Writing a Rural Surveillance

Today I'm welcoming a writing/private investigating duo, Colleen Collins & Shaun Kaufman, who are going to give us some handy hints about private investigators and surveillance. They're giving away a copy of their book, so be sure to read through and leave a comment. You have until Friday to leave a comment, but I won't get the winner posted until Monday because I'll be off the grid at RomCon.

When many people think of a private investigator, they think “surveillance.” Typical images that come to mind are the PI in his vehicle following a subject’s car through traffic or a PI parked somewhere, watching the subject’s residence or work. If a writer is crafting a city surveillance, she’ll take into consideration such things as the flow of traffic, how closely the PI follows the subject’s vehicle, and possible side streets the PI might take.

But what if your story is set in the country? Or your big-city investigator must travel to a rural area to conduct a surveillance? Here’s some tips from a couple of real-life PIs for writing a rural surveillance starring your fictional PI.

Know the area: In our part of the country, we have some impressive, wide-open stretches of country outside of “the big cities.” When we’re going into a rural area, we’ll first check online maps (for example, MapQuest and Google Earth). Have your fictional PI do the same. We’ve scheduled rural surveillances in areas that are so remote, they don’t even show up in online maps! In such cases, we contact the sheriff’s office for that region and request help with directions and maps.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for more conflict in your story, have your sleuth circling around and attracting unwanted attention in that small town!

Research the Details—But…

What I'm reading: Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko; One True Love, by Barbara Freethy.

I recently read a book where a character was learning to fly a small jet. The character was already an experienced pilot, but hadn't been trained on this type of aircraft. The author is also a pilot, and as I read the scene—pages and pages of it—it was clear enough to me that the author was simply showing his readers how much he knew about the topic.


To me, it was a hair-pulling couple of chapters. Maybe pilots enjoy it, but to me, it would be like showing a person learning how to drive a car, and following the along as they learned where to put the key, how to turn it, where the brakes were, and then followed along every inch of driveway and road on their first excursion. Had absolutely nothing to do with the story other than getting the character qualified so he could drive the company plane.

The trick to showing details is not to show the reader how much research you've done, but to use only what the POV character needs to show in the scene. If it's a naïve character, then they're likely to be thinking more about the details, either a how-to, or a more detailed description as they absorb new surroundings. But if they're experienced, then they're probably barely going to think about things. How often do you walk into your bedroom and notice the color of paint on the wall, or the precise shade of blue of your bedspread?

Last Day to Save!

Today is the last day of the Smashwords Summer Sale! Don't miss your chance to save 25% on What's in a Name?, my Daphne du Maurier finalist romantic suspense.

Running for the wrong reason can still get you killed.

Kelli Carpenter has changed her name, her appearance—her life—to avoid being connected to a crime she committed in self defense years ago. But just when she thinks she has nothing to fear, handsome stranger Blake Windsor shows up.

He claims to be the handyman her boss sent to help complete the project she's working on—Camp Getaway—a place where inner city kids will get respite from concrete and drive-bys. Being a loner has kept her alive, and Kelli's instincts tell her to leave. But without Blake's help, the refuge for inner city children won't be completed on time. Against her instincts, she accepts his help.

Blake Windsor, a corporate executive, accepted his boss's request to find out if Kelli Carpenter is really a woman his boss thinks he knew years before. He begrudgingly returns to the blue-collar construction lifestyle he vowed to leave behind, hoping doing this favor will advance his career. The woman he meets bears little resemblance to the woman he's supposed to find, but something about her mystifies him, and he decides to continue with his deception to learn more about her.

When someone makes an attempt on Kelli's life, she runs—but she takes Blake with her. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer is her philosophy. And Kelli is convinced Blake knows something that will link her to her former lover's death, ending her life as she knows it.

What's in a Name? is full of twists and turns as Blake and Kelli try to keep one step ahead of whoever is following them—while they try to figure out why.

And the Winners Are ...

Maryn Sinclair has announced the winners of her books. Congratulations to

Linda and Karen. 

Email Maryn at MarynSinclair (at) gmail (dot) com and she'll get your prizes to you!


Thanks for commenting.  And be sure to come back next week, because my guests have another giveaway.

Friday Field Trip - My LA Vacation

I was in Los Angeles visiting my parents a few weeks ago. I've got a few photos to share.

First, we went down to the beach so I could dip my toes in the Pacific, a place where I spent many, many hours growing up. It's still cold.

Another trip was to the Getty Museum. Gorgeous grounds.

Publishing a Book is an Adventure

Reminders: Scroll down to leave a comment on Maryn Sinclair's post (Tuesday's) to win one of her giveaways. Be sure to come back this weekend to see if you've won.

Don't miss the last of the Summer Smashwords Sale.


Today, I'm over at Patricia de Hemricourt's "Publishing a Book is an Adventure" blog. I hope you'll drop by.


Tomorrow, I've got a few vacation pictures from my recent trip to Los Angeles to share.

Develop Those Characters

What I'm reading: Pray for Silence, by Linda Castillo; Crazy for Love, by Victoria Dahl

Thanks to Maryn for her post yesterday. I'm working on re-editing a backlist book so I can publish it when I get my rights back. It was the first book I had published—and actually, the first book I wrote, although it had been rewritten countless times before being picked up by the publisher. Anyway, I know exactly what she's talking about. And don't forget – you have until Friday to leave a comment to win a book. Since she's giving two books away, that doubles the odds that you'll win.

And don't forget the summer sale at Smashwords. What's in a Name? is 25% off, but only until the end of July.

In my blog hopping the other day, I came across two posts talking about developing characters. One used worksheets and questionnaires, and suggested spending a LOT of time getting to know characters before putting words on the page, including suggestions to spend ten minutes writing and reflecting on the character. This, while it might work for some, is a total turnoff to me. If I'm going to write for ten minutes, I want to be working on the WIP.

The other said you could do that, but it wouldn't create the depth of character you'd achieve by looking at how your characters behaved, and that you have to write beyond the character notes. If I may quote their guest blogger, Harry Bingham:

First of all, character emerges from every tiny detail. Those little snippets of dialogue. The humour. Weird little choices of vocabulary. You can’t get those things from writing character notes, you just get to them by writing the character. Letting yourself sink into the moment.

When Are You Finished Editing?

Today, my guest is Maryn Sinclair. Maryn is a New England native living in the South who loves creating characters who murder, love, hate, and connive, but mostly love. Her novels are erotic, but she hopes readers find that they’re more than about sex, with contemporary characters who are confident, insecure, damaged, recovering, loyal, duplicitous, intriguing, heartbreaking, and every other conflicting adjective known to Roget, hooking readers from the beginning and turning pages until the end.

Leave a comment for a chance to win one of Maryn's books. She'll be choosing two lucky readers. Please check the end of this post for details.

When do you say your book is finished and enough is enough? At the South Carolina Book Festival on May 14, bestselling author Robert Dugoni mentioned that if he had his way, he’d be red-penciling his manuscript as it rolled through the presses. Boy, could I relate. Not that my books are rolling off the presses, because they’re e-books and I’m certainly not in the same class as a bestselling author, but because if someone didn’t set a due date, I’d forever keep editing until I probably sucked the life out of what I liked about my book in the first place. So when do you decide your book is ready to go to print, or e-print?

The question made me think of my very first freelance job as the owner of my own illustration/copywriting business. I’d freelanced for Fairchild Publications, a national chain of fashion newspapers, including Women’s Wear Daily, doing all the illustrations that originated from manufacturers and designers in the New England area. Rarely, the New York paper would publish one of my drawings, but usually they were redrawn and bundled to coordinate with fashion reports from other regional offices around the country. One day, I received a call from an exclusive shop on Boston’s trendiest street, asking me to draw a shoe for their Sunday ad. I decided that this was going to be the best drawing of a shoe ever to hit any newspaper anywhere on the planet. I accepted the job, settled at my drawing board, and began.

Book Clubs - What Goes On?

What I'm reading: One Small Victory, by Maryann Miller

Last week, I talked about reading outside my normal genre range for a book club.

They meet at their library (which is not in my county system, but isn't that far away, given typical distances up here in the mountains). After a bit of mingling, they have a nice breakfast, and then they have their business meeting.

The leader assured me that this meeting was atypical in that they had a lot of community business to discuss. The club is part of their "Friends of the Library" and they do more than discuss books. Things on the agenda included organizing a library clean-up day, and a book sale at a local community "fair", a cemetery tour as a fundraiser, as well as concern for a new school scheduled to break ground next month and open in a year.

Once their business was finished, the group divided to discuss the two books assigned for the month. Because the group is large (about 35 members), they're split into two groups, so although they're a united front for the business meeting and social time, each group reads only one of the books, which allows more time for each member to add to the book discussion.

Since I was a visitor, I had my choice of groups, and I opted to sit in on the group that had read the book I didn't much care for. I was curious to see how my opinions matched those of others in the group, and how reading like a "writer" differed from reading like a "reader."

Friday Field Trip - Badlands of South Dakota

Jason's back with more pictures, as promised.

The Badlands of South Dakota are tucked away in the middle of nowhere, but offer photographers incredibly unique scenery. I recently returned from leading a four-day photo safari to Badlands National Park. Here are some of the images from that trip. You can see more images online at my image galleries: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpodell/collections/72157627092395700/