Joyce Nance's Blog - Posts Tagged "true-crime"
New True Crime Book
"Hello," I said to the vastness known as the Goodreads Blog. I wish to tell the world that I have completed a new book. It's called "Reel to Real: The Video Store Murders". It is about Albuquerque's 1996 Hollywood Video murders. It is a true crime novel.
This blog is to let readers know why it takes me so long between books. I promise I'm not goofing off. It's just that the amount of work that goes into writing a true crime novel is enormous. It is considerably more work than writing a strictly fictional novel.
This particular book took me two years to write. First, I looked at a couple of old newspaper articles about the murders and I decided the crime had enough elements in it to proceed. Then I went to Santa Fe, New Mexico Supreme Court Building and asked to see the transcripts of Shane Harrison's District Court trial.
They brought out about ten big white boxes full of papers. My mouth dropped. I was then sent to the Supreme Court library to copy the pages one by one using change. Luckily their copier wasn't working, so I was allowed to take the papers to Kinko's where I could copy them on a high speed printer and use a credit card. About four hours and $400 later I was done. I copied about 3,000 pages. That was the entire trial except the jury selection.
Then I had to read the transcripts and take notes. Court transcripts can be very dry. That took me about two months to get through.
It was at that point I decided I wanted to meet Esther Beckley, Shane Harrison's partner in crime. I had to write to her at the women's prison in Grants and she had to agree to allow me in to visit her. I also had to be approved by the state of New Mexico to be a visitor at all. Both things happened and I drove out to the prison.
I ended up visiting with her about twelve to fifteen times over eight months. I got to know her pretty well considering that I only saw her in the sterile confines of the visitors room.
I also copied every newspaper article I could find on the murders and trial to further give me a feeling of how everything happened. Then I read the 3,000 pages again.
After that, I finally started writing the book. I didn't know what the first chapter would be yet. The first thing I wrote about was Esther's run in with the 17 year old boy. That seemed to be the event that set all of the other events in motion. I tried to fit in as many facts from the trial as I could.
I wanted to chew up the 3,000 pages of dry testimony and turn it into a page turning novel. That is kind of like chewing up glass and spitting out diamonds. It's not easy. Plus, I had to keep all parties involved in mind at all times.
After I finished writing the book, I then read the entire 3,000 pages again to make sure I didn't get any material facts wrong.
It was a lot of work but my hope is that it doesn't read like it.
This blog is to let readers know why it takes me so long between books. I promise I'm not goofing off. It's just that the amount of work that goes into writing a true crime novel is enormous. It is considerably more work than writing a strictly fictional novel.
This particular book took me two years to write. First, I looked at a couple of old newspaper articles about the murders and I decided the crime had enough elements in it to proceed. Then I went to Santa Fe, New Mexico Supreme Court Building and asked to see the transcripts of Shane Harrison's District Court trial.
They brought out about ten big white boxes full of papers. My mouth dropped. I was then sent to the Supreme Court library to copy the pages one by one using change. Luckily their copier wasn't working, so I was allowed to take the papers to Kinko's where I could copy them on a high speed printer and use a credit card. About four hours and $400 later I was done. I copied about 3,000 pages. That was the entire trial except the jury selection.
Then I had to read the transcripts and take notes. Court transcripts can be very dry. That took me about two months to get through.
It was at that point I decided I wanted to meet Esther Beckley, Shane Harrison's partner in crime. I had to write to her at the women's prison in Grants and she had to agree to allow me in to visit her. I also had to be approved by the state of New Mexico to be a visitor at all. Both things happened and I drove out to the prison.
I ended up visiting with her about twelve to fifteen times over eight months. I got to know her pretty well considering that I only saw her in the sterile confines of the visitors room.
I also copied every newspaper article I could find on the murders and trial to further give me a feeling of how everything happened. Then I read the 3,000 pages again.
After that, I finally started writing the book. I didn't know what the first chapter would be yet. The first thing I wrote about was Esther's run in with the 17 year old boy. That seemed to be the event that set all of the other events in motion. I tried to fit in as many facts from the trial as I could.
I wanted to chew up the 3,000 pages of dry testimony and turn it into a page turning novel. That is kind of like chewing up glass and spitting out diamonds. It's not easy. Plus, I had to keep all parties involved in mind at all times.
After I finished writing the book, I then read the entire 3,000 pages again to make sure I didn't get any material facts wrong.
It was a lot of work but my hope is that it doesn't read like it.
