My Cinematic Life

James O. Born

I love to write, but I like to make movies too.  Just like Spielberg.  At least like the ones he made as a kid on a Super 8 camera.  Yes, my little videos are silly, but that's the point.  At least now I have better production values.

Check out the two short videos I made about training with a K-9 and then see some of my earlier work with such great actors as Micheal Connelly.

The last one is the first I ever made.  Literature and Lead said it all.  With bullets!

I'm in New York this week but will start up the writing blogs next week.

Have a tremendous Thursday.

Scent of Murder Teaser

Scent of Murder full vieo

Books and Bows

Literature and Lead

Scent of Murder

James O. Born

Next week my newest novel, Scent of Murder will be released by Forge/MacMillan.  It's been a long time since I really promoted a release.  I was spoiled by working with Lou Dobbs on my last book because he did all the promotional work from his TV show.  It was great.

I like talking to people and doing book signings, but sometimes all of the other stuff can become overwhelming.  (Ask Jackie and her current tour for the fabulous A Dangerous Place: A Maisie Dobbs Novel )
In the end it's all worthwhile.  I'm proud of the book and happy it's coming out.  That's really the bottom line.  And I'm lucky to have this blog and all my friends who write for it and read it for support.

If you get a chance to share any of these photos or the cover, I would appreciate it.  That's how the word gets out.  I've heard several authors say you win over readers one at a time.  In order for readers to become aware of you they need to see something about your books that interests them.  Maybe it's the subject matter, maybe the author bio or maybe something odd like the research you put into it.

I said before on this blog that I've talked to a lot of dog handlers to understand exactly what goes into a police K-9 unit.  I've gathered enough information for a dozen books if everything works out right.  I've also changed the tone from my earlier novels to focus more on the dogs themselves rather than just the police work.  I'm hoping the book appeals to both dog people and people interested in the intricacies of law enforcement investigations.

The next month promises to be filled with a lot of interesting events.  Aside from the book signings I will be at the University of Central Florida book Festival on April 17 and 18 And the South Carolina book Festival in mid-May.  Both of those stops include teaching a work shop on how to write a novel.  And I will referred to my blogs over the past year quite a bit during the class.

The Palm Beach Historical Society is hosting me on April 15 in the historical old courthouse where my father sat as a circuit judge for many years.  I'm speaking at the popular Writers Live program hosted by the Palm Beach County library system on April 22 at the West Boynton branch.

I will be traveling to New York and several other stops around the country, but the bulk of my energy will be in my home state of Florida.

Just using the blog as a chance to talk about my new novel and show off a few photographs from my research.  My thanks to the Jupiter Police Department for informing me with K-9 "Jimi" and my friends Tony Martindale and Frank Finelli for filming it.

Research Help: The Canine Factor

James O. Born

Writing a novel is not always the solitary, lonely existence we make it out to be.  After the manuscript is finished it takes a dedicated team to make the book a success.  I'm not talking about just the publisher either.  For my next novel, Scent of Murder, I had to do some serious research about police dog handlers and their canine partners.  As with all my novels, realism was paramount.  What I learned was not only are police K-9s the closest thing to superheroes we have in real life, but the people who really care about dogs are some of the most pleasant and helpful people in the world.

I read article after article about police K-9s and found several organizations that not only helped that research but are vitally important to the K-9 world.  Let's take a few minutes to get to know three of these agencies a little better.

Through Facebook I discovered the German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County .  Their president, Maria Dales, leads a cadre of dedicated volunteers who have a very simple goal: help German Shepherds in distress.  There is no mixed message or hidden plan to make a profit.

In their website's own words:

German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County (GSROC) is a non-profit 501(c)3 charity organization dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing purebred German Shepherd Dogs that have no where else to turn.

GSROC is a volunteer-driven organization. We are funded entirely by private donations and receive no government support. Dogs for adoption are housed in foster home situations and in private boarding facilities. Currently, we do not own our own kennel facility, but our dream is to have one some day so that we can eliminate the tremendous expense associated with boarding the dogs while they wait for their forever families.

The GSROC also lays claim to the cutest photo on the internet posted to the right.

I also ran across K9s4cops.org, a Houston-based organization that helps with the tremendous cost of police K-9s.  The Chief Operating Officer, Melanie Boyd, has been very helpful to me.  The organization recognizes that not all towns are as big as Los Angeles or Miami, but they still have a need for the best possible law enforcement tools available.  K9s4cops.org recognized this issue and has stepped forward to help.  Again they have a direct goal and no hidden agenda.

Their website says:

Our foundation was formed to address the need for funding the purchase of K9s for Law Enforcement Agencies.

K9s cost between 10,000-15,000 dollars and most agencies are not budgeted for that kind of expenditure. However most departments can budget for the required care, training and transportation of a K9.

Most recently I spoke with Russ Hess, the director of the United States Police Canine Association.  This is a professional organization who ultimately provide the standard by which all police K-9s should be trained and provides information on how to reach those standards.  It is a lofty and difficult goal that the organization handles well.

Their website says:

The United States Police Canine Association became the largest and oldest active organization of its kind-"Ever Striving for the Betterment of all Police K-9" - in August, 1971 when two existing Associations, the Police K-9 Association and the United States K-9 Association, merged.

• To unite in a common cause all law enforcement agencies utilizing the services of the canine as an aid in the prevention and detection of crime.
• To promote friendship and brotherhood between all those interested in the training and utilization of the canine in police work.
• To endeavor to establish a minimum working standard, and improve the abilities of the canine in police work, thereby rendering better service to the community.
• To establish and maintain a legal assistance fund for acts resulting in civil suits from the use of police trained canines.
• To coordinate the exchange of any advanced techniques of training of the utilization of police dogs.
• To improve the image of the working police dog to the populace in general through improved public service in the prevention and detection of crime.
• To aid and assist those law enforcement agencies making application for information concerning the establishment of canine sections within their respective departments.

The United States Police Canine Association has a foundation which anyone can contribute to dedicated to helping police K-9s. 

The official description is:

To expand and support the goals of The United States Police Canine Association, Inc and to serve public safety by securing and providing necessary financial and programmatic resources needed to conduct educational and training programs and perform research and;  To assist, where additive to existing programs, and otherwise support public safety agencies to effectively and efficiently carry out their missions.

 

On a side note, one of the board members of USPCA is Marilyn Walton.  She has already written two non fiction books about police K-9s called Badge on My Collar and and the sequel, Badge on my Collar II.  Check them out.  

  

The focus of my posts for the past year have been on writing.  It's easy to lose sight of the world outside publishing.  It is my personal belief that these three organizations epitomize the ideal of helping others in getting involved.  I'm proud to be associated with them in any way an intend to promote them during my book tour.  If you get a chance, check out the websites and see if you don't agree with me.

Feel free to leave a comment or contact me through my e-mail at contactjimborn@Comcast.net

Have the best possible Thursday imaginable.

How to Communicate With Your Editor

James O. Born

Communication is the key to virtually any occupation.  Advertisers must communicate why their product is so important to consumers.  Police officers must communicate with each other to stop serial criminals from committing crimes over and over.  Doctors must communicate to patients all sorts of information from the most complex scientific theories to simple practices they must employ to stay healthy.  And a writer must not only communicate with the reader effectively, but also communicate with an editor.

The writer-editor relationship is unique.  Everyone has a different view of it.  It can be a partnership, it can be a chore, it can be a joy, but ultimately it needs to be a relationship which makes a novel better.  There are a number of other elements the relationship can affect.  The writer has to clearly express his or her expectations for promotion and other elements not related to actually writing a novel.  For the purposes of this blog, let's focus on the relationship that affects the novel itself.

I have dealt with a number of editors in my career.  All of them have their own unique view of how things should be done and how novels should sound.  I always thought of it as writing a novel specifically for that editor.  It's sort of like doing a public speech but focusing on one person in the audience.  But in this case there is a chance to do something special.  Don't waste this opportunity to hear someone else's opinion of your writing.  Listen to what your editor has to say.  Don't be ready with a quick excuse or response.  If the editor thinks the book is missing a character to tie it all together, I would recommend that you consider creating a character to tie it all together.  It's a lesson I learned in other areas that I can apply to writing.

I can use two examples from two different editors.  And please forgive me if I've mentioned any of these stories before.  I find that they are the best examples I can present and I use them in the classes that I teach.

The first relates to my third novel, Escape Clause.  I had finished it and felt pretty good that the story of a Florida cop sent to a prison to investigate a mysterious death had all the elements I wanted and the tone I was trying to set.  I was not overly confident, as any writer who is overly confident about their writing is probably a shitty writer.  But I felt pretty good about the book.  That is, until my editor at Putnam, Neil Nyren, talked to me about what was missing.  There is no way I would've ever seen it on my own.  He suggested that I identified the bad guy at the very beginning of the book, instead of about eighty pages in.  Even though I thought it was a great surprise to realize exactly who the bad guy was, Neil pointed out that the reader needed someone to root against right from the start.  I still recall when I was done, the letter he wrote me that said I had really, “juiced up" the novel.

I can state unequivocally that Neil's way was far superior to my original idea.  Dammit!  The book went on to earn very good reviews and the inaugural Florida book award for best novel.  Thank you very much, Neil.

A more recent example is in my upcoming novel, Scent of Murder.  Once again I handed in a book I was happy with.  This time to my editor at Forge books, Bob Gleason.  Bob liked the overall story, but felt it needed one additional viewpoint.  He thought that several scenes set in the viewpoint of one of the canine heroes of the book would make it more interesting.  I resisted at first.  Then set aside my ego and considered Bob's tremendous experience in publishing.  He didn't just leave me out in the cold, he suggested I read Call of the Wild by Jack London as well as several articles.  Bob is big on sending me articles on different subjects.  To make a relatively long story not much shorter, he was right.  The final version of Scent of Murder, is better than the version I wrote.  Again, dammit!

This was all possible by communication.  And by communication, I mean it is probably more important for the author to listen to the editor than the other way around.  In effect, the editor is your boss.  If you keep that in mind, generally things work out all right.

On a different subject, but relevant for today and tomorrow only, the e-book version of my second novel, Shock Wave, is available for free on Amazon if you click here.  I'm not selling anything, just giving it away.  That sounds worse when I say it out loud.

Have a great Thursday.

Scent of Murder

James O. Born

I do occasionally write something other than this blog.  Since I didn't have a particular topic for "How to Write a Novel," I thought I'd give you a glimpse of my upcoming novel, Scent of Murder, which will be released by Forge Books on April 7.

First, I would like to extend my thanks to the great people at Tor/Forge for their tremendous input.  Starting with my editor, Bob Gleason, who made me take a look at the narrative and consider things I had never thought of.  Add to this input from Associate Publisher Linda Quinton, who has a deep understanding and love of dogs and a broad knowledge of marketing and I truly feel like this  a much better novel.  That is what being part of a team really means.  The fantastic cover speaks for itself, conveying an excellent image of the opening scenes and overall tone of the book.

In a way, this is another lesson in how to write a novel.  A book from a publisher is in no way a solitary effort.  I may have started working on the novel by myself in my office, but ultimately it was in my best interest to open my mind to other opinions.  It's easy to say I work in real life as a law enforcement officer and have seen first hand what K-9s can do.  The real issue is how to convey that in a compelling and interesting way.  Both Bob and Linda helped me in ways I never would have imagined.

Finding a way to integrate the K-9 heroes of the book into the actual investigation in the novel was a challenge from the beginning.  Bob convinced me to create a point of view for one of the dogs.  He told me to read White Fang by Jack London.  That is the kind of instruction that helps you as a writer.  I read the book and studied the technique.  I didn't copy it or try to imitate Jack London.  And in the end it made the novel more interesting.

My new business/book cards

Linda read the manuscript and had suggestions about making some of the police work more subtle so that it might appeal to an audience in addition to the police procedural fans.  She had me bring out elements of the dogs and gave me suggestions that never would have occurred to me.  The fact that an associate publisher was interested in my manuscript was fantastic in itself.

Now I'm working with my publicist, Emily Mullen, who did a great job on Border War, to work out dates and appearances for bookstores and create a marketing plan which will give the book the best possible chance to succeed.  That is no small task in this era of shrinking sales and a crowded market.

Elayne Becker has been right on top of everything since the moment she took on the new job.  Not bad for a girl from Georgia stuck in New York.

Normally this could be a stressful time for a writer, but the fact that everyone on this team knows what they are doing and the book is something new for me, makes me not only confident, but excited about the novel's release.

The lesson here is, "no one can be a success in publishing on their own."

Obviously I will have more to share about the novel as the release draws near.  I have some new friends in the dog community as well as the law enforcement arena who have shown a lot of interest in the novel.  It is a realistic view of what police K-9s are involved in every day, as well as the relationship they have with their handlers.  It's hard to tell who's actually in charge sometimes.  Take a look at the Amazon description and feel free to e-mail me any questions at contactjimborn@comcast.net or in the comments.  If you haven't already, join my Facebook author page.


Here are a few dog photos to give you an idea of the world of police dogs.

Me and K-9 Hutch

My choice for a cover