Making Sense of the Senseless

By Andrew E. Kaufman

Photo by David Levy

Like most people, I’ve been thinking a lot about the tragedy in Colorado this past week. Whenever something like this happens, I do, and in my mind, the question that always seems to arise is, how?  How can someone do something so unthinkable, so awful? 

So senseless.

I’ve written about crime most of my life. I worked as a journalist for years, and I’ve seen a lot. I was in San Diego when a man opened fire in a McDonalds restaurant filled with people; many of them died. Many were children. I remember feeling more vulnerable than I ever had before and realizing how fragile life can be when the wrong person enters it. I remember feeling scared.

Many people who write about real-life crime develop a thick skin; they must in order to get through the day, to do their jobs, and I suppose to some degree, I did, too. But I think there was also some part of me that didn’t. A part that was still bothered by extreme acts of cruelty and to this day, still is.

Now, I write books about the same kinds of people: evil ones. Granted, my characters are fictional, but I don’t think that much matters. They represent an element in society that’s very real. You might think it odd that I do this, and people often ask how I can dream up such awful things, and for that, I actually have an answer. I know why. I’m pretty sure that on some level, in some way, it helps me deal with the horrors of real life, much like the one we recently saw. It allows me to create evil, and then it allows me to see evil meet its end. There’s cathartic value there, and for my readers, I suspect the experience is much the same. We all have ways of coping with the dark side of life, and I suppose this is mine. In my books, good always prevails.

Still, you’d think with all my exposure to the bad things that I’d have an answer for what happened in Colorado. But I don’t. I really don’t. All I can think about are the innocent people, the ones whose lives have been permanently changed for the worse, that will never be the same again. People who were doing nothing more than trying to spend a quiet night at a movie.  And in the end, I keep coming back to the same question. How?

Maybe there is no answer. Maybe evil is just evil.  

In the days to come, I’m sure we will hear about selfless acts of courage and of people who lent a hand to those in need, ones who chose kindness over evil. I guess if anything good can come from something like this, it would be that the best in people often materializes during the worst of times. That’s what I’ll choose to focus on.

And I’ll keep writing.

Broken Detective?

Broken Harbor (Dublin Murder Squad #4)  by Tana French (Viking hardcover, 24 July 2012).

Two years ago, we met Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy in French's Faithful Place.  Frank Mackey, the protagonist of that book, thought Kennedy was a "pompous, rule-bound, boring git".  Of course, he's more complicated than that, as we learn in Broken Harbor.

Like Faithful Place for Frank Mackey, Broken Harbor (now known as "Brianstown") is a part of Kennedy's past.  He remembers it as the location of idyllic summers when he was a teen, renting a caravan on the beach with his family.  Now, it's a failed attempt at an upscale housing development, begun at the top of the real estate boom, and unfinished as a result of the recession.  Only a few of them are inhabited, and most of the others are half-built and used by children and teens to "play" in.

Along with his trainee partner Richie Curran, Mick Kennedy is assigned a multiple murder case, where victims are a father and his two young children.  The mother is alive, but critically injured.
Although it first appears to be a straightforward murder-suicide, there are too many pieces that don't fit the puzzle, including evidence that someone broke into the house.

On top of having a life-consuming case, Kennedy suddenly has to deal with his psychologically troubled younger sister Dina,  who is spinning out of control as she does periodically.  Since they have an unspoken agreement that they will care for Dina themselves, Mick and his older sister Geri take her in when her illness takes over.  Unfortunately, this time Gina's husband and daughter have the 'flu, and she's too overwhelmed to take on an unbalanced sister.

This story is written in the first-person, from Scorcher Kennedy's viewpoint, and French inhabits him masterfully.  Although we can only see what he allows us to see, we are definitely using his eyes and mind, and only at the end of the book can we sit back and attempt to be objective.

 

It's not necessary to read the Dublin Murder Squad books in order, but if you enjoy one, however, you must definitely read them all!


*FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher, who sent me a copy of the book for review purposes.

Paying it Forward With Crime

by Peg Brantley, author of RED TIDE

I'm very proud to belong to a community of writers who are involved and engaged. We care.

I want to take just a moment of your day to begin to outline to what extent.

Colorado has recently suffered some terrifying losses due to fire—horror beyond anything we've ever experienced. Particularly devastating, in terms of proximity to populated areas and the resulting loss, was the Waldo Canyon Fire near Colorado Springs. Terry Odell was the first (that I know of) who came up with the idea of contributing a portion of her royalties over a given period of time to help the victims of that fire. Terry offered to contribute 5% of her royalties over a period of time to the Red Cross. I followed suit. At the end of the period of time, I elected to donate mine to the Pikes Peak United Way, and in the end I opted for 100% of my royalties.

I'm blessed to be part of an anthology put out through the Indie Chicks where a portion of the proceeds (right now it's FREE) goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. If you're interested, our travel anthology is very aptly titled: Ms. Adventures in Travel.

Tim Hallinan released another anthology, Bangkok Noir, the proceeds from which went to benefit others. Tim also contributes a portion from his Poke Rafferty series (in my opinion one of the best ones out there) to a charity he has researched well and believes in. 

My own tribe here on Crime Fiction Collective joined forces to help a family in Joplin, Missouri after the devastating tornado that leveled that town. That was the first time I was exposed to the idea that as an indie author, I could make some business decisions that were inspired by altruism.

As readers, does it make a difference to you to know that the author you support extends that support to others? Does the concept ever induce you to purchase a book you may not have otherwise?

Who are some other writers you know of who have paid their royalties forward? I know there's more.

An untitled teaser

By Gayle Carline

As usual, I'm up to my clavicle in alligators, but I own this alternate-Thursday space and I'm not about to let you down. I'm busy writing, which is at least a good excuse. For the past week, I've been 10,000 words from the end of my third mystery. This equates to that dream in which you are running toward a door and the more you run, the further away it gets.

Or am I the only one who dreams that?

I can see the final conflict in this book as if it's a movie reel, playing in my head. I even know how the last scene works. I just have to get there, and it seems there's always one more place Peri needs to visit and one more person she needs to talk to and one more piece of information she needs before she gets there.

Only 10,000 more words.

After it's completed, I'll put it away until I've nearly forgotten about it, then drag it out for editing. In the meantime, I thought I'd show you the first chapter. I won't claim it's raw - I tend to write fairly clean and I have been through a little fine-tuning in one read & critique session. But I feel comfy enough with you to pull it out and let you drive it around the block, kick the tires, etc.

I don't have a title for the book yet. The working title is "Burning Mad" but I don't care for that. Here's how it starts:

CHAPTER ONE

The drugs raced through the teenager's mind. On his back, on the floor, he watched the ceiling above him swirl into a dark velvet expanse, dotted with stars. His arm stretched out to grab a handful but they eluded his grasp, preferring to settle on his fingertips. He smiled, the corners of his mouth stretching away from their usual pout.

Dad complains I'm grumpy, but it's his fault. He barely speaks to me, anyway. Good thing. "Why can't you just," whatever, it's all he ever says. Straighten up, go to school, be normal. What for?

Mom's always yelling at me one second then saying it's okay she understands the next. What does she know? She doesn't know what school is like, all those crappy teachers, whining crappy assignments. Homework is useless. I already know what I want to know. If I don't, it's because it's boring.

My friends are all I need.

He scowled, his hand lowering to his chest. His friends hung out with him because his parents were so generous. Mom and Dad fed them, let them swim in the pool, and were kind enough to leave beer where they could get at it. He supplied the video games and kept his parents at bay by apologizing each time the bar was raided.

These drugs are fine, def wicked. For several minutes, he focused on his breath. He felt his bones move apart to give the air somewhere to go, then relax back into each other when he no longer needed that gulp. In… out… in… out…

Dylan said it was some kind of cocktail. Alex giggled. Cock. Tail. Cock tail. He laughed out loud. That Dylan was a riot.

His hallucination shifted, from night to day. Now he saw blue skies and white clouds above him. Reaching up to a cloud, he felt mist run through his fingers, and saw a trail of white follow his hand.

The clouds in front of him began to turn grey and dirty. The air coagulated in a brown haze around him. His ribs no longer spread, although his lungs fought for oxygen. The air they drew in smelled of smoke and stung all the way down. He coughed himself out of the dream and looked around.

The room was dark and unfamiliar. He remembered; this was not his home. They had broken into this place, thinking it was abandoned. Each over-filled room told them they were wrong, but no one was home, so they explored it before the pills and whiskey took effect. Alex had ended up in what looked like an old lady's bedroom. A vanity held fancy glass bottles, and a porcelain doll nestled in the pillows that were covered by a tufted bedspread.

He heard his name being called. "Alex. Hey, Alex."

Opening his mouth to answer, he coughed again. The air was getting thicker with smoke. He saw shadows pass by the doorway, and tried again, but his throat was too raw for noise. One of the shadows paused.

"Dude… we gotta… get… out of here." Whoever said it was coughing, hard.

"Come on." Dylan's voice sounded hoarse but loud. "Alex is probably already out."

He didn't hear anything after that, so he rolled to his stomach and began to crawl. The smoke swirled around his body, much like the imaginary stars. He wished the smoke was the illusion.

Dragging his body around the corner of the bed, he looked down the hallway. Red-hot light sizzled upon his face. He backed into the bedroom again and saw curtains. With an effort, he pushed to his hands and knees and scooted to the lacy ruffles. He pulled them open and yanked on the window. It was locked.

The room continued to fill with smoke and heat. His breathing felt like a fish gasping for water, and his head grew light. He felt around the frame, searching for a latch. Finding one, he slid it, the only direction it would go, and felt the window casing spring up. He reached both hands forward to remove the screen and slide to safety.

Wow, am I going to have a story to tell the guys.

That's when he felt the security bars. His last bit of effort was to grab them and prove their immobility. He slid down, to the floor beneath the window, and listened to the pretty glass bottles exploding on the vanity, as they shattered from the heat. Rolling to his side, he looked at the shards on the carpet, lit by the flames around the doorway.

He reached out his hand to them, sparkling like stars.

* * * *

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see how it ends.

It's all about revenge

by Jenny Hilborne

What is your motive? For me, it's all about revenge.

Every day, I plot murder. I fantasize about the evil things I, I mean my characters, would do to their victims if given the chance. I plot how they’ll get away with it, at least for a while. During this process, I noticed a trend, which caused me to examine my own personality.

In real life, I’m not the type to hold a grudge. At least, I don’t think so. However, in my fictional world, almost all my motives seem to revolve around revenge. I gravitate towards it. Quite frankly, I find it the purest and most satisfying kind of motive, both to write and to read. Characters driven by revenge are obsessed and determined, with a single-minded goal. They must settle the score at all costs, and their conduct shocks me the most.

Other motives seem weaker in comparison and more difficult to understand, especially in mysteries and thrillers. A villain bent on revenge is exciting to follow; his target, or someone close to that target has already hurt him, and we want to know how he’ll retaliate. Is the punishment deserved? Unless the villain is entirely bad, with no redeeming qualities, I’d say quite often it is. I love a villain who provokes empathy in me as a reader. This compassion adds to the drama and conflict going on inside me as I read. It raises questions in my mind about fairness, and righteousness, the validity of his actions, and how he should be handled when he’s caught.   

Other popular motives for pre-meditated murder include jealousy, robbery, and crimes of passion. More unusual motives might include boredom, or for fun (thrill kills). With these types of plotlines, I find I have less empathy for the villain and more for the victim, which seems more conventional, and; therefore, the stories don’t move me as much. The unconventional is more interesting and more troubling because deviant behaviour defies societal norms. It makes us question our own character. Is it normal to side with the villain? What would we do under the same circumstances?

Which motive do you find the strongest and the most satisfying, and what does our choice reveal about our own personality?

Making Silencers Silent

 A hit man just wouldn't be hit man without a silenced firearm. But, silencers (technically referred to as suppressors) affect only one aspect of sound. You see, in order to properly use a silencer in your writing you need to understand how sound works following the discharge of a gun. Sound is important evidence. Whether writing about a barking dog or a gunshot it's important for writers to understand how sounds will be heard by various characters. Sound is basically produced by disruptions in the air causing pressure waves. Modern firearms create two distinct sounds when fired. 

The first sound is created when the cartridge is fired. A modern cartridge is comprised of a casing which houses the powder and seats the bullet. On the bottom of the cartridge is the primer. This is a small disc in the center of the head stamp. When the firing pin strikes the primer it ignites the gunpowder in the cartridge and the pressure forces the bullet down the barrel. The gases produced by this small explosion are also forced down the barrel. This is the first source of sound produced from a gunshot.

Suppressors are screwed or seated onto the muzzle of the barrel. You're probably very aware of their appearance. They look like a thicker tube (usually twice as thick as the barrel at least) sticking out the front of the gun. Suppressors have a variety of proprietary designs but they all function in basically the same way. Baffles inside the cylinder "dampen" the gas pressure and sometimes even slow the velocity of the bullet. By dispersing and dampening the gasses the suppressor reduces the disruption of air; which reduces sound. The more the baffles dampen the air the less sound produced.But the use of a silencer (suppressor) may not eliminate the sound of a gunshot.

That fact is due to the second main source of sound in a gunshot; the sonic boom of the bullet traveling through air. This is an independent act that occurs after the bullet has left the suppressor. It is well known by shooters that the bullet strikes the target before the sound wave does.  Most modern cartridges are capable of reaching super-sonic speeds. Putting a suppressor on the end of a gun doesn't usually change this fact. I've worked for law enforcement agencies that used suppressed weapons in a variety of tactical assaults. One "benign" use would be to shoot out the tires on a suspect vehicle parked outside his residence while the SWAT team is preparing to make entry.

In order to do that the shooter must use "sub-sonic" ammunition. This ammunition is designed to have a muzzle velocity below the speed of sound. Still powerful enough to shoot out a tire but not enough to make a sonic boom. Most authors don't get into this level of detail but it wouldn't hurt to mention that your character is firing sub-sonic ammunition with their suppressed weapon. You'll demonstrate your knowledge about how sound works and might keep a couple of critics at bay. Sub-sonic ammunition is easy to find and some bench shooters use it for plinking so as not to disturb their neighbors or damage their ears. Now there will always be some level of sound from the mechanical function of the slide or dropping of the hammer but for all practical purposes the weapon will be "silent".

The Emotion Thesaurus

a wonderful new resource for fiction writers,
recommended by Jodie Renner, freelance editor

Fiction writers are always hearing this critical advice from writing gurus and editors: "Show, don't tell." And for good reason. Showing is bringing a scene to life on the page, so the reader feels they're right there with the characters. Telling the readers what's going on or how someone is feeling falls flat, doesn't engage the reader. Don't tell us your character is sad or angry or frustrated or delighted - show us through their actions, reactions, and emotions.

But one of the biggest challenges facing fiction writers is to find just the right words and imagery to convey characters’ emotions so the readers feel what the character is feeling. Trying to think of different ways to show characters’ reactions like fear, rage, worry, amusement, doubt, rage, joy, embarrassment, confusion, anxiety, shock, relief, jealousy, anguish, impatience, and so on can be a lot of work and very time-consuming, even exhausting as we try to recall similar situations and how we felt.

As a content editor, when I read a scene, I’m constantly trying to visualize the movements, body language, facial expressions, physical sensations, and inner reactions of the characters in various situations, and analyze whether the words and phrases the author has chosen really capture the emotions expressed. For example, a client might have someone’s eyes widening in anger, where to me they should have their eyes narrowing or glaring in anger, and widening in shock or surprise or fear. And when I question something, I always like to offer alternative examples. But I feel I’m no expert, so often I have to really think about situations I’ve been in and how people acted when they were indignant or angry or nervous or depressed or whatever.

The good news is, my job has suddenly become much easier—and so has yours, as a fiction writer. Recently I discovered the perfect resource to find just which facial expressions, actions, and body language are best for expressing various emotional states, as well as likely internal sensations and mental responses.

It’s called THE EMOTION THESAURUS, A WRITER'S GUIDE TO CHARACTER EXPRESSION, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, and the way they’ve laid it out makes it quick and easy to choose from a variety of spot-on actions, mannerisms, voice inflections, attitudes, and facial expressions to portray any given emotion. The book has a list of 75 different emotion entries, each with pages and pages of both external and internal indicators for each emotion. For the A’s alone, we have Adoration, Agitation, Amazement, Amusement, Anger, Anguish, Annoyance, Anticipation, and Anxiety.

For ANNOYANCE, here are just some of the indicators on the list:

DEFINITION: Aggravation or mild irritation

PHYSICAL SIGNALS:

• A pinched expression
• An exaggerated sigh
• Taking over a project due to impatience: Here, I’ll do it.
• Narrowing eyes
• Crossing the arms
• Tapping a foot, fidgeting
• Swatting at the air
• Lips pressed into a white slash
• Clenching the jaw
• Folding the arms across the chest
• Hands that briefly clench
• Tugging at clothing
• A gaze that flicks upward
• Holding the head in the hands
• Pacing
• A sharp tone
• Speaking in short phrases
• Sarcasm
• A sharpening tone, using short phrases when speaking, clipped answers
• Rigid posture
• Nodding, but with a tightness to it, like one is holding back from saying something
• Throwing the hands up
• Rubbing the brow as if to ward off a headache
• Avoiding looking at the person, staring downward
• Pressing a fist to the mouth
• Fidgeting

… and lots more, followed by these other subcategories, still under Annoyance:

INTERNAL SENSATIONS

MENTAL RESPONSES

CUES OF ACUTE OR LONG-TERM ANNOYANCE

CUES OF SUPPRESSED ANNOYANCE

And they’ve even added a writer’s tip at the end of each emotion.


I bought the Kindle edition and like it so much I've ordered the paper version. One of my clients pointed out that it’s also available as a PDF from Ackerman and Puglisi's blog, The Bookshelf Muse. My novelist friend really likes the PDF as she can have that right up on the screen when she’s writing scenes, and flip to it easily for ideas.

This book is available in both Print and Digital formats through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore, and Smashwords. Or, download the PDF straight from their blog (sidebar). They also offer a free companion PDF called Emotion Amplifiers, which covers fifteen conditions (Pain, Stress, Attraction, Exhaustion, etc.) that can compromise your character's mental and physical state, ensuring they become more emotionally volatile. You can find it in the sidebar of their blog.

Jodie Renner, a freelance fiction editor specializing in thrillers and other fast-paced fiction, has published two books to date in her series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: WRITING A KILLER THRILLER and STYLE THAT SIZZLES & PACING FOR POWER (Silver Medal winner in the FAPA Book Awards, 2013). Both titles are available in e-book and paperback. For more info, please visit Jodie’s author website or editor website, or find her on Facebook or Twitter.

 

 

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7 Great Websites for Publishing Info

by L.J. Sellers, author of provocative mysteries & thrillers

I hear from writers all the time wanting to know about resources and how I keep up with everything. Keeping up not only with writing and promoting, but also staying informed about the publishing industry—which is very competitive and constantly evolving—is critical to success. With that in mind, here’s a list of my favorite websites.

The Passive Voice: This is an aggregate site that collects and links to blogs about the industry, with intelligent commentary from the site owner, who is an ex-entertainment lawyer and book formatter.

Publetariat: Another great aggregator site with a lot of how-to articles from writers about writing, promoting, and formatting.

Digital Book World: A collection of news, blogs, and commentary about everything happening in the electronic publishing world.

A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Joe Konrath always has great blogs and guest bloggers about self-publishing and often discusses pricing, a critical piece of the process.

For Crime Fiction Authors:
The Crime Fiction Daily: I also subscribe to this daily newsletter, which is specific to crime fiction and often includes real crimes stories, from which ideas spring.


The Graveyard Shift: I love this blog for news about police tactics, events, and more (such as its Castle reviews).

Writer's Forensics Blog: Fun blogs about death and crime scenes. What else can I say?

I know there are a lot more  terrific sites (and I could spend all day perusing them). What are your favorite sites for staying informed or developing your craft?