Anniversary of Evil

Abduction happened here.


This Thursday, February 26, 2015, marks 7 years since the morning that turned our world upside down and changed, not only the course, but our whole lives forever. It's been said over and over that our lives can change forever in an instant. Most of us, I know I did, smile and nod as if we know what that means. But I truly believe that until it happens to you, we never really understand and, I don't think we really understand "the Grace of God" until we have only survived because of it. At least, I didn't.

I'll be posting several times over the next several days with photos (some never seen here or in the book) some video and excerpts from "Walking Between The Raindrops" to commemorate this infamous anniversary; ending where we are today.

"Walking Between The Raindrops" by Mary and Paul Roland - An American couple's true story of kidnap-for-ransom in the United States as directed by the most vicious drug cartel in Mexico. (Now available worldwide on Amazon.com)

Some reviews -

"Excellent read! This could have happened to anyone." Mark Flickinger
"Incredible true story! Very hard to put the book down." Lance Self
"Incredible story! So well written that I find myself rechecking the locks on all my doors at night. The cooperation of all law enforcement agencies restores my faith in the system. Very impressed with the dedication and capability of Investigative and District Attorney personnel in such a small community." Darlene Miller

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.

The book...

Everything is moving forward toward publishing "Walking Between The Raindrops". The first session of editing is underway, which is to say, my own proofing and tightening. Flaws and errors jump off the pages! I am a very harsh self-critic committed to cutting the first draft to manageable size. So far, I'm through the first section and well into the second. Once these cuts and corrections are made, the whole manuscript will go to another person to edit to final release form. After that, the book will be available in e-book and printed formats.

It's hard to believe.  This project has consumed me for the past year and it is almost completely finished.

Sooner than that, though, will be the unveiling of the book's cover art! Target date for that is June 1. I feel so fortunate to have the cover art that's going on this book. It's more than perfect to me - it totally captures what Paul and I saw in our minds.

Thank you for reading my words and God bless you for your support.