By John Schick, Retired California Corrections Department
Officer Frank C. was a character by anyone’s standards. He was the original “Make a Mountain Out of a Molehill” kinda guy. This caught up with him one day at our outdoor range. It was a blazing hot summer day (of course), and a group of new cadets were getting acquainted with the various weapons we use at work. When it came time to demonstrate the proper use of the federal gas gun, Frank began his Barney Fife impression. He was supposed to load a “Knee Knocker” baton round into the gun. Not our boy Frank! Instead he loads a flare round in and fires it into the dry grass on the berm.
Needless to say, it immediately caught fire!
Everyone retreated and the institution fire department arrived to attend to the growing grass fire. After putting it out, the truck got stuck in the mud created by the hose leaks. The farm supervisor sent a huge rubber-tire John Deere tractor out to pull the fire truck out of the mud. What a scene.
Kinda reminded me of a silent comedy.
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With Malice Aforethought is now available on Amazon.com in eBook format; print copy available in pre-order status.
By Michael A. Black
For years I’ve carefully plotted the end of my novels before beginning writing. Then I discovered the fun of allowing my characters to derail my carefully laid plans and write their own ending. But with my latest series— Serena Jones Mysteries, about a plucky FBI agent specializing in art crime investigations—I decided to try something radical.
Bio:
So now you work the problem and everything that implies. You face it head on, frame by frame, still shots, video, very little audio because all your adrenalin is focused on viewing what you are up against. When those coppers put the shooter down, it wasn’t over, in their minds things were still being processed: “Is he the only one, is there a lay off shooter, why here, why now,” and on and on. If being a LEO was easy, everyone could do it, but it’s not and not everyone can.
By Ellen Kirschman:
For the second Dot Meyerhoff mystery, The Right Wrong Thing, I promised myself I would know the ending in advance. It’s very hard to hit a target if you don’t know where it is. Adding a bit of planning to my “pantsing” really helped. That book wrote much faster. I now call myself a “plotzer, ” meaning I fall somewhere in the middle between planner and plotter. It was during this second book that my characters started to talk to me. I always thought writers who did this, or said they did, were smoking their socks. I was wrong. It’s not that I am conversing with imaginary people like a crazy person, it’s more like I pose a question about what my character would do and then listen for whatever bubbles up in my brain. This works surprisingly well, especially in the shower.
Bio: Award winning police psychologist Ellen Kirschman is the author of three non-fiction books and the Dot Meyerhoff mystery series. Dot Meyerhoff is a spunky 52-year-old psychologist. Too dedicated for her own good, she should be counseling cops, not solving crimes. The Fifth Reflection, forthcoming in July, is third in the series. Ellen blogs at Psychology Today online. Find out more about Ellen, her blogs and her books at 
Marian Lindner is crazy-passionate about books and story. She is the author of San Francisco, which won an Honorable Mention in the Los Angeles Book Festival, The Hunt for the Lost Word, and The Witch Lineage. She also wrote the non-fiction daily-affirmation guide The Emotionally Available Partner. An editor of fiction manuscripts, she has a Master’s Degree in Comparative Literature and is always in search of great stories. Marian lives in California’s enchanted village of Glen Ellen with her husband, daughter, a golden-haired Chow-Chow, and two little black cats.
By Ed Meckle, Retired LAPD
Anyway, the real subject matter of this piece is the sexual predator they named “The Remorseful Rapist.” The name attached to the will-o-the-whisp had sexually assaulted in excess of 50 women over several years. He was small in stature, wispy thinning hair, horn-rimmed glasses, every bit the Casper milk-toast character. Inoffensive in appearance, virtually invisible, ghost of a man, barely noticed. His hunting grounds were within three large LAPD divisions: Hollywood, Wilshire, and West LA; and one sheriff’s area: West Hollywood area. He would accost the victim as she entered her home displaying a small handgun. His actions indicated that he spent much time on surveillance. He earned his nickname due to the fact that after the assault he would be overcome with guilt, apologize to the victim, beg her forgiveness and vow, “Never again.” 
By Jolyn Lauer 
Author Bio:
My best works leave the reader asking, “ And then what happened?”
Kay Mehl Miller,Ph.D. was a newspaper reporter, intermediate school English teacher a columnist for LGBT media and, eventually, a psychotherapist in Hawaii. Besides Ring Around Reality, she is the author of two creative non-fiction books: Talking it Over: Understanding Sexual Diversity and Living with the Stranger in Me: An Exploration of Aging. Her first novel is Love Comes at Twilight: A Love Story for Seniors. She has written two plays, one of which was produced by Santa Rosa’s Sixth Street Playhouse.
The apartment was an upper-scale building and I’d never had radio calls there before. We were met at the door by a male who stated, “Come in officers, I called you!” The man stated he and his wife had been married for over five years but the marriage was over. He pointed to an attractive well-dressed woman sitting on the couch. He said his wife was a school teacher and a very smart woman. He then said, “That is, until she tried crack cocaine at a party a while back. She now spends her entire pay check to support her habit. Now she’s removing household items and selling or trading them for more cocaine. She’s about to lose her job and I just can’t take it anymore.”