Saturday, January 30, 2010
KEEPING ME HONEST
You see that good-looking guy in the picture? No, not me. I mean the even better looking guy wearing the Smokey The Bear hat. That’s my friend Frank.
Undersheriff Frank Faluotico to you.
Ever since The Rabbit Factory, Frank has been aiding and abetting my life of crime.
The thing about crime fiction is that much of it has to be based on crime fact. Unlike Harry Potter, my characters have to live in the real world. I can’t create magic bullets that go around corners, or bad guys with disappearing fingerprints.
The best way for an author to keep it real is to spend quality time with people who do it for real. In the early stages of writing a book I’ll describe a crime scene to Frank and ask him how he’d deal with it. As the case gets more complex I’ll feed him all the clues. If he can’t come up with the killer, I figure you won’t either.
He’s also a great resource for cop-speak. Chapter One of Flipping Out starts with a bunch of cops hanging out on a fishing boat, playing poker, and drinking beer. “We call that a debriefing,” Frank told me. I used the word in the book and I got e-mails from cops who wanted to know how the heck I knew that.
Lomax and Biggs work out of the Hollywood Station, and I've been fortunate to connect with LAPD Detective Wendy Berndt who works there too. Wendy reads an early version of the manuscript. At least once or twice in every book she keeps me from having Lomax and Biggs do something that’s either flat out illegal or just plain dumb.
I used to take cops for granted. But over the past five years I’ve been able to hang out with some of the best in the business, and today I have intense admiration and the utmost respect for the men and women who have dedicated their lives to law enforcement.
They're a great bunch of people. And a lot of fun if you're lucky enough to get invited to one of their all-day debriefings.
Marshall posted on January 30, 2010 6:13 PMKudos to Undersheriff Faluotico, Detective Berndt and anyone else who contributes to the enrichment of Lomax & Biggs' world.
Elizabeth posted on January 30, 2010 7:21 PMYeah, cops are all great and all, but you need to enter the unexplored but exciting world of the government roadways engineer. "Harmzie! We need a technical project review committee STAT! Get on that..." Riveting. Hint: lots of references to brown socks. [sing-song voice] I smell a best-seller!
harmzie posted on January 30, 2010 9:21 PMYes, I thought so. You, Marshall, acknowledged Frank Faluotico of Ulster County Sheriff's Office at the back of Rabbit Factory. I just got my copy and checked. Nice to see a picture of him. I also noticed that you acknowledge James Petterson and said that you knew each other in the advertising business. I had forgotten that. You are lucky to be collaborating on a book with him now.
A year or two ago I took a many-week series of classes called Citizens Police Academy in Town of Ulster coordinated by Lt.Egidio Tinti, City of Kingston Police,U.C. Law Enforcement Training Group. I will give you his email address if you like. The sessions were informative and eye-opening, and I, like you, gained a whole new respect for cops and the work they do.
Betsy posted on January 30, 2010 11:04 PM