Author: Thonie Hevron

Yay! Read two of my flash fiction pieces on Pat Tyler’s Quick Start Writing blog: http://quickstartwriting.wordpress.com OR http://quickstartwriting.wordpress.com/?s=Thonie

I wrote these during her classes I took in 2009. Pat truly jump started my writing and introduced me to Redwood Writers Club. Changed my life!

Tips on Disaster Preparedness

By Thonie Hevron

442 words

General advice on preparing your family and your community for natural and man-made disasters

In light of the disaster in Japan, we could all use a refresher on what to do BEFORE a catastrophic event occurs. As we are also vulnerable to earthquakes and to a lesser degree, tsunamis, a little planning and some follow-through can mean the difference between making it or not-not only for you, but other members of your family.

• Develop a communications plan for your family. Choose someone who does not live with you (preferably an out-of-town relative or friend) with whom you and other family members can contact to check on each other in the event that you are separated during a disaster. Carry that person’s contact information in your purse or wallet.
• Make sure children know their last name, phone number, address, and number for the out-of-town contact person.
• If evacuating from your home designate a meeting place outside so everyone can be accounted for.
• Make sure every member of your family knows an alternate route home.
• If family members can’t get home, designate a meeting place.
• Learn how to shut off utilities such as gas, electricity, and water.
• Assemble an emergency preparedness kit that will allow your family to camp out for three days. Assume you’ll be without electricity and running water. Don’t forget your pets.
• Store your emergency supplies in sealed containers such as plastic tubs – taped shut.
• Keep cash on hand; automated teller machines won’t be working if the power is out.
• Learn CPR and first aid to help with medical emergencies.
• Learn about emergency plans for your children’s school or daycare center.
• If you’re a teen, find out whether your school has a group of student volunteers to help out in emergency situations. If not, offer to help start such a group. Or start a School Crime Watch.
• Learn about your company’s emergency plan. Practice the plan. Learn exit routes.

These and other valuable tips can be found at the non-profit National Crime Prevention Council: www.ncpc.org

Check out upcoming RPDPS events–

April 18, 2011 – Monday – Tip A Cop – Applebee’s – Rohnert Park – 5:30pm – 9pm – Cotati and CHP will join us again this year. One of the most entertaining fundraisers for Special Olympics you’ll ever find!

May 14, 2011 – Saturday – 3rd Annual “Running with the Pack” 5k/10k fun walk/run All proceeds benefit the Special Olympics. Approximate time 7:30 am – 11:30 am. We are adding a 10k run through SSU.

More info to follow in upcoming editions!

As a retired annuitant (commonly referred to as rats), I work a minimum of 10 hours a week for Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety. The bulk of my off time is spent polishing my recently completed suspense novel, PROBABLE CAUSE, traveling with my husband, riding my horse and gardening.

This weekend, I will attend the San Francisco Writers’ Conference. I look forward to sharing air with such authors as Robert Dugoni and David Morrell. My search for a literary agent will commence with the same gusto with which I worked on my novel.

Check back for my progress.

Hammett Archives Cough Up a Thriller

By Kevin Fagan Chronicle Staff Writer

Adapted by Thonie Hevron

Fans of the hard-boiled detective novel are giddy with the news that

a national mystery magazine is about to publish a long-lost story by the father of the genre-Dashiell Hammett—fifty years after his death.

The story, “So I Shot Him,” is one of about a dozen of the San Francisco writer’s pieces that were never printed anywhere. Word is that this 12-page thriller is high-quality and complete.

Andrew Gulli, managing editor of the Strand Magazine, stumbled across the piece while poking through Hammett’s papers at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s featuring it in his Feb. 28 issue. “It was incredible to find this,” Gulli said by phone from his office in Birmingham, Michigan. “I found 11 to 14 stories not published, and they’re all pretty good — but this one just struck me as vintage Hammett. There was just something fantastic about it.”

It’s a secret

Nobody’s tipping his hand about the story line. That’s a mystery that will have to be solved by buying the magazine. But Gulli and others who have read the story say it reads like a finished draft in the author’s signature clipped, punch-to-the- gut prose.

“It has elements of fear and Hammett’s cynicism in it,” Gulli said. “What Hammett was very good at was a constant ratcheting up of tension to the great Hammett ending, and that really stuck out to me about this story.”

The odd thing about the newly unearthed story is that it has no date or title, unlike most of Hammett’s other manuscripts. The title to be used in Strand is simply the first line: “So I shot him.”

The black bird

Hammett died of lung cancer Jan. 10, 1961, at the age of 66. By then he had published more than 80 short stories and five novels, mostly about fedora-wearing tough guys who cracked tough cases.

The most famous of his works was 1930’s “The Maltese Falcon,” considered the first novel in the cynical detective. Hammett also wrote “The Thin Man.” Both novels were turned into Hollywood movie hits.

The author’s longtime paramour, playwright Lillian Hellman, had his papers stored alongside hers after his death. That’s why they are in Texas instead of San Francisco, where Hammett’s writing and career were centered.

Not a first draft

San Francisco publisher Vince Emery read “So I Shot Him” in 2003 when he was compiling his book “Lost Stories,” a collection of 21 out of print Hammett pieces that Emery then printed two years later. “Almost everything Hammett wrote appeared in a magazine at some point, but this was never printed anywhere,” Emery said. “There are

other bits that he never printed, and most of it is very rough, little chunks and unfinished, but this one is polished. It doesn’t read like a first draft. “There is a crime in it, but it’s not really a mystery story. It’s about fear. I’m sure Hammett fans will love it.”

They already do, even without having read it.

Getting one’s hands on an unpublished fragment of anything by Hammett is no easy feat. Rights to the Texas collection are controlled by his heirs, and Hammett granddaughter and spokeswoman Julie Rivett said they are choosy.

‘A finite resource’

“This story was kind of an inside secret, I suppose,” said Rivett, “There is a small selection of unpublished work, and while we know they are there, we are careful about how we use them,” Rivett said. “They’re kind of a finite resource. “We’re really excited that the public is getting to see this story now, though. I haven’t even read it myself yet.”

E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com.

Copyright © 2011 San Francisco Chronicle 01/21/2011

Susan Littlefield, Billie Settles and I are readying our welcome mats for two new members to our group. At last night’s meeting, we voted to let Andy and William (or is it George?–stay tuned) join the thrilling fun. I got spanked at group last night. That tends to happen when an author hustles through a scene and submits it to the group–without editing it first. yikes. Enough laziness. I vow to READ ALOUD all scenes for submission.

That should help, shouldn’t it?

It’s time to polish your pencils, fire up your ipads and dig out those business cards. The Redwood Writer’s Club is on it’s way-October 30th, 2010 at the Santa Rosa Flamingo Hotel. Don’t miss it if you want to improve your craft, sell an article or just network with others just like you.

See ya there!!

Torch Run 2010

487 words

By Thonie Hevron

The law enforcement community in Sonoma County is mobilizing.  No, it’s not a SWAT call-out, a K-9 deployment or grid search. Cops and deputies, wives, children, dispatchers and administrators are marshalling (okay, sorry about the pun) their resources for the annual Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR). Agencies are polling their personnel for volunteers to run, help with the logistic and/or assist with presenting medals to winning athletes.

The run takes the Special Olympic torch across California to the site of this year’s Special Olympic Games which will be held the last weekend in June at the beautiful UC Davis campus. Sonoma County’s involvement begins when the torch is handed off from Mendocino County agencies on Monday, June 21, 2010. It will take two days for the runners to carry the torch from Mendocino to pass it off at the Marin County line on Tuesday, June 22, 2010.

The local leg of the run (another pun: ooh, sorry!) begins where Santa Rosa Police Department relays the torch to Rohnert Park Public Safety Department, Cotati Police Department and in a premier appearance, the Santa Rosa office of California Highway Patrol.

In these tough times, everyone has been touched by the shaky economy. The run is a great way for law enforcement to show support for the Special Olympics. All charities report a decline in their funding. The extra effort we put out may make up some of that difference. But it also makes us feel better. Rohnert Park and Cotati both have been slammed by cut-backs, furloughs, and even lay-offs. This effort is way for us to feel better about ourselves and give back to the community we serve.

Team members will have a t-shirt or tank top paid for by earlier fund-raisers, Running with the Pack and Tip A Cop. The Rohnert Park/Cotati route begins with a hand off from Santa Rosa PD around 8:30 in the parking lot at Latitude’s Restaurant; 5000 Roberts Lake Rd. the team will proceed south to Golf Course Drive. Runners will then turn west to Commerce and go all the way to Old Redwood Highway to pass the torch to Petaluma Police Department participants at Applebee’s Restaurant. Our run is about 6.7 miles even though it may seem much longer.

If you have any questions, please call Terri Mazzanti at 707-584-2648.

Also look for department member participation in the upcoming Relay for Life of Rohnert Park on Saturday 10am through Sunday, June 26-27^th, 2010 at Sonoma Mountain Village. This 24 hour event helps raise money for the fight against cancer. You don’t have to be at the event for 24 hours, but any time that you can walk with us would be welcome. RP’s team is called Heroes Helping Heroes. Feel free to sign up on the website at http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=20529. Many of us have experiences with family and friend who have suffered from cancer. Please consider this worthwhile cause.