23. October 2007 by Geoff.

Networking usually involves face-time. Since this has to be done in real time it’s not always convenient. In fact my experience is that the networking event is often shorter than the time taken to make the journey.

So is it possible to network anonymously, using only a keyboard and derive some tangible benefits?

I logged on to the LongRidge Writers Group Lunchbox forum, expecting a moderated session, not realizing that there was none scheduled today.
I ‘met’ a friendly group of eight or so writers using pseudonyms, or more accurately, chat room handles, such as cajunbelle and speckledorf.

They said their “hi”, “hellos”, and asked questions like, “are you a student, are you new, are you on BIP or novel and, who’s your instructor?”

It some ways it may have been testing out my bona fides. I passed this first level, because I am student. The chat jumped topics as you would expect with five or six people typing and pressing ‘Enter’ simultaneously. We covered blogging, websites, Nanowrimo, cats, mothers, wives as I sat patiently waiting until 1:30pm for the 1pm session to start – but of course it didn’t, because this was it.

Poked by ‘reece’ I jumped into action, asking a few of questions that I might use in a one on one setting, but soliciting input from everyone. Some information was useful, all encouraging as befits my ‘new’ status.

Of course, in a true networking sense, the aim is to find somebody who knows somebody who can help with whatever your particular quest entails. This is not the case with chat rooms, since they are essentially anonymous and, because there is little restriction to chat room access, the conversation is guarded.

In fact when I asked questions such as “which publications are open to first time writers?” “does anyone have a list of magazine guidelines?” and other “help me break in” (or out) questions, I was simply told to read magazines and write pieces of work that was so good it could not be turned down. If anyone had a favorite target magazine or editor, they were not about to divulge it.

I can not argue with the advice and one chat room person did give me the name of their blog - http://storycrafters.blogspot.com/ - so that is definitely a start.

I’ll definitely go back and see it what happens next.

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18. October 2006 by Geoff.

Here’s a link to one the posts I later developed for public consumption at the WriteStuff group

AEIB (An Englishman In Boston): A trick question?

I will publish the full piece later.

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18. October 2006 by Geoff.

AEIB (An Englishman In Boston): Staple diet

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2. March 2006 by Geoff.

Is it a bird, is a plane, will it take off? Time will tell if a group of writers from Lincoln, who met on a cold March evening, has what it takes to meld into a supportive and effective critique group.
Organized by Librarian of the Year (2005) and mystery maven, Jean Bracken, the Lincoln Library sponsored group of ten met to decide their ground rules, modus operandi and more importantly, who goes first.

A round robin indicates that interests range from family memoirs, to journalistic activism and ambitions from therapy to hall of fame status with the financial trappings sufficient to pay Town taxes. If only that could be true. Diverse backgrounds and experiences bonded together by no more than the desire to put finger to keyboard and produce the 2 to 1000 words that will be shared, critiqued and probably strongly defended by four of the ten on a bi-weekly basis.
Will deadlines encourage attendance or excuses? Time and March 15 will tell.

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7. February 2006 by Geoff.

Inside knowledge is valuable currency for any mystery writer, but have you ever considered the plight of an expert forced to read a story with obvious factual errors?
It was in this spirit that John Gamel, private investigator, US Navel officer, reporter, news anchor and 22-year veteran of the FBI volunteered to share some of his experience with members of Mystery Writes of America New England Chapter.

Short facts
What you did before, leads to what you do next. The Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Boston filed office assigned John to investigate public corruption based on his journalist experience with the Massachusetts State House.

Crooks sometimes win big. As a Special Agent, John was instrumental in confiscating State Lottery winnings from one of the ten most wanted criminals, Whitey Bolger.

If you’re a self-confessed adrenaline junky they give you a gun. As a firearm instructor and SWAT team member for 12 years, John had best time in his FBI career.

In a 22-year career, Special Agent Gamel, practiced firing his gun over 60,000 times, but did not fire his weapon once in the line of duty.

The FBI has a mandatory retirement age of 57.

A lot of work is boring. John was on a stake out every Wednesday morning from May 1990 to January 1991, in anticipation of an armed robbery at a Bank in Methuen Mall. A mock bank was set up at Fort Devons for practice, just before the robbery target switched to Abingdon.

Informants are the key asset for an Agent.

The Witness Protection Program does not exist. It is the Witness Security Program.

Tension between FBI and local enforcement agencies is overstated. Law enforcement in the USA is in them main, handled locally.

There are 16,000 local law enforcement agencies, with 13,500 local police and the remainder is local sheriff’s staff.

People at headquarters rarely go out in the field; field agents do the work.

Private Investigation
Private investigation, although licensed is not well regulated, but it helps to have a list of investigators in other states, under whose license you can work whilst working out of your home state.

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7. December 2005 by Geoff.

Mystery writing has opened up many areas of research and knowledge that just do not figure in project management or technology business operations.

What could be stranger than sitting in Kates Mystery Books shop, with a mixed audience of perhaps 20 adults listening to accounts of female sexual predators and violence and psychopathic behavior towards each other and men. Nothing, is the right answer

Dr Prentky, is a most eminent former Chief Psychologist and Director of Research at Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons and holder of a page full of distinguished achievements that can be found at the MWA New England Chapter site.
He speaks softly, but not apologetically of his data based research, that in his own words deals with people and their actions that are “off the curve” in terms of anti-social, callous and indifferent behavior towards the welfare of other human beings.

Dr Prentky, a researcher and specialist for 25 years, eschews violence as entertainment, does not read, watch or listen to homicide or sexual violence in any form for entertainment. He simple does not find it entertaining, unlike a large majority of the public, including females who are fascinated by the subject, which is more acceptable the more remote it is.

This did not stop him discussing zoophilia, necrophilia, and even a combination of the two (sex with dead animals).

He believes the current media trends dull the edge of what is acceptable to the point where a level 3 sex offender is not considered deviant. Public perception is that men do terrible things, but it is not part of our psyche to recognize that women also do dastardly things. The reality is that they do, just not as frequently as men do. In 25 years of research, Dr Prentky has evaluated or supervised the evaluation of 2000 cases, of which only between 30 and 50 were women. Of these, 15 to 20 were inmates in MCI Framingham a women’s prison, and evaluation was instigated because of an incident in the prison. He considers this an incredibility small sample, but Dr Prentky shared a few cases.

In one case, a female inmate, described as a ‘crop haired neo Nazi’, was to be interviewed about a violent attack on another inmate in which she systematically took her apart in the showers using her teeth. Immediately on entering the room, she jumped up on the table and with one foot on the table and the other on the back of the chair, proceeded to perform pelvic thrusts at the doctor, who was seated with his back to the wall, a position he prefers. The motive of the attack on the other inmate was as a warning to others and revenge for making sexual advances to the attackers ‘bitches’.

Female children, who suffer the same abuse and hardship as males, develop the same injurious behaviors. Evidence suggests that they internalize the effect, resulting in self-abuse, self-mutilation, eating disorders, drug use and prostitution. This is known as the cafeteria-style approach, where behaviors are ‘picked and mixed’, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. The majority of males who become psychopathic externalize their behavior and assault others.

Psychopathic males and females exhibit the same outward traits. They are cunning, manipulative, pathological liars, are shallow, have charm, but it is only microns thick. Scratch it and it is gone. They have a remarkable absence of empathy and a total disregard for welfare of humans or animals. They simply don’t give a shit. It takes a lot of hurt at an early age to produce this level of emotional detachment from all human beings, which reduces this attachment to the same level that they would have for a garbage can.

Dr Prentky gave some tips on writing true crime stories and suggested that most people in the field are prepared to help if approached correctly, particularly if the case is over and guilt proven.

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5. December 2005 by Geoff.

The Project Management Institute, Mass Bay Chapter, December Newsletter has just been published with 2 articles I wrote and another that I edited. This is my first excursion into this area of local volunteer work.
The first article is a member profile of Ellen DePaul, Leader of the chapter’s Project Manager Career Connections and Big Sister Association of Boston, Big Sister of the Year 2005. It describes her work with both the chapter and her Little Sister. Writing the article involved, researching both organizations, interviewing Ellen, obtaining photos and permissions from the subject and Big Sisters. The whole thing was pulled together in 5 days.

The second article is a summary of a longer article by Robert Sommer, written to add punch and relevance. It asks the reader questions and proposes solutions as to how to get the most from networking on line and outside of chapter meetings.

The third article is a complete rewrite of chapter speaker report, which was unfocused as written. Note that I get no credit for editing and rewriting (but that’s OK, I need the practice).

I spent a few conference calls, listening to the Project Manager Career Connections (PMCC) team trying to catch up with who was doing what and pulled together all the information, publishing it on collaboration wiki site.
General consensus is that this is a useful repository, but team members need help in using a wiki type tool and are unsure of the value of them sharing information in this way rather than by emails. I know from my experience that once they become accustomed to the fact that any signed up member can change, improve and add to any document they will wonder how they managed without it.

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14. November 2005 by Geoff.

A recipe for a two-day event that is inspiring, challenging and downright fun.

• Gather a large portion of healthy (and some unhealthy) New England mystery writers, a heaping of editors, agents and publishers and add them into a ballroom sized container.
• Add a dash of skip tracer, a touch of FBI agent and a hint of CIA experience.
• Mix them together and allow to marinate over breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• Arrange in fascinating topics, such as: writing thrillers; professional detectives get their game face on; regular folks as amateur sleuths; how to disappear; a day in the life of an FBI agent, and everyone’s favorite; writing sex and violence.
• Add the bonding agent: interaction with round tables and book signing.
• Top with the creative process live: real time novel writing.
• Decorate with headline authors like Tess Geritssen, Jeremiah Healy, and Linda Barnes.
• Dust with Hollywood movie authors or New York Times Best Sellers, Peter Abrahams, Joseph Finder, Lisa Gardner, Chuck Hogan.
• Serve with an optional side of ‘pitch to an editor, agent or publisher’.

If you are a good cook, the result will be an event as superbly organized and entertaining as Crime Bake 2005 served up by the New England Chapter’s of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. Co-Chairs Lynne Heitman and Dana Cameron did an excellent job, stirring the pot and occasionally the plot line to create a welcoming dish for all tastes.

The annual event, a must for any reader or writer of mystery fiction, contained enough facts and tips to fill a reporter’s notebook.
Give away items from sponsoring magazines, neatly housed in a canvas carry bag complete with handcuffed lobster motive, ensured the party continues long after the main event has ended.

Complaints, a few were heard, mostly to do with food or drink; too much vegetarian fair and coffe too cold and not enough. However, despite the conference title, this weekend was about mystery writing not gourmet cooking.

The staff of Kate’s Mystery Books did a great job keeping up with demand, even under the pressure of hand writing both receipts and credit card slips. Things got easier after an emergency PA announcement, “is there a calculator in the house”, enabled faster addition.

My only complaint; the canvas tote bag was nowhere near big enough to carry away the dozen books I bought that are now sitting waiting for me to stop writing and start reading.

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1. November 2005 by Geoff.

The streets have no names. No, not the title of the latest blockbuster from Jeremiah Healy. There are two exits from Davis Square T station. The blue one and the red one; well not quite but you get the idea. Choices are made, paths followed. I went right and on emerging was immediately lost. 6:45pm, meeting starts at 7pm, supposed to socialize from 6-7pm, this was a plan that was not coming together.

I walked towards the Square, more of a polygon really, past Dover Street and the Halloween store closing down sale and stopped. Being a good Boy Scout, I retraced my steps. Taking no name street, which was suitably dark, narrow and had people hanging about in the shadows, plus one person relieving himself in a doorway, I walked quickly, very quickly to Mass Ave. The house was where it should be and probably always was.

7:01pm, lights are on, Kates Mystery Books is the size of an average living room and has 15 chairs arranged in two rows, jammed in the middle of ceiling high shelves of books stacked double depth. People block the way. Towards the back is a dining room, again stacked high. A table in the centre, loaded with piles of books, books balanced precariously upright, an assortment of plastic cups and glasses, presents another barrier to this wary intruder.

Introductions begin, Lynne Heitman, Gary Goshgarian (aka Gary Braver), Peg DiCanio and then we are called to order. Newbies, (aka me) and a few others are given the opportunity to introduce themselves. Me - “I am an aspiring writer, hoping to be an inspiring writer.” Did I read that somewhere or make it up? “I am unpublished; write short stories about internet relationships gone bad, road rage and an investigative journalist”. The audience yawns, but very politely, there is no hostility, only disinterest. I have much work to do in crafting my story, defining my pitch and perfecting its delivery. Jeremiah later says that most authors write because they don’t like talking to people and are bad at selling.

Jeff Clegghorn, military man, call sign ‘Foggy’, expertly pitches ‘Er meets Blackhawk down’, which I learn later is how an author would describe their work for a Hollywood pitch, rather than the single sentence ‘Literary pitch’.
Barry H Wiley, non-fiction author of The Incredible Phenomenon is turning to fiction because “it’s easier to make up facts than research them.” To put this quote in context, Barry took 28 years to research Anna Eva Fay, the subject of his book, whilst working full time in Silicon Valley.
Another “newcomer’, a published author with Five Star Publications is returning to the meeting after a 2 year absence to attend Kung Fu classes and is requested to ‘remember which meeting he’s at’. He is about to sign another contract.

This illustrious company is as daunting as the waterfall of multi-colored book spines clinging precariously to the walls. Participants denigrate the NaNoWriMo concept when it is mentioned, based on a bad draft in 30 days being just that. Some people just need to get past a bad draft.

Jeremiah, expertly delivers his talk on “How to Pitch to an Editor or Literary Agent”, timed to coincide with the upcoming New England Chapter Mystery Writers Conference ‘CrimeBake‘, in which he imparts the wisdom of his years of success. Hard-boiled down:

Do your homework.

• Know your product - in one sentence, what are the succinct, positive characteristics of your product including characters, structure and a sense of the book.
• Learn about your customer. The customer is the agent, editor and ultimately the end purchaser (the reader). Research background information and make sure your pitch appeals to their professional and social interests.
• Close the deal - generally at a pitch meeting, which seems a lot like speed dating, the aim is to secure interest and the opportunity to follow up with a synopsis and the first three chapters (one of the quirks of mystery writing is that these really are the first three chapters, rather than random samples required for other genres).

Jeremiah’s most important advice is that the first three pages are crucial to success. They are what an agent, editor and reader will use to determine whether to pick up your work and cherish it or add it to unsold pile.
Agents and editors base their buy decision on positive answers to the following questions:

• Will this work or person require a disproportionate amount of my time?
• Am I interested in the subject and am willing to do work on it?
• Does the author have the credentials to write and promote the work?

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1. November 2005 by Geoff.

The beginning of the end. An enthusiastic bunch of goody bag hunters gathered throughout the day at TOMBS on Brookline avenue to kick off the first day of NaNoWriMo. With apparatus that ranged from a PDA with folding keypad, clacking manual typewriter and ubiquitous laptop, not to mention good old pad and pencil, a varied band of writers, male, female, young and not so young set out on a journey together. Only time will tell how many survive to complete their novels.

Under the hospitable eye of the coffee, goody bag making, cable supplying Skyler the group sat mostly in silence creating the first few hundred words of the 50,000 due by the end of November.

I managed 1853, mostly inspired by the view from the window and my protagonists desire to write her novel.

Right now, I’m just leaving Boston Public Library to head to Kates Book Shop at Davis Square for the New England Chapter Meeting of The Mystery Writers of America meeting.

Will I get there, will the novel get finished, who know yet, it’s a mystery.

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