A Little Peek Inside the Crazy

This is me on deadline! 

By Rachel Hauck

Last Saturday I was tired. Punchy. And feeling a little bit ornery.

I'd been working 13 days straight, of various numbers of hours, but the last five were pretty intense, twelve hour days.

A book I'd written in the winter needed some serious attention, above all, an ENDING. 

Yea, it was one of those books that just didn't work for me initially and I struggled to nail the concept. 

So I vented to myself in a Photo Booth video. Ha! 

I shared it on my YouTube Channel. You can watch it here.

But be aware. I'm weird here. 

My mom, being a mom, posted it on her Facebook profile and one of her friends commented, "What a waste of time, What is the point? Writer-no!"

I'm not sure she got the point of the video. I'm not sure I got the point of her comment, but a peek inside the writer's life can be frightening. Confusing.

We're all different. Are we not? I loved Jim Rubart's post about a novel that didn't work for him or his editor.

That's when we buck up, roll up our sleeves and get to work.

The excuses only go so far. 

I had several reasons why my book didn't hit a home run the first time out. Valid ones. Physical health issue that is now mostly resolved! Praise God.  And a story concept I struggled to land. Just what is the story of How To Catch A Prince?

And a deadline.

I some times wonder if I should've been one of those novelist who takes two years to write a book. I can't make money or gain readers that way but it takes me a long time to mull over and bore down to the core of a story.

Deadlines makes us all crazy. Writing deadlines. Work deadlines. Family deadlines.

For me, I want to write the best book I can. I want to thread all the layers, even the little ones, through. 

I had a thought yesterday that my heroine's dead brother needed a fiancé. Not a big deal right? Why bother? Because it adds motivation and a complicated layer to my heroine.

I want the reader to say, "Yea, I buy that. I'd react the same way."

Do I pause to thread it through? Won't take much. A few lines here or there. Did I mention I'm on deadline. The book is due today. ;) 

I'm going to shot for it. If I run out of time, I run out of time

Because I still need to shore up the ending. 

I think books are never finished. They're just done. Time to turn them in. 

Here's a few tips to help you avoid or survive the crazies!

1. Do not wait until the last minute. Plan a schedule of some kind so you  know when you're writing and when you're not. Like Jim's tree crashing through his house and like me running into a surprise physical issue, life doesn't always wait until the book is turned in.

2. Communicate with your editor or agent. Let them know how you're doing. I know it's scary when you're first starting out. No one wants to tell their new editor, "I'm struggling," but it's better than waiting until the last minute. Trust me, they'll understand.

3. The weeks before deadline are just intense. At least they are for me. Warn your family and friends.

4. Carve out time for a quick walk around the block. Make room for prayer. Get enough sleep. 

5. Have fun! Seriously, find a way to have fun. Make a video. Post it on Facebook. 

Well, there you go. That's my blog and I'm sticking to it.

*** 

Rachel lives in sunny central Florida.

A graduate of Ohio State University with a degree in Journalism, she worked in the corporate software world before planting her backside in uncomfortable chair to write full time eight years ago.

She’s the author of EPCA and CBA best sellers, RITA and Christy nominated books. She also co-authored the critically acclaimed Songbird Novels with platinum selling country music artist Sara Evans. Their novel Softly and Tenderly, was one of Booklists 2011 Top Ten Inspirationals.

Rachel serves on the Executive Board for American Christian Fiction Writers. She is a mentor and book therapist at My Book Therapy, a conference speaker and worship leader.

Rachel writes from her two-story tower in an exceedingly more comfy chair. She is a huge Buckeyes football fan.

Her novel, Once Upon A Prince, was a 2014 Christy Award Finalist.

Here latest novel, Princess Ever After and novella A March Bride, released in February 2014. Find Princess Ever After on sale at Barnes & Noble online and in stores! 50% off!!

Visit her web site: www.rachelhauck.com.

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Profiler Pete Klismet ~ Part Two ~ Writing Authentic Characters

Pete Klismet served two tours in Vietnam on submarines, attended college in Denver, then was a police officer in Ventura, California for ten years. He was appointed a Special Agent in 1979 and retired from the FBI in 1999 after 30 total years of law enforcement service. He was one of the original ‘profilers’ in the FBI, serving in four FBI offices. He was named the 1999 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by a national organization.Having recently retired as a college professor, Pete and his wife Nancy live in Colorado Springs, CO.

Is there a criminal profiling question that is asked entirely too often?

One of the most frequent questions I’ve fielded over the years, both from the media and the general public, has been, “But aren’t all FBI agents trained to be ‘profilers?’”
Not only is the answer to that question “No,”  but nothing could be farther from the truth.  However, I understand why I’ve gotten the question, because there is such a mystique and mystery about the FBI that people see a show like “Criminal Minds” on TV and assume they’re seeing a true representation of what all profilers do.  And again, nothing could be farther from the truth.  I never had access to a Lear Jet, or an analyst who could hack into a video camera in New York City, cross-match that with the DNA of a Border Collie in Montana, triangulate those bits of information with a Saguaro cactus in Arizona, and come up with a suspect.  I also never worked with a guy who never smiled and had no personality.

At any given time in the FBI, there are around 100 agents whose full-time job is being a criminal profiler, or acting as a profiling coordinator for one of 56 FBI field offices.  The latter group are not full-time profilers, as they have their normal investigative duties.  These may include working terrorism, bank robberies, fugitives, kidnappings, or any one of many other criminal violations the FBI is tasked to investigate.  And that was exactly what I did, except for one summer when I spent about two months working with what was then called the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) in Quantico, Virginia.

Those of us who were selected to be field profilers, and were the coordinators for our divisions, went through what I still call “Profiling Boot Camp.”  I recently did an interview on a radio show in Denver, and the host of the show asked me, “So, Pete, what was that training like?”  I had a very quick answer, “Dreadful.  Probably the worst thing I had ever gone through in my life.”  And, I had been a cop for ten years before going in the FBI, had seen plenty of gruesome scenes, so it wasn’t like I fell off the turnip truck one afternoon while driving through town.

Assuming that’s true, why is it the case?  Because all of our instructors reviewed case after case of the most horrifying crimes in the United States.  The presentations were replete with one gory slide after another, and we went through them in infinite detail.  After many days of this training, we were given a set of facts, some pictures and other relevant information, and asked to come up with our own profile of the case.  And then we did more, some of which was our homework.  It was grueling, eye-opening and, as I said ‘dreadful.’ Of the fifty agents originally selected, we had at least ten drop out after a couple of days, or during the first week.


All of the agents who are selected as profilers go through the same or similar training.  Then, we were required to come back to the FBI Academy twice a year to review more cases.  While it was dreadful, it was a great learning experience.  When we’d get requests for a profile from an agency in our field office’s territory, we’d be much better equipped to provide information the full-time profilers needed in Quantico, or on occasion to do an assessment ourselves.  But, before it was official, it had to be approved by the BSU in Quantico.

In contrast with this, agents who go through the FBI Academy for New Agent’s training are given a four-hour introductory session, so they are at least aware of what profiling is, what it may do to help in an investigation, and what types of crimes profiling may help them with.  Some of the trainees become very interested and want to become profilers themselves.  Here again, there is a process.  They will need to have been an agent for at least five years, have a good investigative record, and preferably have worked violent crimes.  In today’s modern world, however, there is more of an emphasis on terrorism, thus profiling trainees are acquainted with that subject area as well.  Whatever the agent’s interest, if he or she qualifies, becoming a criminal profiler is an extraordinary experience.  But, not everyone is cut out for it.

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Pete Klismet ~ Writing Authentic Characters, Part 1

Pete Klismet served two tours in Vietnam on submarines, attended college in Denver, then was a police officer in Ventura, California for ten years. He was appointed a Special Agent in 1979 and retired from the FBI in 1999 after 30 total years of law enforcement service. He was one of the original ‘profilers’ in the FBI, serving in four FBI offices. He was named the 1999 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by a national organization.Having recently retired as a college professor, Pete and his wife Nancy live in Colorado Springs, CO.

As many of our readers are novelists I want to pick your expertise a bit and ask you some questions that will help us authentically write in the areas of criminals and profiling.  If a novelist wanted to write a criminal profiler as a main character what major things would be important to include in the characters abilities or tendencies to make the character realistic?

There is one common thread I’ve seen in the best criminal profilers I’ve ever worked with, including two of my mentors – Robert Ressler and Roy Hazelwood.  Bob was one of the brightest and quickest people I’ve ever known.  Bob was a brilliant guy who had the foresight to see into the future and understand the potential of criminal profiling.  Bob’s approach was somewhat ‘shoot from the hip,’ but the neurons in his brain operated at a speed unlike anyone I’ve ever seen.  

Roy, on the other hand, was like a pit bull, doggedly determined, patient, methodical and thorough, almost to a fault.  They were two of the best ever, yet completely different personalities.  The one thing I saw as being common to both Bob and Roy was ‘common sense.’  John Douglas completed the triangle of what I still call the ‘Top Three.’  Douglas was probably the best ever, but was not someone who was personable, perhaps even a little aloof, not an instructor as I recall.  

John, however, possessed an ability to see things very few could see, and using great common sense, could determine the ‘why’ of a crime better than anyone.  He’s still called the “Modern Sherlock Holmes.”  Deservedly so.  The character Jack Crawford in “Silence of the Lambs,” was based on John, who himself has authored quite an impressive number of books. 

Having said that, let me illustrate what I mean:  In Atlanta in the 1980’s, young black boys were being killed at an alarming rate.  Ultimately the death toll reached 33.  During the investigation, Roy Hazelwood was brought down in an effort to provide a profile of this prolific serial killer.  The common belief was the killer was white, probably a member of the KKK.  Roy was with 3 detectives, looking around the area where most of the kidnappings occurred.  All of the detectives happened to be black.  

Suddenly, Roy noticed that all activity stopped and people were looking at the four of them.  He asked a detective what that was about, and the reply was “There’s a white guy (Roy) in the area.”  From that, Roy concluded the killer had to be black, a person who could move around freely without being noticed.  This was not a popular opinion, but it turned out to be correct when one Wayne Williams was arrested and ultimately convicted for the murders.

During the investigation, John Douglas came to Atlanta to help Roy.  After the coroner made a public statement that they were getting good forensic evidence off the bodies which had been found, John made a prediction to investigators.  He said, “The next body will be found in a body of water.”  So, surveillances were established in likely places.  Sure enough, about a week later, an officer on surveillance under a bridge over the Chattahoochee River, heard a big splash.  He then saw a car leaving and stopped the driver.  

With no further evidence to go on, the officer took the driver’s information and description of the car.  A day or so later, the body of Nathaniel Cater was pulled from the river.  Sure enough, the person who threw the body over the side of the bridge was Wayne Williams.  This was the critical link in breaking the case, and all because of a criminal profiler’s experience, knowledge, and the common sense involved in his assessment of the overall situation.

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Authentic Interrogations in Fiction

3 Ways to Make the World of an Interrogator Ring True

by Martin Ott

As a former US Army interrogator, I have explored the subject of the interrogator in numerous short stories and poems. My biggest challenge was in creating the world and the main character Norman Kross for my debut literary suspense novel TheInterrogator’s Notebook published by Story Merchant Books in February of this year.

Here are 3 tips to keep in mind if you’d like to create the character of an interrogator or an interrogation scene in one of your stories.

#1. Research Meticulously

If verisimilitude is important in fiction, it is even more important in a story about truth-telling. In the many drafts I wrote of The Interrogator’s Notebook, I made sure to keep an eye on recent news stories related to interrogation to ensure that my references and character backstory did not feel dated. I read no fewer than 20 books that I kept on a shelf by my computer and used sticky notes to mark key sections. Even after completing the novel, the research wasn’t over as my copy editor challenged me to dig even deeper to make sure that the information I provided was correct.

#2. Make Your Interrogators Real People

Whether it’s a character in TV shows such as Homeland or 24, or the protagonist in a John Le Carré novel, we are interested not just in what takes place in interrogations, but the private lives of those people under intense pressure to gather intelligence. We want to see their strengths and foibles, and the impact of having power over others. Often, a great counterbalance is to create some weakness or powerlessness in the lives of these interrogators in order to raise the conflict in the story. In The Interrogator’s Notebook, my protagonist Norman Kross was a master interrogator expert at seeing the truth, except when it came to understanding the truth about his relationships with his own family and friends.

#3 Provide an Interrogation that No One Has Seen Before

With the popularity of police dramas and military thrillers, we have all witnessed dozens, if not hundreds, of mock interrogations involving a myriad of techniques. So how do we make our scenes stand out from what has come before? In The Interrogator’s Notebook, I decided to have the antagonist George Stark, an actor, only agree to be interrogated while playing the role of another person. This was not a one-sided relationships, and the interrogations provided a game that both parties were playing with increasing stakes. Dialogue is also important— don’t forget that it needs to be realistic and relevant to the plot.

About the Author

Martin Ott is a former U.S. Army interrogator, blogger and author of the novel The Interrogator’s Notebook, Story Merchant Books, and three books of poetry.

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