How Well Can Open AI Interpret an Autopsy Report?
Seven years ago now, I took a copy of Patty Vance’s medical examiner report to the Albuquerque Metropolitan Forensic Science Center APD Evidence Lab. I was greeted by a secretary dressed to the nines with stacked gold chains like a Christmas tree draped in tinsel. She could only promise to pass on the ME report […]
Dirty Laundry
Days ago, I attended the New Mexico Writers Annual Dinner. It was billed as a networking event, so I signed up months earlier. The chances were slim that I’d encounter a publisher for This Is Not a Crime Story, but I can’t give up. The speaker, Jennifer Givhan, seemed at first brush to be the sort of […]
To Podcast or Not to Podcast. That Is the Question
I’m in a sort of limbo right now between having finished a book and trying to find a publisher. It would be imprecise to call it a purgatory. Not until I find out where I’m going, or where it’s going rather. My book was supposed to be a billboard, a way to publicize Patty Vance’s […]
Crime and Empathy
I recently listened to an Anatomy of Murder podcast episode “The Man Beneath the Floorboards.” It covered the murder of Mark Koster by John Green. When John Green finally confessed, he was given a hefty sentence. It subsequently got reduced. Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, one of the hosts, said that a good detective has empathy for all […]
What’s Your Everest?
Today I attended my local writer’s conference that meets monthly. The speaker, Kathleen Hessler, recently published a memoir, Promise Me Daughter, and spoke on the ins and outs of her experience. She also imparted some wisdom about trying to get a memoir published at this particular time. She asked for a show of hands of those […]
Writing About Someone You Lost: What I’ve Learned
If you are the sort of person who processes and organizes your thoughts through writing and have lost someone you cared about deeply, I highly recommend you turn your loss into literature. For me, writing a memoir about my best friend from junior high school was a matter of wanting to bring her alive on […]
I Just Keep on Dreaming
After ten years of writing about Patty I dreamed about her at long last. In the first half of the dream two boys and I were in a makeshift theater. It looked like a bombed out movie house with gray, metal folding chairs and a line of attached upholstered seats in the very back. The […]
Last Call
I had what may just be my last call with Detective Daniel Cunningham, the most recent detective from the San Francisco Police Department working on Patty’s cold case. He guesstimated that it had been five years since we’d spoken. It had been seven. He’d forgotten what he’d already told me, so he repeated himself quite […]
Jane Doe #17
I was sifting through my boxes of writing today. I’ve come to the conclusion I must throw some of my early drafts out. Or I choose to. Much of it is on my computer, so it is just the paper I’m getting rid of. My place is too small for what amounts to three boxes […]
Ten Year Itch
I’m polishing up my second shaky draft, and in December it will have been ten years since I started this project. The writing has gotten easier although raking over the content has not. I got stuck on revising when my editor asked “How did you know how much Patty loved her son if you were […]