Blog Talk Radio Show

Monday, April 11, 2011, at 1:00 p.m. CST, I am participating in a Blog Talk interview at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/, with Sylvia Dickey Smith. The focus of the interview is writing strong female characters, and I will be talking about writing Ryan Murphy, my protagonist from Gumbo Justice, and the soon to be released Jambalaya Justice.

The interview is thirty minutes long, and you can call in to chat or ask a question at 1-347-843-4128. (Not a toll-free number.) If you miss the interview, it will be played twelve hours later, and then archived so you can listen to it whenever you would like.

I have been interviewed on t.v. before, not as a writer, but as a parent, and I HATE the way I sound in a recording-- like a ten-year-old boy. I had to think long and hard and push myself to decide to do this interview because of that, but in the end I thought the topic was so interesting, strong women, that I couldn't stand to pass it up. (I don't believe I am nearly as strong as Ryan, who would have signed up without a moment's hesitation. Of course, her voice is prettier than mine.)

In any event, it should be interesting.

Guest Blogger Marilyn Meredith

I have a very special guest today, Marilyn Meredith, author the Rocky Bluff Police Department Mystery Series--which she writes as F.M. Meredith-- and thirty other novels, including the Tempe Crabtree Mystery Series. Marilyn is blogging today about her newest in the Rocky Bluff PD series, Angel Lost.

I was fortunate enough to read an advance reader copy of Angel Lost and have to say it is a must read. In Angel Lost, Marilyn creates the perfect blend of action and suspense against the backdrop of a small, close-knit community, with a dose of supernatural thrown in for good measure. Reading the Rocky Bluff series is like catching up with old friends, and Angel Lost does not disappoint. While you do not have to read the books in order to follow the story, I would definitely recommend reading all of them, because they’re all that good.

HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY!

How many of you have pulled tricks on your family or friends on April Fool’s Day? When my kids were little they delighted in trying to fool me. Sometimes what they thought was funny was a bit on the scary side—like screaming and telling me someone was hurt. It’s a wonder I survived raising five kids and then a couple of grandkids later on in life.

I’m not trying to fool anyone with this post; however I may fool some readers with my latest book in the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series, Angel Lost. Though there are definitely crimes in this latest edition, there is something missing. You’ll have to read it to find out what.

If someone picks up Angel Lost thinking it is a religious book, they’ll be disappointed. Yes, there is an angel in the book and a smattering of religion, because some of the characters are religious—but that’s not what the book is about. It’s about how people react to unusual things that happen in the town of Rocky Bluff and to the people who live and work there.

What about the angel in the title you may ask. There is an angel—but not in the sense you might expect. The title has a double meaning. Authors sometimes have a difficult time coming up with an appropriate title, but in my opinion, this one is a perfect fit.

Angel Lost is one of those books that I had great time writing. Because I know my characters well, I knew what would happen if I put one in jeopardy. To be honest, I almost always put someone in jeopardy because that’s the challenge, finding out how everyone is going to feel and what actions he or she will take.

And those are my April Fools thoughts.

F. M. Meredith a.k.a. Marilyn Meredith

Bio: F.M. Meredith, also known as Marilyn Meredith, is the author of nearly thirty published novels. Her latest in the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series, from Oak Tree Press, is Angel Lost. Marilyn is a member of EPIC, Four chapters of Sisters in Crime, including the Internet chapter , Mystery Writers of America, and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. Visit her at http://fictionforyou.com and her blog at http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com

Angel Lost Blurb:

As plans for her perfect wedding fill her mind, Officer Stacey Wilbur is sent out to trap a flasher, the new hire realizes Rocky Bluff P.D. is not the answer to his problems, Abel Navarro’s can’t concentrate on the job because of worry about his mother, Officer Gordon Butler has his usual upsets, the sudden appearance of an angel in the window of a furniture store captures everyone’s imagination and causes problems for RBPD, and then the worst possible happens—will Stacey and Doug’s wedding take place?

Jambalaya Justice

Jambalaya Justice is complete! The moment arrived Saturday night, at 8:26. I remember the exact moment because my kids were waiting for me to watch the new Zack and Cody movie (Suite Life on Deck something something on Disney). We had DVR'd it, so we could skip the commercials and were going to start watching at 7:30. At that time, my youngest was wrapped up in Build-A-Bear online and couldn't be disturbed. At 8:00 she was ready, but I was so near the end of Jambalaya Justice I told her to give me a few more minutes, and there it was! I haven't felt that good about finishing something in a really long time. Both of my girls even noticed my good mood.

The only bad part was that the DVR glitched and even though it showed it was taping the movie, it wasn't, and my youngest was devastated for about five seconds. Fortunately, Disney plays those things over and over so we will get another chance in the next week to watch it together.

I emailed my publisher yesterday to let her know my good news, and I think she was as excited as I was. She has waited patiently for quite a while, and it felt good to be able to type that email. I am editing right now, although part of the reason I take so long to write is because I continuously edit, so hopefully I won't have to do too much more before sending it to her. It is a big longer than Gumbo Justice, and I am a little nervous, hoping those who enjoyed Gumbo Justice will like Jambalaya Justice as much.

So hopefully it won't be too long before I have the date Jambalaya Justice is on Oak Tree's release schedule, and will let everyone know as soon as I do. I can't wait.

Things I learn while editing

I am finally nearly finished Jambalaya Justice, the followup to Gumbo Justice, and am editing, first for continuity, to make sure I haven't changed a name or left out anything important. I follow a pretty strict outline, so the first is probably a lot more likely to happen than the second, but I do end up changing some things, so making sure I don't change something later in the novel that makes a difference to something I wrote earlier is still important.

I caught a few issues, the main one being my propensity to use "S" names. I had already used a lot of "S" names in Gumbo Justice, and obviously I couldn't change the names of those characters now. But I found myself gravitating to "S" names again, so I had to go through the manuscript and change some names of key characters. It's difficult, because you already see the person as that name, but if I have to change a name, I always try to come up with a name that I think fits the character just as well. Occasionally, I'll find a more common name that I've accidentally used more than once for peripheral characters or someone that doesn't appear "on screen" but is mentioned, and a lot of times I can just remove the name and it doesn't matter.

One thing that I had to change shows up in the first third of the book, which was written last year, and it was a nasty comment made by Ryan's nemesis, Kellie Leblanc. Kellie was making fun of Ryan's big butt when she bent over, and made a remark about Ryan's big moon in the sky causing a tsunami in Japan. I am so glad the book took longer to write than I had thought, or that comment would have been in there, and history would not have changed. So that comment would have been in the book when the real tsunami happened, and I would have felt horrible.

It did make me realize that an offhand comment by a character in a book can end up being much more than that. At the time I originally wrote it, there hadn't been a tsunami in Japan for a long time, but I knew that it was a place that did have tsunamis. I guess I could have used Hawaii or even the west coast, but it would have still been as bad after what's happened now. It's making me go back through the manuscript and check out any other sarcastic comments to make sure they don't have the potential to blow up in my face.

I remember for September 11 there had been a movie about to be released and it either had a scene about someone blowing up the twin towers or something to that effect, and either the producers took the scene out or scrapped the whole movie. I don't recall now, but I remember at the time it was a big deal.

I guess the lesson is we're responsible for everything our characters say, even those characters who are jerks. I guess there's a line to be considered, though, for instance, say someone is writing about an assassination, and after the book is published a real assassination of the same or a similar person occurs. Does that mean no one should ever write about assassinations for entertainment? Lots of thrillers, especially political thrillers, focus on assassinations or attempted assassination.

Ultimately, I think if you are writing about something that could happen, and it's something horrendous, as long as it's something integral to your plot, you go with it. Otherwise, we'd never write about anything. On other hand, if it's something trite like a character's mean attempt at humor, it might be better to go another way. I did change the line, and it still gets Kellie's meanness across without, I think, possibly offending the world.

Next, I am editing to cut the story down, because it's a little longer than I want it to be, but hopefully that will go faster.

NiFtY interview by Beth Hull

Beth Hull has graciously interviewed me at her website, http://bethhull.com/2011/02/18/nifty-author-holli-castillo/. The interview opens with a short blurb about the second in the Crescent City Mystery series, Jambalaya Justice, which is nearing completion. Finally!!!!

The interview also mentions my tortured path to publication, and hopefully other writers who are struggling to find an agent or a publisher will be encouraged by my story. If my tale was a fairy tale, it would most definitely be one the Grimm Brothers wrote.

My mantra is, What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. That, and my husband's newest warning to me, Don't announce your plans to God.

If you stop by the interview, please leave a comment.

Holli Castillo
www.gumbojustice.net
Jambalaya Justice coming 2011

Death of an Inspiration

Anthony "Tony" Cannatella at one time was the police captain of the Sixth District in New Orleans. He wore other hats during his tenure with the department, rising even higher through the ranks, but his role as the captain of the Sixth is what is important to me because he inspired the creation of one of the characters in Gumbo Justice, Ryan Murphy's father, Captain Kelly Murphy, who, coincidentally, is also the captain of the Sixth District in New Orleans.

Anthony Cannatella retired in 2008, and died this past December from cancer. It was a shock to me, and I took it kind of hard. Whenever I saw him on t.v., I literally thought of him as my character.

I had never actually met the real man, never had a conversation with him, never even had the opportunity to call him as a witness on any of my cases. But when I first began writing Gumbo Justice and began creating Ryan's father, Tony Cannatella's face was the one that appeared in my mind.

I didn't know enough about his personality that I was worried people might think the character was based on him, but the more I read about him the more it seems they are similar.
I've read that Tony had a quick temper, came from a family of cops, and was a family man, all of which describes Kelly to at "T." I know he was good at his job, and from all accounts was a non-nonsense type of person, but someone who could be trusted.

I think Kelly Murphy has a darker side than Tony Cannatella possessed, as fictional characters need a little more "umph," in my opinion, to sustain a reader's interest. We need good guys in real life, in novels we need layers of conflict, a little of the devil on the left shoulder constantly battling the guardian angel on the right, something not so easily achieved with guys who are too good.

Captain Kelly Murphy sprung into my mind after seeing the real man and hearing how spoke and the sound of his voice. Captain Murphy evolved as I pictured how I thought the real man would act based upon how he looked and the way he sounded.

I'll never know if I got it right, I suppose, and it's a shame the real man will never know what a great character he inspired.

Last Hurricane Katrina Case

Having written about Hurricane Katrina in the past, I felt a need to take a break from working on Jambalaya Justice to write about the verdicts of the last prosecution for crimes committed by police officers during Katrina. The trial wrapped up a few weeks ago in Eastern District Court in New Orleans, and I have been putting off writing about it because things did not end up favorably for a friend who was charged in the case, and it has been difficult for me to assimilate.

Initially, the D.A. refused to prosecute the various cases in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, because the grand jury in New Orleans refused to indict the officers involved in the most serious case, the Danziger Bridge shootings. Thus, the U.S. Attorney, Jim Letten, charged the officers in federal court, the Eastern District Court in New Orleans, with what are civil rights violations, but the convictions have the same type of sentencing ranges as criminal charges. The feds prosecuted NOPD officers not only for the famous Danziger shooting, where all of the defendants eventually pled guilty, but also for several other crimes during Katrina.

The last case, which I believe is the only one that actually went to trial, involved the shooting death of Henry Glover. Glover was out with his brother after Katrina, apparently looking for supplies. He was shot by NOPD Officer Warren, who was keeping guard from a makeshift temporary police station at a school. (Warren was found guilty of manslaughter as opposed to murder.)

A few minutes later, Glover's brother and another man drove a bleeding Glover to another makeshift station and were met by Officer McRae, who felt for a pulse, realized Glover was dead, and ordered his brother and the good Samaritan to leave.

The good Samaritan testified that he and Glover's brother were beaten by Officer McRae and Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann, but apparently the jurors weren't convinced because they found both men not guilty on those particular charges. Glover's brother, for reasons unknown, did not testify at all at trial.

McRae directed another officer, who didn't know Glover's body was inside the car, to drive it to the levee behind the station. McRae then set the car on fire with a flare gun. He testified Scheuermann did not know what he was going to do, but Scheuermann, who was the ranking officer, watched and did nothing to stop him after he did it. McRae was found guilty of 2 civil rights violations, one of those for burning Glover's body. Scheuermann was found not guilty on all counts.

Weeks later, Lt. Travis McCabe participated in the writing of a police report that cleared the other officers of wrongdoing. Another officer in charge of writing the report testified against McCabe, stating that the parts of the report clearing the officers was not her work. She also admitted she lied to a grand jury about the events and could not produce a copy of what she claims was her original report. She took early retirement immediately after testifying, and was not charged with anything in exchange for her testimony. McCabe was found guilty of lying to a grand jury and falsifying a police report.

Finally, Lt. Italiano was charged with obstruction for the subsequent cover up, the government's theory being that he did not adequately investigate the link between the shooting of an unknown man and the burning of Glover's body. He was also found not guilty.

It's a set of complicated circumstances, and the defense for Warren and McRae relied heavily upon the Katrina factor as justification for their actions. Warren testified he was in fear of his life and afterward did not know that he had hit anyone, and the NOPD had been advised to, "shoot the looters." Indeed, our own governor went on television and advised somewhat the same thing. McRae testified as to the death and devastation he had already seen, including seeing dead babies and people floating along the streets, and said he couldn't stand the thought of a body rotting that close to where they were located. It was noted by the prosecution that he did not burn any of the other dead bodies he saw.

McCabe testified that the officer in charge of writing the report asked him to help, and he assisted her, and that was the end of it. He still maintains what he told to the grand jury. The officer who testified against him contradicted herself more than once during trial, but a jury finds what a jury finds. McCabe has asked for a new trial, which will be heard February 24, but new trials are rare and the motion is more procedural than anything.

I know both Dwayne Scheuermann and Travis McCabe. I worked with both of them when I was a prosecutor at the D.A.'s Office, and Travis married a fellow prosecutor I was pretty good friends with, who also, coincidentally, went to school with my husband. Travis also arrested my brother in law once during my tenure as a prosecutor for possession of marijuana, and my experience with Travis and his wife, Juliet, is that they are both rule followers to an extreme.

Granted, people never fail to surprise me, and who knows what one might be capable of given an extreme situation, but of all the police officers I know, and I know many, I am the most surprised that Travis would do something like this. I still have my doubts, but the jury has spoken, and that's what our justice system is about.

Which brings me to the Glover family. I am sorry for their loss, and I know how I would feel if something like that happened to someone in my family. The difference is that something like that wouldn't happen to my family, at least not during a hurricane, because I insisted my entire family evacuate. My husband had planned to stay behind, and I specifically told him that if it got as bad as what the forecasters predicted, it could be weeks before supplies were available, and if he stayed behind and had to loot for supplies at the end of a few days, and the police ended up shooting or arresting him, he had only himself to blame. I made my mother evacuate with me as well. If we could not have afforded a hotel, or if we couldn't have found a hotel, as that was a huge problem, I had decided we would either stay at a shelter or, if worse came to worse, we would just drive to the Alabama or Texas Welcome Center and hang out, with my kids, my mom, and my husband, until we figured something out.

My theory, right or wrong, has always been that people who evacuate don't end up getting shot by New Orleans police. Period. Argue morality or ethics or law all you want, or the fact that police shootings shouldn't be a factor in your decision to evacuate or not, but at the end of the day, the evacuees won't have an NOPD bullet in them.

People have their own reasons for staying put, I guess, the least of all being that most people thought we were going to dodge this one, so I really can't fault the Glovers for doing what a hundred thousand other people did. The thing that truly bothers me about the Glovers, however, is that they are bitter against the entire criminal justice system, insisting that all five of the officers should have been convicted and should do life in prison, missing the one point that I can accept. In America, the jury gets to decide who did it and who didn't do it. Joe Public is in no position to say someone is guilty of a crime after a jury has made a decision to acquit. Can juries be wrong? Of course they can. The theory is it is better for a hundred guilty men to go free than one innocent man be punished, but if nothing else the use of DNA has shown that innocent people go to jail all the time. (Louisiana, New Orleans in particular, has had to release people from death row after DNA evidence proved they were innocent of the murder and/or rapes they were convicted of, Louisiana having the death penalty for certain types of rapes.)

But still, while I grieve for Travis and Juliet that Travis got convicted of something I refuse to believe he did, and he not only will lose his job but end up with a possible 25 years in federal prison, in the end, once the jury convicts, a person is guilty. People can't rely on the criminal justice system only when it turns out the way they wanted it to.

It's an imperfect system, but it's the best one available, and people who truly don't like it can always move along to one of those countries that doesn't have a jury system. I say good luck with that one.

While the rest of the country is probably thinking that New Orleans should be getting over Katrina by now, more than five years after the storm, there are still many more steps to be taken to complete the recovery process.

Perhaps finishing off the last of the "police Katrina" cases is one more step in that direction. It's difficult to move forward while still looking back, and if the juries on the various cases didn't return the verdicts I wanted them to, at least I can say the verdicts brought this city a sense of closure.