Debbi Mack interviews crime and thriller writer Dana Haynes on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. And, once again, we have a transcription of the show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. Debbi (00:02): Hello everyone. My guest today is an award winning journalist who spent more than 20 years in Oregon newsrooms. I like that. He is not only a thriller novelist, but also a screenwriter. In fact, his first screenplay, an adaptation of his first thriller novel Crashers made the Nicholl Fellowship semifinals in 2005. That's pretty impressive. It's my great pleasure to introduce thriller author, screenwriter, and Pacific Northwest native, Dana Haynes. Hi Dana. Thanks for being here. Dana (01:16): Hey, it's good to be here. Debbi (01:18): I'm so glad you're with us. Oregon is just a beautiful state and Portland's an awesome town. Do you do a lot of signings at Powell's? You know, back when you could do signings? Dana (01:31): Yes, we are incredibly fortunate to have many good independent bookstores in the Portland metropolitan area. We have several, so I will do one at the Powell's downtown or the Powell's in the suburbs or at Annie Bloom's. We are very, very fortunate to have this ring of independent bookstores that go from the coast up into the mountains. Dana (01:49): And it's one of the blessings of being in Oregon, how many independent thriving, independent bookstores we have. Quick story. My wife and I went to Powell's the other day on a Saturday and everybody stood outside six feet apart and everybody had masks on, everybody was patient and they're on the phones. You finally got to go in. The lines inside were very, very long. Nobody was kvetching, nobody's complaining. The luxury of having a bookstore, a world-class bookstore like that in the heart of downtown is something we just don't ever kvetch about. Debbi (02:18): I think that's awesome. That is so awesome. I love it. All of it. I'm interested in how you decided to branch out into writing thrillers from journalism to thrillers. What brought you from one to the other? Dana (02:33): I'm not sure it was that order because my father was a huge fan of thrillers. And so when we were growing up, Dad would read books that he thought were exciting and terrific, and he burst into your bedroom and throw them on your bed and say, "You've got to read this!" My father was a high school basketball coach. They talk like that. Quick, you got to read this. And so early on I was reading Gunga Din and Beau Geste and The Four Feathers, and I was being brought up with those stories cause my dad thought they were incredibly cool. So when I was, this is a true story. When I was in high school, I thought I was either going to have a career in journalism, which was my first love or as a novelist writing the kind of stories my dad would read, and lo and behold, I'm doing them both. I'm the most fortunate guy in the whole world. When I was in high school, I thought I was either going to have a career in journalism, which was my first love or as a novelist writing the kind of stories my dad would read, and lo and behold, I'm doing them both. I'm the most fortunate guy in the whole world. Debbi (03:17): That's fantastic. That's really wonderful. And you're doing screenplays. At least one, Dana (03:25): Not successfully. But they're great fun.

Debbi Mack interviews crime and suspense writer Sandra Woffington on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. And, once again, we have a transcription of the show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. Debbi (00:12): With me today is an author who, along with her Wine Valley Mystery series has written a standalone set in Saudi Arabia and a middle grade fantasy book, both of which have been shortlisted for awards. Her Wine Valley mysteries are also available in a box set that became a number one Amazon bestseller upon its release. That is amazing. I'm pleased to have with me today author Sandra Woffington. Hi, Sandra. How are you doing today? Sandra (02:14): Hi, Debbi. I'm good. Thank you for inviting me to the Crime Cafe. I'm happy to be here. And I wanted to tell you, I love your intro music. It really sets the mood for crime. Debbi (02:24): Thank you so much. Yeah, because I happened to find this music. I don't know if it was on the Mac or, or through YouTube, but I happened to find it and I thought, wow, that's just perfect. Sandra (02:37): It is perfect. Debbi (02:38): Well, thank you. Thank you very much. And thanks for being with us. At some point I'm going to sit down and figure out how many authors come on here who have traveled to interesting places because I seem to be collecting them. It was after you married that you moved to Saudi Arabia with your husband, correct? Sandra (03:00): Yeah, he was already there. We actually ... Wild story, but I was on a tour of Europe for a month in, I was 21 and I met him in a disco in Lucerne, Switzerland. He was there on business from Saudi Arabia, even though he was American. And then I went back to California, he went back to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and then we got to know each other through letters and met once in New York, which was about halfway and then decided to marry. And then I moved to Saudi Arabia. Debbi (03:32): Wow. That must've been quite a change for you. Now that first novel you worked on there. That was your first novel, and it was called Unveiling? Sandra (03:45): Yes. I think what travel does for you at 21, it was, it was almost ironic because one of my favorite books growing up were the stories of One Thousand and One Arabian nights with Aladdin and Sinbad and magic, and also the wit. Outsmarting each other with the characters. And I felt like I landed there. It literally, when I was there, it was during the period of the oil boom around 1979. And it was still camels in the desert. I look at Riyadh today and it's a fast paced city, but it was quickly disappearing. And I was fortunate enough to meet Safeya Binzagr, who is a renown Saudi female artist. She actually has opened a school and a museum in Jiddah, which is on the coast. And she inspired that story because she was ... In her art, she tries to capture what she saw as her traditions and culture quickly disappearing. Sandra (04:56): I saw that, too. There were beautiful mud, still mud houses, these fantastic mud buildings with balconies. And they were all being torn down and then European visions of beauty and marble, shiny marble were being put up. And when we took her out to see some ruins that she might be interested in painting, she took off her veils and I went, Whoa. And she had her niece with her. And it dawned on me that she's an artist and she needs her ey...

Debbi Mack interviews crime and suspense writer A.C. Frieden on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. And, once again, we have a transcription of the show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. Debbi (00:14): Hi everyone. Today's guest has a most interesting background. A native of Switzerland, he's traveled widely. While living in the Southern US, he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in molecular biology, two law degrees, and got his pilot's license and scuba instructor license. So I guess you could say he keeps busy, his fiction reflects much of his travel experience and his extensive research, both historical and journalistic. In addition to writing mysteries and thrillers, he's one of the country's preeminent technology lawyers. Interesting. It's a great pleasure to introduce my guest AC Frieden. Hi Andre. Thank you so much for being here. AC (00:14): It's a pleasure to join your podcast. I'm delighted. And as a fellow lawyer, it's always a pleasure as well to, uh, to chat. I think all our legal experience ends up creeping into our books in one way or another. Debbi (00:14): Isn't that the truth? I'm always amazed when practicing lawyers find the time and energy to write fiction. How do you balance your various obligations? AC (03:08): I would say that I balance it well, although I think pretty much everyone around me and my family would probably disagree with me. But it is a, you know, a time management challenge you write when you can Sometimes ideas come to your head and you have to write them down in some way quickly or they'll leave. So it's something that you, you learn to do it, it's never perfect. But at the end of the day, the drive is to get the book out. And I think that keeps you focused. Debbi (03:45): Yeah. I think that's a lot of truth in that, in what you're saying. I think that's great thoughts there. I absolutely agree getting things down when you think about them or if they're important, they'll stay there and you get them down. You know what I mean? It's like sometimes you have all these ideas, but one will kind of fixate itself in your mind? Get it down and don't worry about it being perfect. AC (04:14): And the thing is, you know, you can think of a schedule. You can think of, you can outline as much as you want, but you have to leave your mind open to things that pop up, you know, as you're writing your story. So things change no matter how much planning you do ahead of time, whether it's plot or character issues. Things will come up, you know, or your editor, the worst case is your editor find something wrong and you've got to do a lot of fixing, so that, that can happen, too. Debbi (04:47): Yeah. I agree with you completely on all of that. How many hours would you estimate you spend on research for a book versus writing it? AC (04:58): Well, I put research really into two buckets. So first there is you know, obviously the online part of the research to, you know, everything from looking at the history of a particular site that you're going to use or finding you know, details about a fictional character that you obviously want to be as real as possible. So the challenge is, you know, spending the hours online to do that research. And then for me, and I think one of the things that makes my research fun and exciting is the travel component.

Debbi Mack interviews crime and suspense writer Wendy Hewlett on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. We did it again! This week, there’s a transcription of the show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. Debbi (00:00): Hi, everyone. My guest today writes crime fiction with a hint of romance and strong female characters. So, all right. I like that. She's held a number of interesting jobs, which seems to be a trait among many writers that I know. She also has degrees in creative writing, forensic sciences, law, and security, to name a few. She has also pursued her lifelong dream of living in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is a really cool place. My guest today is crime writer, Wendy Hewlett. Hi Wendy. Thanks for being here today. Wendy (01:32): Hi, Debbi. Thanks for having me. Debbi (01:35): It's a pleasure. Believe me. You have two series as well as the book you're giving away Ailey of Skye. Is that how you pronounce it? Wendy (01:47): Yeah. Yeah. Debbi (01:49): It's short for Aileen then. Is it? Wendy (01:52): Yeah, it is. Debbi (01:53): I like that. It's my sister's middle name, and I just started the first in the Taylor Sinclair series, Saving Grace. She's a very interesting protagonist. Can you tell us more about the series and about Taylor Sinclair? Wendy (02:08): Sure. All of my characters that I write are very strong women and they become that way from the hardships that they have been through in their lives. And, and Taylor has been through probably more than most and, and of course that involves PTSD and, and overcoming that. So she's got a lot of issues and she spent most of her life living on the streets of Toronto and the first book in the series Saving Grace is her story of coming off the streets and the people that help her to do that who become very close friends, a close-knit group of three women. Debbi (03:01): Yes. Yes. What inspired you to write your first novel? Wendy (03:07): When I was in high school, my English teacher urged me to pursue a career in writing. So I went to school for journalism and I hated it. I quit at the end of the first year and the professor tried to talk me into staying. And I thought at the time it's because the grade average was going to go down because I had the highest marks in the class. But I learned years later that my sister worked with his wife and apparently didn't want me to leave because he thought I was very talented, which is a huge compliment. And I wish someone that time had said, you know, creative writing, try that. But I didn't. I waited until in 2009, I was laid off from General Motors. I was a security and fire supervisor at General Motors for a lot of years. Wendy (04:01): So when I was laid off I started doing a lot of reading and I thought, oh, I could write books like these. And that's why I started writing in 2011. And I wanted somebody that was, you know, troubled difficult just to show the strength that she gets from that. And it ended up, when people started reading my book, I started getting messages from women saying, you know, they've been through a lot of trauma in their own childhoods and how much Taylor's healing helped them to heal. And so that's become, you know, a purpose almost with my books is helping women to heal and help to empower them. I started getting messages from women saying, you know, they've been through a lot of trauma in their own childhoods and how much Taylor's healing helped them to heal. And so that's become, you know, a purpose almost with my books is helping women to heal and help to empower them. Debbi (04:45): I noticed that in your bio. I thought that was rather remarkable. And do you have a particular type of demographic in mind when you write, I hate to say, read your avatar, but do you think about that as you're writing these books? Wendy (05:01): A little bit. Yeah. I think most people do,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Tom Vater on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. We did it again! This week, there’s a transcription of the show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. I originally ran this interview on my own YouTube channel. My apologies for any variations in the sound quality. Debbi (01:55): I'm interviewing another crime fiction author. His name is Tom Vater and he's a journalist and author. So he is located in Bangkok and writes about that place and writes some very interesting stuff. So I would like to welcome you on, on the channel Tom. Hi. Tom (02:21):Thanks, Debbi. Thanks very much for having me on the show. It's wonderful to meet you on this amazing technology we're using, and it's great to talk to you. You're about six, 7,000 miles away or even more so it's amazing that we can actually do this. You at the beginning of your day and me at the end of it. Debbi (02:42): Yeah, I know. I think I've always been amazed at this sort of thing. So my assumption is that you started with journalism and went into crime writing? Would that be correct? Tom (02:56): Well, actually it sort of happened hand in hand, because the first article I ever wrote for a newspaper was in 1997, for a paper in Nepal. And while I was there, I started thinking about writing my first novel, The Devil's Road to Kathmandu, which then eventually came out in 2004. So it, it kind of happened at the same time. But but I, I would say that, you know, between the pieces of fiction, I write, there are long gaps for professional reasons. And so mostly most of the time I have a day job, I do journalism. And when I have some months off, then I can sit down and write a novel. Debbi (03:43): So you're primarily a journalist who also does crime writing. Tom (03:48): Yeah. You could say that. I also own a a small publishing house Crime Wave Press, which is a crime fiction imprint based in Hong Kong, which does mostly books. And we've published about 32 titles by all sorts of authors, many of them from the U.S. So that's, that's my other gig. So I kind of do three different things. I'm a crime fiction writer. I, I'm a very small press publisher with just one partner and I've written four crime fiction novels and a bunch of short stories. Debbi (04:22): I'm interested in the fact that you do so much stuff. I'm also interested in, in the notion of, of, of, of a journalist going into this sort of thing, because the tradition of journalists going into fiction writing is historically something I've always been kind of intrigued by, which is why I majored in journalism actually, because of my interest in writing and in fiction in general. What made you choose crime fiction in particular as a genre? [G]enre fiction kind of makes it easy to, because it's got many established rules and tropes and conventions, and, and so in that sense, it's quite conservative. So you, as a writer, there's a lot of things to hold onto when you're writing your first novel, because it has to go a certain way, if you're gonna follow crime fiction conventions. Tom (05:01): I think there's probably several things. One is genre fiction kind of makes it easy to, because it's got many established rules and tropes and conventions, and, and so in that sense, it's quite conservative. So you, as a writer,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Jessie Chandler on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. We did it again! This week, there’s a transcription of the show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. Debbi (01:44): Hi everyone. My guest today has written seven mysteries, including five in the Shay O'Hanlon caper series. Her latest book Quest for Redemption is the first in a new series. It also recently won an award, I believe. She is also the second author in a row on this show this season to be an artist as well as a writer. I'm pleased to have with me today mystery writer, Jessie Chandler. Hi Jessie. It's great to have you on. Jessie (02:16): Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. This is so exciting. Debbi (02:19): Well, this is a thrill for me. I mean so many artists and so many writers. This is wonderful. Jessie (02:26): It's a good, good thing to be in. Good area to be, a good place to be. Debbi (02:30): I think it is. Yeah. I think that graphic arts for one thing is just a fantastic area right now for many reasons. But let's see. Before we get to your latest book, tell us a little about your caper series, which you've compared to Stephanie Plum, I believe. So are you much in that kind of Janet Evanovich sort of humor? I've got a cute little old lady who loves to get in trouble with her neon high tops and her little mini backpack. She calls it her whacker to take care of people. It doesn't follow a lot of the, the romancey stuff of Janet Evanovich in any way. And it's got much more of a Midwest feel. Jessie (02:48): Sort of, yeah, a lot of physical comedy, a lot of slapstick stuff. I've got a cute little old lady who loves to get in trouble with her neon high tops and her little mini backpack. She calls it her whacker to take care of people. It doesn't follow a lot of the, the romancey stuff of Janet Evanovich in any way. And it's got much more of a Midwest feel. The big twist is the protagonist is a lesbian, which my hope in the series and it seemed to have panned out mostly so far from the reviews I've received and people talking to me that, you know, that LGBTQ people are the same as anybody else. And we have the same ups, the same downs. We have the same challenges and just, it's just a part of who she is. LGBTQ people are the same as anybody else. And we have the same ups, the same downs. We have the same challenges and just, it's just a part of who she is. Jessie (03:46): And that's been a good part of that series for me. I love to laugh and if I can dive into a book for just a few minutes, you know, I don't have a lot of time and I can read a little bit, have a good time, and then I can come back to it. That's just, it is so good. It is so good. And I don't think, especially now we have enough laughter, enough humor in our lives. There's so much serious stuff going on. So that is what, and we'll talk about that in a little bit, I imagine. Quest For Redemption is very opposite of that. It's very much darker and it was a big challenge, but I'm really excited. The next book I write will be the sixth in the Shay O'Hanlon caper series called Shanghai Murder. It goes out to Portland, Oregon, and there's some Shanghai Tunnels under the city and there's some coffee involved and some kidnapping and a little of this and a little of that. And it's going to be a lot of fun.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Karen Neary Smithson on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. We did it again! This week, there’s a transcription of the show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. Debbi (01:44): Hi, everyone. Today's guest is someone I got to know at a book signing we did it at a local diner, which just goes to show you can do a book signing anywhere that people will have you, at least back in the old days before we couldn't do things in public or in restaurants or whatever. Anyway, be that as it may I'm very pleased to have with me a guest who's a mystery author and an artist. You should definitely check out her website and not only for her books. I'm pleased to have with me, as I said, fellow Marylander and mystery author, Karen Neary Smithson. Hi, Karen. It's good to see you. Karen (02:31): Hi Debbi. I'm doing great. How about yourself? Debbi (02:33): Not too bad. Thanks. Doing, doing quite well, all things considered. And thank you for being here today. I appreciate it. Karen (02:42): Thank you for having me. Debbi (02:44): Sure thing. First of all, I had no idea until I looked at your website that you're also an artist. So art came before writing, is that correct? Karen (02:57): Yes, that's correct. Yes. I majored in college in art and art education and I was an art teacher for a number of years, so I just really want to be a painter. However, I had to be a little more practical. So, but because of that, I had a lot, I had a variety of jobs because I couldn't really get an art job. So it kind of gave me a lot of different kinds of experiences. So I'm doing a painting now and I have a couple more that I'm working on at home in my studio. So. Debbi (03:44): That's really cool that you're still painting, as well as writing. Karen (03:49): Yeah. So it's kind of a balance. It's, it's a little hard to balance it. So I'm still trying to work that out because when I'm writing, I just basically want to write. When I'm painting, I basically just want to paint, but I just finished writing a book. So I decided this summer, I was just going to focus on painting. Debbi (04:11): Well, that's really cool, because I kind of get what that's like. I do novel writing as well as screenwriting, and they're very different types of writing. So I always have to kind of balance which one I'm going to do when. Karen (04:28): Right. Debbi (04:30): Let's see. You've made some really interesting career choices. You were a child advocate, a human rights advocate and art educator. Is that correct? Karen (04:39): Yes. yes, I did those things. Yes. I worked in Florida for a nonprofit that worked for legislation for children's issues. And, in Howard County, I was the human rights commissioner for awhile. I also worked in the foster care system and I was a program coordinator for an independent living program. And then I was an art teacher. So I've done a lot of different kinds of things. Debbi (05:19): Well, that's fascinating. You probably know some of the attorneys that I've gotten to know in Howard County through your work for children. Karen (05:29): Oh, well, that was in Florida where I worked for the ... Debbi (05:35): I guess the human rights in Howard County. Karen (05:36): Researching the legislature. Yeah. Howard County Human Rights Commission. Yeah.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Ann Aptaker on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. We did it again! This week, there’s a transcription of the show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. Debbi (01:44): Hi everyone. Today I have with me a crime fiction author who has actually worked for a private investigations firm. In one of my favorite places, San Rafael, California. Umm. Northern California. She is the author of the Cantor Gold mystery novels, which have won Lambda Literary and Goldie Awards. She's written short stories and flash fiction, which is cool, but that's not all. She's also been a curator, art writer, and exhibition designer for galleries and museums. Her most recent book is Murder and Gold. My guest today is Ann Aptaker. Hi, Ann. Thanks so much for being here today. Ann (02:29): Hi, how are you? Debbi (02:31): Okay. How are you doing with all this stuff going on? Ann (02:35): I'm hanging in there, doing what we all do with nothing but time on our hands. Those of us who are authors. We write. So that's what I'm doing with myself. Debbi (02:48): I know the feeling. Yeah. Ann (02:49): I'm sure you do. Debbi (02:53): I thought it was interesting that you worked in the art world as a writer and curator, and also have a great attention to architectural and other details in your writing and really put the reader in the place that you're writing about. Think there's a connection there? Ann (03:00): There is, especially in crime fiction of the sort of my Cantor Gold books, where she is an art thief and a smuggler. She steals art. And of course, to be a good thief, you have to have a number of skills, but one of those skills is understanding architecture because you have to be able to understand how a building works so you can get in and out of it in an efficient manner without getting caught and without, you know, sending off alarms and so on. So my years as an art historian and a curator studying not only art, but also the history of architecture, my understanding at least at that level of buildings helps me helps me understand my protagonist and how she's able to steal things. She steals art. And of course, to be a good thief, you have to have a number of skills, but one of those skills is understanding architecture because you have to be able to understand how a building works so you can get in and out of it in an efficient manner without getting caught and without, you know, sending off alarms and so on. So my years as an art historian and a curator studying not only art, but also the history of architecture, my understanding at least at that level of buildings helps me helps me understand my protagonist and how she's able to steal things. Ann (04:07): And in the most recent of the books Flesh and Gold, she actually does use her architectural knowledge in, in two scenes where she has to be able to maneuver in one scene. She has to maneuver through a building and in another scene, she has to maneuver on the exterior of a building through a neighborhood. So she really has to understand how buildings work. Debbi (04:32): That's fantastic. And it really gives a person a window into what things were like then, as opposed to now. Ann (04:40): Absolutely. The books take place in the 1950s. So she didn't have a computer. She couldn't get her, you know,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Andrew Allan on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. We did it again! This week, there's a transcription of the show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. Debbi (01:43): Hi everyone. My guest is the author of the Walt Asher thriller series. He also writes Grindhouse Pulp, which we've gotta talk about. He is an infomercial writer and director. He's also into wild cult movies, making them I believe, and runs a website called Dailygrindhouse.com. My guest today is Andrew Allan. Hi Andrew. Thanks for being here. Andrew (02:11): Hey, Debbi. Thanks for having me. Debbi (02:13): Sure thing. I love your resume. I mean, your bio is just fascinating to me cause I love film as well as books. I assumed that you were an infomercial writer-director before you started writing books. Andrew (02:28): Yes. Yeah. I, my career is a little bit weird in the sense that I went to film school and then I broke into commercials while I was working on developing some movies. And then I ended up getting a job at the home shopping network, which is based here in St. Pete Florida. And it's as bizarre as everyone presumes it is, but it was a really great experience. And I learned how to do a lot of things, including sell on TV and that morphed into doing infomercials, which is selling on TV. So, and I have to say, I love it as ridiculous as it sounds, it's a great profession. Debbi (03:08): I mean, that sounds really cool actually. What made you decide to do infomercials and what prompted you to start writing books? Andrew (03:20): Money prompted me to start doing infomercials. One cause you know, we all need it and we all like it. But the real reason was like I said, I learned to basically sell on television when I was at HSN and that is a natural transition into infomercials. And when I decided to leave HSN, I knew I wanted to make my writing or sorry, make my living still writing and directing and producing commercials. And what was great about infomercials was that it was a niche. So instead of just saying, Hey, I'm a commercial writer and there's 10,000 other people I'm competing with, I decided to be an infomercial writer and you know, there's maybe 10 people I'm competing with, so now I can like authentically say I'm one of the top infomercial writers in the world and I've got a ton of experience and I've done thousands of commercials in the past decade and all that sort of stuff. (04:24) So it's, it's great. And that's how that came to be. The reason I started writing books was because for a number of reasons. One, I was creatively frustrated. I had been making movies and I had been writing screenplays, which were fun. And some of them got made, some of them didn't, but all of them required collaboration. And I had reached a point where I didn't really want to collaborate anymore, at least for a while. I needed a beather and that's even on projects that I absolutely loved. A movie that I was making with my best friend. And even then, like we would get in arguments about it and I just needed a break from that. So I wanted to do something on my own and that's when I decided to write a book, I had a story kind of kicking around that I'd never been able to turn into a script. I was creatively frustrated. I had been making movies and I had been writing screenplays,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Mark S. Bacon on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. Amazingly, this week I managed to scrape up transcription show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. Debbi (01:44): Hi everyone. Our guest today started his writing career as a police reporter, and apparently one of his stories became an important part of a big lengthy murder trial. He's also done advertising and marketing and worked as a copywriter for Knott's Berry Farm. That's a familiar name to me cause I used to live in California. Not only has he written and published three mysteries and the book of flash crime fiction called Cops Crooks and Other Stories in 100 Words, but he's written business books, including Do-it-Yourself Direct Marketing, which was named Best Business Book of the Year by Library Journal and made the Book of the Month Club. His articles have appeared in major newspapers, including my own favorite, the Washington Post, and his latest novel is The Marijuana Murders. His name is Mark Bacon. Hi Mark. Thanks again for being so patient as to wait long enough for this interview. Mark (03:17): Thanks for having me. Well, the last few months, I've just been hanging around like everybody else. Debbi (03:17): Oh yeah, yeah. That's what we're all doing. We're all hanging around and zooming. A lot of the zooming going on. Um, let's see. I love your shirt by the way. That's great. Um, very, very festive looking. Um, and uh, you have three books out so far in the Nostalgia City Mysteries, is that correct? Mark (03:17): That's right. I'm working on number four. Debbi (03:20): And that's for the series also? Mark (03:21): Correct. Debbi (03:23): Awesome. Now you said the inspiration for the series came from working at Knott's Berry Farm. Can you talk about that a little bit? Mark (03:31): Sure. Early in my career, I was a copywriter for Knott’s Berry Farm and I wrote ads and commercials, but occasionally I would get a chance to go out into the park and work on special events. And I got to meet some of the costumed employees who entertain the guests, people who wore those giant heads and people who were gunslingers and so on. And so I got to know a little bit about what it's like behind the scenes at a theme park. And I always thought that it might be an interesting place to hold a murder mystery or to set a murder mystery because a theme park is great during the day. But at night when everybody's gone, when the rides are stopped, everything is silent. And the only motion is the shadows of the trees. It can be a little scary and I thought it'd make a great place to kill people. [A] theme park is great during the day. But at night when everybody's gone, when the rides are stopped, everything is silent. And the only motion is the shadows of the trees. It can be a little scary and I thought it'd make a great place to kill people. Debbi (04:34): That's cool. I like that. Let's see. Have you ever seen the show Playing God in Central Florida, something like that. [It's On Becoming God in Central Florida.] Mark (04:46): No, it doesn't, it doesn't ring a bell. Debbi (04:49): It revolves around a woman who works at a theme park. That's the only reason I ask. Mark (04:54): Oh, okay. Well there's lots of those in Florida. Debbi (04:56): Yeah. it's,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Saralyn Richard on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. Amazingly, this week I managed to scrape up transcription show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. [00:00:00] Debbi: Hi everyone. And welcome to the first episode of Season Six of the Crime Cafe. It's great to be back. And I can't believe I've done this for five years, really. Before I introduce our guest, I'd like to make one little announcement. [00:00:16] As you may know, the Crime Cafe has a Patreon page. Where patrons help out with micropayments. And you get perks in return. As part of that, I've been sharing pre-publication drafts of my work. So what I'm doing as a result is broadening the Patreon page’s scope to expand into my own work as well. [00:00:39] Most of my books are crime fiction, so it seems to fit. And anyway, the Patreon page has been rebranded as Debbi Mack's Multimedia Experience. And to know why you really have to check it out. I'm writing novels, screenplays, blog posts, reviews, and making short videos. So I'm up to a lot these days, but the podcast is still called the Crime Cafe and will continue to be called that. [00:01:05] That hasn't changed. The focus here as always is on the absolute awesome variety of authors who write crime, suspense, and thriller stories: page turners and puzzles, if you will. So our guest for today is an award-winning author of mystery and kidlit—I gotta ask about that—who hopes change the world one book at the time. Now that is a mission statement I love. Her latest novel in the Detectives Parrott mystery series is called A Palette for Love and Murder. Her other books include Murder in the One Percent and Naughty Nana. She also teaches creative writing and literature at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Our guest today is Saralyn Richard. Hi, Saralyn. It's great to have you on today. [00:01:56] Saralyn: Thank you so much, Debbi. It's wonderful to be here. [00:01:59] Debbi: Well, I'm so glad you are here. And I just think it's intriguing that you write mysteries and kidlit. Tell us about the kidlit. What is it? Is it a type of children's book and what made you interested in it? [00:02:13] Saralyn:  Well kidlit is children's books. This is my first book, Naughty Nana. And it's a little bit of a mystery, too. There's a mystery that goes on inside of this picture book. And I actually have the dog, Nana. You just met her a little bit before we started this podcast. And she really was naughty. [00:02:41] So I was making a list of all the nasty things she was doing, and I decided to turn that into a book. And that was actually the first book that I published. That's really, that's what kidlit is. [00:02:56] Debbi: That is so interesting because I've written a young adult novel that's good for middle graders. And it also has a mystery element to it, though it is not what I would call strictly speaking a genre mystery. So I think mystery and suspense tend to work their way into other types of fiction as well. I think that's really interesting. What drew you toward writing mysteries in particular? [00:03:23] Saralyn: I'm a very eclectic reader. But if given my choice, I'll choose a mystery over anything else. [00:03:33] I think because I love the intellectual and emotional puzzle that a mystery presents,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Jeffery Deaver on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. Amazingly, this week I managed to scrape up transcription show notes. I hope to continue doing this. Debbi (01:02): Hi everyone. Today's episode is kind of a special bonus episode. The podcast is between seasons but today's guest is well worth squeezing in. This author has written more than 35 novels, three short story collections and a nonfiction law book. He is a former journalist, attorney and folk singer. That's an awesome combination, in my book. He's been nominated and granted numerous awards and he's an international bestselling author. My guest today is Jeffery Deaver. Hi Jeffery. Thanks so much for being here today. Jeffery (01:41): Hello, Debbi. Very happy to talk to you. Debbi (01:43): Wonderful. So you worked in law. What kind of law did you practice? Jeffery (01:52): Well, it's funny. People know I write criminal books, so they say, well, Jeff, you must've been a criminal [lawyer], and I say I represented banks. You draw your own conclusions from that. I was a Wall Street lawyer and did represent banks as a matter of fact, did mostly a finance law. But you know, I've always wanted to be a writer and always wanted to write commercial fiction ever since I was a young boy. And so that was my career path, but I knew that writers are not progenies. They, they need to live life a little while. You know, Mozart, I'm sure, was composing very young and Jackson Pollock was spattering paint on his mother's floor probably at a young age. But I knew I was going to have to work and make money doing other things and live life. People know I write criminal books, so they say, well, Jeff, you must've been a criminal [lawyer], and I say I represented banks. You draw your own conclusions from that. (02:46): And so I picked journalism first and then I decided to try law for a little while. And by the time I was in my thirties and I felt I was comfortable enough to begin writing popular fiction, I I quit those jobs and that was 30 years ago. I've been writing for 35 years, but writing full time for 30. Debbi (03:07): It's almost eerie the way your career path has been similar to mine. I used to practice law also. When I quit, it was so nice to do what I really wanted to do, which was to write. Jeffery (03:21): Yeah. Debbi (03:22): It's a wonderful feeling. Jeffery (03:24): Can I ask what, what type of law you practiced? Debbi (03:27): I did different things. I started off with Social Security doing disability defense work, and then worked at a law firm, ended up in land use and zoning. But then from there went to EPA. I worked with the Office of General Counsel, which is a very interesting job. Jeffery (03:48): I think it would be fascinating. Debbi (03:50): It was fascinating. But unfortunately they moved the office to a place even farther from where I lived. I had to make a decision. So I decided to go into practice for myself for a while, which was extremely educational. Jeffery (04:06): It was. You pick up a lot of stories for books, don't you? Debbi (04:09): Oh my gosh. Well yeah, I could go on, but I won't. I want to talk about you. Yeah. You worked as a journalist also. In what ways do you think your work as a journalist and a lawyer affected your writing?

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Richard Armstrong on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. Unfortunately, I can no longer provide transcription show notes, but will resume doing so when finances allow. I've included a few excerpts from the interview. Here are a few excerpts from the interview: On copywriting and con men: "I have a free giveaway, if you visit my website. The book, as you know, deals with con men and confidence games, that sort of thing. And there's a book on there ... there's a booklet called "How to Talk Anybody Into Anything: Secrets of the World's Greatest Con Men." It's about a hundred pages long. It's a PDF. You can download it instantly for free. There's no catch or obligation or anything." "While I don't believe that copywriters are con men, we do have a tendency to use a lot of the same techniques. The key difference between a copywriter and a con man is that copywriters are not criminals. We don't have what's known in the law as criminal intent. We're just trying to sell you a product. And, hopefully, that product will be worth more than what you paid for it, and we'll both go away happy. A win-win situation. Whereas the con man is simply trying to essentially steal money from you without you knowing it. ... I think [the free booklet] is a very interesting book and even a useful book if you're in any business in which persuasion is part of your job, and that includes many, many different types of jobs." On copywriting and fiction writing: "There's a lot of connections between copywriting and fiction. This is my second novel, but in copywriting, we've long recognized the importance of telling stories, the importance of being mysterious, of invoking curiosity in the reader---a number of things we have to do in advertising that are skills that are very, very useful to the novelist. And vice versa." About his novel, The Don Con: "I was an actor years ago, when I was younger, and way back in 1972, I was in a play, and ... I did make a very good friend in that cast by the name of Jonathan Frakes. And Jonathan went on to be pretty well-known, famous as the second-in-command of Star Trek: The Next Generation ... Patrick Stewart was the commander of the ship, and my friend Jonathan was the second-in-command. And one night, not that long ago---four or five years ago---I was having dinner with him and my wife. And I hadn't seen him in a while and I was kind of curious about what he was up to, because I knew he wasn't acting much, because I wasn't seeing him on television anymore. So we were asking what he was doing, and he said he does a lot of directing in television these days, because he's also a director. "But he said, 'You know, one of the ways that I make income is that I go to fan conventions, particularly Star Trek conventions, and I sign autographs for money.' And, silly me, I had never heard of this before. I didn't know such things existed. But he told me that he didn't know they existed, either, until a couple of years into the show, and his agent said, 'I think you should go to this Star Trek convention.' And he said to his agent, 'Why would I want to do that?" And the agent said, 'Well ... do you like money?' So, he agreed to do it, and he was absolutely gobsmacked by how much money he made." "Not only was it kind of an amusing story,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Bob Hartley on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. Unfortunately, I can no longer provide transcription show notes, but will resume doing so when finances allow. I have tried to note at what time various discussion topics come up in include a few teaser quotes from the interview. "I grew up on the far West Side of Chicago, and that was the world that I grew up within. ... During that time, there was a lot of economic turmoil going on in the Seventies, and I witnessed it. A lot of racial turmoil, as well, and I witnessed all of that, and that has put a mark on me. I have difficulty writing about anything else." "Although I'm certainly glad that [North and Central is] looked upon as a noir novel---it captures that time and so forth---I think of it as a metaphor for the system itself. A lot of what we're experiencing right now. A lot of low-paying jobs, a lot of people without any real ... well, without a lot of hope." "Human beings like to think they're in control, but in reality, as we found out recently, you're not in control. And so we scramble to find some kind of control when we really don't have it. ... So, we're constantly trying to do that, but in reality, sometimes the situation ... you have no control." About the influence of Chicago writer, Nelson Algren: "When I read his books, I saw somebody who was looking at a neighborhood and actually writing about people who aren't represented in fiction very often and captured it very well. ... Even the minor character, if you were to follow that character, if you were to follow that character out the door, you would be experiencing a story that might just be as compelling as the one you're reading. That's tough to do, and Algren did it very well. If you're saying I've come close to it, that's great." There's more where that came from! :) Check out the podcast! And please support the podcaster! :) I have a special offer running until midnight April 7, 2020! Check it out!  

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer June Trop on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. Unfortunately, I can no longer provide transcription show notes, but will resume doing so when finances allow. I have tried to note at what time various discussion topics come up in the recording. [02:40] June talks about how she discovered Maria Hebrea, the woman who inspired her protagonist, Miriam bat Isaac, while researching a paper for a class on the history of chemistry. [04:43] June describes the nature of her protagonist, Miriam bat Isaac, a female alchemist, along with the illegal nature of her work. [06:10] June explains how she found information on a topic with few records to verify its accuracy, except for references to Hebrea's work made by her successors. [07:15] Much of what June learned through research revealed surprises about Hebrea. Along with alchemy, she was an inventor. Her inventions are well-known, even if she isn't. [08:30] June explains why alchemy developed and why it was outlawed. Alchemy is still alive, but "barely breathing." Alchemy is the forerunner of modern chemistry. And alchemy is still pursued, as a "fringe" pursuit. [12:09] June talks about her books and the series. How Miriam bat Isaac uses alchemy, and the role it plays in the stories. [13:40] June describes the research she did for her novels and the kinds of details she familiarized herself with, as well as how long it took. She shares a bit about her research process. [17:15] June says she writes stories that depict her protagonist in extreme peril, involving a battle between Good and Evil, but one the protagonist may not always win. [18:42] June discusses her plans for the series. [20:25] June's working on a set of Miriam bat Isaac short stories. [22:05] June discusses women's education (and its availability) during the First Century CE and how it would affect her protagonist's ability to work. [24:36] Tacos versus pizza? June picks her favorite! [25:36] June's concluding remarks. She tries to write her books for a person "sitting in a hospital room," because she wants to transport people to fascinating worlds with her stories. She also shares her website, so check that out! ***** Do you enjoy scripted podcasts? That’s the question I ask in this poll. If you’d like to cast your vote on this highly-important issue matter, all you need to do is support the podcast on Patreon!

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Judith Yates on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I would also like to recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. Unfortunately, I can no longer provide transcription show notes, but will resume doing so when finances allow. I have tried to note at what time various discussion topics come up in the recording. [02:35] Judith discusses her decision to study criminology. [03:40] Judith mentions her family's roots in law enforcement, including her grandfather's work for Pinkerton. [05:35] Discussion of Judith's book Bullied to Death. [08:57] The importance of good storytelling in true crime. [09:31] The use of technology and social media in bullying teens and children. [12:20] The emotional impact of the story in Bullied to Death. [12:50] The authors Judith find most inspiring. [14:25] Judith's opinion of the role of the true crime writer. [15:20] A few cautionary words about self-publishing other people's true stories. [18:40] Judith talks about her true crime book, She is Evil. [20:30] The focus in She is Evil on the misrepresentation of those of the Islamic faith. [24:00] Discussion of the post-9/11 backlash against Islamic people. [25:36] Judith's current work-in-progress, a true crime book about female bank robbers. [28:06] Bonnie Parker never robbed a bank! (Who knew? I didn't.) [29:10] I highly recommend Knives Out! (Review to come on another blog. Eventually.] And a bit of discussion about Bond. James Bond. [30:15] Judith mentions the list of resources available on online bullying. Her goal is to tell stories that readers can learn from, so as to avoid the mistakes of the past. ***** PS: Get exclusive pre-release episodes of the podcast and other perks. Support us on Patreon! You can also buy The Crime Cafe 9-Book Set on Kobo for $2.99 in the US and Canada until Sunday, March, 1, 2020! And at a reduced price at various other countries. (Just click the link!)

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Michael Streed on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I would also like to recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have the ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. Unfortunately, I can no longer provide transcription show notes, but will resume doing so when finances allow. I have tried to note at what time various discussion topics come up in the recording. [02:27] Michael talks about how he became a sketch artist for the police force. [02:45] Michael talks about his interest in drawing, starting with his childhood cartoons. [04:20] How Michael prepared to write his first book. [05:44] How writing police reports helped Michael write his first book, as well as the ways his law enforcement experience has helped him write true crime stories. [07:07] Michael talks about how police sketch artists work. [09:30] Michael explains what it means to be a certified forensic artist and why he chose to be certified. [09:40] Michael on the importance of having a good editor. [11:00] Our discussion the "modern age" of forensic artistry. [11:35] Why Michael created his own forensic software. [12:02] Michael talks about the true crime book he's working on. [15:05] Why Michael wrote his first book, SketchCop. [17:00] Michael discusses the process of creating forensic art through listening to stories. [17:40] One case Michael worked on involving the use of an unusual type of sketch. [18:45] Michael talks more about the process of police sketching. [20:00] Michael talks more about his love for cartooning. [21:00] The role of virtual technology in forensic art. [22:40] My off-the-wall question: Which do you prefer: autumn or spring? [24:10] Interview wrap-up. ***** Help bring back the show transcriptions! Please support the Crime Cafe on Patreon.    

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Bill Duncan on the Crime Cafe podcast. Read along with the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. This post contains affiliate links. Debbi:   Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I’m your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, debbimack.com, under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book, if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. I would also like to recommend Stitcher Premium, if you're a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I've subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it's nice to have the ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. Debbi [00:01:44]: Hi, everyone. I'm pleased to have with me today an author who writes private eye novels—my favorite sub-genre. Today's guest is the author of the Rafferty Private Eye series, and his name is Bill Duncan. Hi, Bill. It's good to have you on today. Thanks for being here. Bill [00:02:06]: Hey, Debbi. It's great to be here. Debbi [00:02:07]: Awesome. It's great to have you. And first, I just think it's wonderful that you've brought your father's books back onto the market through self-publishing. He must have been very proud of you. Bill [00:02:20]: He was. It was a fantastic exercise to do and it was the sort of thing that finally gave him the ability to hear from the fans that he didn't get to hear from back during his trade pub days. So, as I think I alluded to a little bit in the guest blog post, back when he was publishing, the publishers asked for more books, sent royalty checks, that was about it. That was the sort of level of—and edits obviously, but that was the level of interaction that dad had with the funnel, I guess, where his books were going. So, he never really knew. And then to be able to hear, you know, 30 years later from people who had loved his books originally and then were loving them again now, was pretty special for him, yeah. And then for me too to be able to give that to him, yeah. Debbi [00:03:24]: That's just so fantastic. So, your father's fan base was out there waiting for these books to be re-released pretty much. That must have provided a lot of help with the sales. Bill [00:03:37]: Look, it did but there were some very influential people who had been fans of dad’s and they were great in sort of getting the word out. The funny thing that I found, though, is that the original books were only released in the US and Canada. And so, while there were a lot of fans that came back and said “it's great to see Rafferty back”, there were equally as many fans who never got a chance to meet the characters the first time around. So, they were reading Rafferty for the first time, and I had a number of emails from people saying, “I just wish I'd been able to get it the first time around”. So, people living in Europe and Canada and so on, who'd never met the character before. So, there was a fan base but then there was a new fan base that also picked up, which was great. Debbi [00:04:36]: That's fantastic. These books, what year were they first written? Bill [00:04:43]: Rafferty’s Rules, the first in the series, was written in ’85, I think from memory. I didn't study up on that question, Debbi. (chuckles)

Debbi Mack interviews true crime writer Blaine Pardoe on the Crime Cafe podcast. Sponsored by: Blubrry Podcasting – Launch your Podcast the Blubrry Way Read along with the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. This post contains affiliate links. Debbi:   Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I’m your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, debbimack.com, under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book, if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. [00:01:02] I’m happy to say that the podcast is sponsored this month by Blubrry Podcasting. If you either have a podcast or want to start one, I use them and I highly recommend them. Blubrry Podcasting makes my job much easier. For one thing, I have a WordPress website, and Blubrry only requires you use their PowerPress plugin to work. But you don’t have to be a WordPress user to launch a podcast with Blubrry Podcasting. So, there is flexibility. The best part is you don’t have to be a technical genius to use Blubrry Podcasting. But, if you run into trouble, Blubrry Podcasting has 5-day phone support and 7-day email support. I love that. So, get 30 days of Blubrry Podcasting Free. This includes hosting and stats and a WordPress site if you need one. Publishing is as simple as Create – Upload – Publish. Just use the Promo Code BLU011 to get started today. Debbi [00:02:13]: Hi everyone. Today's guest is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author of numerous books in a wide variety of genres, including true crime. He is also a historian, which I think is way cool. It's my great pleasure to introduce Blaine Pardoe. Hi, Blaine. Blaine [00:02:33]: Thanks for having me on. Debbi [00:02:35]: Sure thing. I'm glad you could be here. And let's see, you've had a really interesting career. I don’t get to talk to many crime authors who are also nonfiction historian writers. So, how did you get into that? Blaine [00:02:51]: Actually, you know, I tend to write the things I like to read. So, from my youth, I've been reading true crime and I've been reading military history, and when I became a writer, I was writing primarily science fiction and told my agent I wanted to get into writing some military history and he was like “that's crazy, you don't go that direction” and I said “well, I do”. And so, I started going into that and I wrote a number of military history books, really enjoyed doing that. And you know, then I decided, well, you know what, I always like true crime, I'll go branch into that. I found that, really, the amount of research—there’s a difference as to where you go to get the information, but the actual research methodologies are pretty similar between writing a historical nonfiction and writing true crime. "I wrote a number of military history books, really enjoyed doing that. And you know, then I decided, well, you know what, I always like true crime, I'll go branch into that. I found that, really, the amount of research—there’s a difference as to where you go to get the information, but the actual research methodologies are pretty similar between writing a historical nonfiction and writing true crime." Debbi [00:03:49]: Mm-hmm. I was gonna say, you said you have a preference for cold cases and older cases, is it more difficult to write about recent or ongoing cases? Blaine [00:04:03]: Yeah. You know, the problem is the wounds are all pretty new and you know, I'd love to do some current cases, especially some of them that are out there now are absolutely fascinating. The problem is, you know,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Cathi Stoler on the Crime Cafe podcast. Sponsored by: Blubrry Podcasting – Launch your Podcast the Blubrry Way Read along with the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. Debbi:   Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I’m your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, debbimack.com, under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book, if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. [00:01:02] I’m happy to say that the podcast is sponsored this month by Blubrry Podcasting. If you either have a podcast or want to start one, I use them and I highly recommend them. Blubrry Podcasting makes my job much easier. For one thing, I have a Wordpress website, and Blubrry only requires you use their PowerPress plugin to work. But you don’t have to be a Wordpress user to launch a podcast with Blubrry Podcasting. So, there is flexibility. The best part is you don’t have to be a technical genius to use Blubrry Podcasting. But, if you run into trouble, Blubrry Podcasting has 5-day phone support and 7-day email support. I love that. So, get 30 days of Blubrry Podcasting Free. This includes hosting and stats and a Wordpress site if you need one. Publishing is as simple as Create - Upload - Publish. Just use the Promo Code BLU011 to get started today. Debbi: Hi everyone. Happy new year. It's 2020, or it will be by the time this goes up on the air or in the stream or whatever. My guest today is author of the three-volume Laurel and Helen New York Mystery series and the three-time finalist and winner of the 2015 Derringer Award for Best Short Story. Her latest novel is called Out of Time: A Nick Donahue Adventure. It's not just a mystery, it's an adventure. So it's my pleasure to introduce my guest, Cathi Stoler. Hi Cathi, how are you doing today? Cathi: Hi Debbi. Thank you for having me. Debbi: I'm in the midst of reading Out of Time and enjoying the heck out of it. Can you tell us a bit about Nick Donahue, who I understand started as a character in a short story? Cathi: Yes. He is a professional blackjack player, and he travels all over the world. He lives in London with his partner, Marina DiPietro. And he's just, he's fun and he's sophisticated, and he seems to find himself in a lot of trouble, even though he's pretty smart. When I came up with him, he was gambling in the casino in Venice, and Marina was undercover for MI6, but he didn't know that. He met her and he helped her with something, and then he got in trouble, and she rescued him. And then at the end of that... So this is sort of a three-part story, and at the end of it he wound up rescuing her from the mob who thought he owed them $10 million. Debbi: Very interesting. Cathi: He got it back from them. They were doing money laundering. So and then I just thought I would... That was a novella. The short story morphed into a novella. And then I thought I would like to continue writing them, those two characters. Debbi: What was it exactly that attracted you about those two characters? Cathi: I just think that they're compatible but kind of opposite, and they're both pretty smart, and they both are good at their professions and their jobs. But there was just a little of this back-and-forth pull, and I thought that they would work well together to continue. Marina is really the detective, and he kind of, the private investigator, and he kind of helps her. " I just think that they're compatible but kind of opposite, and they're both pretty smart, and they both are good at their professions and their jobs. ...

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Jeff Lindsay on the Crime Cafe podcast. Read along with the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. Debbi:   Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I’m your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, debbimack.com, under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book, if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: Hi, everyone. I'm thrilled to have with me today, the creator of my favorite serial killer, or at least one of them, Dexter Morgan, and he now has a new book out called Just Watch Me featuring his new protagonist Riley Wolfe. I just finished it and it's great, and my guest today is New York Times bestselling author, Jeff Lindsay. Jeff, it's wonderful to have you on. Jeff: Well, it's great to be had. Thank you very much. Debbi: Thank you very much. Tell us about Riley Wolfe and what prompted you to write this book. Jeff: Riley Wolfe is a master thief, maybe the best in the world. And the thing about him is for Riley, it's not about the money, it's about the challenge. He had a sort of traumatic childhood that made him grow up with two really overwhelming compulsions. And the first is to steal things that are impossible to steal. It just can't be done. And the second is, if possible, to steal them from the 1%. He has a real deep seated grudge, almost a hatred for the hereditary entitled people who just, in his mind, wallow in the money and sort of walk on everybody else with their ingrained privilege. So, it came because I wanted to do a new series and quite honestly I sort of needed to. And it was what we like to call a job of work there. I had to go through a lot of different changes, a lot of evolution. And I started with a conman and I realized that it'd be more interesting to make it someone that uses being a conman as a tool rather than an end. And so Riley Wolfe has those skills and he has an incredible skill for disguises and dialects and accents, but he uses those to get inside where you would think no one could go and steal things from the 1% that can't be taken. "Riley Wolfe is a master thief, maybe the best in the world. And the thing about him is for Riley, it's not about the money, it's about the challenge. " Debbi: Very interesting. I don't know if you did this consciously or unconsciously or if there's even a relationship, but there was part of what I saw in Riley was the Saint actually. Jeff: What's the what? Debbi: The Saint, if you're familiar with the character, the Saint. Jeff: No, I'm not. I'm sorry. Debbi: Oh, well that's, you should familiarize yourself with that character. Jeff: No, then people would say I was stealing. Debbi: Well, we don't want that. But it just reminds me of that, that mentality, that whole ability to transform themselves and then doing things just for whatever personal reason and having a deprived childhood also. Jeff: Well, so far I've also been compared to Les Mis and a couple of other things. So I guess I'm used to it. Debbi: Well, it's a very interesting psychological makeup on this character, and I have to say that he's capable of doing some really nasty things when he has to, which would make him awfully hard to like if you didn't know his backstory. So what did you do? I mean, what sort of research did you do to get into his backstory? Jeff: Well, I worked with a psychologist and I came up with a couple of basic things about him and ran them past her, and then she helped me refine it and bring it to a point. I don't know, every writer who is any good at all is at least part ...

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer V.S. Kemanis on the Crime Cafe podcast. Read along with the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. Debbi:   Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I'm your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, debbimack.com, under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book, if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: Hi everyone. I'm so pleased to have with me today another lawyer who's written about what she knows. Her legal career is in criminal prosecution, but her creative pursuits include writing novels and short stories, as well as being a dancer and choreographer. Our guest today is V. S. Kemanis. VSK: Hi Debbi. Debbi: Hi. Hi Vija. VSK: How are you? Thanks so much for inviting me. Debbi: I am so glad you are here, and thank you for being here. I just finished your first novel and really enjoyed it. I assume it's safe to say that your protagonist, Dana Hargrove, was inspired or informed by your work as a district attorney? VSK: Yes, indeed she was. I wrote that novel, the first draft of it, shortly after I had finished the first 10 years of my legal career. The first five years were as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, and the second five years of that was with the New York State Organized Crime Task Force. And I kind of included both of those experiences and put them together to develop my character and also to develop the case that she was investigating in that novel. I had just finished doing a big investigation and a case against the Colombian narcotics cartel operating in New York and mostly their money laundering activities, which were really fascinating and a lot of work. I worked on that for a good four years and so a lot of that went into the novel. Debbi: That's really something. In your first book, Dana is a neophyte dealing with all these ethical issues and divided loyalties. I was impressed with the way you wove all the different levels of conflict into the story. Do you plot that out all ahead of time or do you plot some and improvise some? VSK: I do some of both. Yes, I start out writing a novel with a general plan, a general plot idea, and I also write a very detailed outline before I actually launch into writing something, but invariably it ends up changing a little bit along the way as I write, and I realize that some things don't fit other things. I go back and review what I've written earlier on and have to change some things, but that's what really makes it exciting for me, I think. Because it really becomes its own work and the characters will lead you certain places. "I start out writing a novel with a general plan, a general plot idea, and I also write a very detailed outline before I actually launch into writing something, but invariably it ends up changing a little bit along the way as I write, ... but that's what really makes it exciting for me, I think. Because it really becomes its own work and the characters will lead you certain places." But certainly in terms of the broad outlines, I have usually in mind the cases that I'd like to highlight in the novel. Also ethical conflicts as you noted. I tend to really love those. Debbi: Those are great. VSK: Yeah, both the legal professional ethics as well as just personal moral dilemmas that people are faced with. All my novels have the interplay between the professional and the personal, which is an area that just really fascinates me, because it was a big challenge in my life as ... working very hard and trying to raise a family at the same time, so.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Dennis N. Griffin on the Crime Cafe podcast. Read along with the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I’m your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website DebbiMack.com, under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi [00:01:02]: Hi, everyone. Before I introduce my guest, I am going to give an extra thank you to my patrons, Ken MacClune and S. Koren. When this goes live, it'll be after “Thank You Patrons Day”, but this is an extra thank you to you guys. I should be thanking my patrons every day for supporting the podcast. If you're interested, just go to my website www.debbimack.com and click on ‘Crime Cafe’. Check out my Patreon page and the Crime Cafe ebooks while you're there. And now, I'm pleased to have with me today an author who writes crime fiction and true crime. A 20-year veteran of law enforcement, his latest book concerns the topic of cold cases. It's my pleasure to introduce Dennis Griffin. Hi, Dennis, how are you doing today? Dennis [00:01:59]: Oh, hi Debbi, a pleasure to join you. Debbi [00:02:02]: I'm so glad to have you here. I read your blog, your guest post, and that is just some powerful stuff you have in there about how unsolved murders end up being cold cases. Could you tell us a little bit about how you got involved in cold case investigation? "I met with the mother of the deceased soldier, and she explained to me that the case—this was in 2010, so it was a three-year-old case at that time—the mother explained that she had not gotten any answers through law enforcement and through the Army CID investigations of her son's death, and she wanted us, she wanted my employer to see if we could find out any answers for her as to what may have happened to her son." Dennis [00:02:22]: Yes. I was working as a private investigator for a firm in central New York and upstate New York. And my boss assigned me to investigate the 2007 death of a soldier from the 10th Mountain Division stationed at Fort Drum in Watertown, New York. So, I met with the mother of the deceased soldier, and she explained to me that the case—this was in 2010, so it was a three-year-old case at that time—the mother explained that she had not gotten any answers through law enforcement and through the Army CID investigations of her son's death, and she wanted us, she wanted my employer to see if we could find out any answers for her as to what may have happened to her son. So, that was how I initially got involved. And there was a case of where her son had recently returned from deployment to Afghanistan. He'd just assigned back on the base after a 30-day leave, and this again was in 2007, and he moved off base with another soldier to share an apartment. He was there one night, the next night after they get off duty, he went out bar hopping. He disappeared that night and was never seen again. A missing persons report was filed with the local Watertown City Police Department, and the Army considered him as an AWOL after, I think, it was 48 hours. Six months later, his skeletal remains were found in a field about three miles outside of Watertown. They were in such condition that no toxicology could be done and they couldn't establish a cause or manner of death, so everything was listed as ‘undetermined’. And that was the situation I became involved in trying to find out her son's activities that night; why he disappeared from the bar he was at and how he happened to end ...

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Les Abend on the Crime Cafe podcast. Read along with the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I’m your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website DebbiMack.com, under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi [00:01:02]: Hi, everyone. Today, our guest is a writer with one of the coolest jobs anyone on the show has had. He's an airline pilot, and his proverbial second act is as a crime writer. Author of the novel, Paper Wings, it's my great pleasure to have with me today, Les Abend. Hi Les, how are you doing today? Les [00:01:27]: I'm doing great, Debbi. Thank you for having me on. Debbi [00:01:31]: Well, thank you for being here. I wanted to touch on, first, your previous experiences in writing for the trade publication Flying Magazine. You weren't entirely a newcomer then to the world of writing and publishing before your novel came out, correct? Les [00:01:51]: That's correct. Yeah, I've been writing for Flying Magazine now as a columnist for, I guess, 18 years. So, yeah, I was familiar with writing stories—the stories I write for Flying Magazine are a little bit different. They’re actual experiences and I just try to convey some insight to the general public, to the ‘flying’ public and more particularly, to general aviation pilots. Debbi [00:02:16]: Mm, that's very interesting. So, the audience for that magazine is general aviation pilots? Les [00:02:23]: For the most part, unless you include mom and dad. So, yeah. Debbi [00:02:28]: (chuckles). And do you write about your experiences as a pilot? Les [00:02:30]: I do, I do. And often times, you know, if it's not my experiences, it's other folks’ experiences or something that I'd like to highlight about the industry. But primarily, my experiences. Debbi [00:02:40]: That's really fantastic. It was a great training ground for you, I would think. Les [00:02:46]: It was and honestly—this is sort of a segue to where I get to the book—the objective was for me to get some notoriety so I could move forward with a novel, which has always been a goal of mine since I was young. And I sort of got sidetracked with Flying Magazine; you know, I’d send in some unsolicited articles and so on and so forth. And the editor-in-chief was looking for somebody at that very time, so it worked out very good and he wanted me to continue. He said, “most airline pilots can only write one article. I'll tell you what, if you can write another one, you might have a little bit of a future”. And well, the rest is history, so I'm very grateful. Debbi [00:03:34]: Well, it's really fantastic and it's a wonderful demonstration, kind of like a case study of how one person got into writing a book for publication. Because you've trained yourself through writing these stories for the magazine. Something for people to think about, I think. Les [00:03:56]: It's been very helpful and it's been a great experience. And actually, the most gratifying thing to me, as probably you as a writer and screenplay writer, is that somebody enjoys it or somebody is motivated to move forward. With my career, some of the best moments I've had is somebody taking me aside and saying, “because of you and the columns that you presented, I moved ahead with my career as an airline pilot”, so that's very gratifying to me. "And actually, the most gratifying thing to me, as probably you as a writer and screenplay writer,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer and non-fiction author Richard T. Cahill on the Crime Cafe podcast. Read along with the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I’m your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website DebbiMack.com, under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: [00:01:02] Hi, I'm pleased to have with me today another lawyer-turned-writer, which in my book is always a great thing. A member of the New York State Bar, he's worked as both an assistant district attorney and a criminal defense attorney. Not at the same time, of course. And he also practiced civil law---practices, I should say, civil law. He currently represents injured workers and volunteer firefighters, which is way cool in my book. He has written and published two true crime books. His latest work is a crime fiction thriller. It's my great pleasure to have here today Richard T. Cahill. Thank you so much for being here today, Richard. Richard: [00:01:51] Well, thank you for having me. Debbi: [00:01:54] It's a pleasure to have you on. Your first book was Hauptmann's Ladder, is that the correct pronunciation? Richard: [00:01:59] It is. Debbi: [00:02:02] Which was a detailed account of the Lindbergh kidnapping. At the very beginning of the book, you talk about what drew you into writing this book. Maybe you can do that. Tell us a little about that, as a teaser for the book, for readers. Richard: [00:02:18] Sure. Well, when I was 18 years old, I was in my freshman English class and the professor, Dr. Cotter, said that he wanted us to write a research paper. And so I thought, well, no problem. I'd read some books about, you know, the Lincoln assassination and I could do something about that. But then, being a wise professor, he then announced that it had to be something that you've never read anything about or ever done any research on. So part of me, I have to be honest, said, well, maybe I'll just do it anyway. But then I thought, now I've got to follow the rules. So I went to the library and I started looking around to see what I could find. And I found this small book and it had a whole series of stories in it, stuff like did Jesse James die the way history records? You know, did Neil Armstrong really walk on the moon? You know, stuff like that. And one of them was, did Bruno Richard Hauptmann kidnap and kill the Lindbergh baby? And as I read that particular article, I then remembered many years ago seeing an old TV show called In Search of ... with Leonard Nimoy. And all I remember was they did a show on it. And the only thing I could remember, there was a guy with a mustache who said that it was a miscarriage of justice. That's really all I remembered. So I thought this might be interesting. So I read one book. Ironically, I later found out it was written by the guy with the mustache. I didn't find it out for many years later that that's who it was. And I read two magazine articles. [00:03:45] And I wrote what I thought was a wonderful paper proclaiming that Hauptmann was framed, didn't do it, and so forth. And it came back, and I believe I got a B or a B-plus as memory serves me. And, geez, I should have gotten an A. Well, now, looking back, seeing the paper, my lousy research and so forth, I should have gotten an F. So the professor was very kind in what he gave me. But from there I read, I saw another book not long after that on the case and I read it. And that was one by Sir Ludovic Kennedy,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer and non-fiction author Peter Eichstaedt on the Crime Cafe podcast. Read along with the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I’m your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website DebbiMack.com, under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: [00:01:01] Hi, everyone. My guest this week has extensive experience as a journalist. He's also written two award-winning non-fiction books. In addition, he's the author of the Kyle Dawson series, one of which he's giving away to a lucky reader. I'm pleased to have with me today author Peter Eichstaedt. Hi, Peter. How are you doing today? Peter: [00:01:26] Good. How are you? Debbi: [00:01:28] Fine, thanks. Thanks for being with us. Peter: [00:01:32] My pleasure. Debbi: [00:01:34] Okay. Well, first, I have to say that I absolutely loved your guest post. And those of you who are listening, if you haven't read his guest post, just go to my blog for the Wednesday before this podcast when up on video and take a look. It's well-done. Would you describe your fiction as being---what sort of genre? Political thriller? Peter: [00:02:00] That's a good question. Yeah, I like the thriller designation, but I also like mysteries and I would think I've tried to blend the two. I don't know how successful I've been at that. But I don't really feel like I write genre fiction, but I guess I do if you need to put it into a category, it would be, you know, like mystery, mystery-thriller. But I think a lot of people, a lot of writers kind of blend genres, so, I guess that's probably a good description of it. Usually what I've done is, you know, I feel compelled to have a story, to tell a story. And so the way I look at it is, I use the devices I need to use to tell that story. And I'm less ... I'm really more focused on that than anything else, than trying to fit into a genre. I know a lot of times, you know, when you're sending a book out and trying to find an agent or something like that, they just want to know what category. And they have all these admonitions on their website, you know, we don't represent this, we don't represent that, but we do represent this and that. So I don't know. Sometimes it's hard to make things fit. Debbi: [00:03:43] I'm just thinking from a reader's perspective, say, who would you compare yourself to? Peter: [00:03:49] Well, I like, I've always liked ... I'm not going to compare myself to anybody in particular. But I like the Raymond Chandler mysteries. I really like those a lot. And that's kind of been my inspiration. And, on the other hand, too, though, I like, you know, my favorite literary writer is Hemingway, although I've written it, I mean, I've read and I've followed a lot of other more traditional literary works. But I like, the reason I like Hemingway is because ... the exotic locations and there's lots of action and there's lots of tension. And I don't mean action like shoot 'em up, you know, cowboys kind of thing. But there's, I don't know, activity, action in the story. So that's what I kind of shoot for. That's my goal. "I like the Raymond Chandler mysteries. I really like those a lot. And that's kind of been my inspiration. And, on the other hand, too, though, I like, you know, my favorite literary writer is Hemingway ... the reason I like Hemingway is because ... the exotic locations and there's lots of action and there's lots of tension."

Debbi Mack interviews mystery writer Daniella Burnett on the Crime Cafe podcast. Read along with the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. eDebbi: [00:00:13] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I’m your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website DebbiMack.com, under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: [00:01:02] Hi, everyone. Before we get started, I'd like to express my thanks to S Koran for becoming our latest Patreon supporter. Every little bit helps, you guys. So thank you so much. Having said that, our guest is making a return visit today. A poet as well as a mystery writer, she's the author of The Emmeline Kirby/Gregory Longdon mystery series. And her name is Daniella Burnett. [00:01:31] Hi, Daniella. It's good to see you again. Daniella: [00:01:34] Hi. It's nice to be back. Debbi: [00:01:36] Awesome. So tell us a little bit about your latest book in the series. Daniella: [00:01:42] Well, my latest book is called When Blood Runs Cold. And my series is the Emmeline Kirby/Gregory Longdon series. It's about a journalist and a jewel thief. And, in this book, we deal with a diamond, spies, and poisonous lies. Debbi: [00:02:04] Well, that's interesting. Daniella: [00:02:07] A lot of elements there. Debbi: [00:02:09] It seems to me that each book brings Emmeline and Gregory a bit closer together. At the same time, all these secrets from the past crawl out of the woodwork and seem to conspire to keep them apart or at the very least, threaten them. Do you come up with these complications as you write each book? Or were they planned from Book One? Daniella: [00:02:33] They were actually planned from Book One because it is a series. I leave a little something in one book and develop it a little bit more. Give you a little hint for the next book. So it was planned from the beginning. And in this in this particular book, Emmeline and Gregory are engaged. But as you noted, there is a lie. Like everything Emmeline thought about her life, all of a sudden she discovers it's been a lie. And that does have an impact on the dynamic of their relationship and to the rest of the story. And a number of the characters that they do meet. And it also has another element, something from Gregory's past. This ruthless entrepreneur named Alastair Swanbeck has come back for revenge against Gregory for things that should have been left alone. "I leave a little something in one book and develop it a little bit more. Give you a little hint for the next book. So it was planned from the beginning. And in this in this particular book, Emmeline and Gregory are engaged. But as you noted, there is a lie." Debbi: [00:03:29] Uh-huh. Yes. Yes, I noticed Swanbeck is introduced right there at the beginning, along with the fact that Emmeline's parents were murdered. Daniella: [00:03:44] Yes. She discovered that at the end of the previous book, A Checkered Past, because her parents were journalists like she was, and she had been told that they had been killed while on assignment when she was five years old. So that's what she had believed up until this point. But at the end of A Checkered Past, we discover that her parents were really murdered. So that's the way When Blood Runs Cold starts out. She's determined to follow their killer, even though it has been 25 years since her parents died. Debbi: [00:04:22] So that's a very cold case. So I take it you're one of those writers who likes to create big biographies for your characters before you get started...

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Andy Caldwell on the Crime Cafe podcast. Read along to the podcast or, if you’re in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website DebbiMack.com, under the "Crime Cafe" link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: [00:01:04] Hi, everyone. Our guest today worked as a police officer and detective with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, up until his retirement. He's investigated a number of high-profile cases, including the armed robbery and kidnapping case brought against O.J. Simpson. His book, Room 1203, is the true crime story of that O.J. case. The one from Nevada. That book has also provided the basis for a documentary, O.J.: Guilty in Vegas. It's with great pleasure that I bring you Andy Caldwell. Hey, Andy, thanks for being here. Andy: [00:01:45] Thank you so much, Debbi. Thank you for that kind introduction and I thank you for your time today. Debbi: [00:01:50] Well, I appreciate your being here very much. Before we talk about your book, I have to say I was heartened by your philosophy of criminal justice. I like the emphasis on seeking solutions rather than vengeance. Has that been a.. has that been a difficult position to take in any way? Andy: [00:02:13] Yeah, sometimes, you know, because sometimes even in the law enforcement community, people get frustrated with suspects who are committing crimes and you just want them to pay right now. And sometimes taking, I guess, a more whole approach or whole community approach, isn't always the most palatable to other people. Debbi: [00:02:37] Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I can see where it would be tough. But I like the way you approach it. And, in some ways, it reminds me of Buddhism. Andy: [00:02:51] Well, I guess one of the things that I always embraced was the fact that when people commit crimes, they've gotta be held accountable for it. But it doesn't mean we have to hate them. And sometimes there's this desire to instantly be angry with the individual. And sometimes all it does is create barriers to actually holding them accountable and then trying to help them back on their feet. And if we can't help them back on their feet, then we just create a perpetual problem in society. So at some point in time, we've got to try to help some people. "I guess one of the things that I always embraced was the fact that when people commit crimes, they've gotta be held accountable for it. But it doesn't mean we have to hate them." Debbi: [00:03:26] I couldn't agree with you more. I think that's great. How long were you with the Vegas police and how much of that time was as a detective? Andy: [00:03:35] So just under 20 years, and I spent about nine years as a detective? You would think I would know that right off the top of my head. But yeah, it was about nine years as a detective. Debbi: [00:03:50] Well, sometimes you just gotta do the math. I know the feeling. How did you end up assigned to investigate O.J. Simpson? Andy: [00:04:00] Well, so I was assigned to the robbery-homicide bureau. I specifically worked robberies. And I would love to tell you that it was because I'm a crack investigator. And they said, hey, it's O.J. Simpson, we need their best guy on the job. But the reality was the crime occurred in the area of town I was primarily responsible for. It was the type of crime I was responsible for. So when it came out, it just automatically was grounded to me.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Burl Barer on the Crime Cafe podcast.       Read along to the podcast or, if you're in a rush, download a copy of the show notes here. And between you, me, and the rest of Internet, Burl is hilarious! Give it a listen folks. And, like I said, feel free to read along! Debbi: [00:00:12] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two e-books for sale: the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website DebbiMack.com under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: [00:01:02] Hi everyone. Before I get started, I'd like to give a hale and hearty shout-out to my first Patreon contributor Ken MacClune, not to mention his awesome wife, Karen, and their amazing daughter, Ella. Okay, I suppose I should, in the interest of full disclosure, say that Ken is my brother. But having given support to my Patreon page, to this podcast, he has gotten his free copy of---well, not free, but for the support, he has gotten with that a copy of my fourth Sam McRae novel, which is coming out this month, Deep Six. And by taking advantage of a limited time special offer, he was able to get this. So more of those are coming. So keep your eye on that Patreon page. I'll try to keep you updated as fast as I can. And, on that note, I'd like to introduce a very special guest. Not only is this author an investigative journalist and true crime author, he is also an Edgar award-winning author of the Saint novels, which is really cool in my book. How many of you remember the episodes with Roger Moore? I know I do. It's my pleasure to have with me today Burl Barer. Hi Burl. How are you? Burl: [00:02:26] Better and better every day, in every way. Debbi: [00:02:28] That's great. Burl: [00:02:30] There was a French psychologist named Emile Coue. And he believed that if you stood in front of the mirror and told yourself that like 20 times, that sooner or later you'd believe it. I've been trying it now for about 30, 40 years. I'm not convinced, but I'm giving it a shot. Debbi: [00:02:49] Yeah, it's very interesting because I've heard about that. It's kind of like ... Hmmm? Really? Burl: [00:02:54] Positive reinforcement. Debbi: [00:02:58] I think there's something to that. I think there's a lot to this whole idea of visualization and so forth. Burl: [00:03:04] I know. I've visualized a lot of really interesting things in my life that I'd probably be arrested for. But in the world of visualization, all things are okay. Debbi: [00:03:14] There you go. I was looking over your bio and bibliography and I was deeply impressed by the range of your work. Did you start your career as a journalist, in journalism as a writer? Burl: [00:03:31] Yeah, well, it's hard to say what we want to admit. I started my career as a small child. My mother was a newspaperwoman and my father smelled of elderberries. We have journalism and that sort of thing in the family history, family background. My mother was a newspaper woman. Her brother Sid Copeland wrote for Life Magazine, Time magazine. He was later Vice President of Cold & Weber public relations. My sister was a gossip columnist, I mean, uh, society editor. That's what you want to call it. And she wrote books and my cousin Helen writes books. My cousin Shoshana Barer writes books. I mean, it's kind of, you know, if you grow up in a family of opera singers, being an opera singer is perfectly normal. You grow up in a family of writers, being a writer is perfectly normal. I can't fix a car. If you want me to do that, I'm terribly sorry. I don't know how.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Tony Knighton on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below, or if you’re in a rush, download a copy! Debbi: [00:00:08] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two e-books for sale. The nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my web site DebbiMack.com, under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: [00:00:59] Hi everyone. I'm very pleased to have with me today a crime writer who's also a working fireman or firefighter, if you will. He's a lieutenant with the Philadelphia Fire Department. If you'd like to enter a giveaway for a copy of his novel Three Hours Past Midnight, just go to my blog and look for his guest post. You can also find the guest post on my Patreon page. So, in any case, here he is, Tony Knighton. Hi, Tony. Tony: [00:01:34] Hi, Debbi. How are you doing? Debbi: [00:01:36] OK. How are you today? Tony: [00:01:38] Oh, swell. How about you? Debbi: [00:01:40] Not bad. Not bad at all. You know, it's Friday and the weekend's coming. Tony: [00:01:48] Yeah, yeah. Debbi: [00:01:48] Let's see. I am reading your novella, Happy Hour and Other Philadelphia Cruelties? I have to say, the first chapter left me breathless. Tony: [00:01:59] Oh, thank you. Debbi: [00:02:02] You write a very fast-paced story. Would you say that's part of your style? Tony: [00:02:09] Yeah. Yeah. That's fair enough. Debbi: [00:02:12] Yeah. How would you describe your writing generally? Do you consider yourself hardboiled or noir? Is there a difference? Tony: [00:02:22] Sort of both. I heard Duane Swierczynski, another Philadelphian, talking about the subject, and he says the difference all counts on the ending. If it's a positive ending, you just wrote hardboiled. If it's a negative ending, you write noir. I think that's at least an interesting explanation. My stories are a little bit of both, I think. Happy Hour is definitely noir. "If it's a positive ending, you just wrote hardboiled. If it's a negative ending, you write noir. I think that's at least an interesting explanation. My stories are a little bit of both, I think." Debbi: [00:03:16] So a little bit of both then. Tony: [00:03:19] Yeah. Debbi: [00:03:20] Do you focus more on mystery or kind of like thriller-type stuff, suspense. Tony: [00:03:26] Most of my stuff I guess falls into the category of crime fiction. My novel sort of ended up being a mystery, too. But I've always been a little bit more interested in will they get away? That just seems to be my preference or the kind of stuff I end up writing. Debbi: [00:03:58] Gotcha. So tell us about Three Hours Past Midnight. What is the book about? Tony: [00:04:09] That story ... it features a character that I wrote in a short story. And in that story ... Debbi: [00:04:20] You're trailing off a little bit, sometimes. Tony: [00:04:23] I'm sorry. Yeah. The novel features a character that I started in a short story, and by the end of the story, the guy was still alive. Then I realized I kind of liked him. And I'd had an idea for the novel. The crime involved in the novel and I just sort of have never been able to see who would do it. And I see this guy now. It's basically two guys who are burglarizing the home of a crooked politician who ended up in jail. They believe there's a wall safe and a lot of money in it. They indeed find the safe and get away with it. And, very shortly, one of them is killed and the safe [illegible]. The rest of the book is basically the other guy, main guy,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Bill Brier on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below, or if you’re in a rush, download a copy! Debbi [00:00:13]: Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I’m your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two e-books for sale; the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, www.debbimack.com under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi [00:01:02]: Hi, everyone. Today, we have a crime fiction author who has a most interesting background. Before he began writing books, he worked in the film industry in different capacities. He also drives race cars. Now, he writes mysteries and thrillers. I'm pleased to have with me today, the award-winning author, Bill Brier. Hi, Bill, how you doing today? Bill Brier [00:01:28]: Hi, fine. How are you doing, Debbi? Debbi [00:01:30]: Okay. Um, where are you coming from today? Bill [00:01:38]: Thousand Oaks, California. I live in California. Debbi [00:01:41]: Ah, very nice. So, let's talk about your books. I'm in the midst of reading The Devil Orders Take-out, a standalone thriller. Was that your first novel? Bill [00:01:55]: Yes, uh-huh, it was. Debbi [00:01:57]: Okay. And what prompted you to write that particular story? Bill [00:02:02]: Well, that story started with—I was actually going to do a story about a talking dog, and I wrote maybe 50 pages of a young teenaged golfer who had this dog that would retrieve golf balls. And after about 50 pages, I realized this was working very well, so I scrapped it and started all over again. And I kept the character, the young boy, he was actually a teenager and eliminated the dog and the story went from there. Debbi [00:02:44]: Hmm, interesting. And can you tell us a little bit about the story? Bill [00:02:49]: Sure. It has to do with a mob boss and a first-rate tax lawyer who get into battles; life-and-death battles. The lawyer had a son murdered and, in trying to seek revenge, he sought out this crime boss. Now, prior to this, the crime boss had come up and approached the attorney asking him to settle an IRS case because he was being audited and he knew that this lawyer was the best there is. The lawyer refused to take the case and the crime boss was very upset with him. Later, the lawyer’s son and wife get killed through circumstances and there was a person who was responsible for this death, and the lawyer wanted retribution. Well, he bought a gun but he lost his nerve, so he remembered the crime boss. He approached the crime boss and said, ”Okay, I will do your taxes, you take care of rubbing out this person.” And what happens is that the crime boss does do that, but now the man is indebted to the crime boss and a lot of mystery and other things happen. And the son of the lawyer turns out to be a gifted golfer and the crime boss threatens to kill the kid—he was only maybe eight years old at this time—because he was mad at the lawyer. So, they are in the office, the crime boss’ office, and he says, “You're gonna get it hard, Bolt. You're not gonna like it, but I'm going to kill your son.” And the lawyer looks on the wall behind the crime boss and sees a picture of him playing golf with Lee Trevino, a professional golfer at the time, so he catches on that he likes golf. So, he says, “If you kill me, you'll miss out on making millions of dollars.” “Oh yeah, you tell me how that's gonna happen”, the crime boss says. Well, thinking quickly, he says “my son is a gifted golfer” and he's gonna win what would be the Masters. Debbi [00:05:58]: By the way, you don't have to give away all the spoilers here [l...

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Robert Crais on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below, or if you’re in a rush, download a copy! Debbi [00:00:13]: Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two e-books for sale; the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, www.debbimack.com under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi [00:01:02]: Hi everyone, I'm pleased to have with me today an author whose books I'm quite familiar with and whose writing inspires me. His latest novel is ‘A Dangerous Man’, the 18th book in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series. He's also written other series and non-series books. Our guest today is bestselling author, Robert Crais. Hi, Robert, thanks for being with us today. Robert [00:01:28]: Debbi, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you. Debbi [00:01:31]: That's awesome. Well, I am thrilled to have you on. Before I get to your latest book, tell us about Elvis and Joe. Who are these guys and what brought them together as a team? Robert [00:01:42]: Well, Elvis Cole, my core character, the guy I'm known for most I guess, is a private investigator in Los Angeles. You know, when I created—I go back with crime fiction for a long time. I mean, I discovered Raymond Chandler when I was a kid and he was my gateway drug and I fell in love with this world. And I knew and always wanted to create a private investigator of my own and that was in the cards for me from early on. And when I created him, I guess you could say I took little bits and pieces—you remember Calvin and Hobbes, and Calvin had this cardboard box and he called it his transmogrifier. And he would get into the box and it would change; it would become a fighter plane or a speed boat or a motorcycle, whatever it was because it was his transmogrifier, this magical device. All writers have a transmogrifier, and I took little bits and pieces of myself and my sensibility and my worldview and I transmogrified myself very loosely into Elvis Cole. You know, he likes to talk, he's verbal, he's funny but he's so much better than me. And he’s one of these people I think I aspire to be, I wish I were more like Elvis Cole. Believe me, he lives a much more adventurous life than I do; I sit in a room and type. "All writers have a transmogrifier, and I took little bits and pieces of myself and my sensibility and my worldview and I transmogrified myself very loosely into Elvis Cole. You know, he likes to talk, he's verbal, he's funny but he's so much better than me." But I have also always been a fan of buddy pictures, going back to buddy comic books, you know, and buddy stories of all kinds. I think partnership is a natural order of things. And I wanted Elvis to have a partner and I thought, well, you know, what would be the most interesting partner is a partner who was completely different from Elvis. If Elvis is verbal, then Joe Pike is going to say very little; and if Elvis is funny and wears his heart on his sleeve, Joe Pike is going to show more emotion. And I began the creation that way. But what became apparent to me after a while is that there were reasons that Joe was so silent and Joe held his emotions in check and was such an internal character. And I began to sense that there was a well of great sadness in Joe and maybe even pain, and that made him enormously fascinating and interesting to me. Because what I've done over the course of all these books, 18 books now, is explore these two characters, to try to reveal little bits and pieces of why they are the men that they are; why is Joe that way; why is Elvi...

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer David Putnam on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below, or if you’re in a rush, download a copy! 00:13 Debbi: Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I’m your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two e-books for sale; the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, www[dot]debbimack[dot]com under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: [00:01:03] Today we have an author with an extensive and impressive background in law enforcement. He's worked in narcotics with the FBI on violent crimes. He's worked on a SWAT team. He was with the U.S. Marshalls. He was co-sworn in as a U.S. Marshall, among other things. And, according to his bio, was a member of the real life Hawaii Five-O, which I found very interesting. In any case, it's pretty clear where this author gets his material. Today's guest is bestselling author David Putnam. Hi, David. It's great to have my show today. David: [00:01:48] Thank you for having me. Debbi: [00:01:49] Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you. Tell us about your protagonist, Bruno Johnson, and what prompted you to write about that character? What prompted you to create that particular kind of character? David: [00:02:03] Well, that's kind of a long explanation. I've been writing since like 1989. And I was constantly writing. I'd written 38 manuscripts when I finally sold my 34th manuscript, and I was trying everything. I tried police procedural, mystery, young adult, sci-fi. And I had four agents. I had a 156 rejections when I quit counting. And Bruno Johnson was just another one of those attempts to try to find a market for my writing. And Bruno Johnson, he is an ex-cop, ex-con who rescues children from toxic homes in South Central Los Angeles. He couldn't do it when he was a cop because there's too many rules and regulations. So now he goes outside the law to rescue the children. I chose Bruno and made him an African-American, because it adds an extra layer of conflict. When I was working for the sheriff's department, I left the jail after six months and went to work patrol in South Central Los Angeles. I went out with two African-American deputies and one was a good friend of mine. I got to see firsthand the added layer of conflict that he had to deal with. I thought that would work well in my books. So that's why I chose to do it that way. "When I was working for the sheriff's department, I left the jail after six months and went to work patrol in South Central Los Angeles. I went out with two African-American deputies and one was a good friend of mine. I got to see firsthand the added layer of conflict that he had to deal with. I thought that would work well in my books." Debbi: [00:03:25] That's very interesting, yeah. I'm reading your first in the series, The Disposables, and Michael Connelly called it "raw, powerful and eloquent", which I have to agree with. David: [00:03:39] Thank you. Debbi: [00:03:41] Did you have direct experience with seeing children in abuse situations? David: [00:03:47] Oh, yes. You know. Readers read for the emotion. That's what they're in the game for, they read for the emotion. And conflict is emotion. So I thought that I would also write about something that was most emotional to me, and the most difficult part of law enforcement was dealing with children who were abused, because they had no advocate except for law enforcement or social services. Debbi: [00:04:15] Yes. And social services can often be . . . David: [00:04:21] Overwhelmed. Debbi: [00:04:21] Overwhelmed, yes.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Earl Javorsky on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below, or if you’re in a rush, download a copy! 00:13 Intro Debbi: Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two e-books for sale; the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, www[dot]debbimack[dot]com under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. 01:01 Debbi: Hi, everyone. Today, we have with us the author of one of the most interesting stories I've read in quite a while. When I say ‘interesting’, well, you'll see. But before I introduce him, I'd like to give a shout out to a friend of the podcast, Stewart A Williams Design. I can personally vouch for the quality of his work. He does my covers and he's absolutely fantastic. He runs a gamut of services, from typography, graphics, but his specialty is book covers; e-book and print. So, I highly recommend Stewart A. Williams. You can find his website at www[dot]stewartawilliamsdesign[dot]com. And with that now, I'd like to introduce to you the author of Down Solo and Trust Me, two very different thrillers that our guest is giving away. It's my great pleasure to introduce Earl Javorsky. 02:08 Earl: Great, thanks. Good to be with you. Debbi: Well, thank you for being here. Now, my introduction to your work was with Down Solo, and please tell the listeners about the main character, Charlie Miner, you know, the interesting part about him. Earl: The part that he’s dead? Debbi: Yeah. It kinda catches your attention right off the bat. Earl: Yeah, but he's not a zombie or a superhero or any weird thing like that. He's just a regular guy. He is PI, he has a drug problem. He wakes up dead at the morgue and there's a bullet hole on his forehead. And once he finds out he can move, it's like in the middle of the late night, early in the morning, the place is pretty quiet. And he finds a place to shower off. It's one of those hoses over a tub and he cleans himself up and steals clothes from another corpse and goes out. Gets a cab, on a mission, he's got to find out who killed him. It's pretty straightforward, isn't it? "He's just a regular guy. He is PI, he has a drug problem. He wakes up dead at the morgue and there's a bullet hole on his forehead." Debbi: It is, it’s very straightforward and a very intriguing premise. It kind of made me think of the movie, DOA, except instead of a guy who has been murdered but hasn’t died yet, you’ve got a guy who has died and wants to find his murderer. They're both trying to find their murderers but in different ways. What prompted you to write about a character in that particular situation? 03:48 Earl: I have absolutely no idea. So, I haven't been a ‘supernatural type’ reader, you know, since my early 20’s. I loved it then and then I went off into more conventional like Raymond Chandler and traditional mysteries and up to, you know, current great writers in that genre. And one day I sat down and I wrote the first page of Charlie Miner, of Down Solo and I had no idea what to do with it for like six months. And somewhere along the line, I went, okay, I got a guy, he's dead in a morgue, he's a heroin addict, let's make him a PI. Let's make his murder part of the case that he was looking into. Which case? How do we find out? And all of a sudden, I realized I could develop it and so I get him going home, finding out that his place has been searched and trashed. He gets access to his files and has to go through a bunch of files to find out which one maybe had to do with his murder and who the people were.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Andy Rausch on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below, or if you’re in a rush, download a copy! Debbi: Hi everyone, this is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guests, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two eBooks for sale, the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website www[dot[debbimack[dot]com under the “Crime Cafe” link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing. Debbi: So, well folks it's good to be back for a fifth season of this podcast. I got to tell you it's been cool and I'd like to thank the people, I think it's Kings River Magazine [correction: King’s River Life Magazine], who put up a nice mention of the podcast recently online. In addition, I'd also like to put in a good word for my cover artist, the one who works on my books, his name is Stewart A. Williams and he has a business called Stewart A. Williams Design, and I totally recommend him, highly recommend him for anybody who’s interested in self-publishing and finding a good cover artist. His website is www.stewardwilliamsdesign.com and with that, let's get to my guest. My guest today is Andy Rausch, he is the first guest of the season. He has that distinction, and he is a man of multiple talents. Andy is an author, a film journalist, a screenwriter, film producer, actor, and I believe, also a graphic novelist now. Did I manage to get all of it in, Andy? Andy: I think so, pretty much, you know. I do political activism. I do a lot of stuff. I'm busy. I'd like to think I'm good at some of them. I try, I try. Debbi: That's good. Well, it's a good thing to be busy Andy: Right and I write a lot of nonfiction, too, as you might have seen. About 30 of my books are probably nonfiction and then the other… I mean this year, I'll have my 38th book out and only one of them was self-published and I mean I know that's corny, because that stigma’s gone, but you know when I came up there was a stigma about self-publishing. So, I always thought, you know, you got to do it, but I mean some of the publishers they don't sell, so what's the difference, you know you might as well do it your way and get what you want done and I get that, I think that's amazing. But I do a lot. Debbi: Yes, yes, and keeping busy is good, as long as you're keeping busy with the right things. Andy: Right, right. Well, I figure if I stay busy with these things, it'll keep me out of trouble and unbusy with the bad things, you know? Debbi: Yes, yes, good point and just so you know, he's giving away kind of a two-book package. Is this correct, your latest novella Bloody Sheets and the anthology A Time for Violence? Andy: Right, so I just wanted to give away the books to, you know, bring it to more people's attention. I do work with a lot of publishers. Some of them are little, some are big. These are books that I'm very proud of that are with a smaller publisher, and you know, so whatever it takes to get readership I'm down for. I tell people if you can steal them, whatever you need to do. The publisher probably shouldn’t appreciate that, but my thing is just read them. I'll give them away, you know, I don't care and that's always been the way, I don't care to be rich. That’d be great, but I don't really care. I just want to get them out there. Debbi: All right, well, um, I have to ask you about the book I just finished reading, Elvis Presley, CIA Assassin? Oh, my god! That story is freaking hilarious. I felt like I was reading something out of Quentin Tarantino's movies. What prompted you to write that book? "Quentin had actually had an idea at one time before he made it,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Joe Lansdale on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below, or if you're in a rush, download a copy! Debbi: [00:00:12]  Hi everyone, this is the Crime Cafe your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I'm your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two eBooks for sale: The 9-book boxed set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website DebbiMack.com under the “Crime Café” link. You can also get free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: [00:01:04]  It's my great pleasure to have with me today one of the most eclectic writers doing crime fiction, among other things. An author in multiple genres including mystery, westerns, horror, science fiction, and suspense, he has also written for comics, and several of his novels have been adapted for film and TV. My guest is none other than the very awesome Joe Lansdale. Debbi: [00:01:31]  Hi Joe. I'm so excited to talk with you today. Thank you so much for being here. Joe: [00:01:36]  Thank you, Debbi. I'm glad to be here. Debbi: [00:01:39]   It's so great to have you on. I first got to know your work as a reviewer for Mystery Scene Magazine actually. Joe: [00:01:45]   Really? That's a great mag. Debbi: [00:01:48]   Yeah, it's great, it was wonderful. I got these wonderful free books and I got to read them and talk about them. It was great! Joe: [00:01:54] (laughing) Debbi: [00:01:56]  So my Lansdale starter book was EDGE OF DARK WATER and, boy, that made an impression on me. Joe: [00:02:03]  I'm glad it did. Debbi: [00:02:04]   Tell me when you wrote it—did you think of it as a young adult novel? Because it is a very mature young adult novel, and I love that about it. Joe: [00:02:14]  No. I didn’t really think of it as a young adult novel. It was the first novel I did for my new publisher Mulholland, which is a branch of Little Brown. and it was just a story I wanted to tell. And I’ve always liked stories with young people as protagonists. In fact, I’ve written quite a few with young people as protagonists and so it just seemed natural to me and, you know, it just rolled out. Debbi: [00:02:40]   I know that feeling actually. The feeling that something is just rolling out. Joe: [00:02:43]  Mmm … it’s good feeling. Debbi: [00:02:45]   Yes it is! I have this one young adult novel I’ve done and it’s kind of like this real kind of variation from what I usually do. But the fact that you write in multiple genres to me is so encouraging, but let me get to the latest thing you have out which is in the anthology A TIME FOR VIOLENCE. Am I correct about that? Joe: [00:03:09]  Ah, yes, there is an anthology that has my story in it among others. Debbi: [00:03:14]   I got to tell you, I love that story. It was like the world’s most twisted holiday story. Joe: [00:03:22]  Thank you! Thank you so much. Debbi: [00:03:24]   It’s the highest compliment I can think to make for that particular story. It’s awesome. One thing I enjoy about your writing is the way you combine serious social issues with humor. Can you talk a little bit about Hap and Leonard and where those characters came from? Joe: [00:03:42]  Well, you know, Hap and Leonard really were an accident. I had a two-book contract for Bantam, which I was very excited about, for two crime novels, and the first one I wrote was COLD IN JULY. And when I finished COLD IN JULY, I thought, you know I’d like to write another novel that kind of has that old Gold Medal novel feel. Fawcett Gold Medal was a branch that did crime, and then there was another branch that did westerns, science fiction and so on. And I’ve collected those Gold Medal novels for years,

Debbi Mack interviews thriller author Jamie Freveletti on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you're in a rush, click here to download a copy. Debbi: [00:00:12] Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. Before I introduce my guest, I just want to mention that there are some great new perks and features for readers who support the Crime Cafe Patreon campaign. You can access the Patreon campaign from my website DebbiMack.com. Debbi: [00:00:41] Today, it's my great pleasure to have on the show an award winning and internationally bestselling author of thriller novels. Specifically, the Emma Caldridge Series, which is totally awesome. I've read one of them, and they're absolutely fantastic. She has also written novels in the Robert Ludlum Covert One Series and, as the author of both crime fiction and true crime, I'm thrilled to have on today Jamie Freveletti. Hey, Jamie. It is so good to see you. Jamie: [00:01:18] Good to see you again. Even if it's virtual. Debbi: [00:01:22] Even if it's virtual. Yeah. Virtual beats no contact or falling apart. Well, I've read the first book in your series, and Emma Caldridge is just the most awesome protagonist. So smart, so resourceful, so kickass. Tell us about her, how you developed that character, and how she has developed over the course of your series. Jamie: [00:01:53] So, she's a chemist right. She's kind of like a female MacGyver. She came about, because I had written a novel, a manuscript I should say, and nobody had picked it up. And it's called BLACK MONEY. So I wanted to write something else. I love thrillers. I was at a 24-hour race with my husband. He's an ultramarathon runner, and he runs 24 hours at a time. So I went to this race. I was a handler. I used to go to make sure he didn't die. So, it was in Colorado. We had a freak snowstorm in the middle of the night. It was 70 degrees when they started. It was minus whatever and snowing on them. So one man passed out on the trail and got hypothermia. So I was in charge of dragging him to the hospital when I did that, and I started thinking you know he didn't know where he was, he didn't know his name. And that gave me the idea for a lot of things, because I thought, "This is kind of frightening." You know you "what if" and that always starts every novel, right? What if this happened to me? What if I got hypothermia or I was somewhere where I didn't know where I was. He was from England. You know, he was in a strange location running this 100-mile race. He was obviously in fantastic shape. But something happened. So that's why I put her, in RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL, I have her down in the Colombian jungle. I was thinking what would it be like if your plane is down. You don't know the east from west. You don't know where you are. You know the jungle in Colombia is landmined at the time. Since then, there's been a peace agreement. Treaty. But that's how it started. Debbi: [00:03:41] That's really amazing. It's just ... the story is just riveting. I mean that first one that I read, the first in your series? Just a page-turner. Totally. Jamie: [00:03:52] Thank you. Yeah. RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL started my career and got the awards and got everything rolling. That was really ... That's really the book that I still look back on with great fondness. Debbi: [00:04:05] That's awesome. That's wonderful. You have degrees in law and a postgraduate degree in International Studies. I take it that you've drawn upon your legal practice experience in your writing to a certain extent? Jamie: [00:04:21] I do all the time. When I was a lawyer, I did a lot of food, drug, and medical device, both regulatory and litigation. White-collar defense. And since Emma's a chemist, she's kind of fashioned on a bunch of the expert witnesses from the pharmaceutical companies that I used to work with. I love the experts.

Debbi Mack interviews crime fiction author and consultant D.P. Lyle on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you’re in a rush, click here to download the transcript! Debbi: [00:00:12] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book boxed set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website DebbiMacke.com under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. [00:01:01] It's my great pleasure to have with me today an author, forensics expert, and consultant. My guest has won and been nominated for multiple prestigious awards for his works of fiction, and along with writing numerous works of fiction, he consults with other novelists and television writers on shows that include: Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, House, Pretty Little Liars, and more. My guest is none other than DP Lyle. It's so great to have you on today, Doug. Thanks for being here. D.P.: [00:01:49] Thanks for having me, Debbi, I appreciate it. Debbi: [00:01:50] To say that you have an impressive body of work is understating things. For the benefit of listeners, how would you describe the types of books that you write? D.P.: [00:02:01] Well, I write both nonfiction and fiction, but my fiction works are mostly darker thrillers. But my Jake Longly, my newest series is comedic thrillers. I like comedy. And, you know, I'm a funny guy. What do you mean? So I write these comedic thrillers, and I'm really having fun with them. I was working on the fourth Jake book this morning. So, yeah. Debbi: [00:02:28] That's awesome. Tell us about Jake, then. What's he like? What's that protagonist like? D.P.: [00:02:34] Well, there's a lot of me in Jake, of course, and there's a lot of Jake in Jake, but he's an ex-professional baseball player who now owns a bar in Gulf Shores, Alabama. And his idea of life is to own a bar and chase bikinis. And his father, Ray, is ex-military spook world, special ops guy who's a P.I. now. And he doesn't understand why Jake won't work for him. But Jake always ends up mainly through his new love interest, Nicole, gets drug into Ray's world and all these cases. So you would say that Jake is a reluctant P.I. He doesn't want to be there, but he always ends up there. Debbi: [00:03:18] Hmm. So the chasing bikinis part always makes me think of John McDonald. D.P.: [00:03:25] Right. Debbi: [00:03:26] So he's not quite the white knight. Or is he? D.P.: [00:03:29] Oh, no, no. No, Jake's got his history. He's got an ex-wife named Tammy the Insane, as he calls her, who actually married the attorney that handled the divorce and that kind of thing. But then so Tammy always calls Jake for advice, though she doesn't like him. And she argues with him all the time. But she always calls him for advice, and it drives him crazy. And then Nicole, his new love interest is hot, but smart and tough and clever and focused. And so she's different than Jake, too. Jake is kind of one of these guys that gets through life on good looks and wit and charm. But he gets forced into situations that forces him to use skills he had no idea he had. Debbi: [00:04:17] Mm-hmm. That sounds interesting. D.P.: [00:04:20] It's a fun story. They're all comedic based, I mean. They're situational comedy, so to speak, with a lot of murders. Debbi: [00:04:30] Oh, that's always cool. D.P.: [00:04:32] Yeah, exactly. Debbi: [00:04:33] Murder with laughs is always cool. D.P.: [00:04:36] Exactly. Debbi: [00:04:38] How did you end up focusing on forensic science? You practice cardiology, right. D.P.

Debbi Mack interviews mystery author Phillippe Diederich (writing as Danny Lopez) on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you’re in a rush, click here to download the transcript! Debbi: [00:00:10] This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest. I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book boxed set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website, DebbiMack.com, under the "Crime Cafe" link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. Debbi: [00:01:03] Hi, everyone. I'm pleased to have as my guest today the author of the Dexter Vega Mysteries, as well as highly-regarded novels such as PLAYING FOR THE DEVIL'S FIRE, a young adult novel that has received a couple of honors in terms of Best Fiction and Best Young Adult Fiction. Again, it's a pleasure to introduce Phillippe Diederich [aka Danny Lopez] Glad you could be here today. Danny: [00:01:30] Hi. Thanks for having me, Debbi. Debbi: [00:01:32] Well, I'm just glad you can be here. And before we talk about your mysteries, let's talk about the novels that came before that. What was your first novel about? Danny: [00:01:44] My first published novel is SOFRITO. And it's a novel about a Cuban-American who was born in the United States, has a Cuban restaurant in New York, and he travels to Havana for the first time in order to steal the recipe that had once belonged to his uncle. And in the process falls in love, discovers his late father's past, and mainly it deals a lot with the different shades of ideas on why people leave Cuba. You know, not necessarily political. So it's a double love story. It's a return to your own roots. It's a foodie book. It talks a lot about food and the restaurants. And it's a bit of a tour of Havana. I've met some people who have read it and say, "Oh, we went to Cuba because we read your book." Debbi: [00:02:45] That's really cool. How would you describe it in terms of genre? Danny: [00:02:53] Just straight up fiction. I got into writing because I like stories. So I try to create a story for all of my books. There has to be something beyond just characters or pretty writing. One of the things that happened with SOFRITO is that I had spent a lot of time in the 90s in Cuba, in Havana in particular, as a photojournalist. So it was still a forbidden place for Americans to go to. So I thought it would be interesting to write a book based on this place. I was so close and yet so far. And I also wanted to write about the different opinions that Cubans and Cuban-Americans had about Cuba and the Castro regime, etc. It took me so long to write and revise and get it published that by the time it got published, Obama had lifted some of the traveling sanctions that he had on. So it worked out quite well, I think, in the end that it got delayed in publication. Yeah. I'm just after a story. So I would say general fiction, you know. I'm really rooted in the classics of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. And they all have stories, great writing, great stories. And that's what I try to do. "One of the things that happened with SOFRITO is that I had spent a lot of time in the 90s in Cuba, in Havana in particular, as a photojournalist. So it was still a forbidden place for Americans to go to. So I thought it would be interesting to write a book based on this place." Debbi: [00:04:17] That's excellent. And that's really the whole point to write good stories. Now, your mysteries are written under a pseudonym, Danny Lopez. What made you choose to take on a pseudonym and why Danny Lopez? Danny: [00:04:37] So what happened is I publish SOFRITO, which is a general fiction book, I suppose.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Ellen Kirschman on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you’re in a rush, click here to download the transcript! Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book boxed set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website debbimack.com, under the "Crime Cafe" link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing. Debbi: [00:01:04] Hi, everyone. It's my pleasure to have as my guest today a crime fiction and nonfiction author who calls herself "A Shrink with Ink", and I don't think that's a reference to tattoos, although we could always find out. It's crime writer and psychologist Ellen Kirschman. Hey, Ellen, I'm so glad to have you on the show today. Ellen: [00:01:29] Thank you. Debbi. I'm glad, finally, at last to be here. Debbi: [00:01:35] Awesome. Okay. In your bio, you mentioned being born in New York City, but say you were born on the wrong coast. And I've often had that same feeling, because I love the West Coast. And you mentioned that you live in San Francisco. Ellen: [00:01:49] Right. I live in the Bay Area. Debbi: [00:01:51] Is that not the most awesome city ever? Ellen: [00:01:54] Yes, it is. I love it. Debbi: [00:01:57] I just adore it. What's your favorite part of living in San Francisco? Ellen: [00:02:02] Well, I live about 40 minutes south, so my favorite part is that I can get up to San Francisco in just 40 minutes in my car or on a train. So I have one of the world's most beloved cities right there at my back door. I love a lot of things about the Bay area. The weather even though we have peculiar four seasons out here: flood, fire, earthquake, and landslides, usually. But most of the time it's temperate and wonderful, and I love the vibe out here. I know many parts of the country see us as being pretty ... a little on the "too far to the left" side, but that suits me just fine. Debbi: [00:02:57] I know where you're coming from. It is a beautiful area, and I love the cable cars in San Francisco. That's one thing I love about it, and actually I used to live in Petaluma. Ellen: [00:03:08] Did you? Debbi: [00:03:09] That's about 40 miles north. Ellen: [00:03:13] Right. Also a lovely community. Debbi: [00:03:16] It is. It is very, very nice. Your first books were non-fiction. Can you tell us about them? Ellen: [00:03:23] Sure. My first book, which just what came out, the third edition came out last May is called I LOVE A COP: WHAT POLICE FAMILIES NEED TO KNOW. And I'd been thinking about writing that book for almost 20 years, if you can believe it. It was just knocking on the inside of my head. We do so much training for police officers, but it was so clear to me as someone who worked primarily with police officers that this job just spilled over to their family life and their home in not always a very positive way, because the paradoxes, the kind of skills that make you a good street cop don't make you a very good parent, spouse, friend. You've got to really learn how to shift gears. So I really wanted to write something that would help police families navigate what it's like to be married to this job that they didn't select most of the time. So the book has been, it's been very gratifying. It's sold well over one hundred and fifty thousand copies. It's kind of, as people have said, the Bible for police families, and it's gratifying to know that I've been able to reach that many people and the help that many people. "I really wanted to write something that would help police families navigate what it's like to be marr...

Debbi Mack interviews crime author and screenwriter James Longmore on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you’re in a rush, click here to download the transcript! Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book boxed set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website debbimack.com, under the "Crime Cafe" link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. [00:01:02] It's my great pleasure today to have James Longmore as my guest. James is not only an author, but a screenwriter and a publisher. He has written and directed short films, as well, and even done standup comedy. So thanks for being here today, James. James: [00:01:21] Thank you for having me. Nice to see you. Debbi: [00:01:25] Sure thing. It's great to see you. You've done so many interesting things. Let's start with your writing, though. What do you write mostly? Is it mostly horror or do you do other genres, as well? James: [00:01:39] A lot of it seems to be horror, because that's sort of where my mind defaults to, but mostly, you know, dark stuff. You know, if it's dark, whether it's your crime or horror or dark romance or whatever. I think if it's got a dark element to it, then that's me. A dark comedy is what I'm a big fan of already, which is something we British people do incredibly well. Debbi: [00:02:08] I do love dark comedy, and that's pretty awesome. But let's see. You've written five novels, three novellas, and a bunch of short stories. James: [00:02:19] Right, yeah. Apparently so. Yes. On my resume. Debbi: [00:02:24] Are all of your novels standalones? James: [00:02:27] They are, yeah. I envy authors who sort of plan and write a series of three, four, five. We spoke to somebody recently who's planned a series of like ten books. Maybe I just haven't had the idea yet that it would sustain any sort of series. A couple of my novels I think would make a good sequel, but I just seem to like to move on to the next idea. I'm not one for rehashing, to be honest. Debbi: [00:03:02] Interesting. Or for stretching things out. James: [00:03:04] For stretching things out. Yeah, yeah, it's the same reason I tend not to commit to long TV series. A nice little 10-part series or an eight-part series, that's fine. But these that go on for like 13 seasons, it's just ... I just can't commit to that. Debbi: [00:03:27] And they tend to kind of run out of gas after a while if they don't do it right. James: [00:03:32] They do usually. I mean, I remember I really got hooked on Breaking Bad and that was just about the right length. I think it was seven, maybe eight seasons, and that was enough. But some of them, they just go on and it's like ... really should have stopped. Season Seven, you should have quit. But honestly. I mean, obviously, as long as people still watch it and advertisers still fork it out, they'll still keep churning them out. Debbi: [00:03:58] Exactly, exactly right. Can you tell us a little about Flanagan? What's the book about? James: [00:04:04] It's a sort of dark psychological sort of ... I don't like to use the word erotica, because it's not really erotica. It's about an everyday or seemingly everyday couple who have a couple of sort of weird ways of getting their kicks, and I don't want to give too much. It has a twist that I don't want to give away because it's one that people [won't see coming]. I swear you'd never see it coming in a million years. But, for me, because I like dark things, I like horror. You know, I mean for me one of the most horrific monsters, if you like,

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Andrew Nette on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you’re in a rush, click here to download the transcript! Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two e-books for sale: the nine-book boxed set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website debbimack.com under the "Crime Cafe" link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more, if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. [00:01:02] Finally, I'd like to tell you about another podcast that might interest you. Kings River Life has a new mystery podcast called Mysteryrat's Maze. Episodes consist of mystery short stories, and first chapters of mystery novels, read by local actors. To listen to the episodes and subscribe to the podcast, you can go to mysteryratsmaze.podbean.com, iTunes and Google Play. Click the icon below to learn more. [00:01:33] Hi, everyone. Today on the Crime Cafe, it's my pleasure to have a writer of fiction, non-fiction, a reviewer, and a self-proclaimed pulp scholar. It's my pleasure, as I said, to introduce Andrew Nette today. Andrew: [00:01:54] Thank you, Debbi. Nice to be here. Debbi: [00:01:58] I'm so happy you can be here. Andrew: [00:02:00] Yes. It took a bit of organizing, but we did it. Debbi: [00:02:03] We did it. We did it. How would you describe your particular type of fiction writing? Andrew: [00:02:13] I think without trying to make it too complicated I like to say that I sort of write elevated sort of genre novels. It's hardboiled fiction with the sort of noir tinge, although I don't think you can call yourself noir. You have to let someone else call you that. But I do try and I do try and put a lot of work into them. I try to make the writing the best I can and I try and inject quite a bit of politics and setting into my into my crime novels. My second novel is called Gunshine State and it's a heist novel. It's a heist gone wrong novel. I love heist movies, and I've always wanted to write that Australian heist gone wrong novel, because there's so few of them. But it's also quite political and it's set in a number of places. It's set in Queensland, which is in northern Australia. It's also set in Melbourne. It's also set in Thailand, where I lived for quite a while. Debbi: [00:03:21] I see. Well, I'm reading it now and enjoying it very much. Can you tell us a little bit about your first novel Ghost Money? Andrew: [00:03:30] Yeah. Ghost Money, a novel dear to my heart. I worked as a journalist in Cambodia in the 1990s for a wire service for a while. I lived in that part of Southeast Asia for about seven years, and I spent quite a bit of time in Cambodia. I always thought Cambodia would be a great setting for a crime novel, partly because things happened every day in Cambodia. You just couldn't make up ... terrible things, but also wonderful things. Also, I'm fascinated by the notion of what constitutes justice and law and order in countries which lack a great deal of justice and law and order and which have had something like the Khmer Rouge that did the horrendous Pol Pot regime happened to them. But when I was working in Cambodia in the 90s, I always thought this would be really great to set a crime novel here. And I never got around to it. I was too busy working as a journalist, and then later on I sort of came back to it. That was in the mid-90s, and then basically in about 2007, my father died and I had this epiphany. I thought I have to write this novel. So my family and I went and lived in Cambodia for a year. And I wrote a novel that's called Ghost Money, which is set in Cambodia in the mid-90s.

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Matt Coyle on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you’re in a rush, click here to download the transcript! Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two e-books for sale: the nine book boxed set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my Web site debbimack[dot]com under the "Crime Cafe" link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon. Along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. [00:01:02] Hi everyone. Today our guest is the author of the bestselling Rick Cahill crime novels. His books have all either been chosen as finalists or won various awards including the Anthony for Best First Novel. It's my pleasure to introduce our guest Matt Coyle. Hi Matt. Thanks for being here today. Matt: [00:01:25] Thanks for having me. Debbi: [00:01:26] Well, how is San Diego? Matt: [00:01:28] It is a beautiful day today. It really is. Debbi: [00:01:31] Oh God. Matt: [00:01:33] It's exactly the kind of day people think about what they think of San Diego. Debbi: [00:01:36] Yeah. I love San Diego. Such a wonderful city and the weather is fantastic. So tell us about Rick Cahill. Who is he and what's his story? Matt: [00:01:51] Well, when the first book opens, which is Yesterday's Echo which came out 2013, it's been about eight years for Rick since his wife was murdered. He was a police officer on the Santa Barbara Police Department, arrested for his wife's murder, but never tried. He was released but never exonerated. [00:02:13] So he was kicked off the force eventually and he moved back to his hometown of San Diego, went to work in a restaurant kind of behind the scenes and eventually worked his way up to manager. We had to be more out in front because when he was arrested for his wife's murder, obviously the press was all over him. There was a 48 Hours episode on it, on her murder, which made him look like he was guilty. So he had all that baggage since his wife's death. Now, in the first book, he's managing a restaurant, helps a woman in peril. Now in Book Five, which is Wrong Light he's been a private investigator for five years. And a radio station has hired him to try to find out the person who's calling himself Pluto, who this person is, and why he's harassing their breakaway talk radio star Naomi Hendrix, and bad things ensue. Debbi: [00:03:20] Uh huh. So in the bio that you wrote with your guest post, you credited Raymond Chandler with inspiring you to write crime fiction. What was it about his writing that inspired you? Matt: [00:03:34] You know I read him very young. My father gave me The Simple Art of Murder when I was ... I think I was 12 to 13, 14. Somewhere around there. And of course I read the short stories in the book and I read his thesis on writing detective fiction. I just liked the idea of someone living by their own code. He was a man of honor, but he had his own code. I always see the private eye as kind of a gunfighter who rides into town alone and has to deal with sometimes competing forces, and all he has is his honor and his code. And Rick's very much that person. He actually lives by the credo handed down to him by his father who was a disgraced cop before him, which is sometimes you have to do what's right, even when the law says it's wrong. And with each book, Rick takes that more and more extreme. "I always see the private eye as kind of a gunfighter who rides into town alone and has to deal with sometimes competing forces, and all he has is his honor and his code." Debbi: [00:04:21] There's almost a Dirty Harry-ish side to that sort of philosophy.

This episode of the Crime Cafe features the Philip Marlowe radio episode “Where There's a Will”. I hope you enjoy the show! :) Be a doll and support the podcast on Patreon! :)    

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer K'Anne Meinel on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you’re in a rush, click here to download the transcript! And be sure to enter her five-book giveaway! Just click here. Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine-book boxed set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website debbimack[dot]com under the "Crime Cafe" link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. [00:01:03] It's my pleasure today to have on an author with more than 100 published works including short stories, novels, and novellas. She works in a variety of genres, including crime fiction of course, and she's a USA TODAY bestselling author. She is also owner of Shadoe Publishing, amongst her other accomplishments. So it's my great pleasure to introduce K'Anne Meinel. Thanks for being here today, K'Anne. K'Anne: [00:01:38] Thank you for having me. Debbi: [00:01:41] It's my pleasure to have you on. Glad you're able to be here. So you've written an impressive number of works. How long have you written and published fiction? K'Anne: [00:01:55] I've written all my life but I've actually only published about eight years. But I had books waiting. I wrote my very first complete novel in 2003 and I did it in two weeks. Debbi: [00:02:12] Wow. K'Anne: [00:02:13] Yeah. Debbi: [00:02:13] That's impressive. Was that your completed draft or did you have to amend? K'Anne: [00:02:21] I played with it for eight years before I actually sought out publishers. Got 20 rejection letters, and something told me to go with self-publishing which has worked for me. Debbi: [00:02:34] That's excellent. Yeah. K'Anne: [00:02:35] Once I published it, I did get approached by a publisher, and I should have read more of the reviews because they turned out to be con artists. I've never received any residuals. Debbi: [00:02:49] Oh my gosh. K'Anne: [00:02:49] They stole it, and then I got my rights back. Using my lawyers. And they've never stopped publishing it. They keep stealing. Debbi: [00:03:03] Oh, my gosh. That's awful. K'Anne: [00:03:05] Yeah, it was a horrible experience. That's why you know I caution people. Yeah. Anybody can call themself a publisher but watch what they do. Debbi: [00:03:15] Right. Absolutely. And self-publishing ... you have your own imprint. I also have my own imprint and I think that's very important. K'Anne: [00:03:23] Yeah. Because a lot of self-published authors, if they don't have a so-called publisher behind them, some stores won't even consider them. Debbi: [00:03:34] Yes, exactly. Exactly right. It gives you a more professional image. K'Anne: [00:03:41] It does. It does. And I've compared my paperback books to some of the so-called professional books. Some people that I may compete with or whatever, and I'm very pleased with what we've produced. And it was a learning curve. You know I didn't walk into this knowing anything, but I really enjoy learning. It's a challenge. I absolutely love formatting my books. Once the story is written, then tweaking all the little fine details like putting in a doodad here that most people wouldn't notice. But when you're looking at a paperback and it feels different, accordingly, and you don't know why, it's because of those details. Debbi: [00:04:29] Yes. Yeah I really like self-publishing and the flexibility that it gives you. K'Anne: [00:04:40] Well, they're trying to make it a little harder. I notice with CreateSpace going away, because Amazon is bringing it back under their umbrella and it's n...

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Chris Roy on the Crime Cafe podcast. Check out the show notes below. Or, if you're in a rush, click here to download the transcript! Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe. Your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two e-books for sale: the nine-book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website debbimack[dot]com. Just click on the "Crime Cafe" link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. [00:01:04] It's my pleasure to have my guest today crime fiction author Chris Roy. He's from South Mississippi and currently resides in the Mississippi Department of Corrections. So the audio might not be perfect. You'll probably hear a lot of background noise, but let's hope for the best. I would also like to mention that Chris has edited along with Andy Rausch A Time For Violence. This is his latest project. It is a love letter to the great anthologies of yesteryear. And the theme is violence. And I'll let Chris do the describing from here. Thanks for being here today, Chris. It's great to have you on. Chris: [00:01:55] It's nice to be here today. Debbi: [00:01:59] I'm glad you're able to be here and I think it goes without saying that your experiences have informed your fiction. Can you tell us a little bit about exactly how your experiences have inspired you to write? Chris: [00:02:18] Oh, sure. Some of my earlier works of crime fiction were short stories that had two characters I created named Razor and Blondie. This was about 10 years ago. They were based on personal experiences selling drugs, stealing cars, identity theft, that sort of thing. And also a lot tough crimes preferred from criminals while incarcerated. And so I had just had all this knowledge about crimes and also I found that when I was started writing these stories I like to create crimes, create new crimes. So I had all of this this knowledge to draw on and experience to draw on and that is where my original stories came from. Debbi: [00:03:16] Would you say to your genre is more geared toward noir or thriller? Chris: [00:03:26] It's noir definitely. My earlier works were thriller. There were anti-heroes and they had all these difficulties and there was usually a happy ending. The stuff I write now, terrible things happen to really good people and the endings are usually not very good. So it's definitely noir right now. "My earlier works were thriller. There were anti-heroes and they had all these difficulties and there was usually a happy ending. The stuff I write now, terrible things happen to really good people and the endings are usually not very good." Debbi: [00:03:52] I was going to say, yeah, I read your story Her Name is Mercie. I think I'm saying that right. and I liked it very much and your other book Shocking Circumstances. I've just started. And I'm interested that you focused on female protagonists. Can you talk about what prompted that? Chris: [00:04:19] Okay. When I was studying books on writing, when I started getting serious, the first story that I wrote after that was Shocking Circumstances and I was thinking you know I have a limited knowledge of skills that I can put into my characters you know. I was a mechanic on the street. And I'm a tattoo artist now. I studied engineering, metal fabrication. Boxing. I actually teach boxing and have for many years in here. You can hear in the background, there's a guy beating on his bag now. You hear that? That's one of my guys. I train. He's getting a warmed up for a workout. We're going to work out afterwards. After the podcast. So I had these skills, knowledge that I can put on my characters and s...

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Paul Heatley on this episode of the Crime Cafe. Check out the show notes below! Or, if you’re in a rush, download your copy here! Debbi: [00:00:13] Hi, everyone. This is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, I'll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two ebooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy links for both on my website debbimack[dot]com, under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You'll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. [00:01:02] It's my pleasure today to have as my guest the author of the Eye for an Eye series, one of which I'm currently in the midst of reading and thoroughly enjoying, as well as other novels and more than 50 short stories. Very impressive. I mean, it just amazes me. Anyway, from northeast England, it's Paul Heatley. Hi, Paul. Paul: [00:01:29] Hello, Debbi. Debbi: [00:01:30] It's great to have you on. Paul: [00:01:32] Thank you. Good to be here. Debbi: [00:01:34] Excellent. How would you describe your books in terms of genre or subgenre? Paul: [00:01:43] Crime fiction noir. That's the best way to describe them. Sometimes I set them in America. Sometimes I set them here in northeast England. I think it just depends on what kind of story I'm trying to tell and how I think it can be best presented. Some story ideas come to me and I just think that wouldn't work in England. [00:02:03] But I do watch a lot of American movies and a lot of American TV shows. I read a lot of American books and I think that's what has a big influence on me and why I end up setting things in America and why when I get ideas, after going through them. I'm like, "Is this English? Is it American?" And that's how the creative process grows as the setting process. Debbi: [00:02:24] That's very interesting. I noticed you did mention a lot of American authors as influential. James Ellroy, Jim Thompson, and Chester Himes being your big three there. And I've read all of them and enjoy all of them. They're great authors. Are there any particular books by them that you find particularly inspirational? Paul: [00:02:48] Yeah. For James Ellroy, it would be Black Dahlia. That was probably the first crime book I read that a big impact, because that was a big shock for me to see that crime fiction could be dark. And that sounds silly, but I read it when I was about 16 or 17, and up to that point, my only knowledge of crime fiction was ... it wasn't anything I'd read. It was adaptations of Agatha Christie, and you know, if you're not in that kind of thing, you're not going to be into that kind of thing. But then I read James Ellroy and you had these incredibly dopey policemen and sociopathic serial killers, and it was just something incredible to read and to discover and that's really what turned around for me. And Jim Thompson again, he came after Ellroy. And he was another one that kind of opened my eyes to what crime fiction is and what it can be, because at the same time as discovering Ellroy, I don't like police procedurals. On Paul's favorite books: "For James Ellroy, it would be Black Dahlia. That was probably the first crime book I read that a big impact, because that was a big shock for me to see that crime fiction could be dark." [00:03:48] And Jim Thompson doesn't write that. Jim Thompson, for the most part, writes from the bad guys' point of view and that's what I like. I like to read from the criminals' point of view. That's why I like noir. And Savage Night by him is my favorite. That's just totally off the rails. It's just great. Chester Himes ... anything, anything Chester Himes. I just think he's fantastic. [00:04:12] There's not a single book particularly stick...

This episode of the Crime Cafe features the Philip Marlowe radio episode “The Panama Hat”. I hope you enjoy the show! :)             And don't forget to support us on Patreon! :)