Creating Fiction from Fact

I'm often asked if I've had the experiences I write about in my novels...car chases, being shot at, getting into fights, confronting psychopaths, seeing dead bodies. Yes I have. In most cases, I've taken a situation from real life, added a dash of imagination and presto! turned it into a scene.

For example, as a deputy sheriff in Kansas in my twenties (note that's in my twenties not the twenties!) there were several times where I had to whip out my trusty .357 magnum and point it at a bad guy, or in their general vicinity. Thank the Lord, I never shot anyone. I have been in many tense, tactical situations and fired many types of weapons, however and, from reading after-action reports, attending autopsies and talking to those who have had to shoot to wound or kill, I have a pretty good idea of the mechanics involved, and how it must feel to put a bullet in someone. Of course, not everyone has the same reaction to taking a life but, by the time I placed my character, Reno McCarthy, into a situation where he had to kill in self-defense (Deader by the Lake), I knew his emotional makeup well enough to figure how he would handle it. Reno is a tough, cynical guy but he's not a super-hero. He took a life to save his own, but feels guilty(throughout Every Secret Crime). I think that's a realistic reaction. At some point, I will have Reno face another kill or be killed scenario. We'll see what happens.

Most of what I've written has the feel of reality because I've drawn it from memory, making a few changes to suit the plot. In Every Secret Crime, for example, I recalled two friends who died in a car crash, mentioned in my last blog post, to write about a young woman who is murdered and dumped, in her Jeep, into a river. Combine that with the fact that, as both cop and reporter, I've either participated in or watched dozens of water rescues/recoveries and you have a scene that seems real.

If you want to write crime fiction and don't have the benefit of a background based in homicide and filled with action sequences, research works wonders. For those of you who haven't the slightest idea how to describe someone recently deceased from violent means, I recommend the detective's bible, Vernon Geberth's Practical Homicide Investigation. The pictures are not pretty but they are real and the investigative techniques drawn from Geberth's many years as a homicide detective and commander with the NYPD are timeless. If diagrams and text are more to your liking, the Death Investigator's Handbook by Louis Eliopulos is excellent. Both books are large, long and not cheap so a visit to your library may be in order. More basic, but just as useful, information can be found in the Writers Digest HowDunnit series of books which are reasonably priced and available at most bookstores or on Amazon. Calling your local police department to talk to an investigator may also help you and any military vet who has seen combat can tell you exactly how it feels to come under fire.

If you want to know what it's like to shoot a gun . . . well, that's a conversation for another post!