Category crime fiction
Human Trafficking is a Third World Problem, Right?
Law enforcement struck a heavy blow against human trafficking organizations in the last month, with major arrests in Thailand and Spain. Police raided a prison island off the coast of Thailand where hundreds of Burmese refugees were held for ransom, or auction. The European arrests netted 75 criminals in a Chinese-based trafficking ring. But, what […]
Will New Human Trafficking Laws Make A Difference?
When I wrote Little River, my human trafficking thriller, I was struck by how the Jamaican government responded to the issue of human trafficking on their island nation. Silence. With the disappearance of Natalee Holloway from Aruba, in May 2005, media accounts of the search, reports of the girl’s last known location and focus on […]
Writers Helping Writers
Do you suffer through those writing moments where you need a high energy spark to get your word slinging back on track? Like most writers, I’ve increased my caffeine intake to levels that make a howler monkey twitch. I’ve tried music until my ears bleed and my legs get cramps when I even think of […]
Felony Stupid – The Booze Cruise
It’s been a while since we presented a felony stupid criminal story and when this one came my way, I knew I had to share it with you. This story features Linda, a thirty-something woman with a bit of an alcohol problem. Linda is not her real name, but I doubt that she could remember […]
A Good Time To Be A Writer
July looks like it will roll out as a good time to be a writer. There must have been a planetary alignment sending geospasmic energy into the creative portion of my grey matter. I have no other explanation for the coming together of words and word things. During the month, I managed to complete a […]
Human Trafficking – It’s Not Only About Sex
The topic of human trafficking brings a certain set of preconceived ideas and images to mind. Popular media expresses trafficking as something they can market – and sex sells. Here in California, a recent voter initiative on the ballot passed after a frenzied campaign of television commercials promising tough anti-trafficking laws. All the new statutes […]
Natural Selection – Felony Stupid Criminals
Once in a blue moon, you stumble over a true crime story that gives you faith in the theory of Natural Selection. The human gene pool is also suffering from the ravages of global warming and the contents are evaporating at a rapid clip. The meth-riddled, video game shortened attention, deficit disordered strands of DNA […]
The Thousand Word Stare
So, I got nuthin. This last week, I noticed several bloggers and Twitter authors talking about writer’s block of one sort or another. Fears that the Muse abandoned them in their time of need, or the “Thousand Word Stare,” where you forget every word in your vocabulary, mesmerized by the screensaver floating on your monitor. […]
The Place Where Death Lives
Outside of mythology and fiction, only a handful of locations in the world capture the imagination and send a twinge running up your spine. You get that disconcerting feeling when you visit a Civil War memorial, or the deep sorrow that soaks into your core when see the Viet Nam Veteran’s Memorial Wall for the […]
Murder, He Wrote
Criminals come in different flavors. Violent offenders, rapists, extortionists and drug addicts, each commit their crimes for reasons that germinate in their minds. In the dark ages of criminology, the ridges and bumps on a man’s head predicted his criminal future. I’m not a big believer in conspiring clouds of fate, or forces of biology […]
James L'Etoile 