Anne Fox's Blog
August 18, 2022
Looking Into the Future
After the completion of my series The Unit, I wanted to continue the story, taking off into the future when two of the characters' grown children would find themselves recruited for the unit's team of operatives. That creates a bit of a dilemma, of course. Just what will the future bring?
It was time to polish my crystal ball. It was also time to start asking my readers what they thought the future would bring.
I've been on this Earth awhile, and so have actual access to things from 30 years ago. As I chose to place the new series, The Unit: Gen2 25 years into the future, I began to look backward to what the past might reveal for the future. Remember when cellphones were the size of a brick, and all you could do was punch in a number to call? We now have cellphones that have more capacity than the entire computer science department in the university I attended as an undergrad possessed— much more. Now, you can call a number from your smartwatch.
My truck, purchased 20 years ago, has a stick shift. It does have a panel for connecting things via Bluetooth, but the connections are limited. No Sirius radio. No proximity sensors. I really wanted the stick shift, so that's a shoulder shrug. I just got a new truck, though, and am actually finding many of the bells and whistles it possesses distracting. The multimedia panel is almost as big as my iPad Pro. It can connect to my iPhone and play a movie, though I won't do that unless I'm just sitting somewhere. It has sensors that tell me if I'm too close to something front, back, and sides, though I've turned off the rear sensors because it will actually apply the brakes before I've got it fully backed into my driveway (doesn't like the garage door, I guess).
Doing a little research, I found that a cardiac pacemaker is now being developed that's the size of a large supplement capsule and is no longer surgically emplaced in the chest wall, but is guided up a major vein to the proximity of the heart. No long leads for the electrodes that shock the heart back into rhythm, either. Just four little prongs that hold the thing in place.
What will things look like 25 years from now? I have to take a SWAG (silly wild-assed guess) at that.
Questions posed to my fans on Facebook ask such questions as, "Do you believe there will be fewer or more extremist groups operating in the U.S. 25 years from now?" This is giving me not only a view of what others expect of the future, but also of what they're feeling now. Sadly, most shine a dim light on our society's future. Things, they believe, will be more difficult. Medicine less affordable. Jobs less rewarding. Extremism more prevalent.
Perhaps so. Perhaps that's what will make my covert law enforcement team more necessary in that future world. But I prefer to believe that there will still be those who will step up for what's right. My personal and simple guiding axiom of "do the right thing" will be a guiding axiom for others as well. It's not easy. It takes thinking outside of the box, a willingness to be different than the crowd, and careful research into how society is changing.
It was time to polish my crystal ball. It was also time to start asking my readers what they thought the future would bring.
I've been on this Earth awhile, and so have actual access to things from 30 years ago. As I chose to place the new series, The Unit: Gen2 25 years into the future, I began to look backward to what the past might reveal for the future. Remember when cellphones were the size of a brick, and all you could do was punch in a number to call? We now have cellphones that have more capacity than the entire computer science department in the university I attended as an undergrad possessed— much more. Now, you can call a number from your smartwatch.
My truck, purchased 20 years ago, has a stick shift. It does have a panel for connecting things via Bluetooth, but the connections are limited. No Sirius radio. No proximity sensors. I really wanted the stick shift, so that's a shoulder shrug. I just got a new truck, though, and am actually finding many of the bells and whistles it possesses distracting. The multimedia panel is almost as big as my iPad Pro. It can connect to my iPhone and play a movie, though I won't do that unless I'm just sitting somewhere. It has sensors that tell me if I'm too close to something front, back, and sides, though I've turned off the rear sensors because it will actually apply the brakes before I've got it fully backed into my driveway (doesn't like the garage door, I guess).
Doing a little research, I found that a cardiac pacemaker is now being developed that's the size of a large supplement capsule and is no longer surgically emplaced in the chest wall, but is guided up a major vein to the proximity of the heart. No long leads for the electrodes that shock the heart back into rhythm, either. Just four little prongs that hold the thing in place.
What will things look like 25 years from now? I have to take a SWAG (silly wild-assed guess) at that.
Questions posed to my fans on Facebook ask such questions as, "Do you believe there will be fewer or more extremist groups operating in the U.S. 25 years from now?" This is giving me not only a view of what others expect of the future, but also of what they're feeling now. Sadly, most shine a dim light on our society's future. Things, they believe, will be more difficult. Medicine less affordable. Jobs less rewarding. Extremism more prevalent.
Perhaps so. Perhaps that's what will make my covert law enforcement team more necessary in that future world. But I prefer to believe that there will still be those who will step up for what's right. My personal and simple guiding axiom of "do the right thing" will be a guiding axiom for others as well. It's not easy. It takes thinking outside of the box, a willingness to be different than the crowd, and careful research into how society is changing.
January 31, 2022
How Reading Affects Writing
I'm looking through a book I read in the past: American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & the Oklahoma City Bombing by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck. It's a fascinating book in which McVeigh himself talks about the things that formed him and the thoughts behind his actions.
One of the first thing he tells the authors is that "if he seemed devoid of feelings and sensitivity, that was because he was a soldier, a man who was used to carrying out missions that brought pain to others."
Having spent time in the company of soldiers, I find this an odd statement. Seldom do I see soldiers who have killed or seen another killed reacting by shutting off their feelings, and I suspect that McVeigh was no different. He certainly had feelings. Rage against the world he saw as his oppressor. Denial that the pain he would inflict on the victims of his bomb was anything other than justified, and I think that even extended to the children whom I'm certain he knew were within the building. Justified by saying it was retribution for Ruby Ridge and Waco, which I see only as an excuse. Depressed at being a loser and wanting to go out in a blaze of glory with an execution at the hands of the government. He as much as said that he considered his execution a suicide. If not suicide by cop, then suicide by the American judicial system. How convenient, but what it showed was that he was too much of a coward to even take his own life.
Maybe that sounds devoid of feelings and sensitivity as well. But I cannot help rebelling against the idea that if life is giving you lemons, you should shove them in another person's face rather than figuring out that you can make lemonade. Perhaps that's why my novels feature a crime-fighting team.
There is always that one thing that you can do, no matter what your station in life. You never know how that little thing might affect the rest of a person's existence. In my case, it was a huge orange given to me by my third grade teacher, Miss Hubbard. That one simple act taught me that others cared and valued even a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks. It has sustained me through all the years that have passed since.
So, go do something today, even if it's just to smile at a stranger. You never know. That smile might just be the thing that keeps them from taking that fatal step off a cliff, whether that's literally or figuratively. Even better, it costs you nothing.
One of the first thing he tells the authors is that "if he seemed devoid of feelings and sensitivity, that was because he was a soldier, a man who was used to carrying out missions that brought pain to others."
Having spent time in the company of soldiers, I find this an odd statement. Seldom do I see soldiers who have killed or seen another killed reacting by shutting off their feelings, and I suspect that McVeigh was no different. He certainly had feelings. Rage against the world he saw as his oppressor. Denial that the pain he would inflict on the victims of his bomb was anything other than justified, and I think that even extended to the children whom I'm certain he knew were within the building. Justified by saying it was retribution for Ruby Ridge and Waco, which I see only as an excuse. Depressed at being a loser and wanting to go out in a blaze of glory with an execution at the hands of the government. He as much as said that he considered his execution a suicide. If not suicide by cop, then suicide by the American judicial system. How convenient, but what it showed was that he was too much of a coward to even take his own life.
Maybe that sounds devoid of feelings and sensitivity as well. But I cannot help rebelling against the idea that if life is giving you lemons, you should shove them in another person's face rather than figuring out that you can make lemonade. Perhaps that's why my novels feature a crime-fighting team.
There is always that one thing that you can do, no matter what your station in life. You never know how that little thing might affect the rest of a person's existence. In my case, it was a huge orange given to me by my third grade teacher, Miss Hubbard. That one simple act taught me that others cared and valued even a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks. It has sustained me through all the years that have passed since.
So, go do something today, even if it's just to smile at a stranger. You never know. That smile might just be the thing that keeps them from taking that fatal step off a cliff, whether that's literally or figuratively. Even better, it costs you nothing.
January 27, 2022
Reading and Writing
I think all good authors (and I hope I'm one) do a great deal of reading. In my case, because I want to keep my books as realistic as possible, I read a lot of true crime stories as well as nonfiction works written by those who have served in law enforcement.
One such recent book is Dark Dreams by Roy Hazelwood and Stephen G. Michaud. Special Agent Hazelwood is a former FBI criminal profiler.
One area of his book that caught my eye is his list of factors commonly seen in revenge killings. I look at this list with an eye toward how my series nemesis, a former team member who is now disgraced, has been constructed.
"A significant event links the offender and the victims."
In the case of my series, the offender is angered when he discovers he isn't going to be the lead sniper, and worse that the lead is a woman. That leads to him being booted from the unit and that leads to him attempting to rape the woman.
"Multiple victims may be involved."
My offender then becomes a serial killer, choosing victims first to draw out the unit members so he can kill them and then killing surrogates that represent them.
"A so-called 'mission-oriented' killer may have no criminal background."
My offender didn't. He wouldn't have been chosen for the unit if he had.
I could go on with SA Hazelwood's list, but I think what I'm trying to point out is that doing this kind of reading is central to making a realistic character if that's what your book requires. I strive to keep it real. I hope that I succeed.
One such recent book is Dark Dreams by Roy Hazelwood and Stephen G. Michaud. Special Agent Hazelwood is a former FBI criminal profiler.
One area of his book that caught my eye is his list of factors commonly seen in revenge killings. I look at this list with an eye toward how my series nemesis, a former team member who is now disgraced, has been constructed.
"A significant event links the offender and the victims."
In the case of my series, the offender is angered when he discovers he isn't going to be the lead sniper, and worse that the lead is a woman. That leads to him being booted from the unit and that leads to him attempting to rape the woman.
"Multiple victims may be involved."
My offender then becomes a serial killer, choosing victims first to draw out the unit members so he can kill them and then killing surrogates that represent them.
"A so-called 'mission-oriented' killer may have no criminal background."
My offender didn't. He wouldn't have been chosen for the unit if he had.
I could go on with SA Hazelwood's list, but I think what I'm trying to point out is that doing this kind of reading is central to making a realistic character if that's what your book requires. I strive to keep it real. I hope that I succeed.
December 29, 2021
Cues from Real Cases
I read. A lot. I like just about everything, fiction and nonfiction. I find it all very valuable to my own writing.
Writing a crime/suspense series has me reading a lot of true crime books. One I read recently, Dark Dreams by Roy Hazelwood, a former FBI criminal profiler, relates a statement by one criminal of, "I was framed! Framed in a sinister, evil, and insidious machination, a conspiracy, if you will!"
This seemed like a good starting point for my current work-in-progress. I asked myself, "What would a person who was paranoid and delusional think about the government?" The actual cases of such people would astound you!
You'd not believe some of the truly kooky things people will believe. I'm currently reading another book, the title of which I won't even bother to tell you—it's so far off the wall. The writer claims to have powers given to him by God (I know what you're thinking, but this is a REAL BOOK by a REAL PERSON) and even claims he can kill people just by wishing them dead. He even takes credit for the killing of JFK, though he says that those directly responsible were government agents.
He does state one illuminating truth right at the beginning of the book, though. It is this: "Humans can 'believe' anything, regardless of how asinine." This is perhaps why we see so much kookiness out there in the world, and is the very reason I'll not recommend this particular book to anyone.
With many of my books themed on current and past events and with evil characters extrapolated from actual evil people who have walked among us, I sometimes have to put a disclaimer in the back of the book. I have to state that I didn't make that up—it's a true story and post a link to the actual case.
It's good, in my humble opinion, to be sensitive to the evil around us and not be "politically correct" to the point of whitewashing it. If it shocks you, you should be shocked, because only a person disturbed by evil will stand up against it. It's my fervent hope that the truths my fiction is based upon will spur my readers to do just that.
Writing a crime/suspense series has me reading a lot of true crime books. One I read recently, Dark Dreams by Roy Hazelwood, a former FBI criminal profiler, relates a statement by one criminal of, "I was framed! Framed in a sinister, evil, and insidious machination, a conspiracy, if you will!"
This seemed like a good starting point for my current work-in-progress. I asked myself, "What would a person who was paranoid and delusional think about the government?" The actual cases of such people would astound you!
You'd not believe some of the truly kooky things people will believe. I'm currently reading another book, the title of which I won't even bother to tell you—it's so far off the wall. The writer claims to have powers given to him by God (I know what you're thinking, but this is a REAL BOOK by a REAL PERSON) and even claims he can kill people just by wishing them dead. He even takes credit for the killing of JFK, though he says that those directly responsible were government agents.
He does state one illuminating truth right at the beginning of the book, though. It is this: "Humans can 'believe' anything, regardless of how asinine." This is perhaps why we see so much kookiness out there in the world, and is the very reason I'll not recommend this particular book to anyone.
With many of my books themed on current and past events and with evil characters extrapolated from actual evil people who have walked among us, I sometimes have to put a disclaimer in the back of the book. I have to state that I didn't make that up—it's a true story and post a link to the actual case.
It's good, in my humble opinion, to be sensitive to the evil around us and not be "politically correct" to the point of whitewashing it. If it shocks you, you should be shocked, because only a person disturbed by evil will stand up against it. It's my fervent hope that the truths my fiction is based upon will spur my readers to do just that.
November 17, 2021
On Keeping It Real
As an author of crime/suspense books, one thing I strive to do is make the story realistic. I'm sure that some readers would like to see less in the way of the background and training activities my elite team engage in, but the reality is that this is the life for those in law enforcement who are part of an elite team. The FBI's elite Hostage and Rescue Team spends the vast majority of their time training, with very little time spent on actual missions.
Blood and gore seem to be the hallmarks of many books out there, even ones by such notable authors as Tom Clancy. I cringed while reading his Rainbow Six, however. The tactics and rules of engagement for a law enforcement team are vastly different than the same rules for military actions. One just doesn't go around shooting people if they're a part of a law enforcement team. Nor do those who are in law enforcement relish the idea of having to shoot someone. The typical end result for the officer/agent involved in the shooting can span everything from the "thousand mile stare" to quitting, with crying and vomiting being common.
There are a lot of misrepresentations in popular media about how law enforcement operates as well. I also used to cringe while watching the various iterations of Law and Order, where it seemed officers were drawing their weapons a half dozen times apiece during every episode. In fact, only about one quarter of those in law enforcement have ever fired their gun in earnest while "on the job." That's for their entire career, which will typically span 20 years or more.
And then there's the funny stuff you see all the time. A favorite of mine—one which you see all the time—is the officer/agent searching through a dark area aided only by the rail-mounted light on their weapon. Why don't they just flip that light switch on the wall? It's a house, for heaven's sake! The dead person on the floor hardly had time to ask the electric company for a disconnect! This is one I might just use in one of my books. Let my most inexperienced person head down the basement stairs totally in the dark, slip, land on his butt—followed by a more experienced one asking him, "Why didn't you just turn on the light?" as they flip the switch at the top of the stairs.
If you're looking for lots of blood and gore, the constant firing of weapons, agents who think nothing of having had to shoot someone, and jumping into a case with no preparation, then my books aren't for you. I focus on the human side, trying my best to show you how an elite law enforcement agent thinks about their duties, from boring intelligence briefings to reconciling having had to shoot someone and even occasionally showing admiration for the perpetrator.
Blood and gore seem to be the hallmarks of many books out there, even ones by such notable authors as Tom Clancy. I cringed while reading his Rainbow Six, however. The tactics and rules of engagement for a law enforcement team are vastly different than the same rules for military actions. One just doesn't go around shooting people if they're a part of a law enforcement team. Nor do those who are in law enforcement relish the idea of having to shoot someone. The typical end result for the officer/agent involved in the shooting can span everything from the "thousand mile stare" to quitting, with crying and vomiting being common.
There are a lot of misrepresentations in popular media about how law enforcement operates as well. I also used to cringe while watching the various iterations of Law and Order, where it seemed officers were drawing their weapons a half dozen times apiece during every episode. In fact, only about one quarter of those in law enforcement have ever fired their gun in earnest while "on the job." That's for their entire career, which will typically span 20 years or more.
And then there's the funny stuff you see all the time. A favorite of mine—one which you see all the time—is the officer/agent searching through a dark area aided only by the rail-mounted light on their weapon. Why don't they just flip that light switch on the wall? It's a house, for heaven's sake! The dead person on the floor hardly had time to ask the electric company for a disconnect! This is one I might just use in one of my books. Let my most inexperienced person head down the basement stairs totally in the dark, slip, land on his butt—followed by a more experienced one asking him, "Why didn't you just turn on the light?" as they flip the switch at the top of the stairs.
If you're looking for lots of blood and gore, the constant firing of weapons, agents who think nothing of having had to shoot someone, and jumping into a case with no preparation, then my books aren't for you. I focus on the human side, trying my best to show you how an elite law enforcement agent thinks about their duties, from boring intelligence briefings to reconciling having had to shoot someone and even occasionally showing admiration for the perpetrator.
November 3, 2021
Dialogue
I recently read a book by former FBI Special Agent Jerri Williams. In it, she talks about mob guys watching mob movies, and their reactions to them. In a transcript of a blog she did with John Ligato, he quotes mobsters as saying with regard to such movies: "That would never happen. We don't talk like that. That's stupid."
As a slight aside before moving on, I find myself often saying the same thing with regard to crime shows I've watched. Criminal Minds, for instance. I found myself laughing about a lot of what I saw on that show, which I never watched until after I'd written my 20th installation of The Unit. I've always wanted to keep my characters as real as possible, and toward that end have read many books like Jerri's that tell it like it is from the perspective of those that experience life in law enforcement. Jerri's rating of Criminal Minds was very similar to mine, with her giving it a rating of "Has anyone seen my shoe?" And if you really want to know what that rating means, I strongly recommend reading her book. It's called FBI Myths and Misconceptions: A Manual for Armchair Detectives.
Because my books focus heavily on the human side of being part of an elite law enforcement team, I often find myself having to do a bit of research on how people speak in different areas of the country, and how I can pen those dialects so that my readers hear my characters speak. I suppose that on occasion it might sound a little stereotypical, or even racist. But is it racism to put dialogue down in a way that someone would actually sound?
I mulled this over quite a bit when writing my prequel, Before the Unit: The Recruiting of Kevin Banks that gives the backstory of one of my two main characters, "Spud." In the book, he is recalling his days in the Secret Service before he joined the unit and while protecting a president he admired. He didn't admire all of them—but then, many agents in the Presidential Protective Detail don't admire the holder of the office they might be protecting at the time. (Would you expect otherwise?)
He admired the last one, though, for his candor and outright doggedness in pursuing things he saw as important to the nation. One of those things involved a trip that had Agent Banks on edge, as it involved going to what has been labelled as the worst place in America: a particularly crime-ridden and derelict area of Detroit, Michigan.
During that trip, the president encounters a Black man sitting on his porch. HIs home is in need of repair, but at least it's better off than the boarded up homes around it that are literally crumbling to the ground. Believe me, these neighborhoods exist!
The president has gotten out of the presidential limousine ("the Beast" as the agents call it) and is walking down this street, with Kevin and his fellow agents on high alert and just wishing the president would get back in the Beast and get the heck out of there, when he spies the man and walks up to him. Of course, Kevin is thinking, he could have a knife, or a gun, or just grab one of those loose boards…. Instead, the president and the man begin a dialogue that begins with the president asking the man what he thinks would make his neighborhood better. I wrote as I've heard inner city Blacks speak, and wondered if someone would think I was racist for doing so. However, it occurred to me that I was having this angst after writing the man's reply, which was, "I don't know what'd make this place bettuh, Mista President, but I know what would make ma place bettuh. I could use a job. You got a job fo me, Mistah President?" He didn't ask for a handout or to be moved to a project—he asked for a job.
You see, I still believe that people want to be self-sufficient, no matter what their status is in life.
One of the earliest characters, introduced in Book 1: Camp Chaos, is Luigi Cancio. Luigo is Italian, and still speaks with a bit of an Italian accent, having grown up in an Italian neighborhood in Connecticut. Having spent some time in that neighborhood, where the Catholic Church still conducts the Mass in Italian, I am familiar with the dialect. If the word ends in G, that G will likely not be pronounced. Thus, Luigi is "puttin' together" Hank's guns for her.
I currently live in El Paso, Texas which has a dialect totally different than the one you'll hear in Dallas. I always grin when some program I'm watching stages an episode here, as invariably they'll have characters speaking like folks do in the Hill Country. Maybe… if they originally grew up in the Hill Country.
So, if we ever meet, don't be surprised if I ask where you're from and to record your voice. It's all just the kind of research I do when attempting to find the best way to write the dialogue in my books.
As a slight aside before moving on, I find myself often saying the same thing with regard to crime shows I've watched. Criminal Minds, for instance. I found myself laughing about a lot of what I saw on that show, which I never watched until after I'd written my 20th installation of The Unit. I've always wanted to keep my characters as real as possible, and toward that end have read many books like Jerri's that tell it like it is from the perspective of those that experience life in law enforcement. Jerri's rating of Criminal Minds was very similar to mine, with her giving it a rating of "Has anyone seen my shoe?" And if you really want to know what that rating means, I strongly recommend reading her book. It's called FBI Myths and Misconceptions: A Manual for Armchair Detectives.
Because my books focus heavily on the human side of being part of an elite law enforcement team, I often find myself having to do a bit of research on how people speak in different areas of the country, and how I can pen those dialects so that my readers hear my characters speak. I suppose that on occasion it might sound a little stereotypical, or even racist. But is it racism to put dialogue down in a way that someone would actually sound?
I mulled this over quite a bit when writing my prequel, Before the Unit: The Recruiting of Kevin Banks that gives the backstory of one of my two main characters, "Spud." In the book, he is recalling his days in the Secret Service before he joined the unit and while protecting a president he admired. He didn't admire all of them—but then, many agents in the Presidential Protective Detail don't admire the holder of the office they might be protecting at the time. (Would you expect otherwise?)
He admired the last one, though, for his candor and outright doggedness in pursuing things he saw as important to the nation. One of those things involved a trip that had Agent Banks on edge, as it involved going to what has been labelled as the worst place in America: a particularly crime-ridden and derelict area of Detroit, Michigan.
During that trip, the president encounters a Black man sitting on his porch. HIs home is in need of repair, but at least it's better off than the boarded up homes around it that are literally crumbling to the ground. Believe me, these neighborhoods exist!
The president has gotten out of the presidential limousine ("the Beast" as the agents call it) and is walking down this street, with Kevin and his fellow agents on high alert and just wishing the president would get back in the Beast and get the heck out of there, when he spies the man and walks up to him. Of course, Kevin is thinking, he could have a knife, or a gun, or just grab one of those loose boards…. Instead, the president and the man begin a dialogue that begins with the president asking the man what he thinks would make his neighborhood better. I wrote as I've heard inner city Blacks speak, and wondered if someone would think I was racist for doing so. However, it occurred to me that I was having this angst after writing the man's reply, which was, "I don't know what'd make this place bettuh, Mista President, but I know what would make ma place bettuh. I could use a job. You got a job fo me, Mistah President?" He didn't ask for a handout or to be moved to a project—he asked for a job.
You see, I still believe that people want to be self-sufficient, no matter what their status is in life.
One of the earliest characters, introduced in Book 1: Camp Chaos, is Luigi Cancio. Luigo is Italian, and still speaks with a bit of an Italian accent, having grown up in an Italian neighborhood in Connecticut. Having spent some time in that neighborhood, where the Catholic Church still conducts the Mass in Italian, I am familiar with the dialect. If the word ends in G, that G will likely not be pronounced. Thus, Luigi is "puttin' together" Hank's guns for her.
I currently live in El Paso, Texas which has a dialect totally different than the one you'll hear in Dallas. I always grin when some program I'm watching stages an episode here, as invariably they'll have characters speaking like folks do in the Hill Country. Maybe… if they originally grew up in the Hill Country.
So, if we ever meet, don't be surprised if I ask where you're from and to record your voice. It's all just the kind of research I do when attempting to find the best way to write the dialogue in my books.
October 26, 2021
On Trying to Keep It Real
One thing I strive for when writing my crime/suspense series The Unit is to keep it as real as I possibly can. That takes research. Lots and lots of research.
My main character, "Hank" (who is actually a woman) is the seven-member elite "black ops" law enforcement team's sniper. I don't have a lot of problems with writing from that perspective, given I'm a firearms instructor and competitive marksman myself, shooting conventional ("bullseye") pistol and lever action metallic silhouette in formal competitions. I also own a large variety of firearms, given my status as an instructor—and that includes three rifles that can all be used as sniper rifles.
I think perhaps Hank gets some raised eyebrows from some of my male readers given she's female. Do women shoot? Of course they do! As a matter of fact, there are lots of women who are at the top of their shooting sport. You can check out this link for brief bios of 52 of them: https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2017/6... .
But perhaps the big thing in trying to keep it real is the fact that there are only seven operatives in the unit's team of field agents. This isn't typical, as Jerri Williams relates in her book FBI Myths and Misconceptions. In the FBI, squads of agents take on specific tasks. In my books, seven agents have to handle all of those same tasks, as well as tasks that are handled by Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms—any federal "alphabet agency" that calls on them for help. Toward that end, each of my operatives is much more talented and on average a bit smarter than the average bear, as Yogi would put it. They are also backed up by a large number of Support personnel, who likewise are talented, multifaceted, and very bright.
With my main drive being to expose more of the human side of what it means to do difficult police work, it's necessary for me to keep the numbers of people limited. It's the only way I can bring out their personalities, strengths, fears, and foibles—most of which you can find in more isolated form in any law enforcement agency you might take a close look at.
I have had reviewers comment negatively on things that are actually common to police work: the drive and anxiety that women in this occupation have to be accepted and appreciated for their talents and accomplishments (consider that our population is 51% women, but only 20% of FBI Special Agents are women and only 10% of Deputy US marshals are women), the prevalence of pranks aimed at fellow agents/policemen (a mechanism for blowing off steam and relieving stress—you'd not believe the stories I've heard cops I know tell!), and even the ability of an accomplished marksman to hit a small target set out at a large distance, which I countered elsewhere by showing a picture of an F-class target with a 1.5-inch group fired at a distance of 1000 yards, as well as a link to a video of a long-distance shot being done from 3.2 miles away.
My team is exceptional in their capabilities, but those capabilities aren't unseen in real life. At one point when Hank is being commended for her marksmanship, she comments that there are lots of civilians who can outshoot her, and thus no one should think she's the ultimate marksman.
I hope when my readers pick up my series they will enjoy the relative lack of blood and guts (sometimes it's necessary, but gore isn't what leads in my books) and start to feel what my operatives feel as they diligently train for any mission that might come their way and then execute that mission. These are not stories about heroes, but rather stories about dedicated people committed to doing a job as well as they possibly can.
My main character, "Hank" (who is actually a woman) is the seven-member elite "black ops" law enforcement team's sniper. I don't have a lot of problems with writing from that perspective, given I'm a firearms instructor and competitive marksman myself, shooting conventional ("bullseye") pistol and lever action metallic silhouette in formal competitions. I also own a large variety of firearms, given my status as an instructor—and that includes three rifles that can all be used as sniper rifles.
I think perhaps Hank gets some raised eyebrows from some of my male readers given she's female. Do women shoot? Of course they do! As a matter of fact, there are lots of women who are at the top of their shooting sport. You can check out this link for brief bios of 52 of them: https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2017/6... .
But perhaps the big thing in trying to keep it real is the fact that there are only seven operatives in the unit's team of field agents. This isn't typical, as Jerri Williams relates in her book FBI Myths and Misconceptions. In the FBI, squads of agents take on specific tasks. In my books, seven agents have to handle all of those same tasks, as well as tasks that are handled by Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms—any federal "alphabet agency" that calls on them for help. Toward that end, each of my operatives is much more talented and on average a bit smarter than the average bear, as Yogi would put it. They are also backed up by a large number of Support personnel, who likewise are talented, multifaceted, and very bright.
With my main drive being to expose more of the human side of what it means to do difficult police work, it's necessary for me to keep the numbers of people limited. It's the only way I can bring out their personalities, strengths, fears, and foibles—most of which you can find in more isolated form in any law enforcement agency you might take a close look at.
I have had reviewers comment negatively on things that are actually common to police work: the drive and anxiety that women in this occupation have to be accepted and appreciated for their talents and accomplishments (consider that our population is 51% women, but only 20% of FBI Special Agents are women and only 10% of Deputy US marshals are women), the prevalence of pranks aimed at fellow agents/policemen (a mechanism for blowing off steam and relieving stress—you'd not believe the stories I've heard cops I know tell!), and even the ability of an accomplished marksman to hit a small target set out at a large distance, which I countered elsewhere by showing a picture of an F-class target with a 1.5-inch group fired at a distance of 1000 yards, as well as a link to a video of a long-distance shot being done from 3.2 miles away.
My team is exceptional in their capabilities, but those capabilities aren't unseen in real life. At one point when Hank is being commended for her marksmanship, she comments that there are lots of civilians who can outshoot her, and thus no one should think she's the ultimate marksman.
I hope when my readers pick up my series they will enjoy the relative lack of blood and guts (sometimes it's necessary, but gore isn't what leads in my books) and start to feel what my operatives feel as they diligently train for any mission that might come their way and then execute that mission. These are not stories about heroes, but rather stories about dedicated people committed to doing a job as well as they possibly can.
December 10, 2019
Long Time, No See
It's been a while since I've added to my blog here on Goodreads. Those who have checked in may have noticed that The Unit series has now grown to 10 books, with Book 11: Oh, What a Tangled Web in progress as I write this.
As usual, I also continue to read the works of others. I've just finished John Douglas' book, Mindhunter, and give it a strong recommendation for anyone interested not only in true crime, but how working these crimes affects those in law enforcement.
I'm also editing for another author, Lauren Danforth. I completed editing his book Moment In Time quite a while ago, and am now putting the final polish on his book Eyes of the Universe, the first book in his upcoming The Traveler series. If you like a good sci-fi with an interesting premise, check out his work. Keep in mind that Eyes of the Universe has not yet been published in its newly-edited version.
In the meantime, also keep watching for Oh, What a Tangled Web. Based on a true story as are many of The Unit series books, my hope is that this book will right a wrong: the conviction of an innocent man. The book is currently approximately 1/3 finished. For those who have been following the books, I am also introducing a new character to the unit, and investigating the subtheme of stress among those working in law enforcement. Stay tuned for updates on when Oh, What a Tangled Web is published!
As usual, I also continue to read the works of others. I've just finished John Douglas' book, Mindhunter, and give it a strong recommendation for anyone interested not only in true crime, but how working these crimes affects those in law enforcement.
I'm also editing for another author, Lauren Danforth. I completed editing his book Moment In Time quite a while ago, and am now putting the final polish on his book Eyes of the Universe, the first book in his upcoming The Traveler series. If you like a good sci-fi with an interesting premise, check out his work. Keep in mind that Eyes of the Universe has not yet been published in its newly-edited version.
In the meantime, also keep watching for Oh, What a Tangled Web. Based on a true story as are many of The Unit series books, my hope is that this book will right a wrong: the conviction of an innocent man. The book is currently approximately 1/3 finished. For those who have been following the books, I am also introducing a new character to the unit, and investigating the subtheme of stress among those working in law enforcement. Stay tuned for updates on when Oh, What a Tangled Web is published!
March 2, 2019
The Unit Book 2: Operation Assassination
The second book in my The Unit series, Operation Assassination is in the final editing stage and due to be released mid-March.
Operation Assassination picks up where Camp Chaos left off, so be sure to get your copy of Camp Chaos read before reading Operation Assassination. You'll be a bit lost without doing so! For instance, do you know what a "bum ticker" is?
Camp Chaos
Operation Assassination picks up where Camp Chaos left off, so be sure to get your copy of Camp Chaos read before reading Operation Assassination. You'll be a bit lost without doing so! For instance, do you know what a "bum ticker" is?
Camp Chaos
February 28, 2019
Tuesday Teasers/Friday Give-Aways
Check this blog topic for news about my Tuesday Teasers (excerpts from books currently available) and Friday Give-Aways (free books sent straight from me to you!).
