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Random thought: I make a mean cup of coffee—well, at least one with anger management issues. This week’s blog comes to you from Baja, where I’m on a whale-watching trip in a lagoon called San Ignacio. The location inspired me to write this 101-word whale of a tale. Well, the initial spark came from a prompt mailed in by (semi) interested reader, Pete L. Thanks, Pete. Appreciate the gift. Here’s the story:
Get out of jail freeI’m an information broker. My product? Drug dealers. I know everyone in town. It’s a dangerous game, but as long as I can trade info with the cops, I’ll stay out of jail. This morning I informed the cops about Freddy. They’re gonna raid him tomorrow. Now I’m in his house, telling him, “You hear Mando got busted?” “Damn.” “Lots of heat around here. Watch yourself.” Freddy thanks me with a free bindle. I’m a block away when the cops grab me before I can pitch the dope. Somehow they know I’m holding. Freddy’s also an information broker? Not cool, dude. Prompt: Rats
NOVEL NEWS & NOTES… As I continue pushing the boulder uphill on the latest draft of my novel, Questionable Characters, the end is in sight, but so is the graveyard for a number of scenes from the current iteration. At this point, it’s still too early to tell how many pages I’ll wind up with. All I know for sure is that there will be blood. Characters may die. Side adventures will wind up in my deleted scenes folder. The more brutal I can be from this point on, the less pain I’ll have slashing and burning after I type “The End.” In other news, my recent adventure to San Francisco for a convention called Left Coast Crime was a lot of fun. I was on a panel called “Meet the Experts: Getting it Right.” The moderator was a San Francisco true crime expert, and the rest of the panel included a doctor/TV crime writer, a forensic pathologist, and a questioned documents/handwriting expert. See visual proof below.
I was a bit worried about what kind of crowd we’d draw since it started at 9 a.m., but, much to my surprise, most of the seats were occupied, and the feedback I got over the next two days was very positive. It was fun connecting with writers I’ve gotten to know from a few other conferences, and after the success of this panel, I reached out to the organizer of a mystery writer conference I’m going to in Marin County in July. I don’t know if they’ll have any spots open for me, but there’s something really rewarding about being able to pay it forward when it comes to helping other members of my scribe tribe. Between thirty years of local and federal law enforcement experience, and my past six years as a P.I., I got at least a few tricks of the trade I can share. I’ll let you know if my offer is accepted. Maybe next time I’ll share about meeting a woman who offered to help me edit a couple of P.I. short stories I’ve written. She didn’t charge me a thing for giving me great notes on one of the stories. More writers helping writers. Ya gotta love it. Tomorrow we hit the high seas (well, the lagoon) in search of migrating grey whales. Call me Ishmael. Scotty out PS: Wanna catch up on the posts you’ve missed? Click on link below.
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