A Western Gem

Posted on May 25, 2013 by acoldsnowincastawaycounty

As most of my readers already know, I am a great fan of the western genre. Whether its books or movies, I love to wade through a great western! Recently, I found a true gem. Being a fan of the late Audie Murphy, actor and the highest decorated combat veteran of WWII, I located an old television series of his: Whispering Smith. This series ran in 1961, was based upon a 1948 movie and was about the Denver Police Department of the old west.

Audie Murphy plays one of two detectives on the Denver Police force. Many of the individual shows are actually based upon Denver Police cases from those days in the past. Obviously, due to the time period of the series, there are no scientific tools to be used, polygraphs to be run or any other modern techniques utilized. Audie uses common sense and reasoning to solve the cases. And each case is presented, with Audie’s character walking the viewer through the investigative process until a final conclusion is reached.

Now I am still watching the first of the three DVD’s, but I am thoroughly intrigued. Already I have seen some great ‘guest stars’, including Clu Gulager, and to my astonishment, a very young Robert Redford. I can hardly wait to see more!

As I was watching, I realized that this gem of a series has it’s similarities to my book series about Dell Hinton, Sheriff of Castaway County. In both, the main character is an honest law enforcement professional who displays great character and integrity. And both solve crimes using common sense and careful thought. Both also present the viewer or reader with a clear view of the investigative process and how it culminates in a reasonable conclusion.

And, frankly, I never knew this television series existed until very recently. I feel like I certainly have found a gem from the 1960′s! If you are already familiar with Audie Murphy but haven’t yet seen these, they are a must to view. And, If you don’t know about his military service, please take the time to read or watch some of the stories and movies that describe his receipt of the Medal of Honor and his history. And if you live in the DC area or travel there, stop by Arlington National Cemetery and you can see the grave of the most decorated combat veteran of WWII. He, himself, was a true gem!

Investigations

Posted on May 11, 2013 by acoldsnowincastawaycounty

In my Dell Hinton, Sheriff series of books, one available currently, a second awaiting publishing, I walk the readers through a criminal investigation process. In the case of the first book, A Cold Snow in Castaway County, the investigation centered on a cold case so it took many days and weeks to solve. Investigating a crime that just occurred, may take less time or it may not. But one thing that holds true in any investigation is that you have to await the completion of the investigative process before you can make valid conclusions.

An investigation is much like completing a picture puzzle: you place piece by piece together to form an overall picture. Think about if you didn’t have the final picture on the box. As you completed portions of the puzzle you might think the completed picture was going to be one scene, while once it is completed it is a picture of an entirely different scene.

So it is with investigations. While your first few interviews may indicate a certain conclusion, as in Mr. Smith committed the crime; it is only when the investigation has been completed that you determine that Mr. Jones was the culprit. Whether it is a book or real life, you have to await the conclusion of the investigation to know the answers.

And, eye-witness testimony is often the poorest indication of who actually committed a crime. All one has to do is remember the childhood game of telling a story and passing it on, around a group of kids, and watching how the story morphed with each repeating of the ‘facts’. The truth is that we all have a tendency to ‘see’ things and our mind interprets what we see based upon our own life experiences as well as prejudices.

Waiting for an investigation to be completed is critical to our justice system, and can be very challenging. In real life we see this challenge daily. Within a day of the Boston bombing, everyone in the country wanted immediate answers, and the press was asking the same questions over and over trying to get answers that were not yet available. And in our Congress a political battle is being waged over an investigation into the Benghazi attacks. Both political parties want to make direct allegations after the first day of investigation and interviews. Why not wait until all the information is in and we know what really happened?

Investigations is a process. And it takes time to get the whole picture. And part of the interest for people reading about an investigation is watching that process unfold. Sometimes it isn’t pretty and sometimes luck is critical to the case and welcomed by the investigator. There may be dead ends, sharp turns, even u-turns to follow. But the process, followed to the end, usually yields a responsible conclusion. We just need to be patient and follow the journey.

Where’s the Civility?

Posted on April 22, 2013 by acoldsnowincastawaycounty

Today’s blog is both relevant and political in nature. Last week we faced a terrible assault on the Boston Marathon. People were killed and maimed by two bombs. And to the great credit of all of the law enforcement personnel working the case, it was solved in a matter of a few days. We have truly made great strides in the area of communication, mutual aid and information sharing since the tragedy of 9-11. And public awareness was a tremendous asset in this case.

But one of the issues that has surfaced about the two individuals who committed this criminal and terroristic act brings an observation to my mind about our national civility. In this case, the brothers were American citizens and had been in this country for at least ten years. The eldest brother has been described by various accounts as someone who was radicalized, likely through the Internet originally, and probably due to some distaste/distrust of our government and our current political/moral upheavals.

This assessment brings to my mind one flagrant observation: Are we, as Americans, providing just the needed atmosphere in our country for radicals to do their work by our complete lack of civility in our daily discourse?

Every day we find that our elected officials in Congress are split over every conceivable issue. And they often voice their opinions in violent and demeaning ways toward each other. At the same time, outside influences such as lobbyists and big companies are spewing totally fabricated lies at the public over television and radio in an attempt to gin up favor toward their biased and often purchased opinions. And the rhetoric is often both filthy and demonizing toward the opposing side of the issue. When you watch some of these people speaking on television they look like rabid crazed weasels, rather than simple Americans voicing opinions on a specific issue.

There used to be a civility about how our political leaders and lobbyists managed to disagree with one another and then work to find a responsible compromise to govern our country. Now, every side expects to get everything they want and compromise has become a dirty word. We’ve drawn the battle lines and we are throwing the verbal hand grenades at each other in a wild and unrestricted manner.

So, are we just creating the environment for these entities to approach our disenfranchised youth and make offers to them that radicalize them? My opinion is that we are. We, as Americans, need to demand that our political figures, and lobbying organizations restructure their violent, toxiic rhetoric. We can all stand for our principals without that kind of flagrant behavior.

So, I ask again, where’s the civility? We need to return to civil discourse and stop feeding the fires that may one day consume us.

Update on Book # 2

Posted on April 15, 2013 by acoldsnowincastawaycounty

This week I just wanted to provide my readers with an update on the second book in the Dell Hinton, Sheriff of Castaway County series.

I’m pleased to say that I have completed the first full draft of the second book. The working title is: A Black Bear Killer in Castaway County. In the second book, Dell Hinton is faced with an active murder case. His girlfriend, Suzi, who works as the chief anchor at the local television station will be back as well as Berk Smith his Chief Deputy. Other familiar characters are back as well: Irish, Dell’s very capable administrative assistant, Father Dex Delaney, Dell’s high-school friend who convinced him to run for Sheriff in the first place and other members of the Castaway County Sheriff’s Office.

There will also be some new characters in this book. You will meet Frank Bell, the Lieutenant in the Maine State Police’s Criminal Investigation Unit. Another new character is Darby Webb, an elderly resident on the lake who was once a caretaker for the people who owner properties around the lake and on the islands. Darby will provide insight on what the lake was like during the ‘early years’.

And, as always, throughout the book you will see the step by step process Dell takes toward solving crime. He will display his usual commonsense approach and always maintain the integrity of his Office for the citizens of Castaway County.

I will keep you updated on the process and provide a publishing and availability date once they have been determined. And, in case you were wondering, I already have some ideas in concept for additional books in the Dell Hinton series. I hope you enjoy the books as much as I enjoy writing them!

The Misspoken Word

Posted on March 8, 2013 by acoldsnowincastawaycounty

The other day our President, while answering questions at a press conference, combined a term from Star Wars and Star Trek. He spoke of a ” Jedi mind meld”. While this was a mistake in chosen words, it reflected a combination of similar ideas. And apparently the Star Wars and Star Trek fans weighed in on social media.

I have a personal habit of combining thoughts and creating ‘new sayings’ because of that thought process. My wife refers to them as ‘Johnisms’, my own terms and sayings. I’ll try to give you some examples.

One such example was the day I came home from work to tell my wife about an interaction I had with one of my supervisors. After having spent days trying to convince him about the best way to handle an issue, he had finally seen the light. I proudly announced to my wife, “I think he smells the handwriting on the wall!” Just a bit mixed up.

Another time I told my wife that someone was acting “nutty as a bread basket!” While I probably knew in my mind that the term was fruit basket, it just didn’t come out that way.

And one of my son’s favorites involved a discussion about how Casey Kasem used to sign off his radio broadcasts. I told my son he always said, ” keep your feet on the ground and your head in the clouds.” To which my son began to laugh quite hard. He said, “Dad, I think you meant keep reaching for the stars.” Once again, I had mangled the correct saying.

While I have a whole list of ‘Johnisms’, I won’t bore you any longer. Suffice it to say that they often bring odd looks from family and friends, including me, and they inject humor into sometimes serious discussions. Will I try to work a few into Dell Hinton’s character in my books? Who knows, I may.

The interesting thing for me is that my father actually sometimes used incorrect words or mispronounced words when telling a story, to great effect. Maybe he passed that on to me. If so, I will count it as a gift and be greatful. Thanks, Dad!

Do you ever cross up or mix up sayings when telling a story or making a point?

Where is Castaway County anyway?

Posted on January 31, 2013 by acoldsnowincastawaycounty

After reading my first book, A Cold Snow in Castaway County, people may ask where that county is in the State of Maine. Well, it is a place I created to be the setting for my Dell Hinton, Sheriff book series. And yes, it is a fictitious community. It is not there on any map of Maine.

Well, not really. Castaway County is a place I created that resembles real places in Maine. Since the age of five, I have spent most summers “upta camp” in Maine. Maine lake camp life is part of the story line in my book. Frankly I chose to make the setting for the books fictitious so that I could spend time on character and story development, instead of location issues. Even spending summers in Maine, there are lots of facts about our county that I would not be truly aware of or be able to write about without significant research.

Creating Castaway County allows me the ability to use bits and pieces of our Maine county without fear of making mistakes that readers would identify quickly. For instance, if the story were set in the real county and I referred to Dell Hinton having driven down a street in town and seeing the grocery store on the right hand side of the street beside a 7-11 store, that would need to be fact. If it were not correct, Maine readers would certainly know it was not correct and might discount my writing because of it. I want readers to be able to view and evaluate my story and characters, instead of the accuracy of the descriptions of the surrounding county.

For those readers living or traveling through Maine, you will still find that my books provide a slice of Maine life, even though Castaway County is but a representative of that life. In reality, any coastal Maine county could be Castaway County.

Here’s to the New Year

Posted on January 20, 2013 by acoldsnowincastawaycounty

I hope all readers had as great a holiday season as I and my family did. With all of the seasonal activities, I found little time for writing, either on my book or on the blog. For that, I apologize.

The new year finds me with a renewed passion for writing, as well as for continuing with the promotion of my first book and my songs. To that end, my wife has become the official business manager for Loony Moose Publishing, LLC, for both the books and music divisions. I found that it was difficult for me to concentrate on both writing and promoting simultaneously. I guess it’s a guy thing! And my wife, Jennifer, seems to excel at multitasking, so it seemed a no-brainer! Guess that’s a girl thing.

I have returned to writing the second book in the Dell Hinton, Sheriff of Castaway County, Maine series. I am about 1/3 of the way completed for the first draft. I am excited to be adding some new characters that I hope everyone will enjoy. Since I am writing this book in the first person, I think the overall effect will be to create a more personal story.

So, that is where I am beginning 2013. Hopefully, I will be able to meet some of my readers at future book signings. I really enjoy talking to readers and getting their perspective on the writing process. My best to you all for a happy and prosperous year ahead!

Effects of Generational Changes

Posted on December 5, 2012 by acoldsnowincastawaycounty

For the past two blogs I have spoken about how our terms, language and situations have changed throughout the years, from generation to generation. And it is my opinion that while these changes have, and are continuing, to take place, many people miss some of the ways these changes affect our lives. This week, I want to give a few examples.

One example is the reading of the Bible, Koran and other religious books. While many choose to interpret the passages of our religious works in a literal, word by word basis,I believe the meanings of some of the words are now different. For years there has been an argument over the idea of whether Jesus was married or not. This disagreement is largely based upon the use of the word “companion” in the days when the Bible was committed to writing. And while the punishment of ‘stoning’ someone was a normal function then, it does not fit into our current view of society. And I’m sure there are dozens of such things in our religious works that make direct interpretation of events and issues more difficult to sort through.

Now move to our government and how our law functions. Our founding fathers set up our government, through the Constitution and other documents and with many protections to ensure the safety, security and prosperity of their citizens. But, this was done in a time when the fears and threats were far different than those we face today. Some of these great men worried that we might become a government, like those of the time in Europe, where the government determined the religion the citizenry could be, thus creating a ‘state religion”, without regard for the individual. So, they drafted the doctrine of separation of church and state. To my mind this idea was not intended to keep nativity scenes away from government and school property, it was to ensure that there was no forced state religion in our country. The founding fathers began Congress with a prayer, and it is still done to this day. Their intention has been clearly misinterpreted over the years.

Another of this type of issue is the second amendment as it is applied to gun control. The initial purpose for this amendment is to provide for food and an effective, armed mallitia for protection. And there is valid thought that it was also to provide a defense if the central government were to become tyrannical. But, the founders were not able to foresee the types of armament we now have at our access. I firmly believe that the Second Amendment should preserve our right to bear hand guns or long arms, however, responsible control should be made for high capacity assault weapons and armor-piercing ammunition. To me, it is a case of trying to ensure that we examine the circumstances surrounding such writings and evaluate the ideas on that perception, not our current perception.

Another example of this might be the old west. In the days of Wyatt Earp, for instance, while the local Sheriff or Town Marshal provided law enforcement by day, he may also have run the local gambling hall or bordello by night. Now if viewed by today’s standards, of right and wrong, we would likely be horrified. But in those days, it appears that such circumstances were not uncommon at all. In this case, it is not the language that has changed by generation, but the acceptability of life style and personal character that has changed.

Now, the truth is, sometimes it is hard to define words and languages if we don’t have the ‘rosetta stone’ or a way to go back in history. But I think we do need to look at the point in time when something is written to try to determine the way words and ideas were used to convey thoughts. And this does require interpretation, but that interpretation needs to be based upon the writer’s time, NOT the readers time. That seems to me to be the only logical way to begin to seek a realistic interpretation.

Things change from generation to generation, especially our thoughts and our language. I think we need to be more careful about our interpretations, and especially the standards we use for interpreting our shared written language.

Generational Language

Posted on November 11, 2012 by acoldsnowincastawaycounty

In my last blog, I discussed generational civilities. This week I wanted to add in generational language. As our lives move from generation to generation, our language, including terms and expressions, seem to change.

One example is the meaning of words, as in the word gay. In my mother’s generation, the word gay was a synonym for happy. Her generation would wake up, see a beautiful sunny day out their bedroom window and exclaim, “Oh this sunny day makes me feel so gay!” Of course, today, in our generation, the term gay has been changed to refer to a specific lifestyle or sexual preference. This change in the meaning of a term is fairly drastic, meaning that if a person from one generation uses it from their perspective, someone in another generation may well misintrepret their meaning.

These changes may not be a change in meaning but a lost meaning. For instance, in the old west one cowboy might ask another if he was “healed”. In that day, the term meant was the person carrying his sidearm or pistol. In my mother’s time, people would refer to a person who had a lot of money as “that man is well healed”. Today, healed simply means to improve or get better.

And the idea is not limited to singular terms, but may apply to a general feeling or process. The other day I was listening to one of my favorite Dean Martin CD’s and the song that was playing at the time was, On the Street Where you Live. I thought about the picture the song lyrics painted of a man who loves a woman from afar and is happy just to be walking on the street where she lives. Then it struck me! By today’s standards, this could easily be viewed as the story of a stalker. Written in its day, the story was not offensive, nor would it raise anyone’s eyebrows. But when viewed by today’s standards, who knows?

These are but a few examples of this change in our language over generations. Who among us has not opened an old book, written in older english language, and not found it difficult to read and comprehend? Can you think of other examples of terms or descriptions that have different meanings depending upon the generation of the person who is reading or hearing it?

In my next blog, I will tie these past two generational blogs together and apply them to some specific applications.

Generational Civilities

Posted on October 25, 2012 by acoldsnowincastawaycounty

Hi friends. Sorry to be so late in posting a new blog topic, but I have been traveling and working on a second book in the Dell Hinton, Sheriff series. During my travels I have noticed, with great alarm, that some of the civilities that were commonplace as I was growing up have been completely discarded in our present society. ANd that got me to thinking about these ‘generational’ changes in how we treat each other in our daily social interactions.

My first example, and frankly one of my pet peeves, is the wearing of hats in restaurants and at the dinner table. Although I grew up in a largely farming community where ball caps were the norm, we were always taught that a gentleman never came to a meal wearing a hat of any kind. It was a social gesture; much like tipping your hat to a lady, you displayed respect to your fellow diners by removing your hat. Today, it is difficult to walk into any restaurant and not see multiple men sitting at tables eating their meals with wives, friends or alone wearing ball caps and other hats. They now seem to be the norm in our society. So where’s the respect? Have we lost all our civility toward one another?

In my youth we were also taught to come to the dinner table properly dressed. That didn’t mean fancy clothing, but it did constitute not having underwear displayed in any fashion. The rule at our home was: never wear your undershirt to the table. Today, it seems, many of our youth pride themselves on outfits of underwear and pajamas both at home and in public. Add to that the low-slung pants or shorts and those without belts and it is often that underwear and ‘thongs’ are clearly visible. And this applies to both men and women. Is it appropriate that while enjoying a meal we must be made directly aware of the type and color of someone else’s underwear?

And, while it may be contrary to some women’s views of independance, I still hold the door for a woman and try never to walk through a door before a woman. For me, it is simply respect. Respect for my wife, and respect for other’s I may not know.

Hey, we all live on this planet together. Part of the ideas of civilization is being civil to one another and showing respect for others. So, why do successive generations of us seem to value the simpelist of civilities toward each other so much less? Why don’t we realize that showing respect for other’s increases our self respect? And, if you don’t respect your fellow citizens, shouldn’t you at least respect your family members and yourself?

When raising my son, I was determined to be sure he removed his hat at the table, didn’t wear underclothes in public, and holds the door for women. Civility is more than just saying “please” and ‘thank you”. It is representing yourself to your fellow man as someone who has respect for others and for yourself. And, thus far, my son has made me proud of him as I observe his interactions with his fellow man.

I have tried to make Dell Hinton, a character who displays respect for others and and for himself. Maybe if more books, television and movies maintained a higher standard of civility our next generation might return to the civilized community many of us grew up in, who knows?

Maybe the best comments we can hope to hear at the door of a restaurant is a parent telling their youth to “take that hat off’ or ‘pull up your pants”. We need to return to the civility of our parents.