Moving on...

Writing this book was both the hardest and the most liberating thing I've done in a long time. I love to write. I've loved writing since I could write words and make sentences. Writing fiction is like a "getaway vacation" for me. Writing non-fiction, this non-fiction was, many times, like enduring abdominal surgery without anesthetic. Opening up my life, my most inner pain and struggle since that February in 2008, required reliving it, feeling it, over and over. Paul shared with me that he went through this, too, as he wrote his pages and then in all the rewrites and re-reading. Add to that the discovery of so much more in the officer reports, transcripts and watching literally hours of interrogation videos was both gratifying and the stuff of nightmares. You get the picture.

When we were done and the last 'enter' was made to publish both the printed and e-book versions, I felt myself really relax. For the next few weeks, I couldn't get enough sleep! It dawned on me that I hadn't relaxed since we started this project two years ago at least, maybe longer than that. Suddenly, there were days when I didn't think about Paul's kidnapping or its aftermath except in relation to the book. I could talk about it and not cry. For me, that's huge. I'm finally able to step away from those emotions. I'm finally moving on.

"Walking Between The Raindrops" by Mary and Paul Roland is available in print and e-book on Amazon.com. Thank you for buying the book and thank you for your support!

Strong and Beautiful - Jana McCown

It was wonderful to see Jana McCown outside the somber setting of a criminal courtroom and present her with a copy of "Walking Between The Raindrops." The former First Assistant District Attorney for Williamson County graciously wrote the forward to the book. Over the years since the last sentencing hearing, she has become a dear friend and was an early supporter of our writing the book.

Readers will not only get a glimpse of Jana's amazing talent as a prosecutor in "Walking Between The Raindrops," but will see, as we saw, Jana bravely sitting in the courtroom for hours with the same sharp, plastic zip-cuff taken from around Paul's hands binding her hands tightly and uncomfortably behind her and the same red bandanna blindfold that was found on Paul wrapped around her head, covering her eyes to represent to the jury, and everyone else in the courtroom, a glimpse of what it was like for Paul during his captivity. This powerful visual will stay with me forever. No Hollywood courtroom drama could have been as compelling.

"Walking Between The Raindrops" is available in print and Kindle editions at Amazon.com.

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.

What's in a name?

People have asked me about the title. Did I start with the title? Does it mean something special? No and yes. This book has had several working titles but this one is it. "Walking Between The Raindrops", the title, was inspired by a song I heard from the Almeria album of Lifehouse. "Between The Raindrops" is sung by Lifehouse and Natasha Bedingfield. What I heard was what Paul and I have lived and where we are now.

Writing this book has been easy and difficult, tearful and exultant, frightening and liberating and extremely painful yet healing. It started out simple but became complicated until, as if by itself, it simplified again.

Now that the first pass is done, I look at the editing to come with excitement. Writing is rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. I'm already editing in my mind as I write this! And then, when I'm through with my cuts, I will have other eyes find the mistakes, typos and narrative "fat" to be excised until only the best is left.  That's my prayerful hope. 

Criminal Voices

When I started writing "Walking Between The Raindrops," I thought there would only be two voices telling the story - Paul's and mine. But then I requested everything I could get my hands on through the "Open Records Act" from every agency I could think of. As documents, CD's, transcripts and videos were released to me, I began to see that there were many voices to this story - voices that needed to be heard. Detective James Maugham and Ranger Matt Lindemann, Lance Self, many, many law enforcement personnel, former Williamson County First Assistant DA Jana McCown,  Assistant DA Michael Jarrett, our family, friends and the five people arrested and convicted for this terrible crime.

I've tried to be true to each voice and represent them accurately so that my readers will "hear" their words. The hardest part, for me, was listening to the suspect interviews, especially when so much said only showed their patent disrespect for Paul, Tom and themselves. Even so, there were times when they caught me off guard and made me laugh. One of these was an interview with Abraham "AB" Weber by Detective Maugham and Ranger Lindemann:

JAMES: Who, uh, who decided to make the first phone call that morning?

AB: What morning?

JAMES: The morning of, the Wednesday morning at six forty-five in the morning.

AB: Wednesday morning or Thursday morning?

JAMES: Wednesday morning.

AB: I thought he was kidnapped on Tuesday?

JAMES: He was.

MATT: But, nobody called until Wednesday morning.

AB: (surprised) Wednesday?

JAMES: Yup.

AB: Are you sure it was Wednesday morning?

JAMES: A hundred percent, brother.

AB: The first phone call to his brother was Wednesday morning?

MATT: Yup.

AB: Oh. 

Heroes - Texas Style

The heroes of "Walking Between the Raindrops" are many. I've been keeping a list of names and agency references and it's just mind boggling. Many others, I know, I'll never know about. The list in the next paragraph represents just the ones "discovered" in records and reports provided to me by different agencies.

Here's my (partial)  Hero Hall of Fame:

Williamson County Sheriff's Office -  28+ officers and detectives
Texas Department of Safety - 8+ officers and helicopter pilots
Texas DPS Texas Rangers - 10+ rangers
Hays County Sheriff's Office - 6+ officers
Texas Department of Corrections - K-9 Unit
Austin Police Department - 3+ officers
San Antonio Police Department, SAPD SWAT and ROP Units - 22+ officers and detectives
San Marcos Police Department - Unknown
CERT Team Volunteer Search and Rescue - Unknown
U. S. Marshalls Fugitive Task Force - 4+ rangers
F. B. I. - 2+ agents
Laredo Police Department - 4+ officers
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms - 3+ agents
A very brave little girl and her mom
Tom Roland

See? Mind boggling.

Two special people, however, are central characters in this book. They led the way, ran down every lead, never slept and kept all the wheels from falling off. You can read all about them in "Walking Between The Raindrops" when the book comes out this fall.  Until then, here's a couple of shots from the e-Book added video:

                          Williamson County Sheriff's Office - Dectective James Maugham

                                                 D.P.S. - Texas Ranger Matt Lindemann

Crime Scene Characters

After waxing philosophic for a few days, I got back to the nuts and bolts of getting on with "Walking Between The Raindrops" yesterday.  Overall, it was a satisfying day. Well over 2000 words written and ever closer to finishing the first pass. Today, I hope to finish PART 2, the largest chunk of the book. Part 3 will be a smaller bit. Much smaller.

First, however, I'm reviewing pictures that might be added to the end of Part 2: evidence pictures and videos. Crime scene photos are messy. Snap! Go! Nobody takes the picture to put the subject in the best light. Yet the visceral smack-in-the-face is always exactly right.

For this book, I believe evidence and crime scene pictures are characters, of a sort, with important dialogue. They move the story forward in ways that words would take too long. Check out what these photos are saying about the place that Paul was held for two days.

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.