Month: July 2020

Categories
Mystery Readers Only

Guest Post: How Does an Old Time Cop Write an Historical Novel with a Touch of Romance From a Woman’s POV?

The Mona Lisa Sisters by George Cramer

By George Cramer

I could say easily, but that would only be true of the start. In 2011, I was happily and gainfully employed by Palm, Inc. Palm came to fame with the Palm Pilot and was one of the early entries in the smartphone market. Then we were bought out, and the layoffs began.

Looking for work, I learned a great deal about age discrimination. That’s a story for another time. After about a year, I spotted a notice for a writing class at the local senior center, a place I had sworn never to enter. I had the feeling it could provide resume improvement. I swallowed my pride and joined the group.

The class was about creative writing, and I fell in love with the art form. So much so that  I returned to college taking English classes. I have to confess that in a much earlier education process, I earned a string of Ds in English. It might have resulted from sharing a beach house with four other students, all waiting to be drafted. None of whom ever seemed to have any homework.

One afternoon at the senior center, the instructor randomly passed out pictures. The one landing in front of me was two young girls staring up at the Mona Lisa. The assignment was to describe the setting in fifteen minutes. I didn’t do it.

I was astonished that a story filled my head. In the time allotted, I had a rough outline of The Mona Lisa Sisters. The title then, and eight years later, it still is. Until then, all I had written were crime and thrillers.

The first draft was finished in a month. I felt like I had just completed a piece equal in stature to Charles Dickens’ Hard Times. I sat it aside while I finished two writing classes at the local community college. I was ready to finish polishing my soon to be bestseller.

Reading with a fresh eye and very little skill, I realized that, like most first drafts, it was a total mess. I needed more classes. I decided to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing. I learned that Joy Harjo, an artist I admire, was a regular speaker at the Institute of American Indian Arts at Santa Fe, New Mexico. I enrolled, met her, and even sat with her once at dinner.

I continued to write and rewrite The Mona Lisa Sisters. The novel became my thesis project. I loved the help and guidance my outstanding professors and mentors gave me in improving the work. This spring, the novel was completed.

I could have continued rewriting, but after eight years, I couldn’t stand to read another word of it. Querying agents brought a slew of rejections. Unwilling to send one more query, I contacted Russian Hill Press, a small independent press.

Working with the owner was a pleasant but exhausting process. She, the line editor, and I went back and forth, refining what was not as complete as I had hoped. Thanks to them, The Mona Lisa Sisters will be released on August 14.

~~

In addition to The Mona Lisa Sisters, George has written a historical crime novel and is completing the second novel in the Liberty – A Hector Miguel Navarro Novel trilogy. He has had eight pieces published in anthologies and one in 0-Dark-Thirty, the literary journal of the Veterans Writing Project.

Ramona Ausubel, author Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty, has this to say: “The Mona Lisa Sisters is a tender journey into the making of a family. The novel is full of careful historical detail and the pleasure of European trains and cities and plenty of mystery to keep the pages turning, but the greatest delight is Lura Grisham herself.”

Lura Grisham Myer lives a perfect life until her world is ripped apart. Wealth cannot protect Lura from the tragedies that befall her in the late nineteenth century. Reborn, forged of pain and misery, she voyages to Paris after months as a recluse in Grisham Manor. There Lura finds new purpose in life when she meets two American girls who face a tragedy of their own.

The Mona Lisa Sisters is available for pre-order. Here is a link to his Amazon Author Page, where you can order the paperback ($14.99) or Kindle ($3.99): https://rb.gy/j2m46l.

Author George Cramer

George Cramer was born to a Karuk Indian, a career soldier, and one of the last horse soldiers of World War II. George served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. Completing his service, he became a police officer, retiring as a sergeant after years of working criminal and undercover investigations. For five years, he volunteered at a local police department investigating missing person’s cold cases.

Recent Awards

2020 Public Safety Writers Association

Flash Fiction Non-Published First Place – Joe

Flash Fiction Non-Published Third Place – Welcome Home

Short Story Non-Published Honorable Mention – Hard Time

Fiction Book Non-Published Fourth Place – A Tale of Robbers and Cops

Email           gdcramer@msn.com

Blog             http://gdcramer.com

FaceBook     http://www.facebook.com/george.cramer.56211

Author         http:www.amazon.com/author/george.cramer

Categories
Street Stories The Call Box

The Call Box: I Saw A Woman Cry…

By Ed Meckle, Retired LAPD

Recently a short story on TV prompted this:

I saw a woman cry this morning. She was a young mother of two, sitting for a TV interview.

She was a nurse who has been working 12-hour shifts at a NY hospital. She hadn’t seen her family for weeks and had been staying over in the city for fear of infecting them.

She was crying because she was bone tired.

She was crying because she had seen so many around her die. She cried because her youth and inexperience with death of this magnitude had not prepared her.

She cried for the very young and the very old. She cried for those who had no one to cry for them and died alone.

She cried because she was confused, because she did not know which way to turn or what to do next.

I wish I had a happy ending for this tale, but I don’t. All I could do was cry with her because I, too, had no answers

Some people cry not because they are weak but because they have been strong for too long.

If you have never sweat, bled, or cried for someone you do not know, then you do not have even the faintest idea of what we are all about.

Some people spend a lifetime wondering if they “made a difference.”

First responders and LEO’s do not have that problem.

No, my friend you really didn’t have a “job,” it was a calling. Not 9 to 5 but 24/7.

You lived it, you breathed it, you loved it and would die for it.

It was your passion, your mistress even on the worst of days. Your time on the job were the “best/worst” days of your life. 

You were “alive.” You lived for the nights you can’t remember and for the friends you can’t forget.

It is not that we can while others can’t. It is because we did when others did not.

It was not the sweltering days, endless cold nights, nor working while others slept or celebrated. It was not the lies, the mindless hatred, indifferent public nor the verbal abuse.

It is not the misrepresentation by the press, nor betrayal of the politician. It is not the senseless violence seeing the unseeable, doing the undoable.

It is not running to the sound of the gun nor dancing with some dirtbag.

It is not walking into darkness seeking the unknown. Not for love of my partner, the high-speed chase the foot pursuit nor facing down an unruly crowd.

But it is how much we loved it and that dear God, that is what makes us who we were.

THE POLICE: Winston Churchill said it best. “Never in the field of human conflict, has so much been owed by so many to so few.”

Categories
Mystery Readers Only

Great News!

2020 PSWA First place fiction book, unpublished-FELONY MURDER RULE

FELONY MURDER RULE, Thonie’s latest offering in the Nick and Meredith Mysteries series has won first place in the Public Safety Writers Association 2020 Writing Competition for fiction book, unpublished. Look at the esteemed company I’m in!

Aakenbaaken & Kent will have this book out in the coming months. Check back here or subscribe to get the most current release information.

Categories
Mystery Readers Only

Guest Post: Mixing It Up: Why I Love Mysteries that Mash Genres Together

Singularity Syndrome
Singularity Syndrome by Susan Kuchinskas

By Susan Kuchinskas

I think the greatest pleasure in reading genre fiction comes from the tension between fulfilling my expectations for the genre and surprising me by breaking them in some way. I love mysteries for the puzzles and the assurance that justice will probably be served. I love science fiction for its trips away from reality—and I love nothing better than a book that smushes together science fiction and crime.

I’m also guilty of perpetrating this mashup. For my two novels, Chimera Catalyst and Singularity Syndrome, I chose the detective/science fiction hybrid for two reasons. First, I’ve covered technology and the Silicon Valley scene as a reporter for many years, and I wanted to take off from all the skewed attitudes and over-the-top behavior I’d witnessed. (For example, in Singularity, a tech titan wants to force humanity to serve an artificial intelligence; in real life, a tech guru founded a church to worship AI. I kid you not.) Extrapolating what could happen from current breakthroughs is part of the fun of science fiction.

Second, I suck at plotting. I mean, really. I can spend hours flummoxed by the question of what should happen next. So, the conventions of classic detective stories provide a ready-made structure: A crime happens, and the detective visits scenes, questions people and, eventually, gets somewhere. Voila, plot.

Shaking up a mystery with science fiction can provide a fresher milieu. Beth Barany told Mystery Readers Only she sets her mysteries in a hotel/casino on a space station because it would be an exotic location.

A science fiction element can also up the stakes. Charlie Huston based Sleepless on a real malady. In his novel, a policeman works to uncover a conspiracy while everyone in the world—including his wife and daughter—dies around him.

Adding in romance—or even sex—is another way to up the stakes and add some heat to a mystery plot. Heather Haven’s Christmas Trifle marries romance to a cozy mystery. She says she wanted to write a book about a couple’s journey into becoming better people together. “But rather than be preachy (good grief, so not my style), I chose to use food, humor, warmth, and, of course, a dastardly villain,” she says. “Love makes the world go round. Throw in a good murder, and you have a win-win situation.”

While many of us are faithful to a genre, few of us cannot be lured by a great mashup. Just look at Outlander—historical fiction with a glorious brew of suspense, romance, horror and time travel. Romance and horror? Jane Eyre and Zombies.

I could go on, but instead, I’m going to start reading This Body’s Not Big Enough for Both of Us, described as, “a mind-blowing, gender-bending, genre-smashing romp through the entire pantheon of action and noir. It is also a bold, tautly crafted novel about family, being weird, and claiming your place in your own crazy story.”

Now, that’s a juicy mix!

ABOUT SUSAN KUCHINSKAS

Susan Kuchinskas

Susan Kuchinskas’ novels and short stories travel through crime, fantasy, science fiction and erotica, often in the same piece. When she’s not hacking words, Susan digs in her organic garden, stares at her beehive, makes pottery and walks her dog through El Cerrito. Find out more about her here: http://www.kuchinskas.com.

Chimera Catalyst and Singularity Syndrome are available in paperback or Kindle formats. 

Chat with Susan on Twitter (https://twitter.com/susankuchinskas) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ChimeraCatalyst). Follow her on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Kuchinskas/e/B001K8JAZ2/) or Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/605550.Susan_Kuchinskas).

Categories
Street Stories The Call Box

The Call Box

By Ed Meckle, Retired LAPD

With all the crazy, funny, bizarre things that cops experience, some are right there in the station house.

BB Ballistics

I was working a radio car and along with my partner. We were in the juvenile office at the station. In custody, we had one defiant 12-year-old boy, one red Ryder model BB gun and one tube of BB’s. He was given to us by an angry motorist with a BB hole in his windshield who’d chased him down. The juvenile ditched the gun (which we found) but he still had the BB tube in his pocket. He denied everything but couldn’t explain the BB’s.

The juvenile officer, Leroy Goforth, also got a denial. Goforth directed me to bring him an office trash can. Goforth emptied it. Then he instructed me to place it across the room open end toward him. He fired one BB into the basket. I retrieved the basket while he rummaged in his desk drawer producing a large pair of tweezers and a Sherlock Holmes-sized magnifying glass. 

He asks the boy, “Do you know what ballistics is?”

“No.”

“It is the scientific method the police use to tell if a particular gun fired a certain bullet. Understand?”

The kid shrugged.

“Well, we are going to do a scientific ballistics test on your gun.”

At this point, Leroy retrieves the BB from the basket. Holding the BB with the large tweezers, he examined it with the large glass for a good 10-15 seconds. 

He gave the kid a long look. Then back to the BB. Kid, BB, kid, BB, kid, BB. Finally, shaking his head sadly, he pronounced, “Without a doubt, there is no question that this gun not only belongs to you but also fired the shot that struck the car. I also know it was an accident, you are sorry and will never do it again. Right kid?”

The kid nodded, “Yes.”

The Wisdom of Age

Many years later, I was the uniformed watch commander and noticed one of my “old timers” with a quarter-sized hole in the front of his uniformed trousers. Knowing he was two weeks from retirement and not about to buy new trousers, I told him, “Charlie, do something about that. We can’t have you walking about with your chalk-white leg showing.”

“Ok, Elltee.” An hour later, as he entered the office the problem seemed solved.

I asked, “That looks much better, what did you do?”

He grins, drops his trousers and I see where he has taken a dark blue marking pen and colored his leg.

~~~

The Education of a Young Patrol Officer

Back in the day when we carried .38 revolvers, I held a firearms inspection. On command you drew your weapon, emptied the 6 rounds into your left hand which was held out for viewing. The pistol was held at “inspection arms” in the right hand.

One of my probationers held a bright shining revolver smelling of gun oil and an empty left hand. He also had a terrified look on his face. I quietly told him to see me after roll call.

“What was that all about,” I asked. 

In a tremulous voice, he replied, “I cleaned my gun the other day and forgot to reload.”

I calmed him down and told he was not in trouble. I asked if there was anything I could say that would make him feel any worse than he was feeling already?

He shook his head. “No.”

I told him he would have to come up with some gimmick to make him think of his gun. Was it loaded? That sort of thing.

Years later the probationer, now a detective, entered an elevator I was on. 

He stood next to me but did not acknowledge my presence. As he got off, he laughed, patted his gun hip and stated, “When the Elltee says stay loaded, I stay loaded.”