Cleveland Really Does Rock!

YUM!

Here are some scenes from my recent visit to Cleveland, where I attended Bouchercon with too many famous writers to even begin counting. I had to pull Lee Child aside and tell him to stop stalking me, that if he wanted an autograph all he had to do was ask. Jeez.

Of course this is my fevered imagination, fueled by the scrumptious creation to the right -- a chocolate martini from The Chocolate Bar.  New York Times best-selling author C. J. Lyons bought it for me. I owe her one. Eventually. Once I make the NYT-bestseller list. Until then, I'm gonna go buy some of her books because they sound awesome, and because buying them helps her change the world. Seriously. Go see how you can enjoy a great read and help save lives here.

Downtown Cleveland Lights up on Fifth Street

Guitar Art at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Monument to Ohio's Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil War

Another view of the monument, which contains a museum below it, and Freedom with her sword atop it.

Sunset from The Chocolate Bar

For those of us in the South, this is what autumn in October looks like for most of the rest of the country.

I think this is a statue of Mr. Cleveland. You know, the guy who . . . well, of course you can figure that one out. Sorry to be pedantic.

Cleveland also rises.

Flowers in bloom in the same park where The Avengers was filmed. So if those blossoms look familiar, that's because you saw Loki stomping all over them. They're much nicer now, once he got finished with his demi-god temper tantrum.

Writers' Police Academy Strikes Again!

How was my weekend at 2012 Writers' Police Academy? My final official report includes details on my Building Searches workshop and Police Gunfighting class, research into outlaw motorcycle gangs and undercover work and forensic identification, chance meetings with both Lee Child (very tall) and Marcia Clark (very smart), and yet another showdown in the Firearm Training Simulator between me and several villains (this time I took down two bad guys -- a switchblade-brandishing husband killer and an ax-wielding meth-head -- with no damage to innocent bystanders).

In short, EXCELLENT! But let's turn to the photographic evidence:

Ah, there's nothing like the smell of mystery writers in the morning.

A well-deserved Krispy Kreme break during my workshop on suicide and hanging investigations (what did you think a bunch of cops and writers would eat, granola bars?)

Then a little pretend bang-bang after lunch with ATF Agent Rick McMahon. Don't worry -- the gun's unloaded. Despite how things look, Agent McMahon isn't running for his life, he's just . . . walking very quickly and urgently away from me.

Meet the first guy they send out to get the explosives. Imagine if you crossed Wall-E with a SWAT team. He's controlled by an officer in the Hazardous Devices Van (look in the background to see that) and has a delicate touch (you would too if your job was picking up pipe bombs and unexploded grenades).

Just in case, though, they insisted I put on a bomb suit. Insisted, I tell you.

There. I feel much safer now. So does the free world.

See this ginormous backpack? This is an ER in a bag. It's carried by SWAT team EMTs when they charge into bullets and smoke to save not only civilians, but law enforcement officers injured on the scene. You want a tough job? Try hitting a vein when someone's shooting at you.

Forget all those mood-lit lab rooms you see on CSI: Wherever -- this is the nuts and bolts of crime scene investigation. Yardsticks and Super Glue, and above all, serious smarts.

So you wanna be a sniper? Meet your equipment, including a Heckler and Koch rifle (the black one there). I'm kinda in love with H&K firearms (so is my guy protagonist) and being up close to one made my heart go pitty-pat.

This is Lt. Randy Shepard. He led our class on a Building Search workshop through an unoccupied condominium complex. I'd tell you all about it, but then, Lt. Randy would have to kill you. Or me. Probably both. So I'm not chancing it. Here he is trying to give a nice informational talk on snipercraft when all of a sudden . . .

BANG-BANG-BANG! A felon on the run makes a tire-squealing turn into the parking lot, with several officers in hot pursuit, including the K-9 unit. Things end badly. Very badly.

For the felon anyway (she said she wasn't going back to prison. And she's not).

Good boy get bad guy. Good Mikey. Good dog. Here's your ball (Mikey proceeds to fluff ball in seventy seconds). He's a sweet dog. Speaks Dutch (since he's from the Netherlands) but you wouldn't want him apprehending you. So stay out of trouble, okay?

Reading and Book Signing at Georgia Southern

Learning About Home – Guest Post by Douglas Corleone

Today I'm welcoming novelist Douglas Corleone to The Fascination Files. His third novel, Last Lawyer Standing, made its debut last week, and I'm happy to have him here sharing the details of what it's like to live and write in Hawaii (don't hate – just read).

P.S.  Be sure to check out my review of Last Lawyer Standing on The Mojito Literary Society, which you can find here.

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I’ve lived in Hawaii for almost 5 years now, and much of that time has been spent right here – at home, in my office, in front of my computer, tapping away at my keyboard while fairly indifferent about my geographic location.  Hey, trust me, I’m not complaining.  For me, making a living writing fiction is a dream come true, and that I’m doing it while living here in paradise is almost too good to believe.  My point is, I moved to Hawaii to take advantage of all the islands have to offer – constant sunshine, beautiful beaches, crystal clear waters, and a history and culture unlike any on the U.S. mainland.  But once you move somewhere new, at some point you inevitably begin to take your whereabouts for granted.  A visitor to Honolulu, for instance, is unlikely to pass on hiking up Diamond Head crater during their week-long stay.  I, however, still have “Hike up Diamond Head” on my to-do list.

But thanks to my Kevin Corvelli series of legal thrillers, my to-do list is a lot shorter than it would have been if I’d set my novels in a more familiar location, like New York City or Hoboken, New Jersey.  Aside from trying murder cases and dodging bullets, I’ve experienced just about everything Kevin Corvelli experiences in my first three novels.  I’ve kayaked out to the Mokulua Islands, went off-roading to discover Hidden Beach, and swam the 600 yards through Kaneohe Bay to Chinaman’s Hat.  I’ve driven up Tantalus, walked through Chinatown, snorkeled at Shark’s Cove, and tried just about every bar and restaurant on the island in order to keep my settings authentic.   These are all things I might have otherwise put off if I weren’t doing them for “research purposes.

In short, researching for a novel or a series of novels can help you learn more about your home.  I’ve combed back issues of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser for information on helicopter accidents, land disputes, cases of police corruption, and of course, murders.  During the years I spent working on the Kevin Corvelli novels, I kept up-to-date on everything that had to do with the Aloha State.  Alas, the third book in the Kevin Corvelli trilogy, Last Lawyer Standing, will be the last novel I set in Hawaii – at least for the time being.  I’m moving on to a new series of international thrillers that will start with next Spring’s Good as Gone.  Which might slow down my exploration of the Hawaiian Islands—but should make my vacations all the more interesting. 

Get your copy on Amazon.com

Douglas Corleone is the author of the Kevin Corvelli crime novels published by St. Martin's Minotaur.  His debut novel One Man's Paradise was nominated for the 2010 Shamus Award for Best First Novel and won the 2009 Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award. A former New York City defense attorney, Doug now lives in the Hawaiian Islands where he writes full-time. Last Lawyer Standing is his third novel. Visit him online at www.douglascorleone.com and be sure to follow him on Facebook and Twitter. 

BLURB:  "A perfect blend of mystery and thriller, with laugh out loud moments sprinkled liberally throughout. Corleone is as good as it gets."--David Rosenfelt, Edgar and Shamus Award-nominated bestselling author of the Andy Carpenter mystery novels

The 2012 Harbuck Scholarship

I'm sharing the following, which I received this morning from Georgia Southern's Department of Writing & Linguistics and the Creative Writing Program.

Writing & Linguistics Major Chris Combs to Receive Harbuck Award

Georgia Southern University senior Chris Combs, the winner of the 2012 Harbuck Scholarship  Georgia Southern University senior Christopher Combs, of Fayetteville, N.C., will receive this year's Brittany "Ally" Harbuck Scholarship during a reading and reception Thursday, Sept. 6. Award-winning novelist Tina Whittle served as this year's scholarship judge and will present the award at 7 p.m. in Room 1005 of the Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Information Technology building. The event is free and open to the public.

Combs and nine other nominees will read their entries during the ceremony, and members of the Harbuck family will participate in the award presentation. A catered reception will follow the ceremony.

Combs’ winning submission, a collection of 10 poems, reflect a range of subjects, from serious to playful, including “What the Night Dreams,” “Fifty-two Card Pick-up the Family Pieces” and “Blank Page Phobia.”

"Every time I returned to the pages, I discovered some new facet,” Whittle said of Combs’ poems. “The exquisite tension they held was never diminished by an easy resolution; indeed this writer possessed Keats’ negative capability in spades — to hold irreconcilable ideas in the palm of the hand and not seek to reconcile them. Moving and beautiful and profound.”

The Sept. 6 ceremony will also include readings by Harbuck Scholarship finalists Chad Sanderson and Jackson Sharpe, and award nominees Jennifer Coate, Jennifer Curington, Ryan Evans, Beth Martin, Jamie Morton, Naima Ozier and Jared Sharpe.

Combs is the fourth recipient of the scholarship endowed by David and Debi Harbuck of Savannah to honor their daughter, who died in a traffic accident in April 2005. The Harbuck Scholarship supports sophomore, junior and senior writing majors with at least a 3.0 GPA in their writing courses. To be considered for the scholarship, students must be nominated by faculty in the Department of Writing and Linguistics and must submit 10 to 15 pages of fiction, nonfiction or poetry to the Harbuck Scholarship Committee. The committee narrows the list of applicants to three finalists for judging by an outside author.

Whittle has published two novels: The Dangerous Edge of Things and Darker Than Any Shadow. Her fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, The Savannah Literary Journal and Gulf Stream.

As part of the Harbuck award celebration, Whittle will hold a reading Friday, Sept. 7, at 7p.m. in Room 1005 of the College of Information Technology -- click here for that calendar listing.

For more information, contact the Department of Writing and Linguistics at 912-478-0739.

The Crafty Graphic Genius Next Door

 

From the talented hands -- and mind -- of my neighbor Danielle. Seriously, she's amazing. First Tai's makeover, then all my GAYA decorations, and now these pretty things. I think I'll go stick them on something right this second.

Friends of the Library Evening in My Hometown

I recently had the pleasure of spending an evening with the fine folks of the Friends of the Library in Cochran, Georgia, at the Tessie W. Norris Library. I got to read the first chapter from my as-yet-unpublished mystery novel BLOOD ASH AND BONE, due for a March-ish 2013 release from Poisoned Pen Press. Even better, I got to visit with some of the best people in the world -- librarians and readers. Thanks, everyone, who attended -- I was pleased to make your acquaintance.