Good Fences

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I would never just walk into someone’s house. Even if I’d known them for years. I do not take an open or unlocked door as an invitation to enter without permission. But that’s not the case for many – especially in Oklahoma. To counter this, I keep my doors locked – all the time. I’d lock the gates to my backyard if I could, but with no alley, meter readers etc, need access.

My house sits on a long narrow lot, surrounded by smaller square lots. Which means instead of one house on my left, one to my right, and one behind me – I have two on my right, two on my left, and one way, way out back. In other words – I’m surrounded by lots of people.

To counter the feeling that anytime I step outside someone is watching, I’ve planted shrubs and trees and other thick foliage along the four foot chain-link fence that borders my backyard. You’d think this would be enough to ensure my privacy. But it seems like whenever I’m mowing, weeding, or doing anything outside, I have company. Kids who want to sell me candy or magazine subscriptions for their latest school fund raising project, strangers wanting to use the phone, strangers wanting me to pay them to mow my yard, strangers inviting me to their church, and neighbors just wanting to chat as I lug in my groceries.

I’m not a person who likes to chat. I don’t want to know everyone’s business. I’d probably be very happy living in the country with no neighbors playing loud music late on Sunday nights (what reasonable person parties on Sunday nights anyway?); no neighbors using power equipment outside at 8 am on Saturdays; and no neighbors having abusive midnight conversations with their soon to be ex-spouses as they make their way from slamming front door to slamming car door (note: if you’re leaving forever, for heaven’s sake just do it and shut up about it.)

My day job requires me to talk to all kinds of people all day long. Sometimes I spend most of the day on the telephone dealing with problems. I’ve done this for more than 25 years. I only have so much goodwill to give each day. When I come home, I want to do the Greta Garbo thing – I want to be alone.

I treasure my privacy. I want to come home, roll up the drawbridge, and keep the world out. To achieve this, I try not to engage my neighbors in idle conversation. I wave from a distance and hope they do the same. Usually it works, but not always. I had one senior citizen neighbor who insisted on getting my mail out of my mailbox and holding it for me when I was travelling. Sometimes he did it when I was just late getting home from work for the day. This necessitated me checking with him whenever I returned to see if he had any of my mail. I finally got a locking mailbox and that solved one problem.

Now the neighbor to the right of me has moved out. He was one of my favorite neighbors. In twenty years, we’d only had three or four conversations: once when he broke my bathroom window with a rock from his riding lawn mover; once when he cut a tree down and it landed on my fence; once when I found a dying kitten in my backyard (since he had cats, I thought it was one of his. It wasn’t but he took it anyway) and once when he let me know he was moving. Even with the accidents, he was my idea of a good neighbor.

New people are in the process of moving in. If I was a better person, I’d bake some cookies and take them over, but I wouldn’t want them to get the wrong idea. Best to start the way I want to go on.

I’ll smile and wave at them as I fill my moat and feed the alligators. Hopefully, they’ll get the message.

Robert Frost had it right. Good fences make good neighbors.

Any neighbor stories you want to share?

Evelyn David
http://www.evelyndavid.com

Bad News Abounds

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There are certain things I just don’t do anymore (thanks to suggestions from my Stiletto posse) which include Googling my name, checking my Amazon numbers, or reading reviews (I’m in good company…apparently Philip Roth doesn’t read his reviews either). I’ve found that all are anxiety producing and I don’t need any reason to feel more nervous than I already do on a daily basis. But last night, after checking out the first ten minutes of the local news—something I do every evening at five o’clock—I’ve added that to my list. No more televised news. Ever—or until my resolve wavers.

We have had a particularly bad stretch of bad news in these parts, though I don’t think we’re unusual in that regard. In the past week alone, we’ve lost a local police officer (a father of three) to a gunshot wound to the face. A woman, inexplicably driving the wrong way on a local road, died in a crash as did her three nieces, her daughter, and three men in another car that she hit. A woman jumped to her death from a local bridge a few nights ago. A young dad walking through Central Park was hit by the branch of a one hundred year old tree and went into a coma. And we’ve always got the fluctuating Dow Jones Industrial, the now-bankrupt “Cash for Clunkers” program, the unemployment rate, and the fate of universal health care to make us remember that not too many good things are happening in the country or the world.

I’ve decided that a head in the sand approach is the best defense against all of this. Goodbye televised news. Hello glass of chardonnay and latest copy of chick lit book.

I made a decision years ago to not see any movies that might upset me. So as good as I hear “The Hurt Locker” is and how amazing the direction is, I’m not going to see it. People possibly getting blown up in Iraq? No, thank you. I thought maybe I’d cut my work day short on Friday and go see “Funny People” until I read in a review that one of the main characters has a fatal blood disease. That’s out. I’m thinking “Aliens in the Attic” might be my safest bet. If one of those aliens—or god forbid one of the children—in the movie meet an untimely end, I will be extremely perturbed.

We’re only a few days into the news moratorium, so I’m not exactly sure how long it will last and I’m sure curiosity will eventually give way. And I also have to admit that I’m still reading the paper every morning, even though I skip the nasty stuff and go straight to the “Hot Finds for Summer!” (it’s always sandals I’m too old to wear) in the Style section or the sports section, where the list of steroid users and their pathetic excuses grow by the day. As someone who has been on steroids for medical reasons, I can tell you this: anyone who would willingly take steroids without a necessitating medical condition is a moron. Plain and simple. Between the weight gain, the mood swings, and the hair sprouting up in places where hair shouldn’t grow on a woman (let’s leave it at that), I wouldn’t care if I could hit a ball a country mile. They just aren’t worth the trouble. (Unless you’ve got extreme intestinal distress, in which case, they are a god send.)

Is there more bad news than usual? Or have I just become extremely sensitized to it? On the plus size, we had the beer summit…and the beer summit…and…I can’t think of anything else. What’s the good news coming out of your neck of the woods these days? And what do you do to combat the weariness you feel after reading day after day of horrible news?

Maggie Barbieri

What I Like and Don’t Like

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Because I’ll be off visiting my daughters in southern California when this blog comes out I decided to follow what my blog mates have been doing and write a list of things about me, namely what I do and don’t like.

I don’t like TV and radio commentators and reporters from either party who are mean. Being mean is NOT reporting the news nor is it going to change how anyone thinks.

I don’t like people who presume I believe the same way as they do just because I don’t blast my beliefs all over the place.

I don’t like movies that are full of naked people, sex that doesn’t do anything for the story, and coarse language that’s only there for the shock appeal. (I know what people look like without their clothes and most look best covered up, after being married for 57 years I know all about sex and don’t need lessons, and I’m offended by the use of bad language when it isn’t necessary.)

I dislike negative people and avoid them–if I can’t, I think of ways to put them in my next book.

What I do like is a good mystery–one that entertains me and keeps me guessing to the end.

I also like to eat a good meal whether I cooked it or someone else did.

I love being around my family and friends. Nothing more delightful than seeing how the kids are maturing and learning what everyone is doing.

I love being around my church family who I know I can count on for prayer when I need it.

I love good movies: funny movies, scary movies, romantic movies, exciting movies.

I like Facebook despite its addicting qualities.

I love writing mysteries, I love my characters who seem real to me, and I enjoy meeting people who have read my books.

I like more things than I dislike and I tend to avoid the things that I dislike. Life is too short to waste time on things you don’t like.

Now you know more about me than you probably ever wanted to know, but my blog is done and I can go off and have fun with my daughters.

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com

Clunkers for Cash? Not Me

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I think there are two kinds of people in the world: those for whom a car is a work of art, to be studied, admired, and coveted. And those for whom an automobile is a way of getting from one place to another. Ours is a mixed marriage. The hubby grabs the automotive section of the paper first. Maybe even before sports. Me? I want to turn the key and go. What the car looks like is irrelevant. Reliable is all I ask.

Which is why my very favorite automobile is now 14 years old. We’ve jerry-rigged the air-conditioning. It doesn’t have a CD player. There are no heated seats. I’m not sure how many times the odometer has turned over, but I don’t care because this old car just keeps chugging along. Since I’m not interested in a new model, the clunkers for cash government program doesn’t work for me. My husband says this antique of ours is no longer fit for long trips, but where am I going?

Some folks love the smell of a new car. Me? I love the fact that I can get into my car and remember the picnics held in those seats on days when it rained and we couldn’t stand being in the house another second. I smile when I think about the long talks I had with each of my kids as we barreled down the highway (and why do sex questions with teens always pop up when you’re going 60 miles an hour in heavy traffic?). I cringe slightly at some of the more heated arguments my husband and I had in the car – but sometimes it was the only place we could be alone and figure out a solution to a problem without the intrusion of children or dog. I relax when I’m in that car, recalling the naps taken during long drives to visit relatives in far-away states.

Son number two has been talking about needing a station car – and hinting, none too subtly, that my old clunker would nicely serve that purpose. He’s probably right. It would be an easy retirement for my faithful motorized servant. But I’m tempted to give him one of our newer cars (new being a relative term since we own no car less than five years old). They don’t have the memories or the old car smell.

For me, getting into my old car, with all the memories, is like Cinderella getting into the pumpkin. With a bibbity-boppity-boo, or a more mundane turn of the key, the transformation is complete. Both become gilded carriages – and we’ll both get to the ball (or supermarket) on time. But at least my pumpkin won’t break down at the stroke of midnight!

What’s your car IQ?

Evelyn David

Murder Takes the Cake by Evelyn David
Murder Off the Books by Evelyn David
http://www.evelyndavid.com/

Eating Apples in a Bathtub

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The author of Death of a Cozy Writer , G.M. Malliet is an Agatha Award Winner, recipient of an Anthony and Macavity Nomination for Best First Novel, recipient of a David Nomination for Best Novel, and an IPPY Award Silver Medalist (Mystery/Suspense/Thriller). Death of a Cozy Writer was chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the Best Books of 2008.

Is there anyone who by now does not know the story of how the Harry Potter series was conceived? Just in case: J. K. Rowling was on a train from Manchester to London in 1990 when the idea for the boy wizard suddenly came to her. As she relates it:

“I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who did not know he was a wizard became more and more real to me.”

(Notice that she sat and thought. She wrote none of this down; she just let the ideas bubble away.)

But is this really how it happens? The idea for a beloved character just pops into your head? Or has the idea been there all along, percolating away, inspired by nothing more than a face in the crowd from months before, or a phrase overheard in a café? Some insignificant event that may not even have registered at the time? This question fascinates and vexes authors, who are always asked where their ideas/characters come from. In reply, we mostly go into blank-stare mode, or give some glib answer (“the idea tree”). The fact is, no one knows.

What is certain, however, is that a train ride is the world’s best conductor, so to speak, for the creative process. I think it’s because you are trapped. You can’t be distracted by the sudden urge to do laundry, or paint the house, or go make a cup of coffee. In order to do these things, you’d first have to throw yourself off the train, and wisely realizing that would be unwise, you are thrown back instead on your own thought processes.

This trapped concept doesn’t work—for me, at any rate—on airplanes, because I am too busy helping the pilot keep the plane aloft by aiming uplifting prayers towards the cockpit, and it definitely doesn’t work in cars, distracted as I am by some idiot changing lanes at high speed without using his turn indicator (just yesterday I saw a bumper sticker I loved. It said, “If Jesus Were Here, He’d Use His Turn Signal”).

You’d think the same “trapped” concept might work while you’re in the dentist’s chair, but it doesn’t seem to pan out that way. A dentist’s chair does seem to send my brain into high gear, however: What’s that noise? What is that big silver thing he’s holding now? Is that a needle—good heavens, is that a needle? Is this guy old enough to be a dentist, anyway? I wonder if I look like Hannibal Lecter in this rubber mask? Will this be over soon? What’s that noise?

In other words, it’s like having a hyperkinetic four-year-old trapped inside your head: It’s lively in there, but it’s hardly creative.

But on a train, the forward movement is restful. I’m freed from all obligations and distractions, especially if I’ve left the computer at home. Combined with the sense that I have been granted permission to just sit and daydream, that does the trick for me every time. Plot twists invented; characters who announce themselves, fullblown. It is pure bliss for a writer.

Agatha Christie wrote that her best ideas came to her while she was sitting in a bathtub, eating apples. Believe me, I would try this if I thought it would make me half as ingenious as she was, and I’d be willing to bet some mystery authors have tried it, but somehow I think this technique was unique to Agatha. Other authors swear by washing the dishes as a surefire generator of ideas, but that doesn’t really work for me: I just want to get the chore over with, not daydream. Walking? Sometimes works, but not really.

Maybe if I ate apples on a train while sitting in a bathtub…would another story as good as Murder on the Orient Express come out of it?

Please visit me at http://gmmalliet.com/

G.M. Malliet

Under Review

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What I learned this week:

Twitter can be fun.

The Swine Flu Vaccine will be ready soon, but in such limited supply, I won’t see any.

It’s time to get new towels.

Brenda’s cat, Kitty, died.

Leverage has returned for its second season on TNT.

I have a printer stand for my office arriving tomorrow (see last week’s post).

Good intentions don’t get the house cleaned.

Shark Week is coming.

I can’t cook squash – well.

Stories about Amelia Earhart’s disappearance still fascinate me.

Sometimes drug stores have great sales on items for author auction baskets.

I should buy more fresh peaches.

Dogs might be psychic.

Just because you’re talking, doesn’t mean anyone is listening.

Only one Republican judiciary committee member voted for Sonya Sotomayor.

Despite what some politicians are saying, none of the health care draft reform bills contain a clause promoting euthanasia of people over 65.

President Obama needs a “jeans” intervention.

I haven’t read a book for pleasure this whole month.

Braums milk is the best.

The economy is turning around – the value of my 401k increased by 1/3 in last three months.

Birthers are just plain silly.

I might be going to Chicago in late October – beats my February trips.

Colin Powell is a national treasure.

I will never like liver, no matter how it’s smothered.

The Terminator carries a big knife and issues I.O.U.s

Most ghost tours shut down for the month of August – just like Congress.

I miss watching The West Wing.

Bare Minerals makeup is incredible.

I spend less if I only get $20 out of the ATM per trip.

Dogs love Funyons.

I need to start getting to bed before midnight.

I still don’t like chicken wings and beer – I don’t like them separately either.

Writing a blog every week is hard work.

Evelyn David
http://www.evelyndavid.com

A Few of My Favorite Things

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I was going to wade into the racially-charged waters of the Henry Louis Gates incident (Gates-gate?) but will leave you with one very succinct quote from Bill Maher which made me laugh no end: “Is your home safe from black intellectuals?” Presumably, Officer Crowley, Dr. Gates, and President Obama will join together in racial harmony this week and share a beer and move past the whole thing, even if in many parts of this country, black men will still be arrested for doing nothing wrong other than being black.

Ok, enough said. We’ve come a long way, but still have a long way to go. On that, I think we can all agree.

So, I now turn to what I like to call “a few of my favorite things” post. Not as popular as Oprah’s list of favorite things and I certainly won’t be sending each and every one of you one of the things on the list but maybe you’ll find yourself intrigued enough to buy one or more item on the list. Here we go:

1. Progresso Pesto Sauce: As faithful readers of this blog, you know that dinner time is a challenge around the Barbieri house. We have one vegetarian, one person on a low-roughage diet (that would be me), one person who eats just about everything, and one person who only likes to eat things, mostly meats, that a group recently cited as those who increase your risk for colorectal cancer (try explaining what that is to a 10-year-old). The answer to all of my prayers? Progresso Pesto Sauce. Yes, I know you can make your own, but that would require that I a) buy a basil plant, b) put it in a pot, c) make sure the cats in the neighborhood don’t use said pot for a litter box, and d) go outside and tend to the plant. None of that is happening friends, I can guarantee you. You know what’s easy, though? Pulling back the plastic lid on a container of store-bought pesto and mixing it with a bunch of hot pasta. Serving a salad and a loaf of Italian bread alongside it. Hearing people in family exclaim that this is their “favorite meal!” and seeing their smiles as they eat it. Easy, not too expensive, and everyone eats it. What could be better?

2. The BodenUSA web site: The country has a long way to go on racial issues and I have a long way to go on dressing myself better. Not so since I discovered the BodenUSA web site. Boden is a company based in the U.K. with moderately-priced but extremely hip clothes for women of a certain age. (That would be me and the northern half of Evelyn David, who is still expounding on her love of the black wrap dress that I encouraged her to buy and which she now owns. If you’d like to see what it looks like, go to www.maggiebarbieri.com. I’m wearing it in the photo on the home page.) And fortunately, as things have shifted southward on me, they have taken to making a line of very stylish tunics, which look fabulous with a pair of jeans or dressier pants and which cover my trouble spot or “writer heinie” which has developed over the past few years. I hesitated giving out this secret because I don’t want to see an army of tunic-wearing women walking around wearing the clothes that I have, but I’m a giver. You already knew that.

3. Facebook: I know. We’re supposed to be tired of social networking sites, but I’ve got to say that I am loving Facebook and enjoying reconnecting with friends and family. I’ve gotten to see pictures of my nieces and nephews on their most recent vacation, learned about who’s doing what from my high school and college classes, and reconnected with a lot of old friends. It’s also a great way to get the word out about my books, learn about other writers in the mystery world, and get feedback on covers and promotional materials. It’s also a nice diversion when I get bored with what I’m doing during my workday and that is not a bad thing.

4. My new Dyson vacuum: Another way Facebook has helped me is that it allows me to get information on products before I buy them. I put in my status update last week that I needed a new vacuum and the comments flooded in. Most encouraged me to get a Dyson and boy am I glad I did. Remembering the southern half of Evelyn David’s post a few weeks back about putting her vacuum together (something I wouldn’t be remotely interested in or adept at), I was concerned about getting a machine that I wouldn’t be able to use right out of the box, let alone have to use a screwdriver to put together. Fortunately, the Dyson was already assembled and after a few test runs, virtually the easiest thing in the world to use. The only drawback? The bagless technology. It’s great—don’t get me wrong. I just don’t enjoy seeing Barbieri dirt—and apparently, there’s a lot of it—swirling around in the clear canister after just one vacuum session. We are apparently a very dirty and disgusting family and my old vacuum, with its bag housed in a canister in which nothing could be seen, kept this ugly secret. I guess I’ll get used to seeing the dirt swirl around, but for right now, I’m pretending it belongs to someone else.

So, that’s it. I could go on but I’ll wait for another post to do so. We still haven’t discussed my love of mocha chip frappacinos from Starbucks but will, I promise. What are your favorite things? More importantly, what can’t you live without?

And don’t forget to protect your home from intellectuals—black, Asian, caucasian, or otherwise.

Guilty Pleasures

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Bet you thought I was going to write about chocolate. Well, yes, I confess chocolate is one of my guilty pleasures, but I don’t indulge nearly as much as I used too.

Instead I’m going to confess my TV watching guilty pleasures. My husband and I both watch General Hospital. I’ve watched General Hospital for years, way back before Luke and Laura got married. Hubby didn’t watch with me back in those days because he was either off to war or working on base.

Because it comes on at 2 in the afternoon here, it’s a good time for both of us to take a break–and I must confess, sometimes we both snooze a bit. We are entertained by the fact that almost everyone has slept or been married to everyone else in the cast at one time or another. We know nothing will ever have a happy ending or the show would just stop. However there are some amazing actors on the show–at times I wonder how they can keep from laughing.

I also love reality TV. I watch Big Brother and have my favorites–hubby will only watch this one if he’s forced into it. Survivor and the Amazing Race are others that I enjoy. I have a granddaughter who is determined that she and her husband are going to try out for it one day–the only thing that’s holding them back is my daughter who won’t babysit until their three year old is less of a handful.

What I don’t like is the Japanese take-off shows where people actually get hurt. Why anyone would do those I have no idea.

Oh, and I also like to watch the disaster movies that have been coming out this summer too. The acting has been lousy, the stories just as lousy, but for some reason I’m fascinated by them. Maybe it’s because I don’t really have to think to follow along and if I go to sleep before it’s over it’s not really something I’ll worry about.

Last week we went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and took one of my good friends who is also a faithful fan of my books. We loved the movie–husband nodded off a few times–we went to the 10 a.m. showing so I think he was bored. My friend is also a General Hospital fan so at lunch we talked about all the wild goings-on.

Except for GH I don’t watch TV in the day time. By the time evening rolls around, I no longer have the ambition to write and I guess I’m ready for my guilty pleasures.

That’s my confession and I’m sticking to it.

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com/

Careful Word Choices

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As a writer, a fiction writer, I’m always looking for the exact word or phrase that will telegraph immediately to the reader what is happening in a scene. Ideally, I want the reader to be enthralled by the action, not left scratching her head or reaching for the dictionary to check the definition of my choice.

Usually, with enough rewrites and tweaking back and forth between the two halves of Evelyn David, we settle on the perfect word for the situation.

Here’s the dilemma. Irish wolfhounds, like Whiskey, the adored and adorable character in Murder Off the Books and Murder Takes the Cake, don’t bark. Or at least, they don’t bark like Lassie. They rumble, they boof, they definitely communicate, but bark, like Benji or Beethoven, or any of the other big screen canine idols, nope, that’s not how an Irish wolfhound sounds.

But when we use the verb, bark, despite full knowledge that it’s not exactly accurate, we’re trying to use a common term that the reader will understand. Whiskey is talking – we’re less concerned about the sound she makes, than about her efforts to communicate. For example, in Murder Takes the Cake, we wrote:

“Whiskey?” Rachel sighed and stroked the dog’s head. “Okay, I know your first loyalties lie with him, but it doesn’t feel very good to always be an afterthought. Don’t you think I deserve to be more than a minor character in this little drama Mac calls his life? If he survives, we’re going to have a serious discussion.”

This time Whiskey’s bark sounded much more like agreement.

On the other hand, we want to acknowledge, as several wolfhound owners have pointed out to us, that these gentle giants sound different than other dogs. It would be as if we called the Chicago rapid transit system the Metro instead of the L. For most readers outside of Chicago, it probably wouldn’t matter. But for those who do know exactly what the train system in the Windy City is called – it breaks the action, takes the reader outside the story.

Our solution – we think – is, in the next book in the series, have Rachel comment to Mac about the timbre and tone of Whiskey’s “voice.”

Any other ideas?

Evelyn David

Murder Takes the Cake by Evelyn David
Murder Off the Books by Evelyn David
http://www.evelyndavid.com

PIs, Car Chases, and Squealing Brakes

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****Update: The winners, picked at random from the individuals leaving comments on PIs, Car Chases, and Squealing Brakes. are: Chester Campbell and Chelle. Each is eligible for either a “Writing PIs” T-shirt or one free class from www.writingprivateinvestigators.com Please e-mail The Stiletto Gang using the “Contact Us” link on the right side of this blogsite so we can tell you how to claim your prize. Thanks.

The Stiletto Gang

_____________

I noticed your guest blogger last week was Lisa Lutz, who has a very funny car chase prologue that kicks off her wonderfully entertaining book The Spellman Files (the first in her Spellman series). I laughed when I first read the prologue, laughed again when I read it to my husband (who’s also my business partner in our private investigator [PI] agency), then laughed all over again when I read it to his teenage daughter (who, with a PI dad and a PI stepmom, is similar to the protagonist in The Spellman Files). Suffice it to say, we’re a real-life PI family who are fans of the fictional PI family, the Spellmans.

But what about such car chases in real life? I mean, besides the Spellmans, think about all those groovy car chases and squealing, burning brakes in every one of those old Rockford episodes (for those uninitiated to this classic PI series, do yourself a favor and check out The Rockford Files, a ‘70s TV series starring an ex-convict turned laid-back PI, played by James Garner, who also did his own car stunts in the show).

Fortunately, those exciting, nail-biting car chases only take place in fiction. In the real-world, PIs drive more safely and have guidelines for mobile, also called rolling, surveillances (meaning, surveillances conducted while driving a car or van). I thought I’d discuss some mobile surveillance techniques for fans of The Stiletto Gang blog as some of you are also writers and might find them useful for your stories.

First of all, let’s debunk the myth that mobile surveillances are one-man (or one-woman) shows.

One-Person Mobile Surveillance: Recipe for Failure?

There are investigators who swear that a one-person mobile surveillance is a recipe for failure (one PI gives a 5% success rate). In our agency, we can vouch that a one-person mobile surveillance is tough. You’re watching traffic and pedestrians and intersections and traffic lights and regulatory traffic signs and your subject is weaving and gunning it through rush-hour traffic and…

You just lost him.

We now counsel prospective clients that a two-person surveillance significantly increases the chances of success. Our preference is two investigators in two vehicles, but even two investigators in one vehicle improves the success rate of a mobile surveillance (one investigator can focus on driving while the other takes video/photographs, checks directions, stays focused on where the subject’s car is turning, etc.)

Nevertheless, at our agency there are times where one of us ends up doing a solo mobile surveillance. Sometimes by accident. For example, both of us were surveiling a felon a while back. We were in two cars, communicating with each other by walkie talkies. We’d researched the area, knew all the streets, and we prepared to do a two-person mobile surveillance. When the target turned on a side street, I followed, but my husband got caught in a rush-hour traffic jam. Miraculously, I did a one-person mobile surveillance through three counties, all the while tracking the felon, and ultimately tagging the location he ended at (which had been our goal). But I’ll tell you, both of us still shake our heads over that one—we still can’t believe we pulled off a one-car/one-investigator mobile surveillance through three counties. For those of you writing a sleuth story, maybe he/she knows the stakes are against him/her in a lengthy one-person mobile surveillance, but goes for it anyway.

Tips for Conducting a One-Vehicle, One-Investigator Mobile Surveillance

If your fictional sleuth is stuck, such as I was, in a one-vehicle, one-investigator mobile surveillance, think about using some of the following techniques:

  • Have him/her stay in the right lane most of the time. If that’s not possible, use the center lane (that way, your PI can respond to either a right turn or left turn at the last moment).

  • If it’s a night surveillance, have your sleuth disable the dome light. Some real-life PIs put black tape over any miscellaneous interior lights as well (digital clocks, radio dials, etc.).

  • While following, have your sleuth try to keep one car between his/her vehicle and the vehicle being following.

  • Rather than stop directly behind the subject at a red light, see if there is a parking lot your sleuth can pull into until the light changes.

  • If your fictional PI has an associate riding shotgun, besides taking photos, reading maps, etc., that person can also jump out for foot surveillance if necessary.

Tips for Conducting a Two vehicle/Two investigator Mobile Surveillance

Much better odds with two cars, two PIs. Below are some tips for this scenario:

  • If your fictional PI has a good idea where the subject is going, he/she might travel in front of the target’s vehicle (be the lead) while the second PI travels behind the target’s vehicle.Using radios, the lead unit stays fairly close to the subject (no more than three or four cars in front). If the trailing unit sees the subject signal for a turn, he can radio the lead unit in time for it to make the same turn ahead of the subject.

  • Play leapfrog: If the trailing unit gets cut off by a missed light or some other obstacle, he/she can radio the lead unit to drop back and behind the subject. The cut-off unit can then, by following the instructions radioed by the still in-contact unit, cut through side routes and place himself in front of the subject a few blocks down the road.

  • To avoid suspicion: The lead and trailing units swap places while following the subject. First, the lead unit drops back behind the subject and just in front of the trailing unit. The trailing unit then speeds up and places him/herself in front of the subject.

  • Think about using these techniques in your story. Have your PI mull over his/her options, discuss it with his associate. It’ll add plausibility to your characters and your story for them to discuss such tactics, their anticipated success rate, and use such jargon as “rolling” or “mobile” surveillance.

  • And then, when they’re out there on the road, think about your readers and how much they love the prologue to The Spellman Files, or the way Jim Rockford could spin his car on a dime, and throw in some squealing, burning brakes.

Colleen is offering 2 giveaways to 2 names randomly picked from all who comment: 1 “Writing PIs in Novels–Keeping Sleuths Real on the Page” T-shirt (size L, sorry it’s the only size left), and 1 free registration to class of choice from Quick Studies on the Shady Side: Tips and Techniques for Writers Developing Sleuths: http://www.writingprivateinvestigators.com/

Names to be picked on Sunday, July 26! Check back here for winners and information on how to collect your prize if you win!

Colleen Collins (http://www.colleencollins.net/) is a multi-published author and professional PI. She and her husband run a detective agency in Denver, Colorado, and post articles about investigations on their blog Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes (http://writingpis.wordpress.com/). They’re currently teaching a series of classes for writers: “Quick Studies on the Shady Side: Tips and Techniques for Writers Developing Sleuths” at http://www.writingprivateinvestigators.com/