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This week on the Writer's Detective Bureau, character arc, detective sergeant demotion, and sex offenders. I'm Adam Richardson, and this is the Writer's Detective Bureau. Welcome to Episode #47 of the Writer's Detective Bureau, the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime-related fiction. This week I'd like to thank Gold Shield patron, Debra Dunbar from DebraDunbar.com, Gold Shield patron, C.C. Jameson from ccjameson.com, Larry Keeton, Vicki Tharp of vickitharp.com, and my latest Gold Shield patrons, Dharma Kelleher from dharmakelleher.com and Chrysann, who you can find on Twitter @chrysanncreates. I'd also like to thank my newest coffee club patrons, Brandon Jones and Mark William Smith, as well as all of my long-time coffee club patrons for their support month after month. Check out the website links for all of those writers supporting this show in the show notes by going to writersdetective.com/47. To learn about setting up your own patreon account for your own author business, visit writersdetective.com/patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.

​My good friend, Sergeant Patrick J. O'Donnell, has written a reference guide called "Cops and Writers: From the Academy to the Street", and it launches today. I'll put a link to it in the show notes at writersdetective.com/47. The Sarge sent me an advance copy, and I can tell you that it is packed full of facts and first-hand accounts of police work that will definitely add authenticity to your writing. This is book one in his Cops and Writers series, and this one specifically covers the process of going from getting hired, going to the police academy, and then working patrol out on the street. This is part of every police officer and every police detective's back story. Learning everything that your protagonist went through early in their career will give you insight into what made them uniquely them.

In fact, when I saw Michael Connelly and Titus Welliver, the actor who plays Bosch, talk at the LA Times Festival of books a few years ago, Michael Connelly talked about the problem he faced when after writing Bosch, the Bosch of the books not the TV show, because he introduced his protagonist, Harry Bosch, midway into his career. We meet Bosch in the book, "The Black Echo", the first Bosch book, which was published in 1992. With that, Harry's back story includes having already been a tunnel rat in Vietnam, already having become an LAPD officer, and then being promoted to detective and working in the elite RHD, the robbery homicide division of LAPD. Then, when we meet him, finally, he's relegated back to the homicide table in Hollywood division for events that happen before we ever even read page one of The Black Echo.

We know that the Hieronymus Bosch, the Harry Bosch in the books, was born in 1950, and that the Bosch books pretty much keep pace with the year of the book being published. That means that in The Black Echo, Bosch is already 42 years old when we meet him. It also means that today in 2019, novel Bosch is 69 years old. By law enforcement standards that's quite old to still be pounding the pavement. In that LA Times Festival of books talk that they were doing, Michael Connelly talked about having to come up with creative ways to keep Bosch believably working cases well into what normally would be retirement age.

Of course, the whole reason why I do this podcast and the website, the Facebook group and my upcoming book...             Continue reading... 

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​This week on the Writer's Detective Bureau, female suspects, writing research and police cars. I'm Adam Richardson and this is the Writers Detective Bureau. Welcome to Episode 46 of the Writer's Detective Bureau, the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional, quality crime related fiction. I'd like to thank Gold Shield patron, Debra Dunbar from debradunbar.com, Gold Shield patron C.C. Jameson from ccjameson.com, and my two newest Gold Shield patrons, Larry Keeton and Vicki Tharp of vickitharp.com for their support.

I'd also like to thank my newest Coffee Club patrons Chris Shuler, Kelly Garrett, and Brandon Jones, as well as all of my longtime Coffee Club patrons for their support month-after-month. Check out the website links for all of the writers supporting this show in the show notes at writersdetective.com/46. And to learn about setting up your own Patreon account for your author business, visit writersdetective.com/patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.

​This week's first question comes from Bill Grupe. You can find Bill's work at wjgrupejr.com and the links for that will be in the show notes, which you can find at writersdetective.com/46. And Bill asks, "Does a female suspect always need to be accompanied by a female officer?" Good question Bill. I wish we had enough women in law enforcement for that to be practical. So the answer is no. But we are definitely mindful of the situation and we have specific protocols for handling it. For instance, when I arrest a female suspect, it is definitely preferred that a female officer searches the suspect, but that often isn't an option.

So in that case, I was taught to do the post arrest pat down search, where I'm looking for weapons, using the back of my hand, and to do so with another officer present. Because we still need to do our jobs and not risk our safety. And not searching a female just because a female officer isn't on duty is not safe. Nowadays, with more officers wearing body cameras, it's a lot easier to defend against false allegations, especially when it comes to some sort of alleged wrongdoing between a male officer and a female suspect. Even when we are transporting a female to the station or to jail, we advise dispatch that we are transporting a female and we log the start and ending mileage as well as the time of when we departed and when we arrived.

Now with our in-car cameras, we can record the suspect in the backseat of our car as well. And then once they're in the station for an interview or an interrogation, all of that is video and audio recorded as well. So until we have an equal number of women to men working in law enforcement, it really isn't feasible for female suspects to always be accompanied by female officers. Thanks for the question Bill. Again, you can find Bill's work at wjgrupejr.com and you can find his link at writersdetective.com/46 in the show notes.

My latest Coffee Club patron on Patreon is Brandon Jones, and he sent in a few questions for us this week. So let's get started with Brandon's first question. "I want to thank you for the fantastic podcast and in-depth answers. I've made pages of notes outlining my novel and even made my own murder board like on castle. I've done interviews for my novel. How in-depth should a novelists notes be before they actually start writing? Thanks again, Brandon." Well, thank you for the kind words Brandon, I appreciate it.

So in the plotter versus pantser or discovery writer, as Joanna Penn prefers to be called, in the plotter versus discovery writer debate, you are clearly a plotter, Brandon, and that is awesome. But regardless of which side of the writing fence you're on, the answer to the best time to start writing is years ago. And of course, the second best time to start writing is now. Creating the murder board and doing interviews are awesome for crafting a very compelling story. So that is definitely going to pay off. 

But you have to remember, writing is a craft. Writing is a skill. Writing takes work. Writing means you write regularly, if not every day, and the only way of honing your skill of honing your craft is putting it to the grindstone. So you need to start writing now. Every single writer, myself included, is guilty of not writing when they know they should be writing. That's why those memes exist of you should be writing now. I mean, how much more research Do you really need to do before you can start writing?..                                                                       Continue reading...

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​This week on the Writer's Detective Bureau:  Interviewed by Joanna at The Creative Penn.  I'm Adam Richardson and this is the Writer's Detective Bureau.  

​This is episode number 45 of The Writer’s Detective Bureau. The podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime-related fiction.

I want to thank Gold Shield patron Debra Dunbar from debradunbar.com, Gold Shield patron C.C. Jameson from ccjameson.com, and my two newest Gold Shield Patrons:  Larry Keeton and Vicki Tharp of vickitharp.com for their support.    

I’d also like to thank my newest Coffee Club patrons: Amanda Feyerbend, Thom Erb, Chris Shuler, and Kelly Garrett,
as well as all of my long time Coffee Club patrons for their support month after month. Please support all of these authors by reading their books and leaving reviews for them on your favorite book seller’s website.  You can find links to all of their websites in the show notes at writersdetective.com/45

Gold Shield patrons get access to a secret facebook group with two livestreams with me per month and direct access to me for help with their writing.  If you’d like to learn more about the Gold Shield patronage tier, or if you have your own author business, you should consider checking out Patreon. 

As a creator, Patreon is free for you and it allows your readers to support you financially through monthly micro-payments. Give your fans a chance to show their support by creating your own Patreon account right now. To learn more setting up your own Patreon account for your business or to learn more about becoming a Gold Shield patron, visit writersdetective.com/patreon P-A-T-R-E-O-N 

Speaking of patrons, my very first patron when I started this podcast was author Joan Raymond.  Joan is a cozy mystery author that is launching her new book, Guardians of the Gifts, on June 8, 2019…which, as I release this podcast, is tomorrow!  You can find Joan and Guardians of the Gifts at joanraymondwritinganddesign.com. I will put the link to Joan’s website and to where you can buy her book* (this is an affiliate link) in the show notes at writersdetective.com/45  If you are a cozy mystery fan, definitely give Joan’s book a read.  Thank you for all of the support, Joan!  I truly appreciate it and will be putting in my book order on launch day tomorrow! ​

​This week, I had the great fortune to be interviewed by Joanna Penn on the Creative Penn podcast.  Joanna, humble as she is, suggested I share this interview here on my podcast as well…as if there are writers out there that aren’t already listening to her show.  

I say that, because Joanna’s is one of the few podcasts that I listen to every single week.  Dare I say she has great guests…well…normally…and she has her finger on the pulse of the self-publishing industry.  She is a prolific fiction author, non-fiction author, and creative entrepreneur.  I also love that she always has her eye on the future…and we are both about the same age…despite her looking a decade or more younger than I do.  Most importantly, off the air, Joanna is just as kind, funny, and genuine as she...                                                                 Continue reading...