In Reference to Murder

CSI: Halloween

Happy Halloween! 

Author and retired law enforcement officer, John Lamb, spoke at the recent Dying to Write conference on the topic of "Why You Shouldn't Use TV's CSI as a Research Tool for Your Book." He should know -- he's been a a deputy sheriff, a street cop, a hostage negotiator, a CSI, a homicide investigator, a detective sergeant, and a hostage negotiation team leader. John was considered one of the premier homicide detectives of San Diego County and earned frequent praise from the District Attorney's office. He also has over 700 hours in specialized training in bomb scene investigation, clandestine laboratory investigations, and psychological profiling.

In TV CSI-land, crime lab results are usually instantaneous and clear-cut. The bad guys are caught, and their prosecutions, basically a mere formality, are speedy and absolute. The reality is quite different. Prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges call it "the CSI effect." Here is a summary of some of John's comments during his talk:

(1) Fingerprints aren’t instantaneous. On TV, you plug it into the computer and bingo! There you are. The reality is, you have to have a good print to begin with; then you scan it in, and the computer will provide several possible matches, listed by numbers and not names. Then a trained latent fingerprint expert has to eyeball each one and look for the match from there, because the computer can’t testify in court -- the human expert has to make the actual call. The process can take days, if not weeks, depending upon circumstances. Even then, there's no guarantee that the person you're looking for is even in the system.

(2) Same with DNA -- there are many labs which are backlogged; smaller jurisdictions don’t even have their own labs, so they often have to send them out to the state laboratory; a typical job can take six weeks or more and even a "rush" job can take at least three weeks at times (if you're lucky), depending upon the area and other case priorities.

(3) On TV, the CSI cops can call up just about anything from magic computer databases, but for the most part, those don’t exist. For example, they might find a tree sap sample and type it into the computer, to find out it only exists on one kind of tree found in only one section of town. Or perhaps the computer database will tell them that one type of seashell associated with a crime scene can only be found on one tiny little section of beach in one part of the county. All of this in under 45 minutes! (Or even within a day or two in the episode's timeline). It would be nice, but it just doesn’t work that way.

(4) Not every CSI or tech can do everything. There are specialists. Fingerprint people don’t do DNA, and so on.

(5) If an officer is involved in a shooting, they don’t automatically just go back out on the street. There’s always an investigation and it can take the officer off the bear for up to 72 hours, more or less, depending upon the jurisdiction and the circumstances. If a partner is shot or killed, the surviving partner will most likely be taken off the case, because a defense attorney might be able to argue that his/her objectivity was off, and they were biased.

(6) Police offices aren't the neat, tidy, well-run machines they appear to be. They’re messy and sometimes dysfunctional. There are personality conflicts, there are people who are in higher-up or managerial positions who don’t know as much as those below them, just like any other profession (probably where you work, too!).

(7) The TV cops often are shown holding their guns improperly, although the directors probably do that because it looks "cool"; in reality, a copy will not stick out the gun with one hand way out in front, because it could be taken away from them by the bad guys; it helps to hold it closer in, or with two hands.

(8) Someone who is shot doesn’t get thrown backward; they usually just drop in place.

(9) If someone is hit over the head hard enough to knock them out, there’s probably going to be blood and/or a hemotoma. It’s not going to be clean and neat, like the victim just went to sleep.

(10) Criminals are, by and large, not very smart. They often kill because it just doesn’t occur to them there are other ways to solve problems. They may have an issue with someone, but after working through 2-3 options of what they could do, they run out of ideas. So they just kill the other person. John Lamb worked 100 murders and went to over a thousand other assorted death scenes during his career, and he only ran across what he would consider one truly evil person, a woman who hired fou marines to kill her husband so she could collect the insurance money. One of the marines shot a bullet into the woman’s station wagon tire in addition to the victim’s head, and when the police arrived, voila! there was the flat tire with the same caliber and type of bullet found in the victim. So again, stupid criminals.

(11) Miranda Rights are not iron-clad. Something you say *voluntarily* after you’ve been read your rights may be used in a court of law. 

(12) Every CSI show features a piece of physical evidence that categorically links a suspect to the crime. John Lamb says he wishes it were that easy in real life.

(13) The public's expectation of what crime scene investigation can do in a criminal case has changed as a result of TV. Many people who watch those shows develop an irrational belief that every crime can be solved by physical evidence found at a crime scene. Physical evidence is very important, but you can’t always recover something of value from a scene. The problem is that CSI on TV is now influencing juries. Prosecuting attorneys have to explain to jurors that it's just a TV program, and things aren’t always clear-cut at an actual murder.

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John Lamb is the author of the Bear Collector's Mystery series, and will hold the launch of the third book in the series, "The Crafty Teddy," at Boyds Bear Country, in Gettysburg, Saturday, November 3, from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. For further information, you can visit his website at www.johnjlamb.net.

One interesting note about John's books:  It took him 75 rejections before he found an agent. Two weeks after signing the publishing contract for "Echoes of the Lost Order," a standalone mystery, he had a three-book deal with Berkley Prime Crime, for the Bear Collector series. Another fun tidbit: John's wife Joyce is a latent fingerprint expert and crime analyst.

Structuring Your Novel

As promised, I'm going to provide brief summaries over the next few days of the four sessions I was fortunate enough to attend at the recent Dying to Write Conference  held in Washington, D.C. My only regret was that I couldn't attend all fourteen of the breakout sessions. The first was a session titled "Structuring You Novel," by author and writing coach Kathryn M. Johnson, who put together a trouble-shooting checklist. 

In structuring your novel, check to see if you have the following:

(1) A fantastic opening sentence? It will draw readers in. Even though potential book buyers may give your novel a chance due to other considerations, the agent/editor to whom you're trying to sell your novel reads such a large number of manuscripts in any given year, it helps to have a wonderful lead-in to grab their attention.

(2) An early introduction to an interesting main character? Especially if it’s the protagonist, don’t wait too long to bring him/her into the picture.

(3) A controlled perspective (POV)?  First or third person is fine, but be consistent unless you’re really, really good and can change back and forth between the two. If using third person, make any POV shifts occur at ends of scenes or chapters, or it becomes too confusing as to whose viewpoint we're experiencing.

(4) Revelation of conflict? Bring the conflict early on, although it doesn’t necessarily have to be a body on the first page (many authors use this, however). Be sure to use tension in each scene.

(5) An opening which takes place at a critical moment? Why is the moment critical, what about it makes it such that things will never be the same again for the town or character(s)? Use backstory much later.

(6) A promise made/kept to your reader? The subgenre you’re writing in should match your title and the beginning of the novel, i.e., no blood and gore in a cozy or a more meandering style in a thriller.

(7) Brisk pacing and compact writing? No chats over tea and cookies; keep things moving. The pace can match the subgenre type, but it still matters. Use shorter sentences, sharper, clearer writing. Get rid of extraneous clutter. Details must count and matter to the story.

(8) Few (if any) mechanical errors?  Double check your grammar, spelling, and formattting.

(9) Confusion control? Not everything is a mystery; don’t use information dumps. We need to get to know your character, but pick and choose, layer details, especially true at the beginning, as the reader can only absorb so much at first. You’re asking the reader to enter your world and come along with you.

(10) Natural sounding dialogue? One of the first things an editor will note is dialogue that is wooden or illogical (i.e., Why would anyone say this?) Don’t have characters say things like, "Well as you know," or "As I’ve explained" -- if it's already known, why bother to mention it again?  Dialogue can be a good tool to move a story forward. Don’t make people talk like real folks per se, as real folks mumble and tend to drag things out -- just give the *flavor* of real people talking and make it relevant to the character (age, gender, background, etc.).

Other tidbits:

--Don’t make the characters cliches.
--Make the hero an expert on something, not just his/her wonderful sleuthing skills, but something else that makes us impressed by his/her abilities.
--When you’re writing characters, it may help some writers to have an actor in mind to play that part, to get a feel for the character.

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Kathryn Johnson (a/k/a Kathryn Jensen, K.M. Kimball, and Nicole Davidson), has had more than 40 books published. Her mentoring business, Write By You, serves novice and multi-published authors. She has taught writing at a variety of venues, including the Long Ridge Writers' Group and Johns Hopkins University's continuing education program. You can visit her author site at http://www.kathrynjensen.com/.

Dying to Write

I think it was Laura Lippman who said "Dying to Write" is a great name for a mystery writers' event. She was the keynote speaker yesterday at the second annual Dying to Write one-day conference in D.C., sponsored by the Mid Atlantic Chapter of MWA. It's one of the smaller conferences, but since it's focused mostly on writers, that's a good thing.

Many fine writers and book industry professionals gave presentations, including (more or less alphabetically) Patrick Anderson, the Washington Post reviewer and nonfiction author; crime fiction authors Donna Andrews, Dana Cameron, John Gilstrap, Chris Grabenstein, Kathryn Johnson, Toni Kelner, John Lamb, Laura Lippman, Nancy Martin, Katherine Neville, and Marcia Talley; editors John Gregory Betancourt of Wildside Press and Marcia Markland of St. Martin's; literary agent and attorney Elaine English, and Kathy Harig, owner of the bookstore Mystery Loves Company.

This blog will be featuring summaries of a few of the presentations during the next week, so stay tuned for those.

Speaking of conferences, they are a wonderful way for writers, both published and unpublished, to network and learn from one another, and also for fans and readers to get to know their favorite authors. The List has a section on Conferences and you can also check out the calendar link highlighted on the right-hand side of the blog. There are three of them coming up next weekend, Forensic U in St. Louis, Tony Hillerman's Mystery Writers Conference in Albuquerque, and Men of Mystery in Irvine, California. Conference events are sprinkled pretty much throughout the country, from coast to coast, so find one that fits your schedule and interest, and plunge right in.

It's an E-World

According to a company Press Release issued today, "Hachette Book Group USA has announced that it is the first publisher to produce its bestselling content in the new International Digital Publishing Forum's (IDPF) eBook format called '.epub.' The new standard will enable Hachette Book Group to produce and send a single digital publication file and ISBN that can be used on any digital platform that is capable of rendering an .epub file.  This new process will lower HBGUSA's e-book production costs and allow it to publish more titles as eBooks."  The protocol will simplify digital reader formats, so content providers can create a single digital file usable on any digital platform (personal computers, either desktop or portable, palm-sized “personal digital assistants” or PDAs, and smart phones).

What does this mean for Jane and Joe Q. Consumer? Right now, not that much. But it's just another step toward what may eventually be a day when more books are sold in digital form than in print. After all, Hachette Book Group publishes the works of best-sellers like Michael Connell, Walter Mosley, and James Patterson. There's a bit of a way to go with this--in 2006, U.S. book sales totalled over 10 billion dollars, according to the Association of American Publishers, while trade wholesale electronic book sales only came to approximately 20 million.

But the trend is growing, as this page from the International Digital Publishing Forum indicates. It's growing even faster in Japan, where cellphone standards and usage are more uniform. In 2006, mobile phone sales of electronic books there grew 331.3% from 1.6 billion yen (about US $14 million) to 6.9 billion yen (US $58 million). The non-phone Internet sales of electronic books grew 69.7% to US $68 million, with projections mobile phone sales of e-books will increase to 99 million in 2007, and 79 million for Internet sales. That's getting close to 200 million total dollars in e-book sales.

There are still a lot of legal questions involved for authors and publishers about copyright that have to be resolved. And since most book readers are no longer 25, the font size will be an issue, as well. Under the Publishers section of The List, I have a few e-book companies that specialize just in that format, and I'm sure that list will grow much larger.

So hang on and strap yourself to your Treo, iPhone, or Sony Reader, for a novel time.

Pulp Fiction

There's been a bit of buzz in mystery short-fiction circles lately about Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's announcement they'll partner with Black Mask Magazine conservator Keith Alan Deutsch to revive the imprint on a bimonthly basis by printing one classic and one new story in the Black Mask tradition.

What was Black Mask? Originally launched in 1920 by journalist H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan (to help fund their other literary magazine), it started out as a magazine for pulp fiction, and eventually published hardboiled detective stories by such legends as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner. Although it ceased publication in 1951, it was relatively popular in its heyday. According to the official archival site, Black Mask Magazine, by December 1933 (when the magazine was publishing nothing but crime stories) its national circulation had risen to 103,000. The cover price was 20 cents.

If you want more information on the pulp tradition, check out the links under the Mysteries by Topic section of The List or some of the current magazines which publish pulp stories, found in the Magazines section of The List. A couple of these include Pulp Fiction Central, which includes a history of pulp fiction, replicas, reprints, and fanzines for sale, and The Pulp Rack, a monthly online magazine about pulp fiction, past and present, with articles and links to stories.

And if you want to try your hand at fiction in the pulp vein, send along your stories to Editor Janet Hutchings at Ellery Queen and mark on the manuscript that you're submitting for that particular section. You might want to read through a few issues first, though, to get an idea of what she's looking for. May the pulp be with you.

The Short of It

As a writer of short stories, I'm always on the prowl for new markets. Unfortunately, it's getting harder to find publications accepting crime fiction. Duotrope lists approximately 2,000 magazines, both print and Web, which include fiction. By my own unscientific calculations, 49 of those publications are focused on crime fiction, while  another 75 are general or multi-genre but still accept mysteries. The two largest magazines, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine  had a combined circulation of approximately 336,000 in 2005, according to Christine Begley, Associate Publisher at Dell Magazines, which is a hopeful sign.

Still, the overall statistics, at least for print magazines, aren't all that rosy. In 2006, Readers' Digest tumbled 12.2 percent to 10.1 million circulation, Woman's Day was off 20 percent to 4 million, Redbook, down 28.6 percent to 2.4 million, and even Anna Wintour's Vogue, off 6 percent to 1.3 million. Is this the beginning of the end?

Maybe not. It's very difficult to find statistics on e-zines, especially when some have subscribers and some don't, and every day it seems existing sites disappear while new ones take their place. However, there has definitely been a proliferation of e-zines over the past several years. BJ Bourg, Editor of the e-zine Mouth Full of Bullets, just celebrated the publication's first anniversary with over 77,000 visits during the year and works published from writers around the globe (21 states and 3 different countries).  He's even making a printed version available as an archive, although the site will still be free to all visitors.

That brings up an interesting point. As traditional media (television, radio, print) have shrunk in audience numbers, online equivalents have begun to take off. With magazines, if you read a story you like and want to share it with someone across the country, if that edition is off the shelves, they're out of luck (unless you're kind enough to mail them your copy). With e-zines, stories are often archived for month s or even years. New sites are also popping up offering text or audio short stories for handheld devices, so the opportunities to enjoy stories for longer periods of time and in a variety of formats and locations, are growing. This sounds like a good thing to me.

So, back to the Word Processor I go to crank out more stories that will hopefully find a  good home. And if you're a fan of crime/mystery fiction -- support your favorite publications. Buy a copy or visit a web site. I'll be glad you did, but hopefully you will too.

I'm still working on the various sections of The List, trying to update as I find new and interesting links, but I haven't talked about the Private Investigation resources yet. There are several good books out there, such as the Complete Idiot's Guide to Private Investigation by Steven Kerry Brown and The Private Investigator's Handbook by Chuck Chambers. You can also subscribe to PI Magazine, which has some fascinating articles about various aspects of the trade, as well as gadgets galore and an "Ask the PI" e-mail feature. Online, check out the PI Mall, which has a resource page full of investigative resources with hundreds of links to articles and technology. It includes an updated news database with information on areas of interest like Surveillance News, Wiretapping News, Forensic Technology News, etc. PI Mall is a great starting point if you're looking to write a story or novel with a private investigator as protagonist and need to so some basic research. And if you get lost in there, there are enough Missing Persons links to find your way back out again.

Mystery & Crime Fiction Alive and Well

My better half saw a hawk swoop down and snatch a sparrow today, right at his feet in front of the local post office. It's just another example of the natural order of things, but it got me thinking about the publishing food chain. With larger companies swallowing up smaller companies and the voracious appetites of mega-bookstore chains causing the demise of independents, has this left hungry mystery readers in a lurch?

Not according to an article written by Andrew Grabois over at Beneath the Cover. He quotes statistics from Simba Information’s annual report, Business of Consumer Book Publishing, in which the Mystery & Detective category generated an estimated $422 million dollars in 2006, an increase of more than 4% over 2005, and 17% over 2002. Consumer dollars spent on mystery and detective books accounted for 6.7% of all consumer dollars spent on books last year. And according to Bowker’s Books In Print database, 5,580 new mystery and detective titles were published in the U.S. in 2006, a 9% increase over 2005 and a 33% increase over 2002. Of course, the top five revenue-generating publishers rang up $371 million in sales, or 88% of all dollars spent in the category. So there's plenty of mystery-book fodder out there, just concentrated in a few book "farms."

I *think* it's a good sign that mystery readers (and writers) won't be starving any time soon, as there seems to be plenty enough to go around. Which brings me to another point--check out the Bookstores link in The List and see if there's an independent mystery book store near you. Stop by and pick up a book or two. After all, there's only 66 days until Christmas...

To Research or Not to Research?

With apologies to Bill Shakespeare, I've often wondered how important research is to the writing process.  I know with my own stories and novels-in-progress, I like to research the heck out of them before I put word one down to paper, and hope the story flows naturally from there. So what about some of the best selling authors writing crime fiction today?  Does research help, does it hurt, does it matter?

PD James  is firmly in the "research is good" camp. As she says, "In addition to paying attention to real-life, a huge part of the writer's job is to research. Often times, this is the best way to make your characters real--by finding out the facts they would usually know...I revisit the scene, get advice from experts, and usually consult both the police and the forensic science laboratory." She does her research personally, and it usually takes months.

Martha Grimes, a U.S. writer who bases her Richard Jury series in the U.K., makes frequent trips there while researching her novels and often learns about human nature along the way. "The notion that most people have of 'researching' is the writer in a graveyard (or pub) scribbling in a notebook. My 'research' is both sloppier and more visceral. For instance, I drove around Lincolnshire looking for a pub I'd read about in some dusty tome on pubs called 'The Red Last,' a name that I would have loved to use as a title. In the hamlet of Cowbit, near the wonderfully Sayers-ish-sounding village, Deeping St. Nicholas, I found a white cottage with 'The Red Last' scrolled over its door...On the other side of Spaulding, I mentioned this cottage and asked a gentleman sitting next to me...if he knew what the name meant...'Well, it's like for shoes, innit?' Then the rest of them had to toss in their tuppence about cobblers and 'lasts' for shoes, but all agreeing that's what it must mean-the 'last' for a shoe. Finally, the owner said, 'Maybe it means the end, say, like in chess, The black goes first, the red last.' I was stunned by his sheer deductive brilliance. The rest of us had shoes stuck in our minds and couldn't see around that association."

Tess Gerritsen is another fan of the do-it-yourself research club. "I do all my own research. I learned how important this is, back when I wrote my thriller GRAVITY, which was set aboard the International Space Station. I tried to hire a NASA engineer as my researcher, but he told me something that I've since learned is very true: that the only way to really understand a subject is to make the discoveries yourself. And while doing the research, I discover facts that often become new and unexpected plot twists.  I do the bulk of my research before I start writing, partly because I want to get the 'language' right, and understand the milieu or the time period, and the way characters in that setting would think. Then while I write, I'll also look up facts as they become relevant to the story."

That's three yesses from three successful female mystery authors. How about the guys? When Michael Connelly was asked how he researched his book "Void Moon," he said, "The setting was kind of easy. I just stayed over there for several short visits and I did a lot of the writing of the book there. Through connections to people in the police and security businesses I was able to take a tour of the back room security sections of a hotel/casino. In the book there is a lot about technology and hidden cameras and so forth. A lot of that came from attending two conferences in Las Vegas. I do most of my research by simple observation and absorption of surroundings. So for me to drive over to Las Vegas and sit in a casino and simply watch people--that to me is research."

Harlan Coben admits he's not as big on research as many other fiction writers. "I'm more from the, 'Hum a few bars and fake it' genre...Tell you the truth, I do research, but I'm really more concerned with making sure that I am holding you hostage and gripping you. The research has to come secondary. Sometimes a writer uses research as an excuse not to write, not to grip, to tell you cute factoids. I don't want to do that. I want it do it with the story."

Lee Child is even less enthused about the idea of researching novels.  "So how do I do research? Not by going to the public library for three months and taking notes in advance. Problem is, I approach writing the book with the same excitement and impatience that I hope the reader is going to feel about reading it. But I need a certain measure of technical intrigue in the story. So if I'm too impatient to collect specific facts, where do they come from?...I file away interesting little snippets - not on paper, but in the back of my mind. Then they eventually float to the surface and get used. Sometimes my recollection can be a little shaky, so the honest answer to the question is most of my research involves clambering around in my basement trying to find dusty old books or long-forgotten periodicals."

This is hardly a scientific poll or aggregation of mystery writer methods and attitudes, but it's interesting that the women seem more comfortable with the idea. Which doesn't make it good or bad, obviously, since all of the above talented writers are quite sucessful. Like most aspects of writing, it's whatever works for you. And of course, this Blog is here to help, if you need it.  Or you can just be like James Lee Burke who says with a laugh, "I've never researched anything, and it probably shows."

 

 

The Prime Time of Forensic Mysteries?

I was struck by the most recent Nielsen ratings in which 8 out of the top 20 TV shows focused on law enforcement in some form, including the three CSI shows, NCIS, Cold Case, Without a Trace, Law and Order, and Criminal Minds.  Most of these touch upon, in varying degrees and forms, forensic science.

I wondered if this TV-watching trend had translated over to education, and found a recent USA Today article that indicated indeed, it has. More than 130 forensics programs are being taught at colleges and universities across the U.S., although only 16 programs at 14 universities are accredited by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (according to Jim Hurley, director of accreditation, who expects the number to rise as more programs adopt the rigid science course work required).  At one of the largest programs, West Virginia University, since the forensic science program launched in 2002, it has grown to 500 students from 35 countries. A Money Magazine profile in 2006 listed forensic science as one of the best jobs in America, with a projected 10-year growth rate of 36.40%, from 9,823 total jobs in 2004 to 13,399 jobs forecast for 2014.

Has there been a tie-in to mystery writers? It's difficult to say without hard-and-fast statistics, but on the following lists of forensic-themed novels, Forensic Detectives,  Forensic Pathologists, Anthropologists & Chemists, and Fascinating Forensic Novels, it's hard to find one older than the mid-80s, with most dating from the past 5-7 years. Leading the way, for the most part, has been Patricia Cornwell, a a former reporter who worked in a medical examiner's office, with her 1990 debut "Postmortem" featuring medical examiner, Kay Scarpetta.

Although subgenre fads come and go within the crime fiction publishing business, this is one trend that has been around for at least a couple of decades and doesn't presently showing any signs of diminishing, with titles popping up on various best-seller lists each week. If you have a yen to try your hand at writing a forensic science novel, you might start with the Forensic and Crime Scene links from The List. There are over 200 links there to get you started, with more on the way as I find them.