Literary Friendships

By Jaden Terrell

I thought I'd share with you an email I got today from Lee Lofland's Writer's Police Academy. Lee's been sending out a lot of interesting and informative posts, and today's was especially notable to me. It's about 11 famous--and infamous--literary friendships. You can read it here.

Some of the famous friendships are J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, Percy Bysse Shelly and Lord Byron, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Some of the friendships endured, while others fell prey to personal or professional jealousy. All have something valuable to teach.

When it comes to literary friendships, I've been blessed. Not only have I met many kind and generous online friends (like those of you at Murderous Musings, DorothyL, and Murder Must Advertise), but I've had the long-time support of the Quill and Dagger Writer's Guild. Then there are the friends I've met through Sisters in Crime, SEMWA, MWA and the Music City Romance Writers. Maybe it's the genre--stories I've heard from writers in other genres lead me to think mystery and thriller writers are an exceptionally friendly and supportive bunch, and I've met very few exceptions to this rule.

This is good, because writing is a tough field. Not in the same way being a crab fisherman is tough, but tough in the sense that the opportunities for rejection are limitless. Rejections from agents, poor sales, bad reviews...even if you've written the best book in the history of the world, someone, somewhere will hate it. Don't believe me? Go to Amazon.com and check out the one-star reviews for The Diary of Anne Frank, A Separate Peace, To Kill a Mockingbird, and even the Bible.

This makes the friendship and encouragement of other writers doubly important. It's easy to get caught up in the write-promote-write-promote treadmill and forget to thank all the writers who have helped and continue to help along the way. So, to all of my online and offline writing friends, thanks for everything.

Lee Lofland's Writers' Police Academy

By Beth Terrell

It looked like a routine traffic stop, but it went bad fast. One moment, my partner was asking the man behind the wheel for his license and registration, and the next, he was being held at gunpoint by a desperate man who was screaming at me to throw down my weapon or he'd kill my partner. I knew better than that. If I dropped my gun, my partner and I were both dead.

My heart rate quickened. "You don't want to do this," I said to the gunman, who was completely shielded by my partner. I didn't know it was possible to hide so completely behind another person. "You're talking a lose/lose situation here. We can still walk away with a win/win." I was lying, of course. He'd taken a cop hostage. His hand came up, a tiny target behind my partner's head. Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon could have made that shot, but I was no sharpshooter. I was more likely to blow off my partner's head than to hit the bad guy's gun hand.

I didn't throw down my gun. I kept talking, trying to be rational and convincing, to say the words that would make it turn out right. Then I heard the crack of a pistol. My partner slumped to the ground, and I fired five shots into the bad guy's crotch.

"Another crotch shooter," said the officer running the simulation, and my teammates and I laughed as he replayed the scenario on the giant screen, this time with icons showing where I had been aiming my weapon (a real gun modified to fire an invisible laser that would register on the screen) and where my shots had gone. I asked if there was anything I could have said to make the bad guy give up and let my partner go. No, he said. The scenario didn't allow for that. A teammate asked if I should have dropped my weapon. No, he said. Absolutely not. I felt a palpable relief, even though the scene hadn't been real. The instructor went on to explain all the things my virtual partner had done wrong on the traffic stop, from the approach to the vehicle to his lack of concentration during the stop. ("There's no such thing as a routing traffic stop," the instructor said. "For the scenario, he had to do a lot of things wrong, but in real life, he would have followed certain procedures to keep this from happening.")

In this scenario, he explained, all the power is with the officer who has been taken hostage. In real life, he should have waited for his moment (probably when the bad guy raised the hand with the gun) and made a move that would either allow him to disarm his opponent or get himself out of the way so I could take the shot. So was there any way to win? What if I'd taken the shot when I saw the hand above my partner's head?

"That was a no-win situation," the instructor said. "You have to decide what you'd rather live with. Would you want to shoot your partner or have the bad guy do it? Neither is good, but do you want to be the one to tell his wife and kids you're the one who killed him?" As it turned out, the scenario didn't allow for shooting the gun hand (as we discovered later when Jeffery Deaver, who is an expert marksman, actually made that impossible shot to no effect), but it did allow for shooting your partner in the chest/vest so he would drop and you could shoot the gunman.

"I didn't know he had a vest," I protested.

The instructor grinned. "They almost always wear a vest." We discussed The Onion Field, one of my favorite books, a true story about the emotional fallout faced by an officer whose partner was taken hostage and killed.

We ran through a number of other scenarios, often involving hostage situations, and I managed to dispose of all the bad guys and not kill any good guys. (The feature where, if the bad guy shoots you, a little air gun shoots rubber balls at you was disabled. A good thing, since I would certainly have been killed a half a dozen times.) The simulated video scenarios, part of the FATS (Firearms Training System) session at Lee Lofland's Writers' Police Academy, took less than an hour, but I came away from the experience with a deeper appreciation of the split seconds in which real police officers must make life or death decisions. It was one of the high points of the Academy.

The rest of the weekend was equally information-packed. It included presentations by law enforcement and emergency professionals, forensic psychologists, and a forensic pathologist. There was a simulation of an emergency response to a school shooting. Throughout the weekend, there were numerous opportunities to handle the tools of the trade and ask questions of the professionals. I'll share more details about the sessions over the next few weeks.

I learned a lot at the Writers' Police Academy and can hardly wait to attend next year's event. I hope you'll join me there--but sign up early. Because of the hands-on nature of the conference, space is limited.

Killer Nashville's Coming

By Beth Terrell


It's that time again. That time of year when Killer Nashville founder Clay Stafford and I survive on four hours of sleep a night as we chip our way through to-do lists longer than our legs (and Clay has very long legs). It's all worth it, though, because the final result is going to be...well...Killer.


Jeffery Deaver is our Guest of Honor, and I hear Jeff is not only a delightful speaker, but a pretty fair guitar player as well. We're hoping he can be persuaded to join us around the pool for music and conversation. Don Bruns (who won the Silver Falchion Award two years ago for Stuff to Die For) will be there will his guitar, as will Stacy Allen, who sang for us at last year's awards dinner.


Since the conference begins early on Friday, many attendees arrive at the hotel on Thursday night. In the past, there have been no Killer Nashville festivities that night, but this year, Greg and Mary Bruss of Mysteries & More independent bookstore, are hosting Mystery Team Trivia at 7:30. Greg asked me to be sure and emphasize that valuable prizes will be awarded.

On Friday morning, the fun begins with a presentation called "CSI Don't Think So," in which law enforcement consultant Lee Lofland discusses how television gets it right--and wrong. Lee will intersperse interesting forensic science tidbits throughout the presentation. There are five tracks this year, because we had too many wonderful authors coming to fit them into four. Attendees will hear from a Marine sniper/sniper trainer, forensic psychologists, TBI agents, private investigators, attorneys, and police officers, in addition to agents, editors, and a host of terrific authors, including our own Chester Campbell (who won last year's Silver Falchion) and our own Bente Gallagher (aka Jennie Bentley). Among those attending are Charles Todd (NYT bestseller), Steven Womack (Edgar winner), David J. Walker (Edgar winner), PJ Parrish (Shamus and Anthony winner) and Annie Solomon (Rita Award winnier). There are sessions on character, pacing, dialogue, YA, historical fiction, marketing and promotion, and many that are designed to appeal especially to readers. And, oh yes, there's the mock crime scene staged by TBI agents Dan Royse and Mike Breedlove and solved by attendees.

I could go on and on, but I'd be sure to leave out something important; there's a detailed schedule on the conference site. (Warning: it's a slow-loading site.) As you can see, you don't have to be a crime fiction writer--or even a writer at all--to have the time of your life at the Killer Nashville Crime Literature Conference.

Last year, on Sunday afternoon of the conference, one of my fellow conference organizers came to the registration table where I was sitting and said, "Beth, there are writers sleeping all over the lobby."

I knew we'd done our job.

Killer Nashville and the Silver Falchion

By Beth Terrell

This past weekend, the Killer Nashville Crime Literature Conference went by in a blur for me. As one of the conference organizers, I rarely get to see or hear the sessions, but I have the time of my life anyway. This year, I was thrilled to meet guest of honor J.A. Jance and law enforcement expert Lee Lofland, whom I've been wanting to snag for the conference for years. (Lee did six presentations that blew the attendees away.)

The high point of the conference for me, though, was Saturday's Guest of Honor/award dinner. There were a number of great moments at the dinner, including the look of surprise and utter delight on J.A. Jance's face when she was presented with the traditional Killer Nashville guitar. Of course, being given the SEMWA Magnolia Award for service to the chapter made me tingle from head to toe. (I've worn the little silver magnolia every single day since then.) But of all the wonderful things that happened at the dinner--and, in fact, the whole conference--the best was when event founder Clay Stafford announced the 2009 winner of the Silver Falchion.

The Silver Falchion is awarded to the attending author of the best novel published during the current or previous year, as voted on by the other conference attendees. With approximately 175 people in attendance, that's quite an honor. There were 14 fine authors nominated for the award, and the competition was fierce. Then Clay held up the shiny black-and-silver plaque and said, "And the winner is...Chester D. Campbell, for The Surest Poison."

Chester is the author of two mystery series, one featuring private detectives Greg and Jill McKenzie and the other, of which The Surest Poison is the first, featuring PI Sid Chance. Chester is a classy writer. His books are crisp, clean, and always professional. He's also a classy guy. "He'll do anything for anybody," his wife, Sarah said to me, and that is the absolute truth. Chester and I have been in the same critique group for more than a decade, and he has helped me every step of the way. He helped me get my first agent, he helped me get my self-published book reissued by a better publisher, and he's helped me become a better writer. He's also a role model when it comes to marketing and promotion: twittering, tweeting, Facebooking, Crimespacing, blog touring, live touring...whatever it takes, he's out there doing it, tirelessly and with gentility and grace.

Chester is a true gentleman, in the very best sense of the word. He's always been a winner, and now he has the plaque to prove it. I'm honored that he is my friend.

And congratulations, Chester. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Murder She Wrote ... and wrote ... and wrote

By Pat Browning

Recently Lee Lofland of The Graveyard Shift had guest posts from a couple of veterans of the old Murder She Wrote TV show. Their behind-the-scenes stories are fun, and here are excerpts:

From Thomas B. Sawyer, who was Head Writer/Showrunner, and wrote 24 episodes:

(Quote)
Oddly, though not entirely unusual, the way I became a writer for MURDER, SHE WROTE before it began to air was the result of my agent sending the show’s co-creator, Peter Fischer, a non-mystery pilot script I’d written for CBS. Peter ‘saw’ something in it -- presumably, that I could write scenes that worked -- and he gave me a ‘blind assignment’ to write an episode …

All that aside, MSW looked to me like a hit, and I said so. I also offered that given my limited writing credits in the genre (a QUINCY and a MIKE HAMMER), he’d probably have to hold my hand. He assured me that that wouldn’t be a problem and, in response to my question about the approach, the show’s style, Peter explained -- as I feared -- that he envisioned it in the mold of traditional Agatha Christie puzzle mysteries -- what are known in the mystery genre as ‘Cozies’ ...

Which prompted -- with no hesitation -- a remark from me, the sheer chutzpah of which I really didn’t wonder at until I recalled the incident several years later. And having wondered, I realized that it was pretty much the way I’ve operated for most if not all of my life:

“Peter, I have to tell you, when I was a kid I read a couple of Christies and one or two locked-room mysteries, and they bored the shit out of me. I’m not going to write that for you.”

His response betrayed no sign that I’d offended. “Okay. What will you write?”

“I’ll write The Maltese Falcon.”

Peter replied without missing a beat: “That’ll be fine.”

And that’s what I did for the next twelve years -- seven of them with Peter’s on-the-job blessing.
(End Quote)

And this from actor Ron Masak, who played Sheriff Mort Metzger of Cabot Cove for 8 seasons:

(Quote)
Murder, She Wrote though is the role I will be identified with forever I guess for a day doesn’t go by when someone doesn’t yell out “Hey Sheriff, How’s Jessica?” and you know what? I love it.

I couldn’t wait to go to work with that great lady. Angela is the Rolls Royce of our business, and the last 2 seasons I got to write 2 story ideas that were bought. I was proud of that for I always felt we had the very best writers in the business and the most loyal following…including a couple of administrations in the White House.

Now for those who care … Here is how I got the role. I had worked for Peter Fischer before, but the first time I went on location with him was when I played a detective on The Law and Harry McGraw.

We were in Massachusetts at a closed resort. A small staff was trying to feed breakfast to a film crew so I pitched in serving coffee, telling jokes and having a ball. A couple of months after we returned, Creator Peter Fischer called me and this is what he said on the phone:

“Ron? Peter Fischer … Tom Bosley is leaving the show to do a new series and I am creating a new sheriff. The role is yours if you want it but I have to know in the next 24 hours as I am leaving for Europe, so I have to know your answer before I leave.”

I responded “OK”

He said “Then you will call and let me know?”

I responded “I JUST DID” … And as the late Paul Harvey used to say, “And now you know the rest of the story.”
(End Quote)


And now, just because this is the end of a week that was a Hell Sandwich, here’s a laugh from Leah Garchik’s column at sfgate.com:

(Quoting) At San Francisco Suicide Prevention's annual “Laughs for Life” fundraiser ... Executive Director Eve Meyer will end the evening, as she always does, “by asking everyone to join me in honoring the memory of my mother by taking a dinner roll and putting it in their purse.” (End Quote)

That won’t make you laugh unless your mother was like mine. She never left a restaurant without putting something left over in her purse. Used to embarrass me half to death. And now I do the same thing. Only now I simply ask for a to-go box and take everything – leftover salad, fries, green beans, butter pats …

By the way, you can read Lee Lofland’s blog at www.leelofland.com/wordpress/

On Research: Notes from a Congenital Geek

When I was seven years old, a television show called Sunrise Semester came on every morning just after Farm Digest. The show consisted of a university professor teaching college-level math and science classes. These were strictly lecture-style lessons--no bells, whistles, or special effects. I got up early every morning to watch it and sat riveted in front of the TV, despite the fact that I never understood a word of it. Recently, I shared this with my friend Cindi, who shook her head and said, "There was never any hope for you, was there? You were born a geek."

It probably tells you something about both of us that we considered this a compliment.

For a congenital geek like me, one of the great pleasures of being a writer is that it provides an excuse to spend hours doing what is generally called "research." Yesterday, for example, I researched how to pick up, hold, and release a venomous snake. This is an activity best experienced vicariously. (Never try this at home!) I also learned that a timber rattlesnake (Latin name Crotalus horridus) is a kind of viper, that the viperids have longer fangs than the elapids (such as coral snakes) and that, because of this, each type requires a separate and specific kind of hold. The number of people who keep venomous snakes (they call them "hot" snakes) is truly remarkable.

Why was I looking up ways to catch and release venomous snakes? In this case, there's a scene in the book I'm working on that involves an angry timber rattler and a very unhappy detective. I had very specific question in mind when I embarked on my virtual quest. That's the tye of research I do most often. I need to know something about how police process a crime scene or how to determine the time of death or methods of carrying concealed firearms, so I go in search of an appropriate site (check out http://www.virtualautopsy.com for good information on autopsy procedures), an appropriate book, or an appropriate person to interview. The Writer's Digest Books Howdunit series is an excellent source of information for any crime writer. These include Lee Lofland's excellent book, Police Procedure & Investigation, Poisons by Serita Stevens and Anne Bannon, and Forensics by D.P. Lyle.

There's another kind of research--the serendipitous kind. This kind of research can be likened to taking your camera and going for a liesurely ramble in the woods. You don't know what you might find, but there's a pretty good chance you'll turn up something wonderful. I think of it as "found research." Another great thing about being a writer is that everything you learn becomes grist for the mill. Nothing is wasted. It may not find its way into this book or next, but it may lead you to something that will. Or it may find its way into another plot line years down the road. You just never know.

A great place for a crime writer to do this type of research is truTV Crime Library. This site has a wealth of information about criminal psychology and modern and historic crimes. Want the real scoop on Bonnie and Clyde, Leopold and Loeb, or the real Sweeney Todd? This is the place to go. Reading through old cases can spark the imagination of a crime writer. I may not want to write about a pair of Depression-era criminals, but a couple of modern-day lovebirds with antisocial tendencies might be just the ticket.

But information doesn't have to be crime-related to be valuable to a mystery writer. A site about Native America legends might inspire a historical novel based on Native American culture, a modernization of the Blue Corn Maiden legend, or a mystery about a missing Native American artifact. A visit to a site that shows a line drawing of a woman being created from the skeleton outward might inspire a character based on the woman being drawn or on the artist who might be drawing her. For the congenital geek (or the self-made writer), everything is fodder.

So go ahead, take a ramble through the internet or through the shelves of your local library. Invite your muse to come out and play. After all, that's one of the great things about being a writer.