Got Gas...?

by Ben Small

Lately, I've been seeing articles, ads and television programs on the Sportsman Channel (DirecTV) and others about new gas systems for AR style rifles, both the AR-15 and AR-10, and of course, their military counterparts, the M-16, the M4 and the M14.

While AR-style rifles are considered much more accurate than the AK rifles most insurgents and third world bad guys use, they're also more fallible, i.e. they fail a lot. ARs are notorious for two aspects: They must be clean and they must be wet. If these two criteria aren't met, the guns may not fire, especially when it's hot outside or the rifle's fired a number of rounds between cleanings.

If a rifle doesn't fire, the shooter may die.

Contrast this with the AK-47, a simplistic design that will fire every time, even if the rifle's never been cleaned. The AK-47's design is so simple -- intended to be so -- that a kid can assemble and operate one.

Why the difference? Two reasons, really. ARs have tight tolerances and a direct gas impingement system, whereas the AKs have loose tolerances and are gas-piston driven.

Big deal? You betcha.

The problem with ARs is fouling. There's a small hole in the barrel which directs some of the gases from a fired round all the way back through the rifle's upper, forcing the bolt back into battery so it's ready for the next shot. But when the gases come back to the receiver and bolt, they bring unburned powder and other contaminants, thereby fouling the bolt. Over time, due to the tight tolerances of the ARs, the gun will cease to operate. Sprinkling some gun oil into the bolt and receiver area will free it up for more rounds, but the receiver and bolt chamber will be filthy, and each round fired will make them more so. Eventually, the gun will malfunction again unless cleaned and re-oiled, a messy proposition.

In the AK, however, a hole in the barrel directs the gases and contaminants to a spring loaded piston, which drives the bolt back. No contaminants reach the receiver or the bolt, and because of that and the loose tolerances, the bolt doesn't need oil. Some AKs, fired for years, may never have been cleaned and oiled.

Top end manufacturers have caught on to this AR issue, and now they're starting to produce ARs that are gas-piston driven, much like the AKs. FNH is now making ARs with gas-piston uppers, as is Les Baer. Same with Sig Sauer, with its new 556 line of rifles.

When Sig first came out with its 556 line -- a version of its war-proven 55X rifles -- many internet gun bullies corrected those who called the 556 an AR-style rifle, saying the 556 was more of an AK design than an AR design. Because of the gas-piston system. But now other AR manufacturers are releasing gas-piston driven AR rifles, so the nomenclature bullies are being driven back into their internet holes.

The beauty of an AR with a gas-piston system should be self-evident: The gun is accurate and clean. Tolerances remain tight, but contaminants can't reach the receiver and bolt. Less chance of a malfunction. And the Sig has an added benefit; you can adjust the gas system. Say, for instance, you've shot many mags through your rifle and due to heat and maybe some burned oil, and the rifle is acting sluggish, maybe not slipping fully into battery. Just turn the nozzle at the end of the upper and increase the gas level. Position one to position two. Problem solved. Shoot three hundred more bad guys.

So... why tell you all this? Because for a novelist, the devil is in the details. And some of these details may just give you an important plot point.

For a good discussion of this important and developing design change in military and commercial "black" rifles, see Direct Gas Impingement vs. Gas Piston Driven

The Man Who Writes Pot Thief Mysteries

Photos: Cover of Michael Orenduff’s first mystery, photo from the Web; Michael and Lai Orenduff holding copies of their books, photo by Paul Leavy, The Valdosta (GA) Daily Times.


By Pat Browning


Michael Orenduff made quite a splash with his first mystery, THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED PYTHAGORAS. His protagonist is Hubert Schuze, a New Mexico dealer in artifacts, mainly old clay pots. The source of his inventory may be open to question.


Orenduff has a second book almost ready for publication, THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED PTOLEMY. Two more are in progress -- THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED EINSTEIN and THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED D.H. LAWRENCE.

You can read excerpts from all four books on The Pot Thief Murder Mysteries Web Site:
http://tinyurl.com/yzlcesz

In a May 27th article, “A Marriage of Words,” Dean Poling of the Valdosta (Georgia) Daily Times examined the writing team of Orenduff and his wife, Lai. Both are on the faculty at Valdosta State University. Former high school sweethearts, they have a son who is a dean at Columbia University and a daughter in Poland on a Fulbright scholarship.

Lai Orenduff is an art historian. Her new book is THE TRANSFORMATION OF CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS ART IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: FATHER MARIE-ALAIN COURTURIER AND THE CHURCH AT ASSI, FRANCE. Published by the Edwin Mellen Press, it contains color plates and costs $109.


Apparently the Orenduffs work well together, even though Lai’s book is an academic work, while Michael’s book is a fun mystery launching a series that could have a long run.


Be all that as it may, what first drew my attention to Michael Orenduff was his Sept. 8th post to the DorothyL mystery listserv. There was an ongoing discussion of exclusivity practices by some mystery organizations based on whether an author’s publisher was on an approved list.


Michael’s post, with the subject line “Writing as democratic creativity,” is simply the best article on writing I’ve read in a long time. With his permission, I’m reprinting it here.
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QUOTE:
Writing is the most democratic of all creative endeavors. Few of us can paint or compose music, but almost everyone can write. The percentage of the population who can write well may not be any larger than the percentage of those who can compose music well, but the difference is that those of us without composing skills don’t try to write music. Those of us who cannot draw don’t enter local art competitions. But people who can’t write are more dogged than would-be painters and composers. That is why there are self-publishing companies for books but not for music scores. That is why there are few galleries that will hang whatever you bring them, and almost none that will do so for a fee.


Yes, we teach music and art in school, but after completing the handful of required courses, most students never again pick up a brush, never again place a quarter-note or a rest. But students write in every course, though not so much as in the past, alas. One of the most significant developments in higher education in the last quarter century is the explosion of classes using personal essays to enable students to understand themselves, to become more introspective and thoughtful, and to grow as learners.


In my course on Philosophy of Race this semester, I’m requiring students to blog on the topic and their blogs determine 40% of their grade. I’m not looking for sentence structure and narrative form; I’m looking for thought. I want them to engage their minds in intense analysis of complex issues, and the only way I know to do that is to write it down.


Those of you who are still reading at this point may be wondering whether I have a point to make. I do, and thanks for sticking with me. Nothing on my class blog will ever be published. I doubt a single one of my students will ever publish an essay or short story, much less a book. But they might. And if they do, it deserves to be read. Not published, but read. By a professor maybe or just a friend. And if it’s good, maybe a few other people.


There is a smeared carbon copy of a manuscript at my alma mater,Tulane University. The author’s mother discovered it after her son killed himself. She took it to a faculty member at Loyola University of New Orleans. Somehow (I play with the possible dialog in my head), she convinced him to read it. Eleven year’s after the author’s death, A Confederacy of Dunces won the Pulitzer Prize.


Readers, not organizations, should decide the fate of books. Any organization of writers that excludes writers on any basis whatsoever is not worthy of being called a writers’ group.
END QUOTE
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A Country Lawyer

by Jean Henry Mead

Gerry Spence celebrated his 80th birthday January 8th of this year and he’s still listed in most Wyoming phonebooks as actively practicing law in the Jackson area. I first met the infamous lawyer in the lobby of the Ramada Inn in Casper during the 1980s, following a speech he delivered to a lawyer’s convention. Wearing his trademark fringed leather jacket, he held court in the lobby with his tall Lucchese boots resting on the nearest coffee table.

Spence's boyish charm and rural expressions account, in part, for his unblemished record of winning every case he ever tried—with the exception of a televised mock trial where the defendant was a cardboard cutout. His larger-than-life presence, coupled with a voice that rivaled that of British actor Richard Burton, has mesmerized juries like no barrister before him. If he were, himself, an actor, he'd no doubt have a shelf full of Oscars.

Gerry Spence was born in Laramie, Wyoming, after midnight, in the coldest month of the year, delivered by a midwife. His father, Gerald Spence, is quoted as saying, “You could hear the window glass in the old house a rattlin’, and that boy’s been rattlin’ ever since. “ Indeed, young Gerry was a wild child despite the fact that his parents were missionaries. As a boy he memorized Sunday school Scripture, sold bouquets of flowers door-to-door, herded sheep and “prowled the brothels of the Old West before he was fifteen,” according to his autobiography, The Making of a Country Lawyer.

When he was 20, his mother took her own life, reportedly depressed over her son’s waywardness. That, according to Spence, transformed him and his views of the world, leading to his crusade to defend those unable to defend themselves. Spence served as a lawyer for insurance companies and told me that after a while, he could no longer watch people, injured in various ways, leave the courtroom with nothing because he was so good at his profession. It was then, he said, that he decided to spend his life defending those people against the insurance companies and giant corporations. The multi-million dollar Karen Silkwood case against Kerr-McGee was the one that make him famous.

But before his fame and fortune, Spence initially flunked his bar exam and later began his career as the youngest county prosecuting attorney in the country in his home state of Wyoming. During that time he battled alcoholism, a divorce and angry citizens who didn’t want him shutting down all the little yellow houses of prostitution in Fremont County.

One of his most publicized cases was that of Ed Cantrell, a veteran police officer who had never killed anyone during his long career, but was charged with killing an undercover agent in the backseat of his patrol car. Everyone thought Cantrell was guilty but Spence took the case and won an acquittal. Before that happened, he arranged for me to interview Ed Cantrell, which didn’t make me popular with Wyoming residents. As it turned out, I interviewed Cantrell in his double car garage with his family present. I wasn’t sure of his innocence when I arrived, but four hours later I left convinced that Cantrell thought he was shooting in self defense. The jury thought so as well after only two hours of deliberation.

Spence has since written a number of books, including his How to Argue and Win Every Time. He also published a collector’s volume of his outstanding black and white photographs which he developed in his own darkroom. The large book includes samples of his poetry and occupies a special place in my own home library.

The Odd Case of the Muderous Chum

By Mark W. Danielson

Detectives I. B. Catfish and Sam Sardine were called to the scene of a double homicide at the Danielson household. Two identical golden guppies were last seen floating atop the water in the Danielson fish tank. Word has it they were transplanted there just one day prior, arriving in the same bag as three guppies of another breed. Catfish refused to comment on any plot to kill the twin golden guppies, but he did rule out drowning as their cause of death.

Detective Sardine leaked that the three surviving fish, which he referred to as the “Fish Bait Trio”, had kept to themselves in the lower right corner of the tank while the Golden Girls were alive, but once the twin’s bodies were fished from the tank, the Trio happily frolicked from one end to the other. “It’s more than a coincidence,” said Sardine. “I’ll keep fishing for the truth, and sooner or later, one of them’s bound to get hooked.”

Mr. Cee Snail, who is representing the Fish Bait Trio, called Sardine's accusations ludicrous. “All of this is hearsay,” he said. “First, there’s no autopsy because the twins were immediately disposed of, and without their bodies, there is no case. Secondly, the water could not have been poisoned since the Trio are still swimming in it. Finally, there are no witnesses, nor any fingerprints to sustain these allegations, so if for some reason my clients are charged, I will immediately take this to a higher pond.”

Upon hearing Snail’s remarks, Catfish said, “I’ve dealt with Mr. Snail before and I refuse to take any of his slime. I definitely feel we’ve hit bottom on this case. I can’t believe Mr. Snail would sink so low.”

Snail dismissed Catfish’s comments other than to say, “This case seems awfully fishy to me.”

I couldn’t agree more.

A Demon Called Time

By Chester Campbell

My in-house (meaning in computer) dictionary lists the first definition of demon as “An evil supernatural being.” As for time, how about this: “A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future.” Does that sound supernatural, or what?

As for evil, the darned thing resists all efforts to pin it down to accommodate my needs.

I’ve never had a problem with what is familiarly known as “writer’s block.” Lately I’ve been wondering about it, however, since my efforts at writing a new book for the past couple of months or more has produced less than 20,000 words. After further reflection, I’ve concluded it’s that old demon time.

Yesterday I sat myself down and firmly laid out the law: you will write for four hours a day, period. Maybe 9:00 to 11:00 in the morning, then 1:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon. So I wrote last night from about 7:00 to 9:00.

Hmm, something doesn’t sound quite right here.

It is now 1:00 p.m. today (Tuesday) and I have yet to boot up my laptop, where said book resides. The first problem was I didn’t shuffle out of bed until nine o’clock. The previous morning we were up at 3:00 a.m. ready to take our grandson to the emergency room coughing his head off (at least it seemed to be rolling around the bed). After considerable discussion and administering a last-ditch pill, we finally got him settled down, but the night’s sleep was hopelessly muddled.

By the time we were navigating this morning, two more moppets (my wife’s great-grandkids) had arrived for the day, being on Fall Break from the next county’s schools. I checked my email, answered a couple of pressing messages, and was just getting started writing this blog when the time arrived (there’s that old demon) to shuttle everybody over to a relative’s apartment so Sarah and I could meet grandson’s teachers for a conference.

Now I’m about to take a lunch break. If I’m lucky, I’ll get this finished and posted in time to spend a couple of hours writing on my novel. But first I need to hit the bank and the post office. By the time I’m done with a brief writing session, Sarah will be calling me to eat before heading for my bimonthly writers group meeting. After that, I’ll be checking homework until time for the ten o’clock news (and the recorded 5:30 national news, which lasts little more than 20 minutes after zapping commercials). Then it’ll be bedtime.

I remember back years ago when I thought retirement would bring time to accomplish whatever needed to be done in a relaxed environment. Boy, was I misguided in my thinking. Now I can’t imagine how I was ever able to hold down a fulltime job. I read about authors who get up at 5:00 a.m. and write for three hours before going to work. If I did that, I would have to compensate by taking a three-hour nap in the afternoon.

Hmm. I may do that anway.

But I have to finished this blog and get it posted. Oh, well, maybe the answer is to do like Tim Hallinan, head for Phnom Penh, plunk down my laptop in a coffee shop, and write till I’m finished. Somehow I don’t think that’s in the cards.

It’s now past 1:30. Where did that old demon go?

What's Your Murder Weapon of Choice?

This is an oldie but goody, at least I think so. And I'm traveling and won't have an internet connection.

by Ben Small

Guns are a bit trite, aren’t they? Convenient, yes, but oh so common. And look at the risks a killer runs: ballistics on the bullet; gunpowder residue on clothing or skin; fingerprints on gun or casing; noise; a flash; hiding the doggone thing. Ever fire a .357 without ear protection? I guarantee you won’t do it twice. Do it once, and you may not hear for a week. Do it in an enclosed space, and you’ll be saying “Eh?” for the rest of your life. A silencer? Legal in many states, assuming the bad guy wants to wade through a stack of paperwork, pay the government man his taxes, and can prove to the BATF and local law enforcement that he’s not really a bad guy. But, heck, records, man. Somebody hears a poof or maybe nothing at all, and the law runs to the records. “Hey Joe, ‘member that funny looking guy who said he wasn’t a bad guy, but wanted a silencer? Let’s go see if it’s been used.” Oops.

Some guns leave other traces. Try firing a Sig P210 or a Browning Hi Power with a high grip and you’ll leave a little bit of you on the hammer. It’s called “Hammer bite.” Or grip other semi-autos with a high grip and fat hands, and you may experience “Slide Bite.” Both leave DNA, not to mention scar tissue. Or try the two handed pistol grip so often part of the Weaver stance on a revolver. Yeah, wrap that support hand around your firing hand, not under it. BOOM! Your hand is burned. Something else you won’t do twice.

And handguns are complicated. Some have thumb safeties; some have grip safeties; some have trigger safeties; some have magazine safeties, some have no safeties at all. Know the difference between a .357 cartridge and a .357 Sig cartridge? How about .45 ACP vs. .45 GAP? What’s a better cartridge for a killer: shot, wad, ball or hollow point?

Stop my spinning head.

I like the simplicity of Daniel Blank in Lawrence Sanders’ The First Deadly Sin. Just bop ‘em on the bean with an ice axe and keep on walkin’.

Now that’s murder.

The Buffalo Flows

Photos from Radine's web site: Cover of Radine's book A RIVER TO DIE FOR; Radine with author Tom Sawyer and his wife, Holly.



By Pat Browning


A RIVER TO DIE FOR by Radine Trees Nehring (St. Kitts Press 2008) is the fifth book in Nehring’s "To Die For" series. She sets her stories in real places, as she puts it: “touring the Ozarks, one crime at a time.”


Buffalo National River flows for 150 miles through the northwest section of Arkansas, due east of Oklahoma City as the crow flies and just south of Branson, Missouri.The river is famous for its high sandstone bluffs, and the park’s historic sites include bluff shelters once inhabited by Archaic Indians. It’s a perfect location for a murder mystery – indescribably beautiful and dangerous every step of the way.


On Tuesday, you can see it for yourself when PBS airs a documentary, “The Buffalo Flows.” The preview calls it one of the nation’s remaining free-flowing rivers, and outlines the efforts of conservation groups to prevent damming.


Radine is a prolific and award-winning author, but her experience with agents and publishers has been up and down. She's currently under contract to her third publisher. On September 20, 2009, Radine’s blog recapped her experience with three different publishers. It sheds light on the publishing industry in general and small presses in particular, giving writers much to think about. I’m reprinting it with her permission.

From Radine’s blog at http://radine.wordpress.com
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1. My first publishing experience:
DEAR EARTH: A Love Letter from Spring Hollow, a non-fiction book of essays about country living and the transition from city to country sold, unagented, to a New York publisher in 1993. I got a medium-large advance and standard royalties. There was good and thorough editing support and a two-year lapse between acceptance and publication (in hard cover).


The publisher assigned a publicist to me but I think all she did was contact radio stations about interviews. This eventually resulted in three hour-long interviews, one in coastal Alaska, one in California, and one in a small-town southern market. I went on to get several more interviews on my own. The publisher sent flyers and posters to bookstores and media contacts in my home area, and gave a stack of them to me.


The publisher suggested bookstores for signings but left me to make arrangements when the time worked for me. (They did not pay my expenses.) Neither my editor nor the publicist had much knowledge of the mid-south area and, at one time, wanted me to schedule same-day book signings at two Arkansas bookstores that are more than a day’s drive apart. If the publisher or publicist submitted my book for reviews in major markets I never learned about it. The books were in major distributors and were returnable.


Note: Though the book sold moderately well and my editor said she was pleased, the final thousand copies were dumped in a landfill when the book went out of print. This was heartbreaking for me, partly because of the environmental cost. (DEAR EARTH was later brought back into availability by my second publisher.)


2. Second publisher–the first five books in my TO DIE FOR mystery series featuring Carrie McCrite and Henry King:


When I had finished the first two books in this series I did find an agent (I had an interview with her at a writers’ conference and she was the first one I had contacted.) She was with a major agenting firm in NY and, so I was told, submitted my first novel to several publishers. When I asked to see rejection letters she stalled (I thought) saying many authors did not want to see rejections.


I said I needed to see them and when, eventually, she sent me five letters, they all began with statements about my work that I could have used for jacket endorsements on a novel! Then (turn the page) there was that “BUT” and what followed was usually the vague comment suggesting changes or, alternately, one of those “Not for us at this time” rejections. Sometimes the suggestions for changes were contradictions from one editor to another and, when I did do a re-write as one editor suggested, my agent did not re-submit. Confusing and frustrating time for me.


Eventually this agent and I parted good friends and I soon sold the series myself to a small press I found in a write-up in the Mystery Writers of America newsletter. This firm offered a small advance, very generous royalties paid monthly, offered excellent editing support, and submitted my novel to all major reviewers.


The book came out in trade paperback one year after acceptance, and was widely reviewed. The publisher sent flyers to several hundred libraries and independent bookstores, and, with each, included a card the recipient could return for a free copy of the novel being promoted at that time. Book tours were not arranged nor paid for.


The publisher supplied me with 1000 flyers with retail prices, and around 250 with bookstore discounts. The publisher also sold second rights for my books to a large print hardcover firm who markets to libraries. We split that advance and royalties evenly. The publisher did a second printing on the first series novel, and let the second novel drop when it sold out. (Returned all rights to me.) This publisher also made all my books available for Kindle.


3. Third publisher, beginning with sixth book in my “TO DIE FOR mystery series:
Small press. I made arrangements myself, and was offered a standard contract including a small advance and standard royalties. There is good editing support. The publisher will submit ARCs to major reviewers and a few others and gives me copies to use for my own submissions. They supply 500 bookmarks, a template for flyers I will have printed, a list of radio interview hosts I can contact. Books will be in major distributors, with returns allowed. (This is in the contract.)


This is a Print on Demand publisher, and that’s one reason I chose them. I have long been active on behalf of environmental causes and organizations, and I am willing to walk this publishing path for that reason. I evaluated my dreams and goals and my conscience, and decided that, at this time in my life, it was time to allow my best instincts to guide me, and to keep within my comfort level. It was a personal choice, and maybe not a path many of you would choose.


I have never been a “big city, big publisher” gal I guess. I work hard on publicity and am comfortable doing that. Though publisher number two came very close to getting one of my books reviewed in the New York Times, and always submitted to them, I don’t aspire to any notice from that source. As the song says, “I gotta be me.” I write to entertain myself and my readers; to create characters that – I have been told many times – become like family to readers; and to accomplish what good I can through my writing as well as my life.


I can’t tell you more about publisher three yet because most of that experience is still ahead of me.


My advice to anyone seeking publication – especially if you are finding the path difficult – is, first, to be sure the book is well edited by someone other than yourself. It’s almost impossible for any author to catch all problems. It helps, of course, if you have had previous publishing experience as I had, since I was a magazine feature writer and journalist for several years before I wrote my first book. Many of the essays in DEAR EARTH had been published previously.


Second, study agenting and publishing options. Know and understand the many plusses and minuses. Investigate, investigate, investigate. Talk to published authors.


Third, understand yourself and your publishing goals. Look inside yourself to understand your comfort level. These days publishing options are open to most since there are now thousands of small presses, a number of them “legitimate,” to use an industry term.


While I don’t advise self-publishing or publishing for pay for most writers, (for one major thing, distribution options are very limited and there can be a stigma attached) it might be a proper choice in some instances. One example comes from our local critique group. This member of our group is in his late 80’s and a cancer survivor. He self-publishes. In another example a friend in another part of the USA where there is a huge tourist industry self-publishes fiction set realistically in actual locations in her area. She includes mentions of many real restaurants, shops, etc. when her characters patronize them. State and local chambers of commerce, tourist sites, many businesses, especially if mentioned, plus real estate organizations,and the media support her work. She sells–big time.


Of course all this comes from my own life experience, and that was my intention in this blog post. If you are a beginning writer, talk to many people. From this blog take only ideas that sound helpful. Ignore the others.


Radine
http://www.RadinesBooks.com
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