Lessons Learned From a TV Interview

Last Thursday I had the chance to appear in my first TV interview on a Toronto cable program called Writers and Readers on the Rogers television network. As a writer who definitely prefers to shelter behind her keyboard, this was a pretty stressful adventure for me. As far back as I can remember—all the way back to elementary school presentations—I’ve been terrified of public speaking of any kind (yes, I’m one of those people who would list public speaking above death on the fear scale). But my Canadian distributor extraordinaire, Nelson, was kind enough to set up the opportunity for me, and I was determined to do it.

So what did I learn from my first TV experience?

You’d be surprised at how many times a lapel microphone has to be put on or adjusted. Right side or left side? Wireless transmitter attached to your back pocket or belt? Is the transmitter on? Is it muted? I was repeatedly checked for that outside and then again inside the studio.
The lights aren’t as hot as you’d think they’d be. I’m familiar with stage lighting from many, many high school concerts and productions, and it’s nothing like that.
You aren’t going to be asked anything for which you don’t already know the answer. You’re there to promote your series; no one is going to ask you about your peace plan for the Middle East or for the chemical formula for titin, the protein with the longest formula known to man.
When asked a question, don’t answer ‘yes’ and leave it at that or you’ll drive your host to distraction. He’s opening a door for his guests to talk about their work, so expand upon all your answers.
Be yourself. I might consider 20 years of studying HIV and dengue virus to be run of mill because I’ve done it for so long, but others will find it an interesting experience compared to what they do in their own day jobs. Tie your own experiences into your writing so viewers will see why what you do is interesting.
A good host goes a long way to make you comfortable. Tom Taylor, an author himself of the War of 1812 Brock series, went out of his way to make his guests feel comfortable. He reviewed some of the questions he’d be asking before we started so there wouldn’t be any surprises. At each break in the taping, he was very encouraging. And when the interview was over, he grinned and said ‘now your nightmare is over’. Oh yes, he knew that this was a new and stressful experience.
Everyone is there to support you, so just relax and enjoy the experience.

The show won’t be airing for about another 5 or 6 weeks, but I’ll be interested to see the final result. Many thanks to Tom for hosting me and the wonderful Lloyd Kelly and Pat O’Neill from Nelson for introducing me to the wonderful world of television!

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On a more sober note, our regular readers will remember that a few weeks ago we covered the hidden bodies discovered at the Dozier School for Boys in Florida and the allegations of abuse and murder at the reform school. Since then one of the surviving students has contacted us and would like the opportunity to tell what life at the school was like from his perspective. Please join us next week for that very special blog post.

Photo credit: Tom Taylor and Rogers TV

Forensics 101: Forensic Dentistry

Following last week’s post about determining a victim’s age at the time of death using their teeth, it seemed appropriate to take a brief look at the field of forensic dentistry (also called forensic odontology). Here on Skeleton Keys, we tend to focus more on forensic anthropology as that is the science of Dr. Matt Lowell of the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries, but forensic dentistry is an important field that is often used in conjunction with forensic anthropology.

Forensic dentistry is the application of the practice of dentistry in criminal investigations. Often, the type of remains that leave investigators requiring the services of a forensic anthropologist may also benefit from a forensic dentist, and the two scientists will often work cases side-by-side. Forensic dentists work by comparing antemortem (before death) dental records and x-rays with post-mortem (after death) remains. They are often involved in mass casualty incidents when remains are too decomposed, damaged or fragmented for more standard identification procedures like fingerprinting or DNA.

In 2010, when I attended the Bloody Words mystery conference in Toronto, I was fortunate enough to sit in on a lecture from Dr. Ross Barlow called ‘Teeth Talk: The World of Forensic Dentistry’. Dr. Barlow had been involved in the identification efforts following the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami that devastated South Asia. Forensic dentists were called in to assist, not because of the initial nature of the remains, but because of the sheer number of bodies (130,000 in Indonesia alone), and the inability to refrigerate the corpses in the tropical heat. Decomposition became a major complicating factor, so skeletal component identification was one of the most successful methods of identification.

Victim identification is the overwhelming task of a forensic dentist, comprising approximately 95% of their cases. But forensic dentists contribute on multiple levels to criminal investigations:

• Victim age at time of death: As mentioned last week, aging a victim based on tooth eruption and development.

• Bite mark assessment: Bite marks are common in cases of aggravated assault and abuse. Forensic dentists assess and compare the marks on a victim with the bite pattern of a potential assailant. Also, while the field of veterinary forensic science (including odontology) is in its infancy, human forensic dentists are often involved in criminal prosecutions resulting from dog attacks and the prosecution of dog-fighting rings to match dog bite marks to individual dogs.

• Identification of remains: Identification is based on both common and unique gross tooth characteristics, as well as past dental work, including fixtures and fillings.

• Identification of fire-damaged remains: During extensive fire exposure, the front teeth are the first to be lost. Tooth enamel dehydrates and sloughs off the dentin. But identification can be determined in severely damaged remains by antemortem root canals and matching antemortem fillings.

• Race determination: As we discussed when covering race determination from skull attributes, the incisors of people of Asian or native descent are shovel-shaped with ridges on the rear surface of the tooth. Those of white or black descent, have blade form incisors with a flat profile.

Like forensic anthropologists, forensic dentists are often called in to view the most badly damaged or decomposed remains. Working with investigators, they can indicate or confirm identification, or assist in trauma assessment. In mass casualty disasters, such as 9/11, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis or plane crashes, they may be the only ones able to identify the dead, giving them back their names, and allowing their families much needed closure.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Its giveaway time again! Stop by Goodreads until Thursday night at 11:59pm for the chance to win a signed ARC of A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH. Enter here!

Forensics 101: Determining Age at Death Using Dentition

When it comes to unknown victim identification, there are three main pieces of information a forensic anthropologist can contribute to an investigation—sex, race, and age at the time of death. In some cases, time since death can also assist in narrowing victim identification based upon reports of the last time the victim was seen alive. Previously, we’ve covered various ways to determine the victim’s age at the time of death based on epiphyseal fusion or the adult pelvis, but several other methods exist and are also in use. One of the least sexy—but most useful—ways to determine age at the time of death is to use the victim’s teeth.

This method relies on the fact that, throughout childhood, baby teeth are lost and new teeth erupt according to fairly predictable developmental time points. Even more so than epiphyseal fusion, tooth loss and gain holds to a more rigorous chronological schedule.

There are four notable time periods of tooth development in growing children:

• Deciduous baby teeth emerge during the first two years of life.

• The first two permanent incisors and the first permanent molar emerge between 6 and 8 years of age.

• The majority of the remaining permanent teeth erupt between the ages of 10 and 12 years of age.

• Wisdom teeth tend to erupt around 18 years of age.

In addition, the development of permanent teeth within the skull before eruption occurs can help indicate age. This can be clearly seen in x-rays taken by a coroner or medical examiner.

Using dentition to age adults is a more challenging practice. Once the wisdom teeth have erupted, only morphological changes within the teeth indicate age differences. These changes can include:

• Tooth root translucency increases with age, independent of periodontal damage.

• Dental wear on the teeth; this tends to be a predictable variable within populations.

• Ratio of the amino acids D-aspartic acid to L-aspartic acid in tooth dentin. The L form of any amino acid is the mirrored structural image of the D form. Amino acids begin in the L form and convert with age to the D form, so a preponderance of the D form indicates increasing age. 

Especially in children, the use of dentition can be very helpful in victim identification by minimizing the estimated age range. Used in conjunction with other methods, such as epiphyseal fusion, forensic anthropologists can be quite exact in providing age related information to investigators.

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It’s giveaway time! I’m giving away a signed ARC of A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH, so be sure to enter for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And watch Goodreads starting on Friday for another chance at a giveaway here! (Please note, this link won’t be active until Friday, but I’ll remind you again next week!)

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons (skull section) and Wikimedia Commons (developing teeth)

Forensic Case Files: Hidden Bodies Discovered at the Dozier School for Boys

The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida was at one time the largest juvenile reform school in the United States, housing up to 564 boys in the 1960s. Founded in 1900, the school went through a number of identity changes over the years—first called the Florida State Reform School, then the Florida Industrial School for Boys (1914), later the Florida School for Boys (1957), and finally the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys (1967) named in honour of a past superintendent of the school.

Rumours of inhumane treatment of the inmates plagued the school from the very beginning. An inspection in 1903 reported some boys being kept in leg irons, and, in 1934, a boy sent to the school on a trespassing charge died a mere 38 days later. Hundreds of more recent allegations detailed years of beatings, forced labour, rape, and the murder of troublesome inmates. Many boys simply disappeared after arriving at the school, no trace of them alive or dead ever discovered. Amid a storm of unproven accusations and controversy, the state of Florida permanently closed the facility in 2011.

But public outcry persisted and families demanded answers about their missing relatives. Thirty-one white metal crosses marking the graves in the school cemetery didn’t account for all the missing children. Confusing and incomplete school records meant that investigators were not even sure of the exact number of bodies buried in the cemetery.

University of South Florida forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle became interested in the project, in part because of the inadequate record keeping at the school—very unusual for most state institutions. In 2012, Kimmerle and her team used ground penetrating radar and cadaver dogs to prove the existence of at least 50 sets of remains buried on school property, many located under current roads or overgrown trees, far distant from the marked cemetery. A full investigation of the property began in August 2013.

Excavations of the school grounds began in the fall of 2013. By the time the dig closed three months later in December, 55 bodies had already been recovered. Anthropologists estimate that the bodies date from the late 1920s to the early 1950s. All the remains were found in coffins or associated with coffin artifacts—nails or other hardware, and one with a brass plaque reading ‘At Rest’. Some small artifacts of life at the school were also recovered; one boy was even found with a stone marble still in his pocket.

Forensic scientists will attempt to determine cause of death from the skeletal remains, and DNA from the recovered remains will be sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification. Investigators are asking for living family members of missing students to come forward and provide DNA samples for reference and comparison.

Although the first dig is complete, University of South Florida anthropologists are planning to resume work in the spring of 2014. They believe the site holds the remains of more missing boys, and maybe even a second unmarked cemetery. Their search will continue until investigators are satisfied that all the lost have been recovered. Although the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was unable to substantiate the multiple claims of abuse while the school was open, they are hoping that this time the dead will be able to speak for themselves.

Photo credit: Robert Straley

Forensic Case Files: The Black Death Revisited

We're thrilled here at Skeleton Keys to be named as one of the “Forensic Science 2.0 - Top 100 Websites to Bookmark”. ForensicScienceDegree.org has compiled a list of 100 forensic sites that each adds its own perspective to the field of forensics. We're thrilled to be included as #70 in this unranked list!

And now, on with this week’s post!

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The Black Death devastated Europe in the mid-14^th century when it wiped out more than 50 million people, over half the population of the time. It forever changed the face of monarchies, politics, commercial trade, and society.

But what caused this catastrophic disease? The long standing popular belief has been that it was the bubonic plague, caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis). One researcher claimed to have proof of the pathogen, but, for many years, no one was able to confirm these results. As a result, only anecdotal evidence supported the bubonic plague theory, and since many gravesites have been lost to time, there were no definitive remains to test.

Last year, we covered the discovery of Black Plague victims in London. At the time, we wrote that researchers at the Museum of London planned to extract tooth pulp from some of the Black Death victims in an attempt to sequence the genome of the fatal pathogen. As the plague pathogen only infects the soft tissues of the body, the dehydrated internal soft pulp of the teeth and any residual blood therein, protected over the centuries by calcified dentin and enamel, would be the only remaining soft tissue associated with the remains; the rest of the skin and muscle would have long since decomposed. It was these remains, as well as remains recovered from a burial ground in East Smithfield, originally located just outside of London’s walls, that would be used for testing.

Just this past week, I learned that one of the researchers involved in this project is a professor at my own workplace. Hendrik Poinar, an evolutionary biologist and the head of McMaster University’s Ancient DNA Centre, used his expertise dealing with ancient samples to assist the researchers at the University of London with their tooth samples. The Poinar lab notably recovered and sequenced DNA from wooly mammoths over 10,000 years old, so they had high hopes for only 700-year-old bacterial DNA.

The teeth were shipped to McMaster and members of the Poinar lab extracted DNA from the ancient tooth pulp. Amazingly, they found sequences that matched the DNA of modern Y. pestis. For the first time, science had definitive proof of the presence of Y. pestis in a Black Death victim.

Not content with mere confirmation, the team set out to reconstruct the entire Y. pestis genome. This wasn’t simply a scientific exercise. They were on the trail of a pathogen that annihilated half the population of Europe, something that the modern strain would be unable to do. Modern bubonic plague can be fatal, but if it is caught within the first two days, it is very treatable with something as basic as tetracycline, an early antibiotic in use since 1948. Also, modern plague is not easily transmissible between humans, whereas the Black Death of the 1340s spread like wild fire through the human population. So what were the differences between the ancient and modern strains?

With the help of Dr. Johannes Krause of the University of Tűbingen and using the modern Y. pestis genome as a template, they reconstructed the entire ancient genome. When the two strains were compared, they found 97 differences between them. Work is ongoing to determine how these changes could account for the variance in pathogenicity and spread.

Some alternate theories to explain the differences between the strains have also been proposed. In a second study where Italian remains were examined, genetic remnants of Clostridium tetani, the bacteria that causes tetanus, were found along with the plague pathogen. This raises the question that the rapid spread of the 14^th-Century might be related to a co-infection of Y. pestis with another pathogen.

Another question raised from these studies, considering the huge death toll, is what conveyed protection to the 50% of the population that survived? Was it lucky avoidance, or was there a genetic component that allowed the survival of so many? If so, it would be interesting to compare the remains of plague victims versus survivors. Such results could have significant implications on modern plagues like HIV and small pox—and, as such, certainly deserve additional studies of their own.

LATE BREAKING NEWS! As I readied this post for publication, a breaking news story was brought to my attention. In recent experiments with 6^th-century victim remains from the Plague of Justinian, Dr. Poinar identified that a separate but equally devastating strain of Y. pestis was responsible for that plague. In 541 A.D., the Plague of Justinian swept through Asia, Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe, killing an estimated 30 – 50 million people. But the two plagues, separated by over 800 years, share the same type of pathogen as their cause. In creating the oldest known genome for Y. pestis, this team of scientists will now be able to compare Dark Age to Renaissance samples in an effort to discern the intricacies of their killing power. Only through study of these fatal pathogens will scientists discover how to avoid a similar catastrophe.

Photo credit: bionicteaching and Wikimedia Commons

An Advance Peek at A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH!

With the turn of the new year, we’re coming up on the release of the third installment in the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries – A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH. Today, we’re pleased to be able to share some of the fantastic advance praise we’ve received for this book as well as offer a sneak peek and the first ARC giveaway.

Kirkus Reviews is often regarded as the hardest to please of the big four book review sites, so we were delighted by their positive review of DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT last year. Kirkus published their review of A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH today, and we’re thrilled that they called it ‘a tricky mystery rich in intriguing suspects and forensic detail.’

We’ve also had a select group of early readers, and they’ve been generous in their praise of the book:

Never do the explanations outweigh the narrative of the story. They enrich it, cleverly woven into the narrative and ever moving Abbott and Lowell closer to solving the case… Sound structure, sound narrative, and sound writing. You don’t pay your nickel and take your chances with this series. You pay your nickel and get great reading. – Kathy Boone Reel of The Reading Room.

Exquisite attention to detail is a running theme in the Abbott/Lowell novels… Danna and Vanderlaan have hit their stride with this second full length installment of the Abbott/Lowell series – Jane Fletcher

Very good writing, very descriptive details, and a likeable cast of characters will leave readers, including me, clamoring for more. I predict that this will be a long and successful series. – Judi Simecek

I am spellbound when reading these books. The characters are well drawn, and with each book, we learn more and more about them. I feel like I know them; like I've been with them in the field. – Michelle Swann

I cannot get enough of Leigh and Matt. The dynamics of their professional and personal relationship is incredible and I found myself unable to put down this book, finishing it in less than 24 hours. – Alanna Pfeifler-McKee

I have to say that the authors are doing a bang-up job with this series. I'm hooked. – Lorraine Reguly

If you’re interested in their full reviews, you can find them here on Goodreads.

Looking for a sneak peek at the book? Now, for the very first time, you can find Chapters 1 – 3 here for an advance taste of what is to come!

A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH is available for pre-order from the following sites: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes and Noble and Chapters.Indigo.ca

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To celebrate FLAME’s upcoming release, I’m giving away two signed ARCs starting today until 12:00am on January 28^th. It’s open to anyone from Canada, the U.S. or the U.K., so enter today!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

A Flame in the Wind of Death

by Jen J. Danna

Giveaway ends January 28, 2014.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

An Afterword for NO ONE SEES ME 'TIL I FALL

Normally, Skeleton Keys blog posts are produced similarly to our books—I write the post and Ann edits it. But this week we’ve switched places. Following the publication of NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL, Ann wanted to write an afterward for the novella to bring to light the stark reality of what life is like for Afghani women in their supposedly ‘modern’ world. I agreed that it would be a meaningful addition, but I also wanted to share it here on the blog so it might reach a larger audience. For those who have not read NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL, Hoor is the victim for whom Matt, Leigh, and the team are determined to find justice.

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After writing Hoor’s story in America, we decided to examine the current situation of Afghani women 12 years after the post-9/11 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

In December 2011, 13 year-old Sahar Gul was discovered locked in her in-laws’ basement in Baghlan. Five months earlier, she had been purchased from her stepbrother for $5000 and forced into an illegal marriage. When she refused to consummate the marriage or work as a prostitute, her new family burned her with hot wires, tore out her fingernails, pinched and twisted her skin with pliers, and starved her. When found, she was barely clinging to life.

Lawyers from the organization Women for Afghan Women (WAW) obtained convictions of attempted murder for Sahar Gul’s mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and father-in-law—each was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Those verdicts were upheld on appeal in May 2012.

In June 2013, the Supreme Court of Afghanistan sent the case back to the appeals court, stating that the torture inflicted did not rise to the level of attempted murder and should only have been prosecuted as assault. The appeals court agreed, overturned the convictions, and released all three defendants in early July. That same week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai appointed five new commissioners to the government’s Independent Human Rights Commission. One of his new appointees was a mullah, an Islamic scholar, and former Taliban government official who was detained by the American military at its Bagram prison for three years.

In 2009, the Elimination of Violence Against Women law (EVAW) was implemented by presidential decree. It bans twenty-two harmful practices against women and girls—including rape, physical violence, forced or child marriage, and the denial of rights to education or work. At that time, a U.N. panel reported that an estimated 70–80% of all rural marriages were forced, and nearly 60% occurred before the woman reached the legal age of 16 years.

Between October 2012 and September 2013, 650 incidents of violence against women and girls were reported in 18 Afghan provinces by police and prosecutors, an increase of 28% over the previous year. But only 109 of those incidents were prosecuted under EVAW—a 2% increase over the previous reporting period. During the same time period, however, the Afghan Department of Women’s Affairs recorded an additional 1,019 incidents of violence. This suggests that many cases of violence against women are either unreported to police or adjudicated by a jirga—an assembly of local elders who act as informal dispute-resolution mechanisms in the absence of a formal justice system. In most cases women are returned to their marital homes.

Women and girls who run away from home to flee domestic abuse are sometimes charged with the crime of “attempted zina”. Zina is an Arabic term referring to the prohibition under Shari’a law of engaging in sexual intercourse outside of marriage—a Hudood crime for which punishment is mandatory. Without proof of fornication, zina becomes a Ta’zir crime where arrest and prosecution occurs based upon presumed intent. Local police and judges in some rural provinces continue to imprison women for this crime unless they can prove they fled home to escape violence and took refuge with a relative or in an approved Department of Women’s Affairs shelter.

In May 2013 the Afghan parliament held a debate where portions of the EWAW law—specifically the bans on child and forced marriage, as well as restrictions to female health care and education—were criticized as “un-Islamic”. Although signed by President Hamid Karzai, EWAW has never been ratified by the Afghani parliament. In fall of 2013, the lower house of parliament passed a draft criminal-procedure code barring a female victim’s own relatives from testifying in a criminal case dealing with violence against her, making the prosecution of domestic violence against Afghan women virtually impossible. As of December 2013, the draft code is still pending a vote in the upper house of parliament.

REFERENCES:

Graham Bowley. In-Laws Sentenced in Afghan Girl’s Torture Case. New York Times. 4 May 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/05/world/asia/in-laws-sentenced-in-sahar-gul-torture-case-in-afghanistan.html

Graham Bowley. Wed and Tortured at 13, Afghan Girl Finds Rare Justice. New York Times. 11 Aug 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/world/asia/wed-and-tortured-at-13-afghan-girl-finds-rare-justice.html?pagewanted=all

Rod Nordland. Critics Question Karzai Choices for Human Rights Panel. New York Times. 1 July 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/world/asia/karzai-choices-for-afghan-human-rights-panel-raise-questions.html

Matther Rosenberg and Jawad Sukhanyar. Afghan Court Reverses Convictions in Torture of Girl. New York Times. 3 July 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/world/asia/afghan-court-reverses-conviction-in-torture-of-young-woman.html?_r=0

Marisa Taylor. Afghan Law barring violence against women stalls, UN says. Al Jazeera America. 8 Dec 2013. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/8/afghan-law-barringviolenceagainstwomenstallsunsays.html

United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. A Way to Go: An Update on Implementation of the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan. Kabul, Afghanistan December 2013. http://unama.unmissions.org/Portals/UNAMA/Documents/UNAMA%20REPORT%20on%20EVAW%20LAW_8%20December%202013.pdf

Manizha Naderi. World must stay engaged in Afghanistan, or hard-won progress will be erased. Women for Afghan Women. 17 Dec 2013. http://www.trust.org/item/20131217101107-37h5z/

Photo credit: isafmedia

Using Pinterest To Provide Additional Content For Your Readers

Everyone has their likes and dislikes when it comes to social media. I prefer Twitter – if you can’t say it in 140 characters, don’t say it at all. I pretty much hate Facebook and view it as a necessary evil—the privacy issues and the clunkiness of being forced to have two pages so you can have a hobbled business page pretty much drives me insane. But I LOVE Pinterest. Pinterest is where the pretty is and you can find value there no matter where your interests lie because its users are so diverse and creative.

While I started using Pinterest because I liked looking at beautiful nature pictures, classic architecture, gorgeous doorways, and just generally awesome stuff, I realized that it would be a great platform to add some extra content for our readers.

• Our main characters – Want to see who we used as the physical inspirations for Leigh Abbott and Matt Lowell? Have you always wondered what gun Leigh carries, what kind of sights Matt sees every day at work, or where they both live? It’s all on display in the Leigh Abbott and Matt Lowell boards.

• Our settings – I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Boston and Salem on a research trip for each book, so I’ve been able to capture the locations where each story occurs—the salt marsh from DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT, the bridge from the final struggle in NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL, and the Salem Witch shop in A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH.

• Our books – Each book is summed up pictorially on its own board, from the book cover as soon as it’s revealed, to relevant clues and locations. Curious about what the crypts under the Old North Church in Boston look like? There are pictures from my tour on the DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT board. The board for NO ONE SEES ME 'TIL I FALL highlights some of the smaller Massachusetts towns that are a part of the story. Or if you want to get a hint about the upcoming adventures of Matt and Leigh in A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH, it’s all there on FLAME’s board.

I’ve also recently added material for the fourth book in the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries – TWO PARTS BLOODY MURDER. That board contains the site of the cold case that sets the whole story in motion, a look back at life during Prohibition, and the site of the final climactic confrontation atop High Rock Tower. So if you’re curious about Matt and Leigh’s newest case, stop by to take a look!

How do you guys feel about extra content of this kind? Does it complement the reading experience for you or does it interfere with your own mental imagining of a fictional world?

Breaking a Promise to the Reader

Before we start into this week’s blog post, we wanted to announce an e-novella promotion this week. From December 17^th – December 19^th, NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL will be FREE! So if you wanted to try out the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries, this is your chance to do so, risk free. You can find it here: NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL.

And now onto our regularly scheduled blog post. . . .

**This post will contain spoilers for Veronica Roth’s ALLEGIANT. If you would prefer to remain unspoiled, then please skip this post.**

I recently finished the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. First of all, let me say that I’m not a regular YA reader. I’ve read some of the big ones—like THE HUNGER GAMES—but I have two teenagers at home and don’t need any more teenaged angst in my life, especially not in my reading material. So, by and large, YA doesn’t do much for me (it’s never good when you want to grab the protagonist by the shoulders and shout ”Snap out of it!”). But DIVERGENT got a lot of buzz so I admit I was curious, even though I came to the series late. I enjoyed DIVERGENT, and moved right on to INSURGIENT. I then had to wait about six months before I got to ALLEGIANT. But I watched friends who were extremely invested in the series get more and more excited as the release date for ALLEGIANT approached and then arrived. Then I watched them implode when they actually read the end of the trilogy. One friend even said she spent an entire evening sobbing. I know what investment in a fandom is like, and I know what it’s like when that investment crumbles because the storyline goes in a direction you can’t stomach. So I really felt for her, but from a writer’s point of view, I was more curious than ever about what exactly happened.

Now that I’m finished the book, I think what it essentially comes down to is that a promise was made to the readers and Ms. Roth and her editors broke that promise (which is totally within their rights to do, but this is the fallout as a result). Making and keeping promises to the reader is one of the points the Writing Excuses team comes back to again and again—when you make a promise to your reader, even if it wasn’t overt, you should absolutely keep that promise.

So where did Ms. Roth go wrong from that perspective?

• She killed off her main character: The first two books in the series were first person narrated by Tris Prior. Hers was the only head we were in. Four/Tobias played a major part in the book, but only through Tris’ eyes. The third book started with dual POVs between Tris and Tobias. From a writer’s perspective, this clearly looks like a tool to allow the story to continue once Tris was killed with 20% of the story still to go. For me, this was the biggest promise broken. Normally, when you have a book written in the first person, as much trouble as that character might encounter, you know he/she is essentially safe or else the story cannot continue. The promise made in the first two books was that Tris’ life was safe. She might be injured or emotionally damaged, but she couldn’t be killed. Dual POV’s in the last book solved that little inconvenience. This is on scale with killing off either Matt or Leigh in our series, and, for us, this is absolutely forbidden. It’s like watching the TV show Castle—yes, Rick and Kate may get into trouble and we’ll go on the rollercoaster ride with them, but we never actually think either of them could die as it would kill the premise of the show (as an aside, the only showrunner this doesn’t hold true for is Joss Whedon. With Whedon, all bets are off and no single character is safe, something the community understands). Clearly, Roth’s readers felt a promise had been made and then shattered with Tris’ death.

• The romance ended as a result of that death: For many readers, the main draw of the series as a whole wasn’t the conflict between the factions or the great overarching story with the Bureau; it was the developing relationship between Tris and Four/Tobias. That relationship was fully realized in the final book, just before Tris’ death. The readers were given what they wanted, only to have it cruelly snatched away, leaving Tobias destroyed and alone at the end of the story. Honestly, I’m not sure what most readers would consider the greater blow, Tris’ death, or the end of the Tris/Tobias romance, but I suspect it's the latter.

• Hated characters were allowed to live: This issue is totally wrapped up in the concept of emotional justice. While Tris died, the brother who betrayed her lives on in her place, and Tobias’ abusive father is not only unpunished but goes free. Peter, a cruel compatriot of both Tris and Tobias, essentially gets a ‘get out of jail free’ card when his memory gets reset—essentially giving him a clean slate—and David, the man who kills Tris, while having his memory reset, remains in charge at the Bureau. It doesn’t feel like there was enough emotional justice in this book. Uriah’s death was handled emotionally and well (better than Tris’, truth to be told), but other than that, the deaths that occurred and the lives that were saved didn’t seem even remotely balanced.

Did Ms. Roth make a mistake in concluding the series this way? Not necessarily. As an author, it’s her prerogative to write the story in her heart. But from the readers’ perspective, I’d say she made a significant mistake. If you look at her reviews on Amazon, she has 1,283 one-star reviews vs. 1,193 five-star reviews. Of the one-star reviews, a very large number of them say that they’ll never pick up another book by Ms. Roth again, nor will they go see the upcoming DIVERGENT movie. Whether she meant to or not, Ms. Roth made certain promises to her readers, promises she did not keep. Because many readers are “once-burned-twice-shy”, this translates into sales and future writing potential. From the author perspective, I know I wouldn’t be able to do that with our characters. Abbott and Lowell readers, let me assure you, they are in safe hands!

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Ann and I are going to be taking a couple of weeks off to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the season. Best holiday wishes from us to you, and we’ll see you in the new year!

Forensic Case Files: Ritualistic Dog Burials Discovered in Peru

In November, archeologists in Peru working on a cemetery dig contained within Lima’s zoo discovered not only human remains, but also the remains of 137 dogs, estimated to be approximately 900 years old. The dogs had been carefully laid beside their human counterparts to accompany them into the afterlife.

Archeologists suggest the animals were buried with their owners as part of a ritualistic ceremony. The dogs were of a variety of ages and health conditions, some showing distinct signs of disease, but were buried with special offerings like vegetable rope and reeds. The current estimate of dating the burial is based on the development of the cultural use of vegetable rope between the second and sixth centuries, but carbon dating will be used to more precisely date the remains.

Much like the way ancient Egyptians honoured their cats, this act of ritualistic burial is seen as the early Peruvians’ way of honouring their beloved dogs. Most of the dogs were wrapped in cloth bundles, often called mummy bundles, and were laid in the graves in various resting positions.

Peruvian archeologists are currently raising funds to continue their research in an effort to develop a more accurate interpretation of their culture.

Photo credit: Reuters and EFE

Report from the Writing Trenches – December 2013

November was truly an insane month, finally wrapping up a few days into December as we hit our big deadline yesterday. I’ll be back next week with a forensics post for you as I get back into the regular swing of things, but I thought it was time for a report on my recent writing life:

Early in November, I travelled to Boston for two purposes—research for TWO PARTS BLOODY MURDER and to attend New England Crime Bake as part of promoting DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT. I was fortunate enough to meet with our contact within the Massachusetts State Police, the head of the Essex Detective Unit, Detective Lieutenant Zuk. Once again, Detective Lieutenant Zuk was kind enough to answer any and all questions about police protocol, and then went above and beyond in connecting me with one of his contacts in Crime Scene Services. Once I got home, I had a fascinating conversation with Detective Lieutenant Mike Holleran about forensics in general and fingerprint analysis specifically. I also got to tour the history observatory, High Rock Tower in Lynn, the site of the big climactic scene in TWO PARTS BLOODY MURDER (see picture below).

We published Abbott and Lowell #2, NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL, on November 26th. As we blogged about last week, this e-novella is our gift to our readers during their wait between the full length novels and features a full case for Trooper Leigh Abbott and forensic anthropologist Dr. Matt Lowell. It also features an exclusive look at the first three chapters of FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH.

The advanced reading copies of A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH arrived on my doorstep immediately upon my return from Boston, so Ann and I are now busily proofing the galley before it goes into print in the spring. We’re also setting up our street team, who will be helping us spread the word about this release in return for early, complimentary access to the ARCs.

The biggest news for us right now is that yesterday we sent Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries #4, TWO PARTS BLOODY MURDER, to our editor. We have high hopes of it seeing a spring 2015 publishing date.

This book may have been our biggest challenge ever. Normally a manuscript like this would take approximately eight months to research, write and edit. Due to wanting to write a novella with a fall publishing date, TWO PARTS was crafted in only four and a half months. It definitely stands as my most intense manuscript to date as I continued to work full time in the lab over that period. I set a deadline for myself of 10,000 words a week, and while I didn’t always make my goal, we ended up only a few weeks behind by the end of the whole process, so I was quite pleased.

While I’m already looking ahead to Abbott and Lowell #5, it’s time to take a break, so that’s definitely a project for the New Year. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the holidays and actually put my feet up occasionally in the evening! :)

The Release of NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL

Today we’re thrilled to announce the release of Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries #2 – NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL, our first series novella. *opens champagne and tosses confetti*

I’ve been asked many times why we wrote a novella instead of sticking to our annual hardcover release schedule. In the end, the answer was twofold. We wanted to give our readers content while they waited the eleven months between DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT and A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH. I’m a series reader myself, and I know how hard it can be to get involved in a series and then have to wait six or twelve months for the next installment. We wanted to fill that gap with a short case that falls between the longer and more complex cases in the novels. But we also wanted to introduce the series to new readers who might be willing to try a new author in a short piece, and who might then be interested in continuing the series with us. It’s an experiment of sorts—instead of putting our money and effort into more classic marketing methods, we decided that the best form of marketing was series content because that was what our readers really wanted. As an added bonus, for the first time, the first three chapters of A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH are included to give you a taste of what’s to come in the series.

Huge thanks go to Ann who bravely volunteered to do all the formatting required (and it was A LOT!) to get the novella into proper electronic publishing format. It looks great, and I had absolutely nothing to do with it. :)

We wanted to include a sneak peek at the novella with the first chapter below (please don't mind the lack of indents; HTML likes to strip them all out...). Enjoy!

NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL

  CHAPTER ONE: EXPOSURE

Exposure: a measure of the amount of light hitting the surface of a light-sensitive photographic material while creating a latent image.

Friday, 1:37 p.m.

Boston University, School of Medicine

Boston, Massachusetts

Massachusetts State Police Trooper Leigh Abbott hesitated at the open door to the laboratory. Her gaze instantly found her onetime partner—Boston University forensic anthropologist Dr. Matthew Lowell—huddled with his graduate students around an examination table across the room. Tall and dark, his physique spoke of long hours spent at the oars out on the Charles River, and he stood a full head above his students, except long, lanky Paul Layne. The discussion was too quiet for Leigh to hear distinct words, but there was a thread of remorse in Kiko’s tone, followed by cool logic in Matt’s. Between Juka and Paul, she caught a glimpse of smooth ivory bones on the stainless steel table. The group was hard at work, examining human remains recovered from the charnel house beneath Boston’s historic Old North Church.

Guilt coiled with anticipation in her gut. It had only been a few weeks since she’d first interrupted their work to pull them into a case. And yet here she was, proverbial hat in hand, once again.

She tapped two knuckles against the door frame.

Matt looked up from beneath the slightly shaggy hair that tended to fall into his eyes—a tactic she knew he employed to hide the twisted scar that ran from near his right eyebrow into his hairline. His expression warmed as their eyes met. “Trooper.” He raised two fingers to his temple in a brief salute, the formality of the gesture tempered by a wide grin. “This is a surprise.”

“Can’t I just drop by the lab?” As Leigh approached the group, Kiko Niigata, Matt’s senior grad student, stepped aside, making a place for her at the table. The group closed ranks around her, bringing her naturally into their circle. “What are you working on?”

“More remains from the charnel house,” Kiko, a slender woman with delicate Japanese features, pointed to the tiny, anatomically-arranged skeleton, topped by a blossom of skull fragments.

“It’s a newborn baby who probably died during childbirth, possibly along with its mother.” Juka Petrović, stocky and solid, with the dark coloring of his Bosnian ancestors, gave her a short nod of greeting and a small smile. Always restrained, Juka’s acknowledgement was the equivalent of the exuberant Paul greeting her with a trumpet fanfare.

“What happened to the skull?” In her peripheral vision, Leigh could see Paul’s expression of cocky expectation, his gaze fixed on her face as if trying to read her mind. He knows something’s up.

Matt picked up a tiny, gently curving piece of bone rimmed by ragged edges. “Nothing sinister. The fetal skull is actually comprised of forty-four unfused pieces. It’s the flexibility of the unfused skull that allows passage through the birth canal. Later in life, the progression of skull fusion helps us determine age.” He set the bone back into place in the human jigsaw puzzle. “Kiko’s going to do the skull reconstruction, and then try to give our baby a face.”

Kiko stroked an index finger over the curve of a tiny eye socket. “It’s going to be a tough reconstruction because of all the suture lines, but Matt’s willing to let me try.”

Matt patted her shoulder. “It always bothers you to work with kids.”

“And babies are the worst.” She frowned down at the table. “So many died so young back then.”

“Enough with the small talk,” Paul finally exploded, drawing everyone’s eyes. “You have a case for us, don’t you?”

Leigh’s gaze shot to Matt as confusion and then suspicion streaked across his face. She closed her eyes, guilt suddenly weighing heavily across her shoulders. She’d known there was a good chance Matt would misconstrue her arrival, especially considering the very private dinner they’d enjoyed last week—a dark restaurant, a good meal, fine wine, and a warm goodbye to end the evening. An evening his students and her sergeant were totally unaware of. “Well, now that you mention it . . .” she said weakly.

Matt stepped back from the exam table, his eyes narrowed as he considered her. “I should have seen it.”

“Seen what?”

“You.” One extended hand panned down, then back up her body. “This isn’t a social call. You’re in cop mode—hair tied back, plain business suit, sensible shoes, no jewelry.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest and Leigh felt the space between them grow wider even though neither had moved. “I guess I called it right after all. What have you got for us, Trooper?”

Guilt started to dissipate as irritation rose. She knew how well they worked together . . . once they struggled to get on the same page. “Now don’t go getting all out of sorts before I’ve even had a chance to bring you up to speed.”

“I knew it!” Paul fist-pumped the air. “We’re back, baby!”

“You really have a case for us?” Kiko asked. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. Interested?”

“Damn straight.” Paul did a quick-footed hip-hop shuffle. “We’re back to crime fighting. Cool!”

Leigh turned to Juka to find his gaze fixed on Matt, as if trying to temper his own response based on his supervisor’s. “Juka? Are you willing to help out?”

The young man shifted uncertainly from foot to foot. “I’d be interested in another case. But only if Matt is. This should be his decision.”

“I agree,” Kiko said. “I’m happy to get involved again, and I know we were a valuable part of the last investigation. But this has to be Matt’s call. He’s the one who’ll end up in court as the expert witness at the end of the case, not us.”

Taking a deep breath, Leigh faced Matt. His hazel eyes were fixed unblinkingly on hers and his face was carefully blank. “So . . . can I give you a rundown on my new case?” she asked cheerfully. She tried to match her words with an enticing smile, but it slipped when he continued to silently stare. “Matt?”

Instead of answering, he took her arm, drawing her toward his desk and out of earshot of his students. “You had this planned all along didn’t you? You were going to use my students as leverage to get me on board. You knew they’d be interested, especially Paul. And you banked on their enthusiasm to drag me in whether I wanted to or not.” He turned his back to the young people across the room, the only privacy afforded in the big, open lab. “Couldn’t you have trusted me with the truth? I don’t like games, Leigh. After all we’ve been through, I expect better from you than this.”

Her head bowed, she rubbed a hand over the back of her neck, trying to ease some of the prickly stress suddenly lodged there. “I’m not playing games. I just really need your help. And I felt desperate enough to try to force your hand.” She looked up when his hand closed over hers, pulling it from her neck to hold it in his, his thumb softly stroking over her skin.

“Then just ask me.”

His gentle tone had her blinking up at him in surprise. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Even after the last time?” Their successful first case together had brought them very much to the attention of the media and her superiors. But this wasn’t the essence of her question—there were personal elements in play here they were both aware of, even if they seldom spoke of them.

Her gaze flicked up over his dark hair where a new scar joined the others cruelly carved into his flesh. “You got shot, hit on the head, and then we were both nearly killed by a maniac. And all those victims. Not to mention I practically blackmailed you into coming on board in the first place by threatening to take the case to a rival anthropologist.”

“You didn’t blackmail me.”

She grimaced. “Actually, I did. I knew walking into the Old North that you didn’t like Trevor Sharpe, so he was my last ditch ace-in-the-hole if you wouldn’t sign on voluntarily.” She tried to tug her hand from his, surprised when he didn’t let go in disgust, and then shocked when he gave a short bark of laughter. “You’re not mad?”

“How can I be mad when it got us here? Even I have to admit you were very resourceful. You knew what you wanted and went after it using any and all means at your disposal.” He gave her hand a quick squeeze and then surreptitiously dropped it. “But next time, why don’t you just pick up the phone. By this point, we can cut right to the chase. Now, how about you fill us in?”

They rejoined the group, the three students watching them warily until Matt said, “Leigh’s going to tell us what she knows. Then I assume we need to get out to a site right away? They’re holding it for us?”

“Yes.” She loosed a long sigh, her first relaxed breath since setting eyes on her victim. She pulled her notepad from her blazer pocket, flipping it open to the relevant details. “A call came in over the tip line yesterday reporting a body dumped in Lawrence’s municipal landfill.”

“A call? From who?” Matt asked.

“People don’t usually leave their name on the tip line. Anonymity is the whole point. But it sounded like a girl.”

“How do you find a body in a landfill?” Juka asked. “That must be a huge endeavor.”

“Clearly they’ve found it or Leigh wouldn’t be here,” Matt interjected. “I’m betting they used a cadaver dog.”

“Got it in one. They searched all yesterday afternoon without one with no luck. So this morning they brought in two dogs. One found the body stuffed in a garbage bag near the surface.”

“I bet it blended right in like that.” Paul pushed a hand through his dark blond hair, making it stand up in small spikes. “Without the phone tip, it might never have been found.”

“It was clearly a recent addition, but would have been completely buried in another day or two. I was called in and I only needed one look to know that I needed you guys.”

“There’s no way the body’s in good shape,” Matt said. “Was the bag sealed?”

“It was until the local cops cut the bag open to confirm they had a victim.”

Matt winced. “We need to move fast then. Birds and bugs infest dump sites in a big way.”

“I left several officers with the remains, keeping the birds away.”

“Bugs are the bigger contaminant at this point.” Matt quickly moved through the lab, pulling equipment off shelves and out of drawers. “Get your field kits. Full Tyvek and sampling supplies.” He glanced at Leigh. “I’ll throw in coveralls for you too. You can’t go rooting through garbage dressed like that.” He paused for a moment, tapping an index finger against the benchtop. “I suspect a body bag might not do it for this one. Paul, you know that really big plastic transport container?”

“The one stored down the hall?”

“That’s the one. Get it. We’ll need it to hold the body bag.” He turned back to Leigh. “Call in a morgue van. If we transport the body in my SUV, I’ll never get the smell out.”

“They’re already on alert and waiting for my call. And you’re right. I don’t think a body bag will do it.”

Matt stopped short, glancing back over his shoulder at her. “How bad is it?”

Leigh had spent the last hour trying to forget what she’d seen inside that plastic bag. “I’d use the word ‘soup’ but then I might never eat lunch again.”

Matt nodded as if this was what he expected, and continued gathering his things and stuffing them into a backpack. “The body won’t necessarily have been there long. Heat produced by landfill sites combined with warm weather and possible direct sunlight would turn the bag into an oven, speeding up decomp. It’s going to be a putrefied mess. But that will probably save us maceration time.”

Guilt and some of the stress lifted from Leigh’s shoulders as she watched Matt and his students efficiently move around the lab, getting ready to start a new case.

Together they’d stopped a killer who’d flown below the radar for years, until she’d joined forces with Matt and his team. After the case ended, she thought their work together was done. But it looked like she was wrong.

The team was back.

NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL is available today on Amazon for the Kindle. But you don’t need a Kindle to read it—the free Kindle app for PC, Mac, Android, and iOS products is available here. And if you enjoy the novella, we’d love it if you reviewed it on Goodreads and Amazon. Happy reading!

High Concept Writing

I’m back from a crazy week of travelling for my jobs as both an author and a scientist. A week ago, I attended New England Crime Bake in Boston, combining the conference with an opportunity to do some final research for TWO PARTS BLOODY MURDER. One of the panels I attended was on high concept writing, and I wanted to share some of that content here.

One of the most interesting parts of the panel—which consisted of five authors (Robin Cook, Hallie Ephron, Chris Knopf, Daniel Palmer, and Len Rosen, moderated by Ray Daniel)—was that they had a hard time even describing the idea of ‘high concept’. It’s one of those things that everyone wants, but has a hard time putting into words without using an example as the entire description.

In basic terms, high concept should encapsulate your story in a single sentence, in a way that makes your reader say Ohhhhh… Essentially, you’re explaining the hook of your book without actually talking about it, in a length that could be easily contained on a cocktail napkin.

So what exactly do they mean by this? Robin Cook, the author of Outbreak, Critical, and Contagion, summed up his breakthrough novel Coma like this: Bad doctors in bad hospitals. He then explained that at the time (1977), most doctors were represented by the likes of Marcus Welby, so this was the antithesis of the current mindset surrounding medical professionals.

So what are some examples of high concept, that thing that no one knows what it means, yet everyone wants? Michael Crichton is considered the king of high concept, so let’s look at several of his works to get the idea:

Jurassic Park— Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park, and the entire world can visit them for a price… until something goes wrong.

The Andromeda Strain—A deadly extraterrestrial microorganism threatens to annihilate human life.

Sphere—A group of scientists investigate a spaceship discovered on the ocean floor.

The ultimate form of high concept writing encapsulates the idea in only a few words in the title—Snakes on a Plane—or in even a single word—Sharknado. Without hearing details about the story, the title encapsulates the hook. Granted, even having a catchy high concept title isn’t a guarantee of success—Snakes on a Plane never earned out at the box office.

Bottom line—is a high concept something that every book needs? Absolutely not, especially if you are writing literary fiction. But if you are writing fiction with that pop you love in some of your favourite thrillers or action/adventure movies, you may want to work on this kind of hook. Then before you know it, your novel may be the next high concept idea showing on your local IMAX screen.

Photo credit: Universal Studios

See you next week!

I had the best of intentions to have a blog post for you all today. But a day after flying back from Boston's New England Crime Bake and while packing for Washington D.C. for the day job, I simply didn't have time to pull one together. Today I'm flying to D.C. for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene conference where I'll be participating in a big international meeting for our dengue fever project.

Next week, I'll be back with the first post based on content learned at New England Crime Bake. See you then!

Photo credit: lreed76

Forensic Case Files: Roman Warriors in London

The London Cross Rail Project has previously brought historical remains to light, including the Black Death Plague victims we covered last spring. Recently, the oldest remains to date were unearthed nearly three metres below the surface—those of Roman warriors found in a drained riverbed under the Liverpool Street railway and underground station. The twenty skulls are believed to have been washed down the Walbrook River from a previously discovered Roman burial ground upstream.

The Walbrook—one of London’s 'lost rivers' that now runs completely underground— used to divide the city of London into the east and west sides, starting in the modern day district of Finsbury and running south before draining into the Thames River. A crucial water system during Roman Londinium times, the Walbrook was not only a transportation system; it also delivered fresh water to the city and carried away waste to the Thames. However, it was paved over in the fifteenth century to allow for better transportation through a growing metropolitan city with an ever increasing population.

Archeologists surmise that the Walbrook may have eroded the land around the old Roman cemetery under Eldon Street, washing the skulls downstream. The skulls were discovered at a bend in the old river, where they became lodged. Trapped in the soft mud of the riverbank, the skulls remained remarkably well-preserved. A number of Roman-era pottery shards in equally good condition were recovered with the skulls. The fact that only the skulls of the dead have been discovered could be due to several factors: Due to their shape, skulls tend to travel further in rivers as they can be rolled along by the downstream water flow. But these may have been decapitation victims, the act of severing the skulls from the body allowing for easier transportation to a new location.

Additional dating is yet to be completed, but archeologist estimate that the skulls are from the third and fourth century A.D. since this is when Roman burials were common, as opposed to cremation, which was the common practice before the second century A.D. Forensic anthropologists will study the remains to determine age and sex.

As the project continues, it is expected that additional Roman-era remains will be found, expanding on the current understanding of Roman life in early London.

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 I’m off to Boston on Thursday for research for several books and to attend the New England Crime Bake, so I’ll be back with a report on that conference next week.

Photo credit: BBC News

Cover Shoot and Reveal for NO ONE SEES ME ‘TIL I FALL

The second instalment in the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries releases November 26th as an e-book. We wrote this novella to bridge the gap in publishing between DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT and A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH. Matt and Leigh’s second case together occurs very soon after their first in the timeline. As an added bonus, the first several chapters of A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH will follow the novella itself as a taste of what’s next in the series.

Since Ann and I are self-pubbing this series entry, we also decided to tackle doing the cover ourselves. No easy task when we’re fitting into the framework of excellent existing series covers:

Luckily, my eldest daughter is currently in the second year of her Bachelor of Applied Arts in Photography program and she offered her skills and artistic eye—as well as the school’s professional studio—to produce the cover.

We did the cover shoot last week. My youngest daughter was kind enough to be our model, so it was a real family affair. Here are a few behind the scenes shots from the cover shoot in progress.

Model positioning and lighting set up:

The moment that turned into the final shot:

After the shoot came post production. I knew the shot I wanted as soon as I saw it, but we needed to play around with the possibilities of full colour versus black and white:

While we wanted to convey the starkness of the victim’s plight, we decided that black and white was too monochromatic. In the end, we decided that a desaturated version of the full colour photo best conveyed our theme.

Then came cropping, image correction, and adding authors’ names and the Abbott and Lowell series banner. We decided on a title font that had a touch of Sanskrit flow to it, and we were done.

We’re proud to present our final result:

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.

So what do you think of our new cover?

We’re in the finishing stages of putting together a mini street team for this release. So if you read and loved DEAD, would like to get early, free access to our material and would be willing to write reviews on the book for Amazon and Goodreads to help create buzz, please let me know and I’d be happy to add you to our list!

Photo credit: Jessica Newton Photography

Gone Fishing...

This glorious picture by the über talented hpaich pretty much sums up the life of leisure I'd like to be experiencing this week. But, in reality, Ann and I are in the final week of finishing up Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries #4 - TWO PARTS BLOODY MURDER - so we're taking a week off from blogging to slave away on our manuscript.

But stay tuned on Wednesday of next week for a very special guest post as writing bud and fellow Seymour Agency author Marianne Harden launches her debut humorous mystery - MALICIOUS MISCHIEF.

Photo credit: hpaich

Crafting the Perfect Villain

Snidely Whiplash

I’m back this week with more craft tips from Bouchercon 2013. This week, I'm covering the panel on crafting the perfect villain with authors Barbara Fister, Michael Dymmoch, Steve Hamilton, Joe Lansdale, Jon McFetridge, and Helen Smith. Michael Dymmock started off by reminding the audience that the villain is the hero of his own story, always a good point for any writer to keep in mind when you’re trying to create a real and believable character. Of course, in some cases, the villain or antagonist isn’t even a person—instead it could be the forces of nature or a deadly pathogen—but for the sake of simplicity in this blog post, I'm only talking about a human antagonist.

How can we craft effective villains that don’t cross the line into unbelievable caricature? The panel offered some tips and aspects to consider:

• Some villains are simply pure evil, but another angle on a good villain is to create one that readers actually like and then are sorry to see caught.

• It’s important to understand the other side. We need to understand evil to be able to write it convincingly. Most of us can—just because we understand what might drive a person to horrific acts, doesn’t mean we’d ever actually act on those impulses ourselves. But being able to empathize to a certain extent allows us to write a compelling character. Try writing from the villain’s perspective to help create that empathy and make your villain multidimensional.

• Bad guys don’t always know they’re bad. It’s all a matter of point-of-view: what seems evil to one person, might seem like a minor offence or a totally justifiable action to another. Sometimes it’s about the spectrum of shades of gray. Real villains are also well-rounded. You may have a villain who is hell bent on destroying your hero, but who supports local charities. Full bodied characters are multidimensional.

• Good can be a sliding scale and sometimes the good guy is only slightly less bad than the bad guy. Multidimensional characters and complex storytelling is interesting, and only rarely can you convincingly write a single-mindedly bad guy like Snidley Whiplash opposing a purely good guy like Dudley Do-Right. Heroes like Dexter are questionably ‘heroic’ and are often only a few notches above the antagonist on that sliding scale.

• Craft your villain to suit the scope of your story. A big city villain may have a larger than life personality, but you may want to create a more subtle character in an intimate small town (unless, of course, you want your villain to stand out like a sore thumb right from the very first page).

• Make it all about internal emotions, not external characteristics. In other words, an eye patch doesn’t make a villain. It’s how that character feels about the eye patch and why he has to wear it that might push him over the edge to villainy.

• If you’re having trouble creating a believable villain, pick someone you know and exaggerate their characteristics. This grounds the character firmly in reality but pushes them towards extreme behavior.

Thanks to the authors on this panel for a fascinating discussion and some very solid advice!

Pacing as a Writing Tool

My recent trip to Bouchercon in Albany was enjoyable not only from the aspect of an author meeting her readers, but also as a writer who is always looking to improve her craft. Just because you’re a published author doesn’t mean that there is nothing left to learn. So I made it a point to attend several panels on writing craft.

One of the panels I attended was on pacing. Authors Toni Kelner, A. X. Ahmad, Daniel Friedman, Michael Kardos, Dale T. Phillips, and Julie Pomeroy discussed the finer points of pacing stories, specifically in crime fiction. It was an excellent panel, so I wanted to cover some of their ideas here.

Unlike literary fiction, crime fiction authors needs to get into their story immediately and escalate quickly from there. The panel authors shared many of their tips and tricks to crafting a well-paced and exciting storyline:

• The sliding scale of pacing depends on specific subgenres. Cozy mysteries are expected to have a slower pace than thrillers, and police procedurals tend to have a slow, stately buildup as the case progresses. Write according to the basic rules of your subgenre.

• Even when the pace of the story is rapid, both the story and the readers need time to breathe. A story that goes at breakneck pace for the entire novel may actually leave readers feeling exhausted rather than breathless with anticipation. Good stories give the protagonist moments to reflect on what is happening to him, rather than doing nothing more than constantly reacting.

• Pacing can be the by-product of a good plot. An exhilarating and intriguing story will naturally keep the pace moving without needing superfluous Michael Bay-like explosions to artificially ramp up the tension.

• If you’re going to blow up something, don’t do it on page one before the reader has a chance to connect with your characters because they simply won’t care. Once they know and love your characters, putting them in jeopardy as a natural part of the plot will pick up the pace and keep the reader turning the page.

• A pacing tip: Start your story in motion. Have your character on the move, hurrying from place to place, or in the car. This gives a sense of urgency right from the opening line.

• Add a clock. Nothing ramps up the tension like a life or death deadline or a ticking clock à la 24.

• Alternate scenes to pick up the pace. This is a film trick directors often employ. Change up POV and scene locations in short cuts to increase urgency.

• Use high stakes to propel your story and give it energy.

• Pacing doesn’t always equal action. Use dialogue instead as it can be loaded with emotional stakes for your characters

• Short chapters can give the impression of speeding up your storytelling and will keep the reader flipping right to the next chapter.

• As the recently deceased Elmore Leonard is famous for saying—leave out the parts people skip.

Hopefully, you’ll find these tips as helpful as I did. In the next writing post, I’m going to cover the excellent panel on creating the perfect villain.

Photo credit: -cavin­-