The Detective's Word

So, I know you all have been waiting all weekend to know how it went with the detective! Here's what happened:

Last week I emailed both the Springdale and Fayetteville police departments, asking to interview a detective for a book I'd written. No response from Springdale. Fayetteville played phone tag with me for a day, until I finally spoke to Lieutenant Fields, who's in charge of the detective department. She told me to email her my questions and she'd find the right detective for me.

So I did. Well, she must've sent those questions on to the detective and not the rest of the story, because the email I got from the detective went something like this: "These are not questions I generally answer for the public. I need to know who you are, why you need this information, and why you contacted the Fayetteville police department." Let me tell you, I felt my heart leap into my throat! I thought, "Man, he's gonna send a patrole out and search my yard for dead bodies."

Keeping my calm, I emailed him back and explained what it's for, even offered to show him a copy of my signed contract. I didn't hear back from him until the next day. But he answered my questions! The odd thing was...most of my fabrication was correct. Well, many of the answers were, "Depends on the department. It could happen like this, or it could happen like this." Which made my scene plausible.

So I didn't have to change too much, and my first revision is off to the editor! We'll see how it goes from here. We're also in the process of changing the title. Oh, and I heard back from the Springdale police department today. Just emailed my questions off. I wonder if the responses will be different?

One last thing. Thanks to my dear friend M. Gray, I was inspired to enter a Christmas story contest. I can't tell you which entry is mine, but if you'd like to take a peek at the entries, go here. You have to read them all and voting doesn't start till the 16 of August, I think. Check it out. It'll be fun!

My Fantastic Weekend

This weekend I put my novel aside and spent four days with my husband. That's right, four! (We did talk about my novel, but I didn't work on it at all.) It was seriously the best weekend of my life. Well, the drill sergeants still try to run the show, but we learned when to have his cell phone off.

When Mark finally (after trying to convince me for three years) joined the Army, I was less than thrilled. I felt like we did it because we had no choice and I gave in. Mark always felt inspired to join the Army. He felt like he was doing what God wanted him to do. I went along with it.

After seeing him this weekend, I must say it appears I was wrong. Mark looks great. He is thriving in this environment, though his face is thin, his head is shaved, and his arms are huge. It's hard for him, just like it is for everyone, but he is excelling. His confidence is up and I found myself swelling with pride. He is maturing. He is changing.

First they told us we'd have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night together. Last week that changed to Friday and Saturday night. By the time I got there on Thursday, somebody had made the wrong drill sergeant angry and it was changed to just Saturday night. Heavens! At least we got to see each other on the other days. And Saturday afternoon, when Mark saw he'd missed a call from his platoon leader, he turned his phone off. We couldn't take the chance that the guy was calling to say he couldn't stay with me Saturday night, now, too.

I have a lot on my plate now. I'm supposed to get Mark enrolled in a college and get him a job lined up so he doesn't miss a beat when he gets home. And I'm still supposed to take care of my other responsibilities. Yippee! I hate job hunting. I hate it when I'm doing it for me. It's even worse when I'm doing it for someone else.

But the weekend was fantastic. I've never been more in love with my husband. I can't wait for him to come home.

I'll write about the detective tomorrow!

I'm in Missouri!!!

I got to see Mark today!!!!

I can't even say how wonderful it was to see him, to spend a few hours together. He doesn't get to stay with me in my hotel until Saturday night, but I get to see him all day tomorrow too. I probably won't be online.

Oh! And I heard back from my detective! I'll post more later.

Contact with the Police Department

Thank you, Jamie Fields!

Lieutenant Fields from the Fayetteville police department called me back today. She asked me to email her my detective questions, and she'll find the right detective to answer them for me. I'm so excited! Of course, I want to meet with the detective in person, because one answer might lead to another question and so forth, but if I have to conduct it via email, that's better than nothing!

She was very respectful, wanted to know what it was for, and said she'd help out. I was nervous. Had this weird fear (is it weird?) that she'd be rude and like, "We're fighting crime. We don't have time for something like this."

You other authors out there, how have you approached things like this when you need to do research? Have you ever had someone tell you no? Was it discouraging?

Of course there's the chance that I'll never hear from Lt. Fields again. And then I'm back to square one. But that hasn't happened yet. So here I am, sitting by my phone, watching and waiting!

Detective Hamilton likes pickles!

Yesterday I finished the first draft of my detective scenes!!! Whoo-hoo! I'm so excited about this. Whew! What a job. I know there's going to be a lot of revising that I'll have to do. (after all, this is the first draft. I haven't even read through it yet.) I need to add setting and figure out a name for the chief. I came up with so many new names that I got tired of it and the chief got stuck with "The Chief."

Now I need to interview a detective and make sure my information is actually accurate. I've contacted two police stations and one police officer that goes to church with us. I got an email back from the Fayetteville police station, asking me to call. I did. She was in a meeting and told me she'd call back because she had some questions. It's been about three hours. I'll give her until tomorrow.

And it's time to start putting my villain's POV back in. Originally I had several passages in his POV, but I cut them for the sake of word count. Now I get to up my word count. I have my publisher's permission. And my editor wants the villain's POV! How exciting! I'm going to need to create a few more passages, but he's not going to get the same amount of screen time as the kidnapped girls or the detective.

We're really getting somewhere!

And then last night I realized that Detective Hamilton has a pickle fetish. Any kind of pickle. He likes a cold, dripping pickle when he's stuck on a case. It refreshes his mind. And I didn't include that anywhere. I'm going to have to insert pickles.

Review: Uncut Diamonds by Karen Jones Gowen

I finished reading this book late Saturday night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The main character, Marcie, goes through a wide variety of emotions very similar to myself, for us being young moms forty years apart. Karen Jones Gowen does a fantastic job of showing the experiences of the times.

Set in the seventies, Uncut Diamonds follows the life of Marcie McGill, an LDS (Mormon) mother with four children. Marcie struggles with the economy, reconciling their losses, accepting her wilder younger sister, and dealing with an unemployed and then absent husband. Most of us can relate to the high gas bills (not that high), making bread and beans and rice because we're saving money, and feeling frustrated with our husbands because they don't help out at home.

Marcie's parents, the Pritchards, also play a part in the book. A sweet, elderly Methodist couple, they are the kind of characters that touch your heart and make you wish you knew them. Karen Jones Gowen does a great job of painting them with an aura of love and generosity.

The book is divided into two parts, one during the recession and one after. The first one shows the damage and the latter the recovery.

I found Marcie to be so like me that it was often uncanny. Many times I wanted to highlight a passage and write in the book something like, "This is so me! I do this!" Her life situations, from struggling with the family business and debt to worrying about sick kids and spirituality, even down to the fights with her husband, matched my own life and perspective.

There were a few things I didn't like: The beginning of the book started out rough for me; there were a few typesetting errors and fewer commas than I'm accustomed to. Also, the characters were introduced by their first names and then referred to by the last name, leaving me a bit confused as to who was who in the first two or three chapters. Finally, Karen Jones Gowen includes inserts from Marcie's grandmother's diary. I would've enjoyed these more if they had been smaller inclusions. Marcie is an intriguing character. I would rather have read Marcie reading these things, Marcie's reactions and thoughts, than just reading verbatim the grandmother's words.

This book is not a thriller, mystery, suspense, or any of the nail-biting genre. It's very real. You feel like you're taking a peek into someone else's life, and it's entertaining. I very much enjoyed the book and can see it becoming something of a literary, historical classic. I definitely recommend it.

Don't bother me, I'm reading

Sorry I don't have much to say today. I'm busy reading.

I will give a detailed review on Monday, or Tuesday, whenever I finish reading Uncut Diamonds. (I hope Karen doesn't mind; I'm a critic, and I'll point out what I think is good and what I think is not so good.) I will say this, though: the book is holding up to its promises. I'm caught up in the lives of the characters and have already cried and laughed. Now that's an indication of a good book.

And it's not a soap opera. It's real life.