True crime writing

All writing takes planning and, to some degree, all writing takes research. True crime writing involves mountains of research and then culling through the mountains for "the book" within. "Walking Between The Raindrops" is a combination of first person accounts and documentation carefully woven together so that the reader will get a more 3D-version of the whole story. Putting it all together has been kind of like eating an elephant. Massive and overwhelming at times.

To give you an idea of how much research - check out the reference material I've collected over the past 5 years! This doesn't include books like, "The Executioner's Men", "Gangland", "Border Wars" and 5 years of Stratfor.com articles which are on another shelf.

My part of the editing is almost done. So far, of the nearly 800 pages I had when I finished the first draft, almost 100 pages have been cut! When I hand the manuscript off to the real editor, I expect it will get trimmed down even more. That sounds like a lot of pages still, right? Those pages are double-spaced, so, in reality, the book should end up between 300-400 pages - not so bad.

Bad guys

Writing about bad guys in a novel or screenplay is fun. You can design them to fit whatever ulterior motive your story needs. They can be consciously evil or developmentally evil - your choice. You can describe them in terms your reader will immediately associate with "criminal" (think of Javier Bardem in "No Country For Old Men") or, for a "Dexter" character, endow them with smooth good looks and charm.  It's fun and, ultimately, can make or break your story.

Bad guys in true crime are already drawn. As a writer, it's more important to capture their truth as you find it. It's okay to point out their flaws and highlight their strengths, good or bad, but there is no room for redesign. And that's okay. True bad guys - the living, breathing kind - are the blueprints for all the fictional ones anyway. Digging into their stories, hearing their voices and learning the facts of their crimes makes true bad guys much scarier than any movie bad guys to me.

"Walking Between The Raindrops" - Texas Ranger Matt Lindemann and Williamson County Detective James Maugham question a suspect:

MATT: Who does the brother need to be concerned with - watching out for right now?

AB: Them people from over there from Mexico. Them fools don’t play.

MATT: So, you know what they’ll be driving? It’s not like – it’s not Jorge?

AB: Uh-uh. But, they’ll probably come in Tahoes or some shit, which is out of the blue, some low bullshit, shitty cars. Just f***ing go light them up.

Perspectives 2

It's Easter Sunday. The early service at church was packed. I loved sitting beside Paul and family. The grandchildren were especially adorable (of course). The pastor's message was exactly what I needed to hear.  Now, thinking about it all as we wait for the grandkids to come over and hunt Easter eggs and have dinner, I can't stop thinking about the mothers and fathers, wives and children of the people who upended our lives six years ago.

What is their Easter like? What are all their holidays like without their sons and daughters - husbands and fathers? The perpetrators' children will likely have children by the time they get out of prison. Some may never see their parents alive outside of prison again. Actually, some may never leave prison at all.

I know that when those mothers first saw them as babies they couldn't have looked at them and wished or imagined that one day that little boy or that little girl would grow up to be a kidnapper, a thief or criminal of any kind. From the parents that I've seen, it's a good bet that all they wanted for those children was for them to have a good life and grow up to be good people. What do the wives tell their children? What will become of their children?

It's Easter Sunday. I thank God for all His blessings, for our children and our grandchildren. I thank Him for all our family and friends. I thank Him for the gift of His son and the promise of the Resurrection. I thank Him for watching over the families and loved ones of the kidnappers and pray that they feel His love every day. I thank Him for holding the lives of the kidnappers and pray that they feel His love, too.