Tag Archives: crime fiction
Getting Your Hands Dirty–Prison Reform
You hear the expression all the time–“Getting your hands dirty.” A yuppie call to get in the trenches and act like you’re doing the work, just like the common folk. It’s a trite little phrase used frequently by the likes of Martha Stewart, political figures, and CEO’s who haven’t looked at an assembly line since […]
Story Surgery
There are times in my writing process I feel like a hired gun with a scalpel. A slice here, a nip and tuck there–gut the beast. Readers, editors, agents and publishers all shout (okay maybe not really shout–but it seem that way at times) for me to make a change in a POV, or my […]
F Street Boarding House Murders
In the late 1980’s, the discovery of a bizarre serial murder caught the Sacramento area by storm. Nine deaths were attributed to the killer. It wasn’t the kind of murder that made people lock their doors at night fearing the return of the Night Stalker, or the East Area Rapist. This one was different and […]
Speaking of Mysteries Podcast
I recently had the opportunity to do an interview podcast with Nancie Clare, the host of Speaking of Mysteries. If you haven’t gotten around to her site yet, you really should. She and podcast interview partner, Leslie Klinger have put put together over one hundred author podcasts, including some of my favorite mystery writers; Michael Connelly, […]
Who’s On The Gun?
Little things on the inside If you haven’t worked deep in the bowels of a prison, you might not know there a whole host of things that occur everyday that determine how your shift will unfold–uneventful, a grind, or worse. Some take it for granted, but if you’ve worked there–you know better. Most seasoned prison folks […]
The Season of Trolling
You know that insurance commercial with the fisherman who pops up with a dollar bill on the end of his line, taunting his clients to grab it? Then he jerks the cash bait away at the last moment, saying “You’ve got to be quicker than that.” Most times, I am that person, the one who […]
In Prison — Seeing Is Believing
What happens in prison usually stays in prison. Kinda like a bad Las Vegas honeymoon. Nobody wants to know the depths of the debauchery that goes on in either place. When I worked as a department of corrections administrator, we were often burnt at the stake when a criminal decided to do a bad thing. […]
Book Theft and Beignets
My inbox and timeline are flooded with posts following conclusion of the 2016 Bouchercon, the Granddaddy of mystery writing conferences. With over 1,500 attendees gathered in New Orleans, you’d expect a fair share of tales outlining the debauchery and hedonism in the French Quarter. While there was a conspicuous consumption of beignets and perhaps a few […]
The Real Light At The End Of The Tunnel
There’s a point in my writing process when I get to that “happy place” near the end of the manuscript. I know how the story is going to end, who dies–who survives and what rubble is left behind. It should be a “happy place” with 90,000 words all tucked in and put to rest in […]
At What Cost Sneak Peek
Pssst… Come here, come closer. Look what came in the mail today! The Advance Reader’s Edition of AT WHAT COST, published by Crooked Lane Books. I felt like Steve Martin in “The Jerk.” The new phone books are here! I am somebody! Matt Martz, Sarah Pope, Heather Boak, and all the folks at Crooked Lane […]
James L'Etoile 