Recent Posts
But in New Zealand???
2019 forced me to face a shift in my sense of reality. One day, my world was safe and calm, and my worst worry was how I was going to convince my husband to buy the new lounge suite that I wanted, or how was the next scene in my manuscript going to play out, or where does one find the money to pay for the writers conference that I wanted to go to.
But in March 2019, my worst worry joined that of many others around world.
Will today be the day that a terrorist takes my son, my daughter, or my husband away from me?
On Friday 15th March, 2019, an unknown number of madmen marched into two separate mosques on opposite sides of Christchurch, New Zealand (my home city) and opened fire. They then proceeded to locations north and south of the central city, attempting to evade arrest while causing more acts of terrorism.
For the first time in history, the entire city of Christchurch, New Zealand was on lockdown. All schools, all malls, and all businesses closed and locked their doors. Residents citywide were encouraged to stay inside. For nearly 4 hours, an entire city was held to ransom. And what makes it all bizarre… It happened in little, old New Zealand, one of the safest countries in the world.
Lives were lost in this senseless madness. Families ripped apart by an act driven by hatred. Nothing can make up for that. New Zealand as a whole suffered.
We Let Strangers Into Our Lives
For the last few years, I’ve been writing crime thrillers. Thinking in the head of a bad guy can be liberating. Not sure when these stories of mine will be published (the publishing industry really is a hurry-up-and-wait industry), but I keep pressing forward, and continue to write stories where the bad guys come after us in ways that we are all subject to.
I always wanted the novel to be a cautionary tale about oversharing on social media and the internet. The more I delve into various aspects of internet security, the more I get excited—and scared.
I’m excited, because I know exactly how my serial killer is finding his victims—how he’s stalking them. And I also know how he has managed to elude capture for over twenty years. As the writer of this creepy tale, this is fantastic. However, it also scares me, because I’m consciously aware that there will be some sicko out there doing exactly what the bad guy in my story is doing.
I’ve decided to start this blog series on social media and internet security on my personal blog in the hopes that at least one person out there will take notice and start to examine their own practices. If my ramblings can save just one person from becoming the victim, then I’ll be over the moon.
Police, Death, and Writing
On December 27, 2017, I started penning my crime thriller where a writer encounters a sinister website that leads to a game of cat-and-mouse with a serial killer. The idea was bouncing around in my head for two full years before I eventually started writing anything. All I had was the opening scene and the closing scene. Now, for obvious reasons, I have so much more.
However, as part of writing this novel, I’ve had to do extensive research into how Atlanta PD does things, how they’re structured, as well as getting my head around some interesting aspects of US law and criminal investigations. It’s been a testimonial to my mad research skills, because I live in New Zealand, and almost all of my research has been via the internet, and the occasional reference book. My research led me to police department websites, FBI public pages, state department documents, forensics magazines, YouTube channels for various cops, and a whole range of other resources. In some cases, I had to make generalizations, using what only made logical sense. In other cases, I was able to pull on specifics. Regardless, I was learning something new every day.
Stories need to contain that element of real, and I think I got there. However, as every writer knows (or at least they should know), not all research will find a manuscript. Sometimes, the writer needs to know that little detail just to add the realism, but the reader doesn’t get all the knowledge.
Below is just some of the interesting facts that I’ve discovered along the way. Some of them have found the manuscript; some have not.
#CockyGate and Trademark Hell: Enough is Enough!
I have been watching what is going on with #CockyGate, stunned by the train wreck that is gripping the publishing industry by storm. What started as one woman’s horrible mistake (and lack of understanding of trademark law) has blown up into a full-scale witch hunt. And you know what… I’ve had enough!
Pitchforks have been seized by the masses, and the mob is on the loose. No one is safe from this shit storm (and yes, I deliberately swore). I can tell you now, watching the social media feeds, there WILL be more than one author who will have their reputation harmed, if not destroyed, by this mess. Where will it end?
Sleep, Oh Precious Sleep…
Sleep, oh precious sleep, why for art thou eluding me? Why must you be so broken? Why must I sleep so lightly?
Oh yeah, that’s right… I have children.
New mothers and women who are thinking about having children, listen up, and listen good. Accept it now. Sleep for you is over. You might get the odd night of deep slumber, but it won’t last. This I can guarantee you. Trust me, having children is the worst thing that any woman can do for their sleep pattern. And it really doesn’t matter that I happen to have two teenagers. They are STILL waking me up at all godly hours of the morning.
If you are a mother yourself, you will know exactly what I’m talking about. Sleep is something that disappears from your life before your children are even born.
Easter is exactly when it should be…
Every year, I hear someone complaining about how Easter is too late, or Easter is too early. And the number of people that complain about how Easter can’t seem to have a fixed date… Every year, I respond to these complaints in the same fashion.
“You do know how Easter is calculated, don’t you?”
The blank stares are borderline hilarious.
Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.
(Okay, the Spring Equinox for the Northern Hemisphere.) It’s a simple calculation really, or at least one would assume so, until they discover the truth behind the equation. While the description appears to be one based on astronomical events, it’s really not.