Bouchercon 2013 Debrief

I’m just back from Albany, NY following the close of Bouchercon 2013. It was a great experience and I met some wonderful new readers, booksellers, and fellow authors.

Bouchercon is always a huge conference and this year was no exception. Attendance this year was approximately 1500, so our venue at the Empire State Plaza worked well for meeting rooms, theater seating for evening events, and signing tables, while still having plenty of room for all the booksellers and their loaded tables of books. This year’s noted guests included Sue Grafton, Tess Gerritsen, Louise Penny and Anne Perry.

So what were some of my highlights?

• The general atmosphere: It’s always fun to be immersed in the writing/publishing milieu. These are people who don’t stare at you oddly when you mention your own characters talking to you, or who nod in understanding when you talk about some of the crazy things you’ve done in the name of research. These are people who “get you” and think in exactly the same terms, be they writers or readers.

• Meeting readers: One of the great thrills of Bouchercon for me was meeting new readers. Not people I know who read the book because they know me, but readers who found the book in a store, or who discovered it in a library and then loved it so much they went out and bought their own copy (Kathy, I’m looking at you!). It’s very gratifying to develop a personal connection with people who love what you do.

• Meeting good friends for the first time in person: I’ve made some very good friends through my agency—other writers who either also signed with Nicole or have come into the agency family. It was a true pleasure to be able to spend five days hanging out with the hilarious Marianne Harden, another of Nic’s early clients, as she attended Bouchercon promoting her humorous mystery Malicious Mischief (which debuts Oct. 22^nd). There’s always time for a glass of wine in the evening with Marianne!

• Hearing words of wisdom from the professionals: Evening events included hour-long interviews with Sue Grafton, Tess Gerritsen and Anne Perry. It was fascinating to hear how their careers have developed and an outline of their future plans. All three ladies were very gracious, well-spoken and humorous.

• Favourite panel: I’ve been a Louise Penny fan for a long time (no, not just because she’s also Canadian!). The Beautiful Mystery is a personal favourite of mine, partly because of the musical aspect of the book. Louise did a panel with long-time friends and authors Rhys Bowen and Deborah Crombie. Instead of the typical panel with authors behind a table, these three friends brought their chairs out front and invited us into their impromptu ‘living room’. They were funny and gracious, and this definitely stands as my favourite panel of the con.

• Being on my first panel: I sat on the forensics panel on opening day. The lovely Elizabeth Haynes moderated myself, Elly Griffiths, Kendra Elliot and Sarah Shaber. It was a standing room only crowd, and we had a lively and interesting discussion with lots of very positive feedback afterward. It was a personal pleasure to share that hour with four very talented authors and genuinely lovely women.

It was a great experience to attend my first Bouchercon, and I look forward to many more. Look out Long Beach, CA in 2014. Here I come!

Meet the Bouchercon Forensics Panel!

Tomorrow I’m heading off on the long drive to Albany, NY (thanks to hubby for lending me his beloved Mustang for the trip) to Bouchercon, the premier North American mystery conference for both readers and writers. I’m honoured to be sitting on the forensics panel—We Didn’t Start the Fire (But We Can Tell You How It Started)—with four wonderful authors, and I thought I’d use this week’s blog entry to highlight my co-panelists and some of their body of work.

Elizabeth Haynes: Elizabeth, our panel moderator, lives in Kent in the U.K. and works as a police intelligence analyst. A writer from her earliest days, Elizabeth produced her first real novel for NaNoWriMo in 2005 and then tried again in 2006 and 2007. Her debut thriller Into the Darkest Corner (a real nail biter, let me tell you…) was written as part of 2008’s NaNoWriMo and was published in 2011. Since then, Elizabeth has released Dark Tide and Human Remains, with Under a Silent Moon scheduled for release in 2014.

Elly Griffiths: Born in London and currently living in Brighton, Elly writes the Ruth Galloway series about a forensic archaeologist who assists the police whenever local human remains are discovered. Drawing from her husband’s profession as an archaeologist, as well as her aunt’s knowledge and experience from living on the Norfolk coast, the Galloway series is full of real archeological details mixed with the mythology and history of the area. The series starts with The Crossing Places and includes The Janus Stone, The House at Sea’s End, A Room Full of Bones, and A Dying Fall. The sixth book in the series, The Outcast Dead, is scheduled for release in 2014.

Kendra Elliot: When Kendra first started out, she wrote contemporary romance. But when her characters ‘kept tripping over dead bodies’, she turned her hand to writing romantic suspense and hasn’t looked back. Kendra has released three novels (Hidden, Chilled, and Buried) and her fourth, Alone, will be released in January of 2014. A dental hygienist with a love of forensics, she turned her own knowledge and talents into her protagonist Lacey Campbell, a forensic odontologist in Hidden. Kendra is also a regular contributor to the wonderful Murder She Writes blog.

Sarah Shaber: Sarah won the Malice Domestic/St. Martin's Press Best First Traditional Mystery Award for the first novel in her Simon Shaw series, Simon Says. The series follows the adventures of Simon, a professor and forensic historian, through a series of historical murders in Snipe Hunt, The Fugitive King, The Bug Funeral, and Shell Game. Her newest historical suspense series stars Louise Pearlie as a young widow, working during World War II in the Office of Strategic Services (the precursor to the CIA) in Washington D.C. Louise’s story starts in Louise’s War and continues in Louise’s Gamble. The third book in the series, Louise’s Dilemma, will release in November 2013.

And then there’s me—I’ll be holding down the forensic anthropology and biological sciences end of the discussion.

I’m very much looking forward to meeting these talented ladies in person and sharing some discussion around forensics and writing within the genre of crime fiction. For any readers attending, we’ll be in room 2 at 2:40pm on Thursday and would love to see you there!

Photo credit: Jason Paris

Publishing News and a Cover Reveal!

It’s been a fun week for publishing news for Ann and me. First of all, we’re very happy to announce that DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT is now available in Kindle format. There have been a lot of readers who were waiting for this, so we’re pleased that the novel is available for a cheap and cheerful $3.19, perfect for giving a new series a spin if you haven’t tried us out yet. The Kindle version is available here: Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries #1: DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT.

The e-novella that follows the first series installment will release this fall. As several of you have asked for more information about it, I wanted to include its blurb here:

Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries #2: NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL (November 2013)

Only the joint forces of science and law enforcement can help when a young woman is found brutally murdered with her identity erased.

Massachusetts State Police Trooper Leigh Abbott and forensic anthropologist Matt Lowell come together to solve their second case when the remains of a young woman are found, thrown away like garbage at a local landfill. But what seems straightforward becomes something much more sinister when the victim’s bone damage reveals a shocking history of abuse. It will take reliving the horrors of Matt’s military background, all the team’s forensic skills, and Leigh’s intuition combined for them to catch the killer and give the victim the justice she deserves.

And now we move to our other big news of the day. This past week we got our first peek at the cover for A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH. Thanks to the Five Star team and the designers at ENC for once again creating a cover that encapsulates the story’s basic themes:

Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries #3: A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH (May 2014)

At Halloween, Salem, Massachusetts, is a hot spot for Witch and tourist alike. But when a murder spree begins, a cop and scientist must team up to find the killer before a media circus unleashes, panic ensues, and more victims are killed.

Forensic anthropologist Matt Lowell and Massachusetts State Police Trooper Leigh Abbott are called in to investigate burned remains following a fire in a historic antique shop. As Matt, Leigh and their team of graduate students investigate the death, clues point to Salem's traditional Witchcraft community. However, having dabbled in the Craft as a teenager, Leigh is skeptical that someone who has sworn an oath of good to all and harm to none would commit premeditated murder, let alone kill in such a vicious way.

A second body is found in a similar fire and the team begins to suspect that coven members are being framed. Now they must solve the murders before 100,000 tourists overrun Salem for what could be the deadliest Halloween of their lives.

Next week I’ll be preparing to attend Bouchercon, so I’ll be highlighting the forensics panel I’ll be on and the authors who will be participating with me. See you then!

The Trials of a Debut Author

Ann and I have been watching the hullaballoo surrounding J.K. Rowling’s surprise mystery debut The Cuckoo’s Calling with great interest. Debut authors ourselves at the very same time as ‘Mr. Galbraith’s’ release, we know very well how hard it is for a new author to make a name for themselves. Mr. Galbraith’s journey from a small print run and near obscurity to Ms. Rowling’s stardom and selling power is a stunning example of how publishing is often not about the product, but the name behind it.

This is not a slight against The Cuckoo’s Calling. The book received very favourable early reviews, and yet this book and its unknown author still couldn’t find traction in the market. It sold to only very modest numbers in the U.K. and North America in the first three months following its release.

Of course, all that changed the moment Robert Galbraith’s real identity was leaked, revealing that the author was actually Ms. Rowling. Suddenly a 300,000 copy print run was ordered for a book that sold less than 10,000 copies in all formats combined before the secret broke. Had the book itself changed? Not at all, simply the name behind it. But that made all the difference in the world.

Series tend to gather steam as they grow. When Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb, published the very first ‘In Death’ book, it wasn’t a huge event. She was an unknown author writing a combination of science fiction, police procedural, and romantic suspense. But as additional series instalments were published, more and more fans came on board. I discovered the series (currently standing at 36 books) when there were only several books out and have been an avid reader ever since. But it wasn’t until the release of the twelfth book that it was revealed that J.D. Robb was actually blockbuster author Nora Roberts. Her pseudonym was created because Roberts’ prolific writing made it difficult for Putnam to keep up with her content production, meshed with Roberts’ own desire to take her writing in a different direction. Thus, J.D. Robb was born.

One can’t blame Ms. Rowling for trying to make a fresh start. When she first began the Harry Potter series, she was a complete unknown. In fact, it wasn’t until the fourth book in the series—Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire—was released that the phenomenon of Harry Potter really caught on worldwide. From that point on, the expectations and the hysteria around each new release grew exponentially. When the Potter series finally ended, the expectations around Ms. Rowling’s next book were impossible to satisfy, and, inevitably, The Casual Vacancy was met with mixed reviews. I can certainly understand why Ms. Rowling wanted to start from scratch, being able to write simply for the joy of it once again and not under the pressure of unrealistic expectations. Her intention was to publish at least several books in the series, building a fan base for Mr. Galbraith before she went public with the truth about her pseudonym. For the brief span of a few months, she achieved that goal. But the cat is out of the bag for good now, at least as far as Robert Galbraith is concerned.

The reality of the publishing world is that if you don’t write in one of the current ‘hot’ genres or categories, it can be very hard to make a splash, excellent product or not. As an unknown, it can be hard to get authors to blurb your book, and unless you are with a large house, the majority of your publicity is left to you—Mr. Galbraith was not with a small house, and still it appears he only had limited support. This series of events also shines a light on how even an excellent book struggles to find an audience in amongst the multitude of releases around it. It’s simply the truth of the business.

Ann and I are practical about building a career. We’re in it for the long haul, not for the flash-in-the-pan, so we’re satisfied to build our series with regular releases as we build our fan base. It’s certainly a realistic lesson for all debut authors about the challenges ahead of them, but forewarned is forearmed, and good things come to those who wait.

Report From The Writing Trenches

It’s been an insanely busy couple of months. Starting with the release of DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT in June, I feel like I’ve been going non-stop, and there’s no end in sight. So I thought I’d take a brief break from the normal round of forensic posts to talk about what’s been going on with me lately.

1. Our novella, NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL, has gone through our critique team and has been professionally edited. For now, it’s been temporarily put aside for one last pass before formatting to get it ready for a November release. Cover art is still to come. This novella is the second installment in the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries and occurs in series time two weeks after DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT and about a week before A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH.
2. Copy edits for A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH are complete. This is the third installment in the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries and is scheduled for hardcover release in May 2014 with the eBook to follow. I’m expecting the cover art to arrive any time now since Advanced Reading Copies are due in only a few months. As soon as we’ve got the go ahead to release the new cover art, you’ll see it here first.
3. I’m getting ready to attend Bouchercon 2013 in Albany, NY in less than a month. I recently found out that I’ll be sitting on the forensics panel with five excellent authors. More to come on that in the next few weeks.
4. My biggest challenge lately has been our newest novel, the fourth installment in the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries. TWO PARTS BLOODY MURDER is definitely the most intense draft I’ve ever produced. DEAD was written over about five months, when I was in my former lab job (which was much less intense than my current position) and when I wasn’t into the social media aspects etc. of being a debut author. FLAME was written in about 8 or 10 weeks last year while I was between jobs and had the whole day get my words in. This novel is being written in about the same length of time as FLAME but with a very intense 40-hours-a-week in my new job. Don’t get me wrong, I love working with my current group, but it makes for an 18-hour work day nearly every day of the week.
5. I’ll be attending New England Crime Bake in early November, and have padded a day on each side of the trip to Boston to make sure all my locations for TWO PARTS BLOODY MURDER are perfect, as well as to start scouting locations for the next full length Abbott and Lowell novel. We’ve got great plans for that one, and the perfect location for a large part of the novel is going to be crucial. Even though we won’t be starting planning on that novel until January, I want to be boots-on-the-ground with my camera in November to get all the shots we need ahead of time.

So that’s my crazy life for the last half of 2013. Our WIP manuscript is currently almost 70% done, and the goal is to have the first draft complete in September, critiqued in October, re-edited and sent to our editor in November. Wish me luck getting the first draft in on time; I’m going to need it!

Photo credit: Shane Pope

Forensic Case Files: 16th Century Vampire Burials

Modern sensibilities and science tell us that there is no such thing as vampires (especially not sparkly ones!). But to people of the Middle and early Modern Ages, vampires were a real fear. The belief in vampires likely evolved because people of the time didn’t understand the natural process of decomposition, including corpse bloating and fluid purging. To protect themselves from the undead, communities adopted specific burial practices:

• Four skeletons were recovered this past July in Poland during a road construction project. Each set of remains was found with the head buried between the legs. Since the bodies were buried without personal effects, dating of the remains is proving difficult, but, with further testing, scientists hope to confirm their estimate of a fifteenth or sixteenth century burial. During that period, suspected vampires would be ritually executed by decapitation, or they would be hung until decomposition naturally rotted the neck tissues and the weight of the body pulled it from the head. The belief was that a vampire would not be able to rise if it couldn’t locate its own head.

• In Bulgaria, a number of skeletons have been discovered with an iron rod through the heart and their teeth removed. This ritual provided two-fold protection: The iron rod pinned the dead into the grave, preventing them from rising. But in case they did manage to escape, removal of the teeth ensured that the undead would not be able to feast on flesh of the living.

• The Black Plague killed over 50,000 residents of Venice in the year 1576, including the medieval artist Titian. Four hundred and thirty-three years later, Italian researcher Matteo Borrini and his team were excavating a mass grave from the epidemic when they discovered a peculiar victim—a dead woman with a brick wedged between her teeth. Dr. Borrini hypothesized that the practice of opening up mass graves to add more victims, thereby exposing the decomposing bodies, led people to believe that vampires were spreading the plague by chewing on their death shrouds. Bricks were placed in the mouths of these ‘Shroud Eaters’ to stop them from spreading disease.

What appears as odd customs to modern people were reinforced to those early believers as the ‘vampires’ never rose from the grave. And looking at it from a modern perspective, it’s clear where some of the customs around current vampire traditions arose. So the next time you see a vampire movie, remember that some of those mythical aspects date back centuries to a time when society was looking for simple answers to explain complex biology.

Photo credit: Andrzej Grygiel/EPA, Nikolay Doychinov/ AFP and Matteo Borrini

Forensics 101: Mass Grave Methodology

The first hurdle to overcome in mass grave investigations is determining the location of the grave. As we discussed last week, mass graves are deliberately hidden to avoid detection, so simply finding the grave is the crucial first step. To further complicate the process, there are often one or more satellite sites associated with mass graves:

• the execution site (either a surface execution site or a site within the grave itself)

• temporary surface deposition sites used during the transfer of remains from primary to secondary and tertiary sites.

But once the final grave is discovered, how do investigators proceed with an excavation that has to unearth and account for all the evidence in the grave without losing any important information?

There are two main methods used to excavate a mass grave:

Pedestal method:

• The soil around the body mass is removed to just below the lower boundary of the grave, allowing complete viewing from all angles and access to all bodies along the outer margins and top of the grave.

• The original grave walls and ramp are destroyed, but investigators do not have to stand on bodies during the excavation process since workers start at the outer boundaries and work inward.

• This formation allows for water drainage from the site and more complete in situ photography while bodies are still in place.

• The main disadvantage to this method is the loss of stability conferred by the earth surrounding the grave. If the central mass erodes, bodies and body parts can become displaced.

Stratigraphic method:

• The grave is treated as a single site: bodies and artifacts are excavated from top to bottom, removing evidence in reverse order to which it was deposited into the grave.

• Grave walls and ramps are retained, leading to a better understanding of how the grave was constructed. Tool marks and tire tracks may also be recovered.

• Due to the even lowering of the surface grave, rainwater can pool within the confines of the grave, damaging exposed remains or eroding the body mass, but tents or shelters can be constructed over the grave to protect it during inclement weather.

• Only bodies on the top of the mass can be accessed or viewed.

• The bodies must be walked on by the investigators during the course of the excavation.

So which method is better?

• Bones are separated from the body during both methods, although larger bones tends to be dissociated in the pedestal method and smaller bones in the stratigraphic method. Thus the stratigraphic method results in more complete body recoveries.

• Decomposition tends to progress faster in bodies on the outer edges of the grave. The pedestal method exposes those bodies, leading to erosion of the mass and possible mixing of the remains.

• Secondary or tertiary graves tend to contain more skeletonized remains and increased dissociation. Use of the pedestal method seems to accelerate slumping of the grave mass.

As a result, current scientific opinion is that the stratigraphic method is preferable where possible.

Photo credit: Gilles Peress and Press Association

I’m going to take a break from blogging for the next few weeks to enjoy the summer holidays and visiting family, but we’ll be back on August 20th with all new content. See you then!

Forensics 101: Forensic Challenges of Mass Grave Excavations

Last week we marked the 18^th anniversary of the massacre of 8,100 Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica by the Bosnian Serbs. The overwhelming majority of these victims were buried in mass graves in the remote countryside. The task for investigators following the massacre was not only finding the gravesites, but successfully excavating and identifying the victims.

The UN defines a mass grave as a location containing three or more victims who have died by extra-judicial or arbitrary executions that are not the result of an armed conflict (an extra-judicial action is one that takes place by a state or other official authority without legal process or the permission of a court).

Investigators need to determine not only time since death, but also discover any evidence of torture, the specific method of death, and the identity of the victim where possible. For many bodies, this may be a near impossible task.

Among the numerous challenges confronting researchers during mass grave excavations in Bosnia were:

• State of the remains: Victims were often not buried immediately after death because of the need to bring in heavy equipment to dig the grave. As a result, partially decomposed remains became separated and scattered within a single gravesite. The heavy machinery used to dig mass graves and to transport and bury the dead also caused damage to both the soft tissue and the skeleton, masking original trauma and complicating the investigation.

• Victim collection and labeling: During any forensic recovery, each separate body part is identified as an individual specimen. Any possible personal effects or related body parts must be labeled with related information for later association, leading to an incredibly complex identification scheme.

• Secondary and tertiary graves: A large majority of the mass graves in Bosnia were reopened, and disinterred victims moved to secondary or even tertiary graves. Since this occurred anywhere from one and four months post-mortem, soft tissue degradation was well advanced, leading to significant scattering of victims’ remains across large swathes of countryside.

• Lack of associated physical objects: Bodies were carelessly dumped into mass graves and often tightly packed to keep the site as small as possible. When personal effects were recovered, it was often impossible to determine to whom they belonged.

• Clandestine sites: Mass graves, by design, were purposely situated in difficult-to-identify locations, usually in remote areas. In addition, the killers deliberately tried to make victim ID difficult by having their victims remove all personal effects, such as wallets and jewelry, before execution.

• Sheer number of victims: Some mass graves in Bosnia contained up to 700 victims. This made victim recovery and identification a substantial task simply from a procedural and practical standpoint.

• Need for large international teams: Human rights horrors such as mass graves are very difficult tasks for investigators, frequently leading to depression and fatigue. Regular replacements are required, and the specialized nature of the work involved requires an international effort to staff a large team. It will normally take 1 or 2 investigators approximately 4 days to excavate a single victim. If a grave has hundreds of victims, it can take a team of several dozen investigators months to complete.

• Need for on-site facilities: Due to the remote nature of most mass graves, investigators must build or acquire forensic facilities for their investigation—including refrigerated storage areas, running water, decontamination areas, and sorting areas for both remains and personal effects. Provision must also be made for site security during the excavation, and accommodations for the technical staff.

• Victim identification: The majority of mass grave victims frequently lacked sufficient dental records to allow for dental identification. As a result, pathologists and forensic anthropologists had to rely on physical features and antemortem fractures to establish victim identification.

Next week we’re going to look at the practical side of mass grave excavations—how to find the graves—and then, once they are located, how to recover the victims.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons and Gilles Peress.

Forensic Case Files: The Srebrenica Massacre

July 11^th this past week marked the 18^th anniversary of the beginning of the Srebrenica massacre—the day the Bosnian Serb army, under the command of General Ratko Mladić, took control of the UN protected enclave of Srebrenica in Bosnia.  Two days later the genocide began.  Between July 13^th and 22^nd, 1995, over 8,100 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were massacred and buried in mass graves by the Serb Army. Between August and November of 1995, many of those bodies were moved to secondary and tertiary mass graves, scattering remains across 300+ grave sites. The locations of these graves were largely unknown to outside investigators, and while a large number of them have been discovered, many are still unidentified.  Teams of pathologists and forensic anthropologists are sponsored by the International Commission on Missing Persons to excavate each newly discovered grave. Attempts are made to identify remains by PCR, physical characteristics and personal belongings found within the grave.  It is truly horrifying work for the ICMP team members, but it is also rewarding as missing loved ones are finally identified and put to rest.

DNA analysis comparing family member samples to the unidentified remains has resulted in the identification of 6,838 individuals from the more than 8,100 reported missing following those 10 days in July. But there remains no trace of over 1,200 men and boys to this day.

On July 11th of each year, all of the newly identified dead are brought to the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potočari for burial.  Last Thursday, 409 additional sets of remains—often no more than a handful of bones—were laid to rest at the memorial. Included in the dead were 43 boys between the ages of 14 and 18, and a newborn infant who was born during the massacre.  This brings the total number of remains interred here to 6,066.

Next week, as we explore this difficult topic further, we’ll look at the forensic anthropology challenges of mass graves.

Photo credit: green-draped coffins—Almir Dzanovic, mass grave exhumation— Photograph provided courtesy of the ICTY, Potocari gravestones— Michael Büker, Potocari Memorial—Mazbln and Potocari Memorial names— Michael Büker; all Wikimedia Commons

Writing WHO You Know

One of the most common pieces of writing advice out there is ‘write what you know’. I’m going to go off on a tangent from that concept to discuss writing who you know.

In reviews of DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT, there are always comments about the main characters, Trooper Leigh Abbott and Dr. Matt Lowell, and the chemistry they share. But the second most frequent comment is about the book’s secondary characters.

From Amazon.com:

The book is true to the teacher/student relationship. I love the way Matt taught his students, trusting them and respecting them but also protecting them where he needed to. As a teacher, I can say it felt...right, to me. I liked that none of the relationships fell back on stereotypes.

From Goodreads.com:

There is a dynamic cast of secondary characters that add depth and humor to the storyline.

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about J.D. Robb’s ‘In Death’ series is the large cast of secondary characters that surround the leads and how those characters were given time to grow and develop, and sometimes earn substantial storylines of their own. I always wanted to have that kind of feel within the Abbot and Lowell Forensic Mysteries series.

As a bench scientist for more than 20 years, I’ve had students come and go from our lab. Some passed through quietly, but a number of them made strong impressions on me. When it came to developing characters to back up forensic anthropologist Dr. Matt Lowell, I took advantage of being able to write the characters I knew.

Take Matt’s senior graduate student – Akiko Niigata, or Kiko as she is usually called. Without a doubt, Kiko is the fictional version of one of my best grad students, Vera. Like Vera, she is strong, has a wicked sense of humour, doesn’t suffer fools gladly, is skilled in martial arts, and is a fantastic artist. We always used to tell Vera that she needed to find a way to combine her dual skills in science and the arts, perhaps by illustrating textbooks or journal articles. In Kiko, we have an osteologist and forensic anthropologist-in-training who uses her artistic skills to offer accurate crime scenes sketches for the team, and to provide 2D and 3D skull reconstructions of victims. The name I gave this character is also an inside joke, and my labmates from that time will remember exactly who the infamous Akiko is.

Some grad students in the fictional series are a compilation of past real-life students. Another successful Ph.D. student, Dusan, provides character Paul Layne with his sense of humour and ability to ‘stir the pot’ (especially with the girls in the lab).

The relationship that Matt has with his grad students is really the relationship that I enjoyed with mine. Adults in their own right, these were skilled young men and women who had give-and-take relationships with their trainers, and that aspect is reflected in these characters. The grad students in the series bring their own individual skills to the group, and it’s the combined talents of the two leads and the three students that truly make the team successful in their investigations.

Writing who you know has the advantages of grounding characters in your head and giving you a spring board. While you won’t write your characters exactly as you know real people in your life, you can take aspects of their personalities that strike you as quirky, stubborn or resiliant, and build those into your fictional characters. This isn’t cheating; it’s using the world around you to your advantage. If you’re having trouble finding dynamic characters to write about, instead of falling back on familiar tropes, trying drawing from your own life experiences. You may be pleasantly surprised by how real your characters will seem, and how they will jump off the page for both you and your readers.

Forensic Case Files: American Colonies’ First Murder Victim, Circa 1624

The skeleton was found in 1996 by the Jamestown Rediscovery Archaeological Project team on Jamestown Island, Virginia. Unlike the majority of the settlers’ graves located in the cemetery within the James Fort, the man was discovered under an old roadbed near one other grave close to the southern palisade and the site of the barracks. Soil staining and the remnants of rusted iron nails indicate that he was buried in six-sided, flat-lidded wood coffin. His naked body was originally wrapped in a shroud that is long gone—its presence now only marked by green stains left on the skull and right shin from two brass straight pins used to secure it.

Forensic anthropologists could tell much about the man from his remains. He was tall for the time at nearly 5’9”. He had a slight build, but significant muscle attachment points on the skeleton indicated a strong upper body. He was between the ages of 18 – 20 and showed no sign of disease. His cause of death was equally clear: His right leg was broken and twisted just below the knee, with no signs of healing or bone remodeling. A lead ball and shards of lead shot were embedded in and around the bone.

Forensic anthropologist Dr. Doug Owsley (who has been involved with cases such as the lost Union Solider at Antietam, the murder of a Jamestown colonial servant, and evidence of cannibalism at James Fort) determined that the lead ball hit the leg with such force that it shattered the bone and tore all the soft tissue, twisting the leg 180^o. The wound was fatal, likely rupturing the popliteal artery, and the victim bled out within minutes.

The skull was badly crushed from centuries of pressure from above, but was painstakingly reconstructed by forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunt, allowing forensic artist Sharon Long to create a 3D reconstruction of the victim:

 

Up to now, the man’s identity has been a mystery. But recent research has revealed that he was most likely George Harrison, who met his end following a duel with Richard Stephens. The fatal injury shows that the bullet struck Mr. Harrison’s leg to the side of the knee. At the time, a typical dueling pose was to stand sideways with your arm and flinklock pistol extended towards your opponant. But the injury is in an unusual location as most duellers would aim for the upper body, a larger target with more vital organs. So was Mr. Stephens a bad shot, or was he aiming to cripple?

There is also some question about the type of ammunition used in the duel. What killed Mr. Harrison was a ‘combat round’ that contained a large main bullet as well as smaller lead shot. Duelling ammunition of the time typically only involved a single lead ball. It is believed that a combat round of this type would not be used in a duel by an honest and honourable combatant.

Richard Stephens, who survived the duel and later went into politics, died in 1636.

Photo credit: Jamestown Rediscovery

Forensic Case Files: The Bodies in the Barrels

They were discovered by a deer hunter on November 10, 1985, near Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire. The bodies of a woman and a child, both brutally beaten, were stuffed inside a plastic bag, and then crammed into a metal barrel and left in the woods. The woman was estimated to be between the ages of 22 and 33, the little girl between the ages of 5 and 11. Both had died from blunt force trauma. Due to the weathered conditions of the bones, it was estimated that they had died sometime between 1977 and 1985. It was proposed that they might be mother and daughter, but no concrete leads ever developed and the case went cold.

Fifteen years later, in 2000, a State police officer with some free time between investigations travelled back to the area where the bodies were discovered. Only 100 yards away from the first barrel’s location, he discovered a second barrel containing the bodies of two more children—two girls between the ages of 1 and 3, and 2 and 4. Suddenly they no longer had two victims, but four. But the case continues to thwart investigators.

One of the oddest aspects of the case is the lack of missing persons’ reports to correlate with the victims’ identity. Four individuals went missing, but no one noticed their absence, including a school-aged child? It may be that the only person who noted their absence was the person who killed them.

These victims remain nameless, but science has made some connections between them. Mitochondrial DNA testing determined that the adult female is related through the maternal line to the oldest and youngest children. She could be their mother, their sister or their aunt. The middle child is not related through the maternal line, but could be related through a paternal branch of the family. Further modern DNA testing may shed more direct light on family relationships between the victims.

Recently, the New Hampshire State Police asked the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to do a facial reconstruction of the four victims in hopes that someone might recognize them and be able to provide some leads in the case. The three-dimensional digital reconstructions below are the result of those efforts:

Case evidence as well as dental condition leads investigators to believe that the victims were not visible members of society. They may not have been local residents, or even American, an aspect which greatly complicates their efforts.

But the victims are not forgotten, especially by the residents of Allenstown. A single headstone marks the passing of the first two victims and residents have already stated that they’d like to be able to provide a marker bearing the names of all four victims.

If anyone recognizes any of the victims or has any information that could assist investigators, please call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).

Photo credit: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the New Hampshire State Police

How Readers Can Help Authors Create Buzz

As our regular blog readers know, our debut novel appeared in bookstores earlier this month, so we’ve been working hard to get the word out. This can be a difficult task for new authors since the vast majority of readers have never heard of them. It’s a well-known fact that many of the old publishing publicity tricks simply don’t work in our new, digital age. Word of mouth and reviews are shaping up to be the best way to hear about new writers. In other words, current readers, rather than publishing houses, are now the most effective way of introducing authors to new readers.

So how can readers help new authors as they try to make a name for themselves?

• Write reviews on commercial sites: When I’m considering a new author, I often go to Goodreads or Amazon to look at reader reviews of their titles. Ratings are helpful, but reviews are the best because I get a feel for how the author writes and whether their books might be right for me. When current readers take the time to write a review on Amazon, Goodreads, Indigo/Chapters, or Barnes and Noble, it can really help convince a new reader to try a new author.

• Request the book from your local library: If you’re a little more cautious and want to test drive the author instead of making a purchase, ask your local library to purchase a copy. You get to read the book, and then other readers have a chance to discover the new author. Or, if you loved the book and just want to find a way to be supportive, requesting it from your library is a fantastic way to do so.

• Talk about the book on social media: If you really enjoyed the book, talk about it on social media and give reasons why you liked the book. Mention that you’re reading the book on Twitter or Facebook, even updating as you go if you’re comfortable with that. Or, if you are a visual person, pin the cover art on Pinterest.

• Add the book to a Goodreads Listopia list: Goodreads hosts lists of varying types here: https://www.goodreads.com/list. Adding a book you love to that list helps that author be seen by new readers.

• Offer to host the author on your blog: I’ve had a few people ask me to guest post on their blog and I’m always happy to do it. This allows the author to gain exposure to a new audience. Alternatively, write and publish a review of a debut novel on your site.

• Give the book as a gift: If you know someone who loves the same genre you do, purchase a new author’s book and give it as a birthday or Christmas gift (or just because!).

• Ask for the book at your local indie bookstore: Indie bookstores are a crucial part of the bookselling business, so order a copy from your local store instead of ordering it online. Healthy bookstores lead to healthy publishing, and so the cycle continues.

• Join a street team: This isn’t something I did for our debut novel, but I will be looking at this for A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH next year. Interested readers join the author in promoting the book before it is released by writing reviews and visiting their local libraries and bookshops to spread the word. In exchange, those readers get ARCs (advanced reading copies) of the book months in advance as a thank you for their efforts.

Those are just some of the ways readers can help new authors get their books/series off the ground. So next time you come across a new author or discover a writer you really love, think about how you can help them with their new book. In doing so, you might just help convince them to write the next one as well.

Photo credit: ~lemasney

What A Book Launch It Was!

Sunday, June 9th marked my very first book launch. With the wonderful help of family and friends, we gave DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT a great send-off into the world.

A few weeks before the launch, I’d gotten it into my head to give everyone a little swag bag as a thank you for taking time out of their busy schedules to join us for the launch. I decided on some tie-in items to go along with the book. Luckily, I have two beautiful daughters who helped me every step of the way (along with my husband, Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Picture).

My eldest, Jessica, is the artist behind the bookmarks—charcoal and burguny organza and satin ribbons with a skeleton key charm on one end and a skull on the other.  This was part way through Jess making 150 bookmarks:

Jordan, my younger daughter, is my kitchen whiz, and she helped handcraft 450 white chocolate bones. This was the first batch coming out of the molds:

Yes, those long bones are femurs and they’re pretty darned anatomically correct!

150 bags, all stuffed and ready to be ribboned:

The final product:

The launch itself took place at our family church. In fact, if you look back at the post about my brother Mychael’s big post-Oscar event, you’ll see it’s in the same place.

This is Pat. Pat is awesome. When I wasn’t even sure that I was going to have a book launch, Pat stepped in and organized it for me. With the help of a large number of church members, they put on lunch for everyone that came. Since there were over 100 people there, this was no small feat, let me assure you.

Pat is also a bookseller and she’s passionate about her books. To introduce both myself and the book, she talked everyone into going to their local Chapters bookstore and to ask for me to do a signing there. Then she had the crowd start chanting the name of the book over and over again. It was very funny.

After Pat’s introduction, I got up to give a little background about my writing career to date—how I’d written as a pre-teen and then given it up for about 25 years before coming back to it. So much so, my interest in writing was a total surprise at the time to my husband of over 15 years… SURPRISE!

Then I read Chapter Six for the crowd as it’s one of the early turning points in the story. It was very well received.

Then the book signing began…

One of my favourite aspects of the day was seeing old friends, many of whom had traveled great distances to attend:

Cheryl, who is in the above picture in the right upper corner; a Twitter friend for a long time I've only known by her handle until a few weeks ago.

Amy, my coworker for 11 years, who sat by my side in the lab every morning and was always so sure I’d make it in publishing, even when I wasn’t.

Jane, the representative of my Internet moms group. We’ve been together since August of 1996, a group of gals all due to give birth in April of 1997. It’s an amazing story of friendship, but most of us are still together as an online group and we still share our ups and downs together. Jane brought with her some wonderful gifts from my very, very thoughtful friends.

It was also nice to meet new friends. Lloyd Kelly of Nelson Education, Five Star’s Canadian distributor, not only drove all the way out from Scarborough, but he brough boxes of extra books to make sure we had enough. He helped us get set up and then even contributed some of the pictures taken that day.

It was a busy, nerve wracking (public speaking and I are not comfortable with each other) but fun day. Thanks to all who came out and all who helped make the day a wonderful experience!

It’s Release Week!

Two partners. Six years of writing. Five practice novels. Six beta readers. Four kick-ass critique team members. One hundred and forty-six queries. One agent (query #136, so persistence pays off!). One editor. Eighteen gazillion edits.

It’s finally here—DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT releases this week in hardcover! The date is officially June 5th, but Amazon started sending out last week and I'm already hearing from readers who read it and loved it.

It feels like it’s been a very long time coming but it was all time well spent. From querying, to edits with Nic, to edits with Gordon, to copy edits, to the cover art, it’s all been a process of constant forward motion. And in our opinion, it’s been worth the wait to do it right. When the final hardback copies arrived on my doorstep last week, I knew for sure we’d done it right.

So the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries officially begin. What’s next in the series? We’ve just finished a novella to be published in the fall of 2013—NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL. And then the second full length novel—A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH—releases in May of 2014. In the meantime, Ann and I plan to draft the third novel in the series over the summer and deliver it to our editor in the fall. So there’s a lot more of Matt, Leigh and the team to come…

Where can you get the novel, you ask? Well, I just happen to have some handy-dandy links right here. *wink*

Amazon.com

Amazon.ca

Amazon.co.uk

Barnes and Noble

Chapters.indigo.ca

Not sure if the novel is right for you and want to give it a spin before you buy? The first three chapters are available to preview here.

From both Ann and I, thanks to all who have helped us on this journey. And it’s just the beginning. Hang on, it’s going to be a fun ride!

Cover Reveal: MALICIOUS MISCHIEF by Marianne Harden

I'm thrilled to be part of a group of bloggers who are helping Marianne Harden reveal the cover of her upcoming debut - MALICIOUS MISCHIEF (October 22, 2013; Entangled: Select). Marianne is not only a fantastic writer (and I can honestly say this, having been one of the MALICIOUS MISCHIEF's early readers) but she is funny. On top of that, I consider her one of my writing sisters, and she's going to be my partner-in-crime at Bouchercon this year (look out, Albany, here we come!).

In celebration of this momentous event, Marianne is giving away a $25 gift card to the book retailer of the winner’s choice, so be sure to enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And now, without further ado, here is Marianne's fantastic cover!

Book Summary:

Career chameleon, Rylie Keyes, must keep her current job. If not, the tax assessor will evict her ailing grandfather and auction off their ancestral home. When a senior she shuttles for a Bellevue, Washington retirement home winds up dead in her minibus, sticky with a half-eaten s'more, head clad in a cellophane bag, and a pocketed complaint letter accusing her of driving by Braille, her goal to keep her job hits a road bump.

The deceased was thought to be a penniless Nazi concentration camp survivor with a silly grudge against Rylie. However, the victim has enemies who will stop at nothing to keep their part in the murder a secret.

Forced to dust off the PI training she's kept hidden from her ex-detective grandfather, Rylie must align with a circus-bike-wheeling Samoan to solve the murder, all while juggling the attentions of two very hot police officers.

Excerpt:

~When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty~

Am I a flake? Sort of. But I’m trying to change. My grandfather has property tax issues, and what troubles Granddad, troubles me. Good thing I’ve held down a steady job for months. A major big deal. Not the getting a job part—I’ve had lots—but the held down aspect. Somehow, I always end up unemployed, but not today.

Today, I am Rylie Tabitha Keyes, chauffeur to the seniors at Fountain of Youth Retirement Home (FoY.)

It was dawn Sunday as I eased my employer’s van from one freeway onto another. After that, I concentrated on the wet asphalt up ahead. I didn’t want to think about my job history or our financial woes. Instead I focused on the summery sunrise over the Cascade Mountains due east. I stared at it a moment, charmed by its contrast to the more typical Bellevue, Washington gloom brooding overhead.

I should’ve been asleep, but I needed to toss trash from a fundraiser rolling around in the back of the van. Leland Rosenberg, my boss at Fountain of Youth Retirement Home, had asked me to dump the bags at his second business, Rosenberg Laboratory, as FoY’s Dumpsters were full from a recent bathroom remodel. His mood had been edgy, kind of insistent I dispose of them last night. I confess, before I could carry out this task, a minor traffic accident and an all-important overnight obligation had waylaid me. I didn’t bother to sigh over how blunders always seemed to pepper my work performance. Some things were fated to be. After all, I slogged at my job for money not joy. It isn't that I don't like working at FoY, it just isn’t my dream gig. You see, I yearned to be a private detective, a Veronica Mars 2.0. Problem is, my grandfather is against the idea. Dead set against it.

So with the stench from the trash bags mounting, I steered FoY’s van onto the off-ramp and headed toward Rosenberg Laboratory just off the freeway exit. My mind was filled with thoughts of a steamy shower, maybe a few hours of shut-eye before punching the clock at nine. I stared forward, squinted. And iced over. Up ahead. Wrong-way traveling. A panel truck advanced, peeling rubber.

Faster.

Closer.

Zeroed in to hit me.

I whipped the van off the road, the red, white, and blue panel truck whizzing past. I slammed on the brakes, fighting to control the wheel. I wrestled with it, panicked, my mind flashing on one fortunate thing: no seniors were in the van.

Tons of hazards burst before my eyes. I struggled to absorb them. A mangled guardrail zigzagged up ahead; its many gaps from other out-of-control vehicles big as life. Worse was the wall of giant Douglas-firs growing beyond, lower trunks scarred, limbs low and swaying.

I was going to careen through the railing.

I was going to hit the trees.

I was going to die.

Book Links:

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16129273-malicious-mischief

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Malicious-Mischief-Mystery-Entangled-ebook/dp/B00BMKKOGM/

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/malicious-mischief-marianne-harden/1113749209

About Marianne: 

Marianne Harden loves a good laugh. So much so, she cannot stop humor from spilling into her books. Over the years she has backpacked through the wilds of Australia, explored the exotics of Asia, soaked up the sun in the Caribbean, and delighted in the historic riches of Europe. Her goals in life are simple: do more good than harm and someday master the do-not-mess-with-me look. She divides her time between Switzerland and Washington State where she lives with her husband and two children.

Find Marianne:

Website: www.marianneharden.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/MarianneHarden

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorMarianneHarden

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6572367.Marianne_Harden

Forensic Case Files: Guatemalan Genocide

Guatemala was once home to an advanced Mayan civilization that flourished from about 250 C.E. to nearly 1000 C.E. Their declining civilization was overrun by the invading Spanish in the 16^th century. Conquered by weapons of modern warfare and devastated by European diseases, the Mayans became the Guatemalan peasant and labouring class to the Spanish upper class. But not even invading Europeans would wreak as much death and destruction as Guatemala’s own government in eighteen months between March 1982 and August 1983.

Coffee production is one of the Guatemala’s main industries and was heavily invested in by Americans during its infancy in the early- to mid-20^th century. Large coffee plantations were run by the white upper class, while the indigenous Mayan population worked the fields. As a result, a large gap formed between the police-protected white populace and impoverished natives.

During the 1940s and into the 1950s, successive governments made great strides in improving conditions for the native populations, but a C.I.A.-facilitated coup in 1954 overthrew the existing government due to the rumoured threat of Communism. A military dictator was installed to lead the country and this became the style of government for the next several decades. During that time, several guerilla factions rose up to threaten the government, leading to the Guatemalan Civil War (1960 – 1996). The government’s response was to deal quickly and violently to any guerilla threat.

In March of 1982, General Efrain Ríos Montt overthrew the government in power and installed himself as President. His views regarding the guerilla resistance were very clear: “If you are with us, we’ll feed you; if not, we’ll kill you.” Officially, he ordered paramilitary ‘death squads’ out into the mountains with the intent of discovering and killing guerilla soldiers.

But something much more tragic took place. Over the course of the next year and a half, 669 massacres occurred at Mayan villages. Death squad soldiers would wait until the village gathered together for a celebration or market day, and then the entire community was targeted under the guise of harboring guerilla rebels. Peasants were shot, stabbed or bludgeoned to death. Many had their limbs amputated. Some were impaled and left to die slowly, or doused with gasoline and set afire. Women and girls were raped, the elderly were slaughtered, babies’ heads were smashed against poles, and children were thrown into mass grave pits of the dead and buried alive. Afterwards, soldiers took or killed the livestock, destroyed crops, fouled the local water supply, and desecrated any sacred places. Then they burnt what was left of the village to the ground. It was true ‘scorched earth’ warfare. Those fortunate enough to flee to the mountains were hunted by soldiers with the goal of exterminating the entire village. Hundreds of thousands of displaced peasants became refugees.

More than 200,000 native Mayans were murdered and another 50,000 ‘disappeared’ during that eighteen month period. The Mayan population refers to this time as the ‘Silent Holocaust’—when villagers were killed simply due to their ethnicity, not because they supported any rebel faction. The government supported their actions with the claim that the Mayan communities had organized, allied with the guerillas, and were working towards a Communist coup.

In 1994, FAFG, the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation started out as a small group of forensic anthropologists and scientists dedicated to the goal of uncovering the dead from this atrocity. In 1995, those five scientists began their first exhumation aided by massacre survivors. Currently the group numbers more than ninety and FAFG scientists are considered to be the world’s experts on mass graves. They have assisted in exposing other massacres, such as Srebrenica following the Bosnian War. They work to discover and exhume mass graves, recover human remains, determine the traumatic cause of death, and attempt to ID the victims based on skeletal structure and associated grave goods.

Shortly after the exhumations began, the U.N. investigated the Guatemalan genocide. In 1999, they finally released a report detailing horrific human rights violations by the military as ordered from the highest levels of the Guatemalan government.

In 2009, the National Security Archive presented a report citing President Montt and his military of carrying out genocidal assault against the indigenous Mayan population. Part of their supporting evidence was a ‘death squad diary’, outlining the disappearances, tortures, and executions starting in the summer of 1982 and continuing into 1983.

For the very first time, a previous head of state is on trial by the justice system of his own country for crimes committed within that state. Currently 86 years of age, and decades after his time in office, Efrain Ríos Montt now stands trial. So far, more than 70 witnesses for the prosecution have testified to the atrocities.

Unfortunately, the trial has been plagued by procedural and technical errors. On May 10, 2013, Montt was convicted of ordering the deaths of 1,771 Mayan peasants and sentenced to 80 years in prison.  But on May 20, that ruling was overturned based on ‘illegal proceedings’—Montt had fired his attorneys on April 19^th and was left without a lawyer for a short period of time while the trial proceeded. Guatemala’s constitutional court ruled this past week that the trial should have been halted until Montt had lawyers in place and that all court proceedings must roll back to April 19^th and start again. All witness testimony up to that time will stand, but the final weeks of the trial now must be repeated.

Guatemala stands as the only modern genocide in the Western Hemisphere during the post-World War II era. One can only hope that justice will be done, but it will be a small consolation to the Guatemalan people, many of whom still mourn those lost during the massacres.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Writers—Share Your Self-Publishing Tips!

Ann and I finished our novella this past week-end. A part of our ongoing Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries series, NO ONE SEES ME ‘TILL I FALL (working title), will publish in the fall of 2013, between DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT, publishing in 2 weeks(!), and A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH, scheduled for May 2014. With our publishing house’s blessing, we’re self-publishing this title; however, as self-publishing newbies, we have many questions. But we know that many of you have already gone down this road to great success, so we’d love to learn from the masters.

Our crit team is going to be going over the novella this week and then we’re lucky enough to have our editor from both DEAD and FLAME on board to freelance this project for us. So we believe we’ll be producing a quality product that’s up to standard with our full length novels. But our questions lie in how to go about actually getting the project out there, and we’d love to hear what worked for you.

Some questions we already have are:

• Formatting the manuscript—is this a relatively easy process? Any tips on formatting or file types?

• How easy is it to get one work out on all platforms?

• Did you use a distributor like Smashwords or Bookbaby to assist in distribution? Was it worth it?

• Did you do your own cover design? If not, can you recommend someone who did a great job for you?

• Is it worth it to buy an ISBN for your title?

• What do you think of the Kindle KDP program?

As newbies, there may also be other things we’re not thinking of, so if you have tips in any other areas, we’d love to hear those too. Writers, please share with us!

Photo credit: Appsmanila

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The Final ARC Giveaway!

This is it! It's the very last Goodreads giveaway for an ARC of DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT! Enter here: http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/53543-dead-without-a-stone-to-tell-it

Never Lose The Spark That Makes You YOU

Last month, my brother, Mychael Danna, held a fundraiser at our family church to celebrate his Oscar win. A packed crowd of 400 people came to hear him talk about his roots in Burlington, Ontario and his life as a film composer. A question and answer period concluded the evening. The final question of the night was asked by a student from Wilfred Laurier University who had made the trip out to see Mychael.

Her question: What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out in film composition?

His answer: Don’t lose the spark that makes you YOU.

He went on to explain that he gets demo CDs in the mail all the time and nearly every one of them sounds like John Williams (Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark); nothing made them stand out as original. He encouraged her to cultivate that part of her that made her sound original because it would make her stand out from the crowd.

It struck me that his advice applied to writing as much as composing. Each author brings something specific to the table. In our case, it was our combined backgrounds in and mutual love of science that gives our series its realistic forensic angle. Sometimes it’s tempting to look at someone successful—Stephanie Myers, Nora Roberts or James Patterson—and try to emulate their writing or storytelling style in an effort to harness their success. But it simply doesn’t work. To let your spark free, you have to write the book that’s in your heart, not someone else’s.

In many ways, this is like another futile effort—following the market. You see that the current hot trend in fiction is Amish goblins, so that’s the book you write. Except that most books take 2 – 3 years from concept to publishing, so by the time your book about Amish goblins comes out, the market has passed you and hobo erotica is the hot topic now.

Author Marianne Harden and I have had this conversation a few times. We both write mysteries—Marianne, hysterical cozies set in the Pacific northwest starring Rylie Tabitha Keyes, and myself, forensic police procedurals. We know we’re not writing in the hottest of genres right now; to do that we’d be writing urban fantasy, paranormal romance or erotic romance. But we agree that this is where we should stay as it’s not only where our strengths lie, but it’s also what we love to write. If you try to force yourself to write something simply for the market, that special spark you bring to your prose could easily be extinguished.

Part of the authoring life is about paying it forward. Most of us receive help from those who have gone before us; and then we, in turn, help those who come after us. And in helping those who are still learning their craft, we should always encourage their individuality. A new writer could be the next J.R.R. Tolkein, but if they try to slot themselves into the wrong genre or style, we may never see their talent bloom. And it would be a shame to miss out on that kind of brilliance.

Photo credit: Jessica Newton

Forensic Case Files: Cannibalism in Jamestown in the Early 17th Century

Jamestown, Virginia was settled on a swampy peninsula in 1607, making it America’s first permanent English colony. The soggy ground was considered un-farmable by the local Powhatan native tribes, and was rife with malaria-carrying mosquitos. But the lack of local inhabitants and a defensible position—the peninsula is surrounded by two rivers and Chesapeake Bay—made it ideal from an English perspective for the planned location of Fort James.

Initially, interactions between the local Powhatan tribes and the English were good—the natives provided food and hoped to continue to do so in trade for European metal tools. But the English, finding that the land truly wasn’t suitable to farm, especially after 1608’s poor harvest, couldn't produce enough food on their own. They attempted to force the natives to provide more food than they had even for themselves. The resulting conflict led to native raids on the fort and, eventually, to the Anglo-Powhatan War of 1610-1614.

The winter of 1609-1610 was especially brutal, and is referred to as ‘the starving time’ in historical records. The lack of food, ravaging disease, and attacks by the Powhatans led to dire conditions. By the time help finally arrived in May of 1610, only 60 of the original 500 colonists were still alive, and the fort was less of a military installation than a charnel house.

Writings of the time tell of cannibalism in the colony—including a husband who murdered his pregnant wife, and then salted and ate her flesh, a crime for which he was later executed. But no recovered remains provided evidence to support these tales. Until last week.

Archeologists were excavating what was essentially a 17^th century garbage heap in the a cellar of a dwelling inside the remains of the fort when they unearthed a human cranium, lower jaw and some shattered leg bones scattered among horse and dog bones. Dr. Doug Owsley, a forensic anthropologist with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History was called in to examine the remains. Long-time readers of this blog may remember Dr. Owsley as the forensic anthropologist who examined the remains of the unknown Union solider discovered in 2008 at Antietam. For the first time, Dr. Owsley was able to substantiate historical records, describing the discovering as ‘very strong evidence’ of cannibalism.

Kerfs from several tools are clearly visible on the bones of the skull. Chops from a hatchet or axe tentatively score the forehead, and then more substantially mar the back of the head as the attacker gained confidence and used more force. Knife marks on the cheeks and jaw show where muscle was sliced from the bone. The left side of skull is missing—tool marks from a pry bar on the remaining bone attest to the fact that the cranium was shattered when it was forced open to extract the brain. Blessedly,the regular nature of the kerf marks reveal that there was no struggle; most likely, the victim was already dead.

Forensic anthropology reveals clues about the victim of this horrific act—she was young, probably about fourteen years of age from the analysis of the skull, teeth, long bones and from epiphyseal fusion at the knee joint. Strontium analysis of the bone has determined that she grew up in England and arrived in America mere months before her death. She likely died of starvation or sickness in the first months of 1610, and, shortly thereafter, met her final fate at the hands of another colonist. Researchers have christened her ‘Jane’.

Most colonies did not last for even a year in the New World, so, in many ways, Jamestown is a story of persistence and survival during the worst of times. Sadly, it was at the cost of too many lives, some of them lived in desperation as the few remaining colonists struggled to hold on at all costs, buoyed by the faint hope of spring and the sight of a supply ship on the horizon.

Photo credit: Carolyn Kaster/AP