Moving Forward – Never Giving Up

With all best intentions, some things just don’t work out the way we want them to. Right now I’m supposed to be in Chicago at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy rehearsing and setting up for a first ever live webinar of the Writers Homicide School. This whole venture came by way of the International Screenwriters’ Association. They tried their best but timing and the Easter weekend that we inadvertently planned this event for were just too much to make the event profitable.

The day we decided to cancel the event and not throw money down the drain for a big venture with only a few participants, I started looking for somewhere to quickly put together an event location for the Writers Homicide School. Having formerly lived in a location where putting on a great event meant driving some distance away and making a lot of distance planning. But now I live in Knoxville, Tennessee. It dawned on me after a couple of hours of research nearby areas that I live in a target rich environment of writers right here in the wonderful Southern United States.

Knoxville is a beautiful city, its one of the reasons I moved here in the first place. It’s on a river, there is warm and rich downtown full of varying foods and atmospheres. There is wonderful history for those who appreciate American history, and many writers have at least some interest if not an all out love of all things historic, even when they are science fiction writers.

I went downtown and pulled into the Holiday Inn Worlds Fair Park right across from the convention center. When I walked in and saw the cleanliness and upscale looks of the location, I thought to myself that I’d love to host an even here, but at this late notice and budgets being what they are, minimalistic at this point, I feared it would be too expensive and I’d have to find a different destination of lower quality. But I was pleasantly surprised at the truly affordable cost of the meeting room. I walked in to hotel without an appointment and was able to speak with the director of sales who showed me around the location. When I explained who I was and what the event was all bout, she seemed genuinely interested and excited to have the event at their location.

I’m always looking for long-term partnerships with organizations who have a mutually beneficial desire to see my program excel as a result of our partnership. I’ve always liked the Holiday Inn chain and prefer to stay at Holiday Inn Express’ chains across the country when I can; they are always clean and I love their hearty breakfast. I know this must sound like a commercial, but when I’m treated right, get a fair value and like the product, I’m going to say so. Just ask me about Apple products and I could go on for hours in my praise.

So my next session of the Writers Homicide School will be on April 27/28, 2013 at the Holiday Inn World’s Fair Park Hotel in beautiful downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. Because this is my hometown and I have no traveling expense for this event, I have greatly reduced the price for this spring special event. From now through April 11, writers can sign up for $199 for a single registration, but if you are a member of the Mystery Writers of America or Sisters In Crime, you can get group rate prices if multiple seats are purchased at the same time. Even if you can’t get a group to buy in to tickets together, the Spring Special price of $199 is greatly reduced from the nationwide price of $350 for regular season pricing.

I sent an email to the Middle Tennessee chapter of Sisters in Crime and got a quick reply from their president Beth Terrell-Hicks. She has immediately sent out the flier and within 24 hours, I’ve already started receiving registrations. SINC – Pasadena is where I got my start and now SINC – Tennessee is coming to my side once again.

I appreciate all the support I have been receiving from those who have come to know or recently learn about the Writers Homicide School and Crime Writers Consultations. Recently I was interviewed live on “It’s A Crime Radio” with host Margaret McLean. It was a great time and I’m enjoying other people being interested in what I’m doing and having me on their shows or inviting me to their blogs.

By popular demand, I’m adding some practical exercises writers in the audience can take part in, namely blood spatter and fingerprinting. It should make for some interesting and fun class time!

Hopefully, some of you will be able to come to the Knoxville event and share in my joy of this great city.

 

Well, that’s all for now. I’m not a prolific blogger and try to keep it close to the heart and when I’ve got something worth report. I hope you find it worthy too.

 

 

Cops killing Cops

What a sad week for law enforcement. As I watch the newly appointed Sheriff John McMahon of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, my alma mater, I can’t help but feel a sense of pride as members of the department I have known for years and grown up with standing beside him or in video of the manhunt in Big Bear. I feel for those officers and families who have been injured or have fallen due to the acts of a wild, mad man.

That’s what he is. Mad. Crazy enough to not serve a sentence for insanity if he were to actually be captured and not killed? Certainly not. His actions are of a calculated killer who has had a grievance with the entire world starting in grade school when he was disciplined for fighting. His self-agrandizing commentary and delusions of grandeur may help him think he is doing something noble to uncover alleged misdeeds, racism and unfair treatment within the Los Angeles Police Department, but he is dead wrong. His actions are those of a coward.

He has killed the family of cops whom he felt didn’t represent him well, he shot at other officers who were on protection detail of someone he wished to harm, yet he didn’t try to get the target as far as we know, and then he ambushed and killed a Riverside Police Officer and seriously wounded his partner for, as yet unknown and unrelated reasons.

The man is now in hiding, yet causing the fear and receiving what he thinks is likely the first bit of respect he has earned in his life. Well in the words of Dr. George Thompson, that isn’t respect, its “REspect.” The street-thug disillusioned notion that instilling fear and having people be afraid of you is equivalent to having people respect you. It is not one in the same and actually quite the contrary. Fear of being killed by a man with a gun, doesn’t make me respect the man or his intentions, even if they were indeed noble and for the sake of discussion, true. What they do is make us all recognize there are some evil people out there who can no longer simply rot away in their hatred any longer without receiving their claim to fame, fleeting as it is. He must go down in his blaze of glory, living out some fantasy contrived in his head where he is the hero and not the villain. He is hoping for martyrdom. He isn’t getting but a footnote in the book of crazy.

In this case, I do not blame the media for covering this event. As it is still an unfolding and dangerous set of circumstances, people need to be aware and avail themselves of protection. I’ll bet there are folks out there wishing they had one of those terrible assault weapons for protection right now, but I’ll leave the rest of the political discussion on intended weapons bans for another time, if never.

The man is a coward. I won’t use his name because I don’t want him to receive any satisfaction for me knowing his name, which is one of the main themes in his manifesto. I refuse to say it or give him credit. I want to know the names of the injured and fallen officers. I want their names said 100 to 1 for every time the insidious criminal’s name is used.

We’ve all worked with people we don’t like or even seriously disliked. We’ve probably all felt at some point in our life that our good intentions were misunderstood and the outcome was completely unfair. We might have even been correct in that assessment. But is there any reason to give anyone else that much of our power of thought and deed, to completely alter our lives and become obsessed with the alternate reality that we wished we could have had? I’m sorry but I don’t give anyone that much authority over me to control my destiny.

This crazed criminal is a powerless human being who has defaced the military and police uniforms he wore. Neither allowed him to fulfill his fantasies. It would seem he got into both uniformed services to get back at “the bad guy” whomever s/he might have been that wronged him in his life. The problem with this man is that the enemy is within. The enemy is the man in the mirror. The enemy is confusing fear for respect, hate for honor and suffering for retribution.

NEW CWC Website and Upcoming Seminars

GOLD RING SILVER STAR ver smallNew Logo, New Website, New Seminar Material, New Dates, Exciting Times ahead!

It has been a while since any of you have heard from me, and with good reason; upgrades and preparations. 2013 promises to be a great year. Just last week my website finished being completely revamped in color, theme and productivity. CWC has a new logo that I hope you will enjoy and others will come to recognize as synonymous with authenticity, great training and of course the name Crime Writers Consultations! In the near future I will be producing wares with the logo for giveaway and sale items associated with attending The Writers Homicide School.

Which brings me to the next topic, dates of the 2013 sessions of The Writers Homicide School, which now permanently includes BLOOD SPATTER INTERPRETATION.

I will be back in Los Angeles on June 1&2, this time at the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel. Last October we sold out the room we were in, so I got a bigger room this time, but not that big so still be careful to purchase your seat early.  August 17-18 I will be in Nashville, TN and in October 5th & 6th I will be in Salem, Oregon. I don’t have specific locations for Nashville and Salem yet, but there is time to lock those down. These are great opportunities for networking with fellow writers, producers and other members of the entertainment and publishing industry. I can’t believe some of the great people I’ve been so fortunate to meet already. Just last week I spent an hour on consultation with a gentleman who attended the October session. For those of you who remember the visitor all the way from Norway, we had a great chat. Today’s technology made our connection simple using FaceTime. A free method for the both of us and what a great way to make the consultation even more personable. Also I was able to demonstrate some actions and show him things that I couldn’t have done if it were just a phone call. If you are interested in having your consultation, you can sign up on the website at http://www.crimewritersconsultations.com.

Although the primary information is and will always be the same in The Writers Homicide School, I throughly enjoy each new session because there is always something different that comes out each one. The audience in attendance sparks much of the class entertainment and information based on their questions. However, one of the sessions was too rushed to catch up on some material due to the number of questions posed. So two things have changed to rectify that problem. The first is the program has been lengthened from six to eight hours per day! Class time will be from 8am to 5pm both days, instead of 9am -4pm. The last hour of each day will be set aside for questions only. I will still allow questions throughout the program, which indeed helps keep the program interesting and more fluid, however, I feel compelled to limit the number of questions in each hour to ensure we stay better on track. The added length of time though should really do the trick as I have no real plans to expand the program at this point. though there have been some requests to include a third day to allow for more depth in the Interrogation section of the program. I’m going to need to get more feedback on whether this is truly some folks would find useful and want a third day.

For those of you who have not yet attended The Writers Homicide School, it is a two-day seminar that takes you from an officer getting hired through the promotional process to landing in the homicide detail, and all the inner workings of a real homicide unit, revealing how cases are actually solved. In 16-hours of lecture, video and presentation, you are witness to how crime scenes are really investigated, evidence is properly handled, unique scientific processes, wound characteristics, autopsy protocols, blood spatter interpretation and interview & interrogation techniques, all of which culminates with a full homicide case review. Due to the amount of material covered, I can only cover a couple hours on interrogation, which is whittled down from a 4-day police interrogation school I teach real police officers. I have had several folks tell me they really want more on interrogation which is all about the human interaction and interpersonal communication topics that are a part of the process. So, here is your chance to sound off. Even if you haven’t been to the course, you can still weigh in on the survey. Please!

Please take the poll below and let me know your thoughts.

For those of you who are members of the Writers Store mailing list, you should be seeing something come out on the 23rd or 24th with the opportunity to purchase your tickets there or you can get them directly from my website at http://www.crimewritersconsultations.com. I hope to see you at one of the main events this year.

Be safe & keep writing!

 

PS – As far as the big news I posted about a while ago…I can’t yet. Not until next week maybe. Sorry.