling is often used to help investigators identify psychopaths and serial killers who may otherwise go free. It can also be used to help identify other types of offenders, such as serial sex offenders.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In criminal profiling, a crime scene often helps to label the offender as organized or disorganized. An organized offender will plan ahead, often choosing the victim ahead of time. Any tools needed are brought by the offender. He is meticulous with details, and it is clear that the crime was well thought out. This tells a profiler much about the offender.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Organized offenders tend to be high in the birth order of their family. They are very intelligent, but often were underachievers in both school and life. Most of them have a live-in partner, are socially adept, and will follow the coverage of their crimes in the media very carefully. Contrary to popular belief, a killer of this nature, even a serial killer, is not ‘crazy.’ Quite the opposite is true. They also ‘hide in plain sight,’ and when identified are a complete surprise to people who know them and thought they were ‘perfectly normal.’</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A more spontaneous or impulsive offense is often the work of a disorganized offender. He will act impulsively, with little to no planning involved, and the crime scene will usually show this lack of planning. Seeing this, a trained profiler can draw some conclusions about this offender. Disorganized offenders are often of average or slightly below-average intelligence. They were younger children, they usually live alone, and are not as socially mature or competent as an organized offender. They often live or work near the scene of the crime, and tend to have a poor work history. Typically, they are younger than the organized offenders.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Criminal profiling is used not only to find potential offenders, but also to narrow down a list of offenders that has already been compiled by the police. Although it doesn’t work in every case, criminal profiling has helped investigators to apprehend hundreds of criminals. By studying the patterns and motives of previous offenders, profiling may enable investigators to predict the characteristics of current and future offenders, allowing killers and other perpetrators to be caught before they can continue on to other crimes.</span><br />
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">SERIAL KILLERS</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Serial killers are a fairly recent phenomenon on the American landscape, and many people are captivated by what they do and how they do it. Some of them, such as Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez “The Night Stalker,” and Jeffrey Dahmer have even had cult followings, as odd as that may seem. In some ways it seems ghoulish, and in other ways the allure of a person who commits multiple murders seems to present a fear of the unknown, of not being able to comprehend such irrational acts, and a desire to learn more about what makes these people tick. To some it’s not all that interesting, but to many others it’s something they can’t learn or read enough about.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I became friends with the husband of one of my students, an Air Force major, some years ago. We both enjoyed golf, and would get together once or twice every couple of weeks and play 18 holes. After one round, we sat down and were enjoying a couple of cool, refreshing beers. Without any prompting, and literally out of the clear blue sky, Paul said, “By the way, I want to thank you for ruining my love life.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“Me? What did I do?”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“Brandy lies in bed every night with a book about one serial killer or another. I have a hard time getting between her and her books.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“Sorry…..my bad.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">While we both got a good laugh out of that, I know I’ve had more than a few of my college students who were similarly absorbed with learning more and more about the dark and gruesome, illogical actions of people who kill others for “fun.” It’s one of the most irrational things man can do, yet trying to learn what drives them to kill with such blood-lust can almost consume one’s life.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When I went through what we called “Profiling Boot Camp” at the FBI Academy in the mid-1980’s, I was the same way. I’ve spent nearly thirty years reading virtually every book on particular serial killers that I could get my hands on. To the present date, that probably numbers well over one hundred books. With every book I read I learn something new, and I’ve continued to do the same thing for many years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><i>FBI DIARIES: PROFILES OF EVIL</i></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But in my case, there’s a method to my madness. When I combine my years of training and experience with what I may learn from a book, it almost seems unfair to not share that with other people who may have a similar interest, or may be taking a course on criminal profiling in college. There are other books out there which some consider textbooks. Some of these contain information which is not consistent with what I learned and practiced. A few of these books offer the author’s own personal ‘spin’ on profiling, and more often than not, this is someone who declared themselves a ‘profiler’ because they read some books and perhaps have taken some psychology classes in college, including “Abnormal Psychology.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I suppose anyone can make the same claim, but relatively few of us can make the claim with the training, education and experience to back it up. And I think that’s what’s driven me for so many years. No one “knows it all” about criminal profiling, and I certainly won’t claim to. In fact, one thing I’ve learned over the years is the more I learn, the less I seem to know, but I continue to want to learn as much as I can. And that’s what I hope to offer anyone who reads this book, whether you’re similarly fascinated and want to know more, or whether this book is used as a textbook for a college class.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This is not an academic treatise in which you will have to review statistical tables with boring columns of numbers and percentages. Unlike a college textbook, I’ve tried to write this in a conversational manner, or as if I were doing a lecture in my college classroom. I hated reading textbooks when I was in college or graduate school. This is a practical guide which, while it won’t turn you into an instant profiler, will give you considerable understanding into how a profiler's minds work, and why they work the way they do. Hopefully, I’ve written it in a way that will be understandable, and the cases I’ve reviewed should add some credibility to the concepts in an earlier part of the text.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I promise you that I’ve put as much of my learning and experience into this book as I possibly can, and if you study some of the concepts and cases I’ve studied or profiled, you may gain a similar thirst to know even more. If I’ve made you think in a different way, I’ve done my job. And an author or a teacher can’t hope to accomplish more than that.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">PETE KLISMET</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pete Klismet retired as full-time Professor of Criminal Justice in May of 2013. He is also retired from the FBI, where he was selected to be one of the original group of criminal profilers. He is the founder of Criminal Profiling Associates, on the web at<span style="color: yellow;"><span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.criminalprofilingassociates.com/" target="_blank"> <span style="color: yellow;">www.criminalprofilingassociates.com</span></a>.</span> </span>He is the award-winning author of FBI DIARY: PROFILES OF EVIL, available from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/FBI-Diary-Profiles-Peter-Klismet/dp/1936759152/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1374626361&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=FBI+Diaries%3A+Profiles+of+Evil" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Amazon.com</span>,</a> his publisher at <a href="http://www.houdinibooks.com/home/20-fbi-diary-profiles-of-evil-9781936759156.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Houdini Publishing</span></a> or through the links on his own web site listed above.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-68781865088025252772013-06-03T00:00:00.000-07:002013-06-03T00:00:03.210-07:00BLIND JUSTICE: A Legal Thriller by Bestselling Author James Scott Bell<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Jake Denney has hit rock bottom. His wife has left him. He's drinking again. And his five-year-old daughter is in the middle of it all. When a judge calls him "a disgrace to the legal profession," Jake starts thinking things might be better for everyone if he wasn't around anymore.<br />
<br />
Then a childhood friend's mother phones him. Her son, Howie, has been accused of murdering his wife. Jake takes the seemingly hopeless case in a last-ditch effort to save his client and his fading career.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Howie's little sister, Lindsay, has grown into a beautiful woman. Though Jake is drawn to her, there's something about her he doesn't understand, even though it may be the very thing he needs to reclaim his humanity.<br />
<br />
With the evidence mounting against his client, and a web of corruption closing around them both, Jake Denney faces the fight of his life--not only in the courtroom, but in the depths of his own soul.<br />
<br />
"Move over John Grisham. James Scott Bell has done it again with Blind Justice. A must read!" - Nancy Moser, author of The Invitation and The Quest<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Excerpt from BLIND JUSTICE:</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: yellow;">CHAPTER ONE</span></div>
<br />
ON THE LAST Thursday in March, Howie Patino stepped onto Alaska Airlines Flight 190 out of Anchorage, carrying a teddy bear with a little ribbon across the front that read, Alaska’s Cool! Howie wore his best suit, his only suit, because he wanted to look like he was “dressed for success.” He also wore, he told me later, a huge smile. “A big, fat, dumb one,” he said. “How dumb, stupid, and blind can a guy be?”<br />
His sleep was peaceful on the trip to Los Angeles. Hardly a hint of turbulence. The guy sitting next to him was no trouble at all, chatting amiably without overdoing it. Mostly Howie slept and dreamed of Rae—Rae in a bathing suit. Rae sitting by the pool and offering him a long, cool drink. Rae making kissing noises at him just like she used to.<br />
Howie woke up smiling when the plane touched down at the Los Angeles Airport as smooth as a swan gliding onto a pond at Disneyland. That was one of Howie’s favorite places. He and Rae had gone there on their honeymoon. He told me that Rae’s favorite attraction was “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.” They went on it five times that night, laughing and screaming like little kids.<br />
The sleep on the plane had removed any creeping hint of fatigue, so Howie wasn’t tired when he finally made it to the Greyhound station and boarded the bus. It had all gone so well to this point. Howie closed his eyes and thanked God that he and Rae would be together even sooner than planned.<br />
The trip north, though, took forever.<br />
It was bumper-to-bumper into Westwood and through the Sepulveda Pass. Things opened up a little in Sherman Oaks but tightened again around Tarzana. All the way up, Howie ticked off the towns in his head in a cadence of anticipation: Calabasas and Agoura, Westlake and Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Ojai. Like stepping stones across dividing waters, they were taking him closer and closer to Rae.<br />
It was pure night when the bus finally pulled into Hinton. Moonless. And the town, in its peculiar rustic ceremony, was starting to fold up. Through the bus window Howie saw a few tourists sitting on the outside patio of the Hinton Hotel sipping evening wine and watching the passengers—all three of them—step out into a bit of country California.<br />
The first to alight was Howie, still holding the teddy bear. An older couple sitting at the hotel smiled at him. A good sign. Howie smiled back, snatched his duffel bag from the sidewalk where the bus driver had dropped it, looped it over his shoulder, and started walking west toward White Oak Avenue.<br />
Hinton was both strange and familiar, Howie told me. It seemed, as he got further and further from the town square, unnaturally still. Mixed with the hopeful perfume of orange blossoms and sage, the smell of cows and dry weeds wafted through the air. Howie said later that those were the last smells he remembered, until that final smell, the awful stench of fresh blood that he would mention in the police report.<br />
At White Oak he turned south under an awning of towering eucalyptus trees. It was like walking through a dark tunnel, Howie said, but he knew where the light at the end was—home and Rae, security and warmth. All would be well once again.<br />
When he finally reached the front door of the little house at the end of White Oak, he was dizzy with excitement. He tossed the duffel bag onto the porch and held the teddy bear behind his back as he reached for the doorknob. The door was locked, though, and Rae hadn’t given him a house key when he left for Alaska. This was one of her peculiarities, which Howie overlooked through eyes of love. He wouldn’t be sneaking in for the surprise he’d planned, so he knocked.<br />
And waited.<br />
And knocked again.<br />
He shouted, “Rae!” and pounded on the door.<br />
No answer. No lights on inside.<br />
He set the little bear on top of the duffel bag and went around to the side gate, finding it padlocked. It had never been padlocked before. Something wasn’t right.<br />
“Rae!”<br />
A dog barked in the yard next door.<br />
“Quiet!” Howie ordered as he scaled the wall and jumped into the side yard, knocking over a recycling container. It thudded hard on the walkway, its contents of bottles and cans spilling onto the concrete.<br />
The dog barked louder.<br />
“Quiet, boy!”<br />
Howie slipped around to the back patio. The sliding glass door was never locked. Never a need for it in Hinton. He would get in that way.<br />
But tonight it was locked. Howie banged on the glass with his fist. No answer from inside.<br />
Okay, so she wasn’t home.<br />
Where was she then? Out with friends maybe. She wasn’t expecting him, after all. He’d caught an early flight because he wanted to surprise her. All this was his own fault, Rae would tell him, maybe at the top of her lungs. That was her way sometimes. He’d grown used to it.<br />
<br />
Howie considered his choices. He could grab his stuff and go downtown and have a Coke while he waited. He could see if she was at Sue’s house, and if not, he could ask Sue to make some calls.<br />
Or he could try to get in the house.<br />
With full force, Howie yanked the sliding glass door. The lock snapped, and the door slid open. Later, Howie would say he didn’t realize he had that much strength and speculated that his action might have been due to something more welled up inside him, a part of him he never knew he had, like when a mother suddenly gets the strength to lift an automobile when her child is trapped underneath.<br />
Howie entered the house, found a lamp, and turned on the light.<br />
The first thing he noticed was the sofa and the clothes tossed carelessly on it. Rae was never much of a housekeeper, but this was an out-and-out mess. On an end table was an ashtray with a few cigarette butts. Rae had supposedly quit smoking. Had she started up again while he was away?<br />
Howie stood and listened for a few moments, and not hearing anything, walked down the hall to the master bedroom.<br />
He opened the door and turned on the light.<br />
Someone was in bed. The covers moved and then Rae Patino sat up.<br />
“Rae, didn’t you hear me?”<br />
Her red hair was messy. With a head toss she whisked the strands out of her face and stared at him coldly. “What are you doing here?”<br />
“I’m home.”<br />
“Tomorrow. You said tomorrow night.”<br />
“Surprised?” He took a few steps toward her, his arms out for an embrace.<br />
Rae recoiled. “You can’t stay here.”<br />
“Honey, what are you talking about?”<br />
“You just can’t, that’s all.”<br />
“Can’t? But—”<br />
“Just leave, Howie.”<br />
“But Rae, I’m home.” He said it like he had to convince himself.<br />
Rae sighed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Look,” she said, “you might as well know it now. I’m in love with somebody else.”<br />
It wouldn’t have been any different, Howie said later, if she had stuck a knife in his stomach and carved him like a Halloween pumpkin. That was the moment things started to go fuzzy on him. He was in and out after that, feeling dizzy half the time and plain lost the other half.<br />
He figured a half hour went by as he pleaded with her, cried in front of her, begged her to see someone for counseling. It seemed to him she was, by turns, cold and caring, obstinate and open. He thought there might be at least some hope of reconciliation, if only she’d try.<br />
And then there was the matter of Brian. During the course of the conversation, Howie asked Rae where their five-year-old son was, and she told him he was at Sue’s house, where he loved to visit. It seemed odd to Howie that Brian would be there in the middle of the week, but he paid it no mind. It was more important to talk about their future, the three of them, together.<br />
Howie finally said, “We can all move up there now. I’ve got a place and a good job. They’re building like crazy, and it’s a great place for a kid to grow up.”<br />
Rae was unmoved. “I’m not going to freeze in Alaska, you can bet on that.”<br />
“Rae, please. We need to be together. For Brian.”<br />
When he said that, her eyes seemed to darken. Howie remembered that explicitly. It was like looking into two dead pools at midnight.<br />
“What makes you so proud?” Rae said.<br />
“Proud?”<br />
“Yeah, proud.”<br />
“Proud of what?”<br />
“Brian.” Her voice seemed to spit the name.<br />
“What are you talking about, Rae?”<br />
“I’m talking about Brian, Howie.”<br />
“What about him?”<br />
“What makes you think he’s yours?”<br />
It was the smile on her face then that unlatched a dark door to some unnamed oblivion. Howie’s memories of the next few minutes were short, surreal images, which included that smile twisting her face into a funhouse clown expression, the mockery of it, and her hands clasped behind her head as she lay on the bed as if showing Howie what he would never have again. Then came the blackness followed by the gleam of a blade, a flash almost as bright as a tabloid photographer’s camera, a scream, the red stained sheets, the sounds of a woman sucking for breath, and that final image he couldn’t get away from, that he kept mentioning over and over. “The devil,” the police report stated. “Suspect keeps talking about the devil.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR</span><br />
<br />
JAMES SCOTT BELL is the author of the #1 bestseller for writers, Plot &<a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com./" target="_blank"> </a><br />
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Structure, and numerous thrillers, including Don't Leave Me, Try Dying and Watch Your Back. His novella One More Lie was the first self-published work to be nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award. He served as the fiction columnist for Writer's Digest magazine and has written highly popular craft books for Writer’s Digest Books, including: Revision & Self-Editing for Publication, The Art of War for Writers and Conflict & Suspense. Jim has taught writing at Pepperdine University and at numerous writers conferences in the United States, Canada and Great Britain. A former trial lawyer, Jim lives and writes in Los Angeles. His website is <a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com./" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">www.JamesScottBell.com</span></a>.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-31278896945405529252013-05-29T17:08:00.001-07:002013-05-29T17:08:30.802-07:00Poison: A Novel (Bloodline Trilogy)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: red;"><b><i>Poison</i> synopsis:</b></span> Five years ago, Keelyn Blake's armed, mentally ill stepfather took her family hostage in their house in rural Colorado. She and her half-sister Raven made it out alive, but others did not. Authorities blamed the father's frequent hallucinations about a being named Lucent, but in the end, even the best of the FBI's hostage negotiators failed to overcome the man's delusions and end the standoff peacefully.<br />
<br />
Now, Lucent is back, and he's no hallucination. In fact, he is a very real person with dangerous motives. He has kidnapped Raven's daughter, and--Keelyn worries--maybe has hurt Raven as well. Though she is estranged from her sister, Keelyn feels the immediate need to find Raven and save what family she has left. But when others who were involved in that fateful day start dying, some by mysterious circumstances, Keelyn wonders if she can emerge unscathed a second time.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: red;"><b>Free Chapters 1-5:</b></span> Go to this link to get the first five chapters for free: <a href="http://www.jordynredwood.net/resources/"><span style="color: yellow;">http://www.jordynredwood.net/resources/</span></a><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Where to buy this book:</b></span> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Poison-Bloodline-Trilogy-Jordyn-Redwood/dp/0825442125/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358291778&sr=1-1&keywords=poison+by+jordyn+redwood" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Amazon</span></a><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Short bio:</b></span> Jordyn Redwood is a pediatric ER nurse by day, suspense novelist by<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: yellow;">Jordyn Redwood</span></td></tr>
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night. She hosts Redwood’s Medical Edge, a blog devoted to helping contemporary and historical authors write medically accurate fiction. Her first two novels, Proof and Poison, garnered starred reviews from Library Journal and have been endorsed by the likes of Dr. Richard Mabry, Lynette Eason, and Mike Dellosso to name a few. You can connect with Jordyn via her website at www.jordynredwood.net.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-55615933370280932062013-05-25T11:02:00.002-07:002013-05-25T11:02:29.401-07:00FREE 3-Day Promo on Amazon: REVENGE (A Travis Mays Novel) Available through Wednesday, May 27, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When a trained killer threatens ex-cop Travis Mays—and those Travis loves—he finds a skilled adversary and an unexpected fight.<br />
<br />
After a high stakes gamble ends in personal tragedy, Travis walks away from years of training and a highly successful law enforcement career. Determined never to look back, he starts a new life and a new career, teaching criminology at the university and building a cabin in the idyllic Idaho Mountains. He hires a beautiful river guide, Jessie White Eagle from the Nez Perce tribe, to guide him safely down the Lochsa. The turbulence of the whitewater, however, is just the beginning of his troubles. Travis finds himself in the crosshairs of a killer—calling himself Creasy—bent on revenge.<br />
<br />
This fast-paced thriller takes readers on a wild ride down Idaho’s whitewater rivers, along the historic Lolo Trails once tread by the Nez Perce nation, and onto the city streets of California. Tighten your helmet. This ride never stops until the last shot is fired and the final body falls.<br />
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<span style="color: red;">Excerpt from Chapter 1, REVENGE (A Travis Mays Novel)</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Prologue</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>Santa Rosa, California, December 2004</b><br />
<br />
Raindrops splattered the windshield as Travis Mays raised his binoculars. Come on. Come on. Where are you? He squinted, trying to catch a glimpse of any movement near the building through this infernal darkness.<br />
<br />
Nothing.<br />
<br />
Travis flicked the glove box open and snatched a bottle of antacids, tossing a handful into his mouth. Jaw muscles ached from gritting his teeth. These tablets did little to ease the burning inside. He raised the glasses once again.<br />
Carlos shifted in the passenger’s seat. “She’s still inside, dude. Don’t get your shorts in a twist.”<br />
<br />
Travis ignored his partner, straining to see through the windshield’s fogged-up glass. A two-story building loomed in the darkness fifty yards away. A black-grated fence circled the office complex. A droopy-eyed security guard—sheltered from pelting rain inside a lighted shack—sat twenty yards away, scanning all vehicles coming and going. No way to sneak inside to check on her safety.<br />
<br />
He glanced at his watch. Ten o’clock.<br />
<br />
Travis gripped his binoculars, searching for any signs of life in the darkened building. “Something’s wrong. I told Michelle to get out of there before everyone went home. Get in. Get the documents. Get out. This is taking way too long.”<br />
<br />
“Chill out. Maybe she’s just waiting until everyone leaves. Then she can grab and run.” Carlos chuckled. “Michelle, is it? Sound like this is more than business. I saw you making eyes at her. She’s just a snitch, man. Business is business. Don’t let it get personal.”<br />
<br />
“That snitch is risking everything. She’s putting it all on the line. We get paid to take these risks. Not her. She gets nothing out of this.”<br />
<br />
“Okay, Okay. She’s a saint. What do you want from me?”<br />
<br />
“I want you to give her some respect. Michelle willingly came forward to tell us what she found out. No one forced her. And now, we’re about to nab one of the most ruthless traffickers we’ve ever hunted down—because of her bravery. Who knows how far this network reaches.” Travis lowered his voice. “She went back in there—knowing the danger—because I asked.”<br />
<br />
Carlos raised his hands. “Whoa, man. Lighten up. To set the record straight, the suits higher up the totem pole sent her back in. Not you. They forced your hand.”<br />
<br />
“I had a choice. I could’ve told them to take a hike.”<br />
<br />
A car emerged from the parking garage beneath the office building. Two on board. He scanned the car as it slowed at the guard shack. Two burly men, no one else. “I’m telling you something’s not kosher.”<br />
<br />
“Okay, maybe you’re right,” Carlos said. “What are we—“<br />
<br />
Travis’ cell phone emitted several sharp beeps. He glanced at the digital screen and grimaced. His sergeant, Timothy Heard, supervisor for Santa Rosa Police Department’s criminal intelligence unit, was calling. “Yeah, sarge.”<br />
<br />
“Need you to break away right now. We just received a call from the county. Their VCI dicks are working a homicide near Goat Rock. I need you and Carlos to eighty-seven with them.”<br />
<br />
“We’re still waiting for the CI to come out. Once we connect, we’ll head out—”<br />
“—I need you out there now. Your CI’s a no-show, right?” Heard barged ahead, not waiting for an answer. “Their victim is a female. Description matches your gal.”<br />
“No way. She is still—”<br />
“—I need you to get out there immediately, Travis. That’s an order. The victim matches your snitch, that’s all you need to know. We may have some damage control issues.”<br />
<br />
“It can’t ... what do you mean ‘damage control?”<br />
<br />
“I mean if your informant turns up dead, we’ve got to cover ourselves.”<br />
<br />
“You ordered me to send her back into that killer’s den. Damage control? You mean protect your sad —” He felt a hand squeeze his arm. Carlos leaned over, silently mouthing the words, “Be cool.”<br />
<br />
Travis snapped the cell phone shut, jamming it into his pocket. “The SO found a body out at the coast. They want us to check it out.”<br />
<br />
“The boss thinks the body might be our gal? And we’re just supposed to drive away? What if she’s still in there?”<br />
<br />
Grimacing, Travis fired up the engine. “Orders are orders. But if this victim is Michelle ...” He let the words dangle, not wanting to give them life.<br />
<br />
Only six hours ago he’d held her in his arms. They’d met in a motel room where he gave her final instructions. Get in, get out. Carlos stood guard outside. It had been eight exhilarating months since she breezed into his life, gave him a reason to get up in the morning. The way she teased and cajoled him into doing things he never tried before—ballroom dancing, or using a palate machine with her instead of going out for a beer with the guys. Michelle squeezed joy and excitement into every day they spent together. For once in his life, Travis began to think about the future, about spending his life with her. It had been a long time since he thought about anything other than police work. She changed all that. Before they parted ways today, she reached up and drew him close, almost like a premonition. Jasmine perfume still lingered on his clothing. A few moments later he followed Michelle to her car, watching her taillights disappear into the bowels of the garage across the street. The last time.<br />
<br />
Travis gunned the engine, cutting through the darkness. Rain and wind rocked the car as he slowed at the next intersection. He pressed the accelerator to the floor, activating emergency lights embedded in the grill of his car. It would be a long drive to the coast.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Bio.~Novelist Mark Young</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
Mark Young is an Amazon bestselling author. Both his Travis Mays and Gerrit O'Rourke novels reached the top 100 list, and his debut novel, Revenge, hit #1 for bestselling mystery/suspense police procedurals. Mark worked as a police officer and sergeant with the Santa Rosa Police Department in California for twenty-six years after working as an award-winning journalist. He is a Vietnam combat veteran, honored to have served with Fox 2/5, 1st Marine Division, and later with Headquarters company. He worked on several law enforcement task force operations, including the presidential Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force targeting major drug traffickers, and the federal Organized Crime Task Force charged with identifying and prosecuting prison gang leaders. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family. You can find out more about Mark Young at his web site at MarkYoungBooks.com</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-12080068458616581202013-05-19T15:00:00.000-07:002013-05-19T16:26:57.375-07:00STRESS TEST: A Medical Thriller<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Richard L Mabry, M.D</b>.</td></tr>
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They may not have enough evidence to convict him, but they have enough to ruin his life.<br />
<br />
Dr. Matt Newman thought he was leaving his life as a surgeon in private practice for a better one in academic medicine. But the kidnappers who attack him as he leaves the hospital at two AM have no such plans—they just want him dead. Bound and in the trunk of his car, Matt's only thought is fleeing with his life. He does escape, but at a price: a head injury that lands him in the ICU . . . where he awakens to discover he's being charged with murder.<br />
<br />
Sandra Murray is a fiery, redheaded lawyer who swore she was done with doctors after her last relationship. But when Matt calls, she knows she can't walk away from defending someone who is truly innocent.<br />
<br />
Matt's career is going down the drain. His freedom and perhaps his life may be next. But with the police convinced he's a killer and the kidnappers still trying to finish what they started, finding the truth—and the faith to keep going—will be the toughest stress test Matt has ever endured.<br />
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<span style="color: red;">Excerpt From Chapter 1 of Stress Test:</span><br />
<br />
It wasn’t hard for Dr. Matt Newman to spot his silver Chevy Impala in the darkest<br />
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corner of the deserted garage. There weren’t many cars still there at two a.m., and soon there would be one fewer. He fished his keys from the pocket of his white lab coat and thumbed the unlock button on his remote. His hand was on the door handle when something yanked him backward and cut off his air in mid-breath. Matt dropped the keys and reached up with both hands to pry at the arm that encircled his neck.<br />
<br />
In an instant Matt was slammed facedown to the cement floor. He heard a crack and felt the knife-like agony of breaking ribs. The searing pain in his chest made each labored breath more difficult. A weight pinned him to the ground like a butterfly on a specimen board.<br />
<br />
Matt struggled, but his assailant held him fast. Fire shot through his shoulders as his arms were yanked together. There was a quick rip of tape and in seconds, his wrists were bound tightly behind him. Rough hands encircled his ankles with more tape, leaving him helpless and immobile. At the same time, someone else grabbed his hair and lifted his head. Matt gave a shrill cry before three quick turns of tape muffled his voice and turned the world black.<br />
<br />
He tried to lift his head, but stopped abruptly when something hard and cold pressed against the back of his neck. Matt lowered his face onto the garage floor and went limp. He felt hope escape like air from a punctured tire.<br />
<br />
There were murmurs above him, questions in a high-pitched singsong, answers from a harsh rasp like grinding gears. At first the words were indistinguishable. Then they became louder as the exchange heated.<br />
<br />
“Why not here?” Was there a faint Hispanic accent to the whining tenor?<br />
<br />
“The boss said not at the hospital.” The growling bass flung out the words, and spittle dotted the back of Matt’s neck. “I know just the place to get rid of him. Let’s get him into the trunk of his car.”<br />
<br />
In the darkness that now enveloped him, Matt struggled in vain to move, to speak. He strained to hear what was said. He could only make out a few words, but they were enough to drive his heart into his shoes. “Get rid of him.”<br />
<br />
He angled his head to catch the sounds around him: a jingle of keys, the sharp click of the trunk lock. Hinges squeaked. Matt had a momentary sensation of floating as he was lifted, carried, dropped. His head struck something hard. Splashes of red flashed behind his closed eyelids, then vanished into nothingness.<br />
<br />
Matt floated back to consciousness like a swimmer emerging from the depths. How long had he been out? Hours? Minutes? A few seconds? At first he had no idea where he was or what was happening. Little by little, his senses cleared. He tried to open his eyes but there was no light. He tried to speak, but his lips were sealed. He cried out, but the result was only a strained grunt. Finally, he heard the faint sound of voices from inside the car, a menacing rumble and a high-pitched whine. The voices brought it all back to him.<br />
<br />
He was on the way to his death. And the trunk of his car would be his coffin.<br />
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<span style="color: red;">BIO: Richard L. Mabry, MD</span><br />
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A retired physician, Dr. Richard Mabry’s four previous novels have won critical acclaim. Honors include inclusion as finalists for the Carol Award and Romantic Times Reader’s Choice Award, and winner of the Selah Award. In addition, they have garnered the coveted 4 ½ star rating from Romantic Times Book Reviews. He is past Vice-President of American Christian Fiction Writers and a member of the International Thriller Writers. He and his wife live in North Texas.<br />
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<span style="color: red;">Where to buy STESS TEST:</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stress-Test-Richard-L-Mabry/dp/1401687083/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357921283&sr=8-1&keywords=stress+test" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Amazon:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>http://tinyurl.com/stresstestamazon</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stress-test-richard-mabry/1111892539?ean=9781401687083" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Barnes & Noble:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>http://tinyurl.com/stresstestb-n</span></a><br />
<span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.christianbook.com/stress-test-richard-mabry/9781401687083/pd/687083?kw=687083&en=shopzilla&p=1000298" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Christian Books:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>http://tinyurl.com/stresstestcbe</span></a><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<a href="http://www.thomasnelson.com/stress-test.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Thomas Nelson:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>http://tinyurl.com/stresstesttn</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/indie-store-finder" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Independent Bookseller: http://www.indiebound.org/indie-store-finder</span></a><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-40352631533086143122013-05-17T09:06:00.000-07:002013-05-17T09:06:22.702-07:00BURNING HEARTS: A Historical Murder Mystery with Romance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>MARK</b>: Author Nike Chillemi's latest release, DARKEST HOUR is now available. Welecome, Nike! Give us a brief glimpse into your writing world and your latest novel.<br />
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<b>NIKI: </b>Mark, thank you for having me. Life has been a whirlwind recently and quite exciting. As you might suppose, as the chair and founder of the Grace Awards, I've been pretty busy with this year's literary contest. We announced the winners this week. I am thrilled with the quality of the winners. In fact, a few of the judging teams felt the finalists were so good they had a difficult time selecting a novel for top honors, but of course, they did. This should be the biggest problem facing Christian publishing today.<br />
<br />
The other thing I want to brag about is my publisher's decision to go from ebook format to print. I'm thrilled my Sanctuary Point classic murder mystery series with romance was chosen by Desert Breeze Publishing to be among the first books to come out in paperback. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share a bit about BURNING HEARTS, the first novel in this series, now out in paperback.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">BURNING HEARTS</span></b>:<br />
Historical Murder Mystery with Romance, mid-1940s<br />
---arson/murder, action, and romance<br />
---Sweet romance, sophisticated themes presented tastefully<br />
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Can a sheltered young seamstress, disillusioned by the horrors of WWII, escape an <br />
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arsonist/murderer who has killed her employer and mentor, while trying to decide if she can trust the dashing war hero who’s ridden into town on his Harley—who some say is the murderer?<br />
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Erica Brogna’s parents doted on her and taught her to think for herself. Many boys she grew up with had fallen in the WWII, shaking her childhood faith. In rides a handsome stranger, at the hour of her most desperate need. A woman who is her close friend and mentor is trapped in a burning house. After making an unsuccessful rescue attempt, Erica stands by as this man rushes into the inferno and carries her friend’s lifeless body out.<br />
<br />
Lorne Kincade can’t out run his past on his Harley Davidson WLA, the civilian model of the motorcycle he rode in the war. He’s tried. He’s been a vagabond biker in the year since the war ended. His Uncle Ivar bequeathed him a ramshackle cottage in Sanctuary Point, on the Great South Bay of Long Island, NY and now he’d like to hope for a future again, repair the miniscule place, and settle down. The only problem is, a young woman with hair the color of mink is starting to get under his skin and that’s the last thing he needs.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: red;">EXCERPT</span>:</b><br />
<br />
Chapter One<br />
<br />
Long Island, New York<br />
September 1946<br />
<br />
Erica Brogna hurried down Hill Street, eager to sketch her new design, a forest green taffeta dress with a swirling skirt for a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary -- her first significant assignment. She paused to inhale the salt scent on the ocean breeze, and her gaze lingered on a copse of red, rust, and gold maples near Ada's house and dress shop.<br />
<br />
She smiled, pulling her cardigan tight around her, and dropped the newspaper Poppa asked her to bring to her mentor and employer. She retrieved the paper and saw Bess Truman smiling as she entered Walter Reed Army Hospital. With the war over, the First Lady visited broken soldiers in long-term care. Erica slapped the paper closed before rage and depression overtook her. So many boys had not come home.<br />
<br />
Chin jutted out, she smoothed the pleats of her skirt and marched toward Ada's house.<br />
<br />
She'd think on pleasant things and hand the paper over without a fuss as she did every morning.<br />
<br />
Nothing would ruin this day.<br />
<br />
She climbed Ada's wooden front steps and opened the door.<br />
<br />
Smoke filled the living room Ada had turned into a fabric shop. Erica waved a hand in front of tearing eyes. Gray vapors, like swirling fog, partially obscured bolts of fabric stacked against the opposite wall.<br />
<br />
"Ada! Ada, answer me please." Dropping the newspaper, Erica rushed toward the stairs, trampling Bess Truman's image. "Ada can you hear me?"<br />
<br />
Coughing, she grabbed on to the cutting table in the middle of the room, steadied herself, and reached for the phone -- no dial tone. Perhaps the fire melted the line.<br />
She yanked the collar of her blouse over her nose and mouth against the smoke. The stairs loomed before her, seeming as impossible to scale as Mount Everest. She lunged forward, gripping the baluster, and thrust herself up two steps. Since Ada wasn't outside, she had to be upstairs.<br />
<br />
As Erica climbed, the smoke thickened and swirled around her. It was darker with each step.<br />
<br />
One hand clasped the rail and pulled, and she advanced a few more steps. Heat blasted against her skin from above, and soft crackling sounds drew her gaze to the upstairs landing.<br />
<br />
Squinting into the smoke, she lost her grip on the banister, missed the next step, and fell backward tumbling to the bottom.<br />
<br />
The back of her head smacked against the baluster, and wooziness followed sharp pain.<br />
<br />
She tried to stand but couldn't get her bearings.<br />
<br />
Will triumphed over ability. She hoisted herself, ignoring the dull throb at the back of her skull. Her palms stung, the skin scraped off during her fall. She took a deep breath, and a coughing fit seized her. Shallow breaths were the better alternative.<br />
Planting her penny loafer on the bottom step, Erica began her climb again, shaken but with new resolve. If she could reach the top of the stairs, she could also make it to Ada's bedroom.<br />
<br />
Halfway up, the scratches on her palms pulsated as the temperature rose. So did her knees -- must've scraped those, too. The pungent smoke shrouding her darkened, and grit clung to her skin. She couldn't see the banister or the top of the stairs and each breath took effort.<br />
<br />
Poppa's lectures on fire drills flashed into mind -- stay low in a fire to get fresh air. She dropped to her knees and crawled, ignoring her pain. A sickening smell made her stomach lurch.<br />
<br />
Inch by inch she crept, now three quarters of the way up. Hot, putrid air assaulted her windpipe, and she doubled over, her insides trembling.<br />
<br />
Heaving herself forward, she maneuvered up one more step, but the smoke pushed back, choking her. She sobbed, knowing she couldn't make it to Ada, and scrambled down, hoping she could find help.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">AUTHOR BIO</span>:</b><br />
<br />
Like so many writers, Nike Chillemi started writing at a very young age. She still has the Crayola, fully illustrated book she penned (penciled might be more accurate) as a little girl about her then off-the-chart love of horses. Today, you might call her a crime fictionista. Her passion is crime fiction. She likes her bad guys really bad and her good guys smarter and better.<br />
<br />
She is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and is its Chairman, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She writes book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She was an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category and a judge in the 2011 and 2012 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories. BURNING HEARTS, the first book in the crime wave that is sweeping the south shore of Long Island in The Sanctuary Point series, finaled in the Grace Awards 2011 in the Romance/Historical Romance category. GOODBYE NOEL, the second book in the series released in December, 2011 won the Grace Award 2011 in the Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller category. PERILOUS SHADOWS, third in the series released July, 2012, and DARKEST HOUR, the fourth in the series released in February, 2013. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and the Edgy Christian Fiction Lovers (Ning). http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/<br />
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<span style="color: red;">PURCHASE LINKS</span>:<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sanctuary-Point-Book-One-ebook/dp/B0050PJSTY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368727143&sr=1-1&keywords=Burning+Hearts%2C+Chillemi" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Amazon. http://tiny.cc/wfl6ww</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Burning-Hearts-Chillemi?store=allproducts&keyword=Burning+Hearts%2C+Chillemi" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Barnes and Noble. http://tiny.cc/oil6ww</span></a><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-36755054167029801612013-04-26T16:57:00.001-07:002013-05-17T09:10:11.181-07:00Interview: NYT bestselling author Dean Koontz<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>By Mark Young</b><br />
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Novelist Dean Koontz’s novels have become my own personal addiction. All I have to do is pull out one of Dean’s many novels every time I need inspiration for one of my own manuscripts. His words flow like butter on hotcakes, and his imagery and character development entice readers like Homer’s enchanting Sirens to seafarers.<br />
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Dean remains one of the hottest writers on the block. Don’t take my biased account, however, look at the numbers. The New York Times Bestselling list is no stranger to his novels. And, according to Investor.com writing about Dean, they wrote “… his more than 100 suspense-filled novels in various genres have sold 450 million copies (about the same as J.K. Rowling).” Move over Harry Potter!<br />
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If you’d like to sample Dean’s writing, here is an excerpt taken from the opening of his upcoming <a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/deeply-odd/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Deeply Odd</span></a> novel:<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>Before dawn, I woke in darkness to the ringing of a tiny bell, </i><i>the thimble size bell I wore on a chain around my neck: three bursts of silvery sound, a brief silence after each. I was lying on my back in bed, utterly motionless, yet the bell rang three times again. The vibrations that shivered through my bare chest seemed much too strong to have been produced by such a tiny clapper. A third set of three rings followed, and then only silence. I waited and wondered until dawn crept down from the sky and across the bedroom windows.</i><br />
<i><br />
Later that morning in early March, when I walked downtown to buy blue jeans and a few pairs of socks, I met a guy who had a .45 pistol and a desire to commit a few murders. From that encounter, the day grew uglier as surely as the sun moves from east to west.</i><br />
<i><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My name is Odd Thomas. I have accepted my oddness. I am no longer surprised that I am drawn to trouble as reliably as iron to </i><i>a magnet.</i> (Opening lines to<span style="color: yellow;"> <a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/deeply-odd/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Deeply Odd</span></a></span>, due to be released May<br />
28, 2013).<br />
<br />
It is an honor to have Dean re-join us here on Hook’em and Book’em. (His last visit two years ago can be seen on this <a href="http://hookembookem.blogspot.com/2010/12/interview-novelist-dean-koontz.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">link</span></a>).<br />
<br />
<b>MARK:</b> Dean, I look forward to the release of <a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/deeply-odd/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Deeply Odd</span></a>. What<br />
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kind of trouble confronts your lovable fry cook Brother Odd in this next adventure?<br />
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<b>DEAN:</b> <span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/deeply-odd/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">DEEPLY ODD</span></a> </span>is the sixth in a 7-book life arc for Odd. <a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/odd-interlude/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">ODD INTERLUDE</span></a> was a sidestep, having nothing to do with lingering spirits of the dead. Odd is now back on his road to redemption, learning by going where he has to go, in his way doing penance for his inability to save Stormy. He encounters a psychopathic trucker dressed like a rhinestone cowboy, and thereafter it becomes a road novel. As a reader, I've always enjoyed novels in which characters are on the move a lot. There's a sense of freedom in them, a constant freshening of the narrative. I've written a few of them myself--<a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/dark-rivers-of-the-heart/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART</span></a>, <a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/relentless/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">RELENTLESS</span></a>, <a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/by-the-light-of-the-moon/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON</span></a> to name a few--but this is the only one in the Odd series.<br />
<br />
<b>MARK:</b> In your dedication of the <a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/deeply-odd/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Deeply Odd</span></a> novel to Stephen Sommers, an American screen writer and film director, you wrote: “This novel is dedicated to Stephen…who kept his promises in a world in which almost no one does.” Very high praise! Is this in connection to the production and expected release of the Brother Odd movie later this year?<br />
<br />
<b>DEAN:</b> Steve is a smart, talented, and incredibly charming guy. He is also honorable and modest and honest in an industry where those virtues are seldom encountered. He made an excellent adaptation of <a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/odd-thomas/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">ODD THOMAS</span></a> that scores high with test audiences, and he deferred his compensation to the back end in order to put every dollar he could into the production. It's about a 25-million-dollar film that looks like an 80-million-dollar film. He got brilliant performances out of Anton Yelchin and Addison Timlin.<br />
<br />
<b>MARK:</b> When is the movie expected to be released? What can you tell us about the production process?<br />
<br />
<b>DEAN:</b> It now looks as if the movie will never hit theaters, maybe not even DVD. I would love to vent about this. Someday I might. Suffice it to say that, if my life hung in the balance and my survival depended upon the competence and honor of my rescuer, then of the principles involved in this, the only one I would trust with my life is Steven Sommers.<br />
<br />
<b>MARK:</b> In other movie and television news, I understand that TNT is developing a drama series based on your Frankenstein series. What progress has been made on this project? When might it be aired?<br />
<br />
<b>DEAN:</b> TNT will make the decision to proceed or not with the pilot episode in June. The script is quite good, and with the right cast and show runner, it could be quality TV with great energy. But I can only wait and hope.<br />
<br />
<b>MARK:</b> How much do you have to do with these scripts and film projects?<br />
<br />
<b>DEAN:</b> I usually have the right to delete half the names on a short list of writers that the studio or network want to use, and the same with directors. I give notes. And then I wait for everything to blow up--which it seems to do sooner or later. Throughout the development of any film or TV project, it's wise to dress from head to foot in Kevlar.<br />
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<b>MARK:</b> Please bear with me on this question—it is long-winded. A couple months ago, you released, <a href="http://www.deankoontz.com/odd-interlude/" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Odd Interlude</span></a>, the continued pilgrimage of Brother Odd. I enjoyed this story and gathered more insight into your main character’s mindset. In the book, Odd tells the reader:<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> <i> </i></span><i>“…When triumph at last comes, our efforts alone could not </i><i>have won the day without that grace which surpasses all understanding and which will, if we allow it, imbue our lives with meaning.”</i><br />
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Later in the book, through the thoughts of a young girl befriended by Brother Odd, you write:<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> <i> </i></span><i>“…But God is good—right?—and to be really good you’ve got </i><i>to have humility, we all know that, so then if God is best of the best, then He’s also the humblest of the humble. Right?...God is too humble to sit around all day listening to us praise Him and beg Him, the funny thing is, I’m praying like crazy for Oddie. I guess I’m hopeless.”</i><br />
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Between these two characters, I find a theme that runs—not only through this novel, but through many of your other writings—that there are universal truths concerning our existence here on earth. That God intends deeper purposes—peace, grace, humble adoration— for all people, even more than the need to survive, to exist. Above, you used the phrase “surpasses all understanding” which reminded me of the verse from Philippians 4:7 where the Apostle Paul writes, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding…” Brother Odd faces a dark and foreboding world, walking between the living and the dead, with brief moments of humor and tranquility. But yet he pushes on, waiting for that time when he will be re-united with his girlfriend, Stormy Llewellyn, in the next life. What spiritual truths does Brother Odd grasp as he journeys through these strange encounters between good and evil? What enables him to carry on and persevere?<br />
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<b>DEAN:</b> Odd carries on and perseveres for the same reasons that I do: He sees everywhere deep mystery in the world, and a sense of the unseen in all things seen. He has that card given to him and Stormy by the Gypsy Mummy fortunetelling machine at the carnival--YOU ARE DESTINED TO BE TOGETHER FOREVER--and that promise will be kept in SAINT ODD, though in a way that I doubt any reader will anticipate.<br />
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I've been a lifelong enthusiastic reader of science--in particular quantum mechanics, molecular biology, genetics--and I've lived long enough to see that the more we discover about any subject, the more complex it proves to be. A hundred fifty years ago, human cells were thought to be blobs of "carbonized albumin." We now know that the human cell contains thousands of incredibly long protein chains without any one of which it can't function. A cell is more complex than a 747 and a cruise ship combined! The more you study these things, the more you see that the easy answers to the problems of life and the world--ideologies, scientism--are inadequate.<br />
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<b>MARK:</b> It is inspiring to read about your successful writing career. I particularly enjoyed reading the story about how your wife, Gerda, suggested that you follow your writing dream for five years. She offered to support you during that time, and that if it did not pan out it would be clear that you were not going to make it. Before the five years was up, she had to quit her job to run your writing business. Did you ever consider what would have happened if it took longer? Would you have continued writing or just given up?<br />
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<b>DEAN:</b> We had no books in our house when I was a kid, and yet I was writing stories and illustrating them by the age of eight. I think it would be easier to give up breathing than to give up writing. In fact, one inevitable day, it will be easy to give up breathing, but I'll probably still be trying desperately to finish writing a scene as I leave the world.<br />
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<b>MARK:</b> What would be your advice to unknown writers just starting out based upon the changing face of publishing?<br />
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<b>DEAN:</b> Write what you're passionate about, not what's currently hot. Tastes change, these days more rapidly than ever, but what does not change is the intelligent reader's recognition of the passion that a writer brings to his or her work. In this rotten economy--which has affected sales far more profoundly than has the rise of the ebook--the reader needs to sense your commitment to your work and feel that you would have written it even with no hope of publication.<br />
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<b>MARK:</b> What does the future hold for you, Dean? What stories and projects are you working on?<br />
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<b>DEAN:</b> I've written a novel titled INNOCENCE, which is very different and which I was not sure would be understood and welcomed. But my publishers worldwide have reacted to it at least as strongly--and generally with more enthusiasm--than anything I've done. It hits stores on January 8, 2014. Recently I signed a new six-book contract, and I'm now writing the first in a trilogy with a strange mythology that makes me grin just to think about it, and the lead character of those three books is Ivy Elgin, who was just a supporting character in VELOCITY. After I finish book one of the trilogy, I'll write SAINT ODD. That's about as far forward as it's ever wise to plan.<br />
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<b>MARK:</b> What is your greatest joy about writing? What inspires you?<br />
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<b>DEAN:</b> The beauty and suppleness of the English language. And the challenge of writing about meaning in a nihilistic age. I get a great deal of mail, and while I always enjoy hearing how much pleasure and entertainment a reader got from a book, I am most encouraged by those frequent letters from readers who tell me my books gave them hope and inspired them to struggle through hard times. And not having to wear a tie. How fabulous it is to have a job for which I can always wear jeans and Hawaiian shirts!<br />
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<b>MARK:</b> We look forward to many years of great stories coming from your creative mind, Dean. Thank you for joining us today.<br />
*******<br />
Dean Koontz's novels have been published in 38 languages and have sold over 450 million copies worldwide. He lives in southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden-retriever, Anna, and the enduring spirit of their golden, Trixie.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-53897037134332654042013-04-11T15:38:00.002-07:002013-04-11T18:23:18.626-07:00Interview: Bestselling novelist James Scott Bell<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">By Mark Young</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whether his character is a butt-kicking
nun or zombie attorney, novelist James Scott Bell’s active imagination always
manages to create vivid characters that come alive on the page. And when it
comes to humor, Jim can make the grim reaper crack a smile. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">You want examples? Try
this—opening lines to Jim’s bestselling novel, <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-20/styled-5/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Try Darkness</span></a></i>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The nun hit me in the mouth and said, “Get out of my
house.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Jaw throbbing, I said, “I can’t believe you just did
that.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">“This is my house,” she said. “You want more? Come on
back in.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Sister Mary Veritas is a shade over five and half
feet. She was playing in gray sweats, of course. Most of the time she wears the
full habit. Her pixie face is usually a picture of innocence. She has short
chestnut hair and blue eyes. I had just discovered those eyes hid an animal
ruthlessness.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">See what I mean? Can you
picture Sister Veritas? If you have not experienced this author’s writing
style, you’re in for a treat. Sometimes Jim writes funny stuff. Sometimes, he
can explore the darkness, looking for the redeeming light.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">James Scott Bell is a busy
man—writer, lawyer, teacher, mentor, a man of many talents—and willing to take
a risk. Legal thrillers. Historical suspense. Even writing zombie attorney
legal thrillers under the pen name K. Bennett. Jim practices what he preaches,
publishing with some of the top publishing houses in the business while also venturing
out into the self-publishing venue himself. Most recently, he earned an
Thriller Writers Award finalist spot for his self-published novella, <i>One
More Lie.</i> He is a regular contributor to <i>Writer’s Digest Magazine,</i> where he served as a fiction columnist.
WD has published a number of Jim’s books
on writing. Walking with a foot planted in both publishing worlds, Jim is able
to provide a unique perspective on this ever-changing game of publishing.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b>MARK:</b> Welcome back to Hook’em & Book’em, Jim.
First, give us a synopsis of your current writing life. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What is happening in
the fast-paced world of James Scott Bell?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>JIM:</b> He's yelling out the window of the runaway
train, "Slow down!" The reason is that I've got more<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">projects on my
writing board than I'll ever get to. But, honestly, I like it that way. With
the current self-publishing boom, you just never run out of things to write. I'm
having more fun than ever, which I think the writing life should be. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MARK:</b> How are your teaching seminars going? Who do
you co-teach with and what topic do your students seem most interested in?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>JIM:</b> I love teaching workshops around the
country. When I have the chance to teach over two or three days, I like to
include interactive exercises along with the tools and techniques. I want to
get writers deeper into their own work, and come up with gold. In November of
each year I get together with Donald Maass (<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Writing-the-Breakout-Novel-ebook/dp/B00506WXJA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1365694752&sr=1-1&keywords=Writing+the+Break+Out+Novel" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Writing the Breakout Novel</span></a>)</i> and Christopher Vogler (<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Journey-Structure-Edition/dp/193290736X/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1365694888&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Christopher+Vogler" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">The Writer's Journey</span></a>)</i> for a big, 3-day conference. We each take a
whole day, and find that our approaches complement each other nicely. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MARK</b>: What do you try to focus on in these
seminars?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>JIM</b>: My focus is on techniques that <i>work.</i> I've never stopped studying the
writing craft, even after I was making a living at it. It fascinates me, why
things work, how writers can get better at what they do. When I teach I'm
trying to give extremely practical advice any writer can use to improve their
work. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MARK:</b> I am an avid follower of <a href="http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2013/04/so-long-farewell-auf-wiedersehen-goodbye.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">THE KILL ZONE</span></a>, a
blog where you and your co-writers share information and advise about all
aspects of writing and the publishing world. One particular article you wrote a
few weeks ago, titled <i><a href="http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2013/03/field-report-from-e-book-revolution-3_10.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Field Report From the eBook Revolution #3: The New Equilibrium</span></a></i>, brought attention to such
controversial topics as digital only contracts from traditional
publishers, the continuing decline of physical shelf space in books stores, and
the disappearance of the midlist authors. Where do you see the publishing
industry headed in the next few years? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>JIM:</b> We all know things are changing, but no one
knows the rate or content of the changes to come. No one. It's all up in the
air. Which makes it exciting for the fast movers—which include authors who like
to write—and challenging for big publishers who are like huge zeppelins propelling
through storm clouds. I find the landscape fascinating.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Surely more and more people will read on tablets
and e-readers. Print will still be around, but limited. One interesting
development is the survival and even the rise of independent bookstores. They
are like flowers that have grown up through the asphalt. They are small but
pretty, and people appreciate them. Tight communities of print book lovers will
congregate here. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">It's all good for writers, who have options and
opportunities. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MARK:</b> What are some of the obstacles that
traditional publishers face?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>JIM:</b> The same obstacles typewriter manufacturers
faced when the PC caught on. There are still typewriter specialty shops that
repair old machines. But these are boutiques for lovers of the old things. Some
typewriter companies and shops saw what was coming, and moved into the computer
age, and have managed to survive and, sometimes, thrive. But they did have to
change.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Major publishing today faces a tsunami that few
people saw coming back in late 2007. That was when the Kindle was
introduced. Can you believe it cost
$399? Virtually no one anticipated the speed of change that happened next.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The rapidity of it all put pressure on every part
of the industry. It's what led to Borders going into bankruptcy in 2011. The
big publishers took that like a blow to the sola plexus, and they've been
staggering around since. But in a<a href="http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2013/01/is-traditional-publishing-raging-bull.html" target="_blank"> </a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2013/01/is-traditional-publishing-raging-bull.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">blog post</span></a>
I likened the industry to Jake LaMotta, the "Raging Bull." It refuses
to go down. <o:p></o:p>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">But with physical shelf space disappearing, their
main mode of operation and distribution is fading away. That was their main
advantage. Now they've got to find ways to make themselves advantageous again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MARK:</b> What are some of the obstacles indie
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>JIM:</b> There are two main obstacles: quality and
discoverability. The former is about having the discipline and drive and work
ethic to make yourself better and better, all the time, not giving up,
producing the words. This is always job one for a writer. All the digital savvy
in the world isn't going to help you if your writing is subpar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The second aspect, discoverability, is an ongoing
process. In one sense, taking care of the quality also takes care of the discovery.
Word of mouth works. Great writing catches on. The depth and degree of
discovery is always going to vary. But it will happen for the writer who is
doing excellent work. Then come various tools one can use to try to get leg up.
Like the Kindle Select program which you, Mark, have used very successfully.
There are others. The self-publishing writer should set aside a certain amount
of time each week, even if it's just an hour, to study what's possible in terms
of marketing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">There's also social media, but writers can misuse
it. I've seen it over and over. Variations on "buy my book" don't
work. You have to engage and be real. But also, don't put so much time into it
that you're taking away from your most important job—writing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MARK:</b> Your latest novel, <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-32/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Don’t Leave Me</span></a></i>, released last January, seems to be doing quite well
in the rankings. Tell us about this suspense novel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>JIM:</b> It's the story of two brothers. The older,
Chuck Samson, is a chaplain who served with a Marine unit </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">in Afghanistan. He
was captured, rescued, and came home with a rare form of PTSD. And he needs to
take care of his
autistic brother, Stan. In Chapter One, an unseen enemy, for some reason, takes
aim at Chuck. And things just get worse from there. Chuck has to run for his
life, and from the cops, who think he's a murderer. There's a secret buried
deep in Chuck’s psyche that is the one thing that could save him and his
brother. But can he ever get to it?</span><o:p style="font-size: 12pt;"></o:p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I
wanted to write a thriller with a lot of twists and turns, but the crux of it
is the love and loyalty of two brothers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MARK:</b> I know you’re hesitant to discuss future
writing projects until they’re hatched. However, I noticed on your web site you
shared that you are “currently at work
on two series: pulp style stories featuring<a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-23/styled-16/index.html" target="_blank"> <span style="color: yellow;">Irish Jimmy Gallagher</span></a> and the vigilante nun series <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-23/styled-27/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Force of Habi</span>t</a>”</i>. What can you tell us about these writing projects?
Trying to bring back pulp fiction?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>JIM:</b> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I think pulp fiction is already back. It's a great
time to be a productive </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-auJgqPiTvQ0/UWb1cEesdSI/AAAAAAAAB2A/AADmQmCZ3bo/s1600/Pay+Me+In+Flesh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-auJgqPiTvQ0/UWb1cEesdSI/AAAAAAAAB2A/AADmQmCZ3bo/s320/Pay+Me+In+Flesh.jpg" width="198" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">writer! Just like in those days, a writer who knows how
to tell stories can carve out a decent wage. I love the fact that short form
(stories, novelettes, novellas) have a place now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I wanted to write boxing stories set in Los
Angeles in the 1950s. So I did, and that series is up and running. So is<a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-23/styled-27/index.html" target="_blank"> <i><span style="color: yellow;">Force of Habit</span>,</i></a> which started as a joke
my son told me. He thought a nun who can do martial arts, and fights for
justice, could have that title. Ha ha, right? But I liked it! I told him I was
going to write it. I wrote it as a novelette and it caught on with a lot of
readers. So I wrote a sequel,<span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-23/styled-27/index.html" target="_blank"> </a> Force of Habit 2: And Then There were Nuns.</span><i> </i>I keep getting emails wanting to know
when the next one's coming. I'm working on it! It's called <i>Force of Habit 3: Nun the Wiser. </i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MARK:</b> Where can writers go to learn about your
teaching seminars? Where are these going to be held? What other events are you
going to be involved with this year?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>JIM:</b> Simply go to my<span style="color: yellow;"> <a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-13/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">News and Appearances</span></a></span> page. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MARK:</b> Thank you for your time, Jim. Look forward
to reading your next work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>JIM:</b> Thanks, Mark. It was great to be Hooked and
Booked today. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*******<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">JAMES SCOTT BELL is the author of the #1 bestseller for
writers,<span style="color: yellow;"> </span><i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-8/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Plot & Structure</span></a>,</i> and
numerous thrillers, including <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-32/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Don't LeaveMe</span></a>,</i> <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-20/styled-4/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Try Dying</span> </a></i>and<i> <a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-2/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Watch Your Back</span></a>. </i>His novella <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled/styled-3/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">One More Lie</span></a></i> was the first
self-published work to be nominated for an International Thriller Writers
Award. Under the pen name K. Bennett,
he is also the author of the Mallory Caine zombie legal thriller series, which
begins with <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/Zombie%20Legal%20Thrillers/styled-18/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Pay Me in Flesh</span></a>. </i>He served as the fiction columnist
for Writer's Digest magazine and has written highly popular craft books for
Writer’s Digest Books, including: <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-9/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Revision & Self-Editing for Publication</span></a>, <a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-10/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">The Art of War for Writers</span></a> </i>and <i><a href="http://www.jamesscottbell.com/styled-7/styled-21/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Conflict & Suspense</span></a></i></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</span></span>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4719012071897568245.post-60152077138168225072013-03-26T12:10:00.000-07:002013-03-26T12:10:13.877-07:00Cop-Turn-Writer: Interview with novelist John Scanlan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">By Mark Young<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was
scrolling through my emails recently when I came across one from a debut author
from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Palm Beach</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Florida</st1:state></st1:place>—author John Scanlan. As I read
further I learned that John is a cop-turned-writer and my interest meter shot
up. Honestly, as a cop-turned-writer myself, I always want to help out a fellow
officer trying to make a stab in the writing business—particularly if they are
writing crime-related fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now, I
have not read John’s novel—<a href="http://www.sunburypressstore.com/Of-Guilt-and-Innocence-9781620061787.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: yellow;">Of Guilt and Innocence </span></a>published by Sunbury Press, Inc.—but his story idea seems
intriguing. Nothing tugs at the heartstrings of people like the abduction of a
child. Five-year-old Ashley Wooten is snatched from her own front yard in a
well-to-do community of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Boca Raton</st1:city></st1:place>.
The girl’s father must reveal secrets about his past to jump start a faltering
investigation. As detectives delve into Ashley’s disappearance, they learn that
the suspect might have ties to the murder of an elderly victim, a crime
attributed to the South Florida Strangler. Uncertain how these two cases might
dovetail, investigators scramble for clues before Ashley or another victim are
found dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sound
interesting? I thought so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">John is a
transplanted ‘Floridian’—is that the word? It seems that most people who have
settled in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Florida</st1:state></st1:place>
have come from somewhere else—particularly colder climates I would wager. John
is no exception. He migrated to the sunny state from a small village in <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>, about an hour’s drive east of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Buffalo</st1:city></st1:place>, which I guess accounts for his love
of chicken wings. Eight years ago, John began his career as a police officer
with the Palm Beach Police Department after a short detour with the U.S. Border
Patrol. He is married with two young daughters and a son due in June. This
makes 2013 a big year for him—a novel released last January and a son on the
way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let’s find
out a little more about how John balances his life between police work,
writing, and a growing family. First, let's find out about his debut novel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> John, thanks for joining us here on <i>Hook’em & Book’em</i>. Tell us a little
more about <i>Of</i></span></div>
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<i> Guilt and Innocence. </i>What
can readers expect when they pick up your novel? How did you come up with the
idea?<o:p></o:p><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thanks for having me,
Mark. I think readers can expect an easy
read that will hold their interest until the final twist. It’s not your typical whodunit crime novel,
but with every secret revealed it will really make them consider who is truly
innocent and who is truly guilty. I had
decided I wanted to try to write a novel before I developed this particular
idea, but I knew I wanted to have three separate storylines that
intertwined. I wanted to make it as
emotionally charged as I could and so I used crimes that I knew would
accomplish that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> What did you find most challenging in writing
this novel?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Aside from trying not to
make it sound like one long police report?
My biggest issue with writing this novel was that I didn’t know what
writing a novel would entail. I thought
every novel had to sound like <i>A Tale of
Two Cities</i> and make readers have an open dictionary by them. So I tried to write that way, until I read an
interview with James Patterson where he said, basically, that he could only
write the way he was capable of writing.
He couldn’t be anyone else. And
after reading that I looked at writing in a whole new light and felt a bit more
confident in my ability. I readdressed
my work and just wrote the best I could.
No more, no less. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> As the father of daughters myself, I found the
most troubling calls I responded to as a police officer where those involving
children. In fact, a young girl—friend of my oldest daughter—was abducted and
killed near our home which brings your story a little closer to my world. These
incidents tear at your heart even though you must deal with the situation as a
police officer. John, as a father of two
daughters did you discover writing this novel difficult in that respect? Have
you had other experiences as a police officer that you could use to deepen the
emotional struggle within your characters?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At times it was
extremely difficult for me to write. I
had to really get into the feelings and emotions of the father of the missing
girl, which, of course, made me consider what I would do if this had happened
to one of my girls. I remember, after
writing portions of it, going into my daughter’s bedrooms after they were
asleep (because that was when I usually wrote) and just looking at them and
thinking how lucky I was. And then I had
to transition into writing from the perspective of the investigating officers,
which provided me with no relief at all.
As a first responder, calls involving children are always the ones you
dread. They affect you deeply and stay
with you, well, forever. I was once
first on scene at a house where a child had been pulled from a swimming pool
just minutes before I arrived. She was
drifting in and out consciousness and I spent hours with her family at the
hospital as they waited to see if their daughter would pull through and at what
cost. To make matters worse for me
emotionally she was the same age as my oldest daughter. I tried to use experiences like this to
develop a realistic view as to what my investigators would be going
through. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Let us switch gears here and focus on your
police career. You have been with the Palm Beach PD for about
eight years. Where have you served and what kind of experiences have you faced?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve served on my
department’s Honor Guard Unit and currently serve as a member of the Crisis Intervention
Team. The great thing about working in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Palm Beach</st1:city></st1:place> is that it is a
wealthy community that experiences a relatively low crime rate thanks to the
hard work of my fellow officers, as well as all the outstanding officers that
served before me. Because of this we get
to experience a lot of fun things. I’ve
served on two presidential details when George W. Bush visited and work
security details when the NFL owners meetings are in town. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Tell us about your assignment with the Crisis
Intervention Team (CIT). What kind of services does the CIT provide? What are
your responsibilities?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">CIT deals with
individuals in crisis situations.
Officers on the team are trained by mental health professionals to
better deal with a variety of crisis situations and are dispatched to handle
them should they arise. Examples of
these types of situations would be dealing with individuals suffering from
mental illness, individuals who are suicidal, substance abusers, child or
elderly abuse investigations, and death notifications. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What experiences have you found interesting with
CIT? What has been less desirable?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While none of those
situations are pleasant, they are important.
It is important to help people who sometimes get overlooked or passed
over because they are difficult to deal with.
It is important to console families who are grieving or confused or
scared. I wouldn't say any one
experience is more interesting or favorable than another, but there is a bit of
intrigue before you arrive at the call because you know it is going to be
complex. You know it is going to make
you work for a resolution, and you just hope it will be a positive one. Of course, that being said, I'm sure every
member of the team would tell you that death notifications and child abuse
investigations are the absolute hardest to deal with emotionally. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What has been your most rewarding experience as
a police officer?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I'd have to say the most
rewarding experience I've had was when I located a man wanted out of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:place></st1:city> on ten counts
of kidnapping and rape. The warrant was
ten years old and after I put the cuffs on him and shipped him back to finally
answer the charges against him. It was a pretty good feeling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Leroy</st1:placename></st1:city>,
<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">New York</st1:placename></st1:state>
is a long way from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Palm Beach</st1:placename></st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Florida</st1:placename></st1:state></st1:placename></st1:place>.
What prompted you to make the switch? Better weather?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In all honesty,
yes. After my time training with the
Border Patrol in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Charleston</st1:city>,
<st1:state w:st="on">SC</st1:state></st1:place> I just fell in love with
southern living. I liked having a
somewhat constant temperature and the ability to do more things I enjoyed year
round. So I started looking at police
departments in different areas of different states that I liked. Luckily for me <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Palm Beach</st1:place></st1:city> was the first to make me an offer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> How do you balance your day job and your family
in order to find time to write? Do you just skip sleeping?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Skip sleeping? It's probably my favorite past time
actually. Though I admit I do it much
less these days. In actuality my
schedule works out quite nicely and I just don't push it. I generally wait to write until my daughters
have gone to bed so I can spend time with them and so I don't end up writing
the same sentence six times because they are constantly asking me questions and
I can't focus. And then, depending on if
I have to work in the morning, I will write for a minimum of an hour. Occasionally, I am up until the wee hours of
the morning writing, but there are also days, sometimes multiple days in a row,
that I just can't fit it in to my schedule at all. And I'm fine with that. I have a full time job and a responsibility
to my family that come first. Maybe,
someday, writing can be my only job, but until then it is relegated to being
done under the cover of darkness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In reading some of your background material, I
learned that you were a closet writer for a while—even from your wife. Tell us how your big secret was
finally revealed and why you were keeping it a secret.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4719012071897568245" name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I decided to keep my
writing a secret simply because when I started I wasn't sure how far I'd
get. I figured no one needed to know if
it only ended up being a week long hobby.
My wife had recently gone back to work and so, being a cop with atypical
days off, I was left with an abundance of time alone on weekday nights. I would write while my wife and kids slept
and, as the words started flowing and I started really enjoying it, I decided I
would tell her when the end was in sight.
But, of course, I got greedy and I got lazy. I tried to sneak in a quick writing session
one day while she was at the store and I left my manuscript up on the
computer. When she found it she was
obviously confused, but very supportive and encouraging once I explained. At that point I was only about half way
finished and, with the exception of one other person, she remained the only one
who knew about it until I signed my publishing contract.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What kind of story are you working on right now?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Right now I'm putting
the finishing touches on a manuscript about the aftermath of an overturned
murder conviction. A conviction that
caused a man to serve twenty years in prison for a crime he seemingly did not
commit. It details the perspective of
the murder victim's husband, who refuses to give up his closure or peace of
mind and instead chooses to overlook the evidence that supports the
release. It also details the perspective
of the man once convicted of the crime and his reentry into the crime riddled
neighborhood in which he grew up. And
then, of course, the now cold case investigation into the original murder. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Now that
you have one novel under your belt, what do you think about the whole writing
process? Worth losing a little sleep trying to balance everything?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Absolutely. What started out as a secret hobby has grown
into a large part of my life. Though
it's a lot of work, which does occasionally make me lose out on some of my
beloved sack time, it's a fun part of my day that I look forward to. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Any last words for new writers?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">JOHN: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Don't try to be someone
you're not with your writing. Have fun
with it. Stay loose. Don't get intimidated. I tried not to put any pressure on myself,
even with the submission process. I told
myself that if this manuscript didn't get published I'd keep writing them until
one did. And because writing was fun for
me I didn't have a problem with that plan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">MARK: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thanks for your time, John. I know you don’t
have much time to spare. Best wishes on your new writing career.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">*********<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Author
John Scanlan is a police officer on the picturesque <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">island</st1:placename></st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Palm Beach</st1:placename></st1:placename></st1:place>
in South Eastern Florida where he currently resides with his wife and two
daughters. For more information on him, visit John’s website at </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.johnfscanlan.weebly.com/"><span style="color: yellow;">www.johnfscanlan.weebly.com</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> or visit </span><a href="http://www.sunburypressstore.com/Of-Guilt-and-Innocence-9781620061787.htm"><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: yellow;">Sunberry Press.</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.kindlegraph.com/widgets/author/MarkYoungBooks" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:180px; height:150px"></iframe>ments:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16391660618856607784noreply@blogger.com0