I’ve quoted from Bryan Garner’s blog, Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day, based on his Garner’s Modern American Usage, and readers have told me the entries are useful but they can’t find a way to subscribe. One way is through the publisher’s website. The email subscription option is midway down the page.
Try another route through this page on Garner’s website. The email subscription option is below Garner’s signature in the right-hand column.
And feel smarter already.
Last week’s terminology tip quoted a daily email from Bryan Garner, author of Garner’s Modern American Usage, 3d Ed (Oxford University Press). A reader wrote that she could not see where on Garner’s site to subscribe to the daily emails, and darn it, I couldn’t find the link either. I finally remembered to check the daily email for subscriber options; turns out the emails are sent by the press, not Garner, so the link is on the press’s website, not his. I found it here. (Or get there by finding Garner’s page on the Oxford University Press website; scroll down to Customer Services and click on “Join Our Email List.”)
The daily emails provide short excerpts from the book, with definitions and examples. Subscribing to the list is like reading the book, two or three column inches at a time. Painless, and enormously helpful. A great resource, eaten in small bites. Even if it’s on your shelf, the daily emails are a great service for writers and readers.
If criminal procedure is important to your story — when a suspect will be arraigned, where, how counsel are appointed, procedures for bond hearings, and so on — be sure to check the website for your story court. You’ll find all kinds of useful information. For example, the King County (Washington) Superior Court puts its Criminal Department manual and forms online. The Montana District Court website includes its manual for judges, called the Bench Book, and its bond guidelines. Most courts post their rules and calendars on line, as well as statistics and performance measures.
To find the right court for your story state, check the National Center for State Courts website state-by-state directory, with links to the various levels of courts in each state and a court structure chart, showing which courts handle what matters.
(Image: Old Flathead County Courthouse, now a county office building, from the postcard collection of the Montana Historical Society.)
Writers, read and heed this list of common mistakes writers make about police investigations, from Lee Lofland, retired homicide detective and author of Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers (Writers Digest Books), who keeps us honest on his blog, The Graveyard Shift. I talk about some of this in my common mistakes talk — particularly the difference between state and federal crimes — but Lee gives it the cop-on-the-street perspective.
Over the weekend, I attended Colorado Gold, the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference in Denver. What a welcoming group, and what an impressive program — two and a half days crammed with four or five tracks of substantive material aimed at both new and established writers. Some of my favs: Sharon Mignery’s Master Class on Scene Craft, Quincy Allen and Travis Heerman’s presentation on fights and action scenes, and Jeanne Stein and Angie Hodapp’s workshop on description. A huge thanks to the conference organizers and RMFW members for the chance to teach and to learn, and for such a warm welcome.
Saturday morning, I gave a two hour presentation on 10 Common Mistakes Fiction Writers Make About the Law. Good turnout, great questions — they made me think! And I hope I made them think, and provided useful information in an entertaining way.
I pointed the class to the links and references on my website , but also promised a few more. These books and online references are helpful for writers in all genres, not just mystery and crime fiction. I hope you find something you can use.
RESOURCES
Psychology: The Writer’s Guide to Psychology: How to Write Accurately About Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment and Human Behavior , by Carolyn Kaufman, Psy.D. (Quill Driver 2010)
Police procedure: Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers, by Lee Lofland (Writer’s Digest Books, Howdunit series, 2007)
Don’t miss Lee’s blog, The Graveyard Shift, and his conference, the Writers’ Police Academy. (SinC members will again get a hefty subsidy for the 2014 WPA.)
Crimescenewriters Yahoo! discussion list. Former law enforcement officers, forensics folks, and other experts answer writers’ questions.
And check whether your local offers a Citizens’ Sheriff’s or Police Academy.
Medical info: More Forensics & Fiction: (2012), Forensics & Fiction (2007), and Forensics (Howdunit series, 2008), and Murder and Mayhem (2003), by D.P. Lyle, M.D. And don’t miss Doug’s blog.
Private investigation: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigating, by Steven Kerry Brown, a licensed PI in Florida and former FBI special agent, is a super-handy reference for all variety of investigation, even if you’re not writing about a PI.
And as always, if you have questions or suggestions, drop me a line at leslie at lawandfiction dot com!
Sharing…
The July 25 presentation I gave with five Seattle mystery writers at the Seattle Public Library, “Taking the Mystery Out of Getting Published,” is now a free download from the SPL. (A very cool place, with a very cool Reader Services rep, David Wright.)
I’m a big fan of Bryan Garner, author of Garner’s Modern American Usage, as well as a respected teacher of legal writing. I subscribe to a daily email service from Oxford Univ Press, publisher of his usage guide, and couldn’t resist passing on today’s entry:
suspect, n.
A “suspect” is someone suspected of committing a crime. The person who commits the crime is a criminal (or a robber, thief, murderer, or the like). But in police reports it is common for writers (and, more commonly, broadcast reporters) to describe how “the suspect” committed the crime. Not only is this often absurd (if there is no suspect at that time), it is also potentially false and libelous (if there is a suspect but the suspect is not guilty). Unfortunately, the slack usage seems to be an infection that some writers catch from hanging around police jargon too long — e.g.:
o “When confronted, the other man punched him in the eye. The suspect [read ‘assailant’] fled on foot, leaving the lawnmower.” Jeremy Jarrell, “Woman Reports She Saw Man,” Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, W. Va.), 31 May 2002, at C3.
o “After being given an undisclosed amount of cash, the suspect [read ‘robber’] fled north on foot.” “For the Record,” Salt Lake Trib., 1 June 2002, at B2.”
(Looks like the Oxford email is an advance version of the entries on Garner’s blog, so you can subscribe via Oxford or read the blog, which has an RSS option but no email subscription.)
What a great time I had last weekend at the Flathead River Writers’ Conference in Kalispell! In my Sunday afternoon craft class on character, I detoured a bit to talk about how I develop my characters and use that detail to flesh out my idea. I referred to the character sheets I create for each book, but alas, did not have a copy to share. Here are the topics I explore for each character:
– Physical characteristics
– Family & friends
– Personality traits & their source
– Work
– Quirks
– Images: is there a particular image associated with this character?
– Goals & motivation – generally & in this novel
– Conflict, both internal and external
– Growth: General story line
(A few of these items, and other aspects of my method — such as it is — are drawn from Jess Lowery’s Pyramid Method, which I discovered in The Writer, February 2011; the article is reprinted by the Mystery Writers of America — Jess teaches it in a class at the traveling MWA University.)
Montana writers have two chances to attend great little conferences this fall:
The Montana Romance Writers sponsors its inaugural conference September 28-30 at Fairmont Hot Springs, with two bestselling writers from Montana, Kat Martin and BJ Daniels.
The Authors of the Flathead sponsors the Flathead River Writers Conference October 6-7 in at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell. I’ll be speaking, along with keynoter Mark Coker of Smashwords, writers John DeDakis and Kathy Dunnehoff, online marketing expert Roxanne McHenry, and agents Jeff Herman and Regina Brooks.
For twelve years, Allison Leotta was a federal prosecutor in Washington, DC where she specialized in prosecuting sex crimes and domestic violence. 
She is the author of the acclaimed thrillers LAW OF ATTRACTION and DISCRETION. She also blogs about what TV crime dramas get right and wrong. Her blog, The Prime-Time Crime Review, was named one of the best legal blogs in America by the ABA.
I’ve always loved TV crime dramas, but ever since I began working as a federal sex-crimes prosecutor, I watch shows like Law & Order and CSI with a more jaded eye. The stories are still fun . . . but they get some facts so wrong, I end up laughing when I should be gasping. Here are the top five mistakes TV crime shows make:
1. You won’t get fingerprints off that gun.
Sorry, not gonna catch the killer that way. Usable prints are notoriously tough to get, and guns are the worst surface to get them from. A combination of conditions – dry skin, too much humidity, textured rubber or metal – conspire to wipe the gun clean, even if the shooter didn’t do it himself. When I use a fingerprint expert, it’s usually to educate the jury on why there aren’t prints on the gun.
2. Most rapists don’t lurk in bushes.
Rapes committed by strangers do happen, and get a lot of media coverage when they do, but usually a rapist is a man the victim knows intimately: an ex-boyfriend or stepfather; her doctor or minister; a teacher or coach; a professional colleague or the guy she invited home from a bar. I no longer worry about someone breaking in through my window – but I’m more cautious about who I’ll open the door for.
3. Prosecutors don’t wear stilettoes.
Female prosecutors on TV sashay to court in four-inch Manolos. But real prosecutors are on their feet all day and often lugging big boxes of exhibits, so comfy shoes are key. The seasoned female prosecutor wears mid-range heels: you look nice for the jury but won’t break a toe when you stand to object. Sometimes the walk to the courthouse is done in flip-flops, with a quick switcheroo right before the judge takes the bench.
4. Most victims aren’t beautiful young heiresses who secretly work as strippers.
But you already knew that.
5. The bad guy will never confess with his lawyer sitting right there.
You know the scene. In a dingy jailhouse meeting room, the prosecutor badgers the defendant until he sobbingly confesses: “Okay, I killed her! I had no choice!” Meanwhile, the defense attorney sits there looking mildly constipated. A real defense attorney is as likely to let his client be questioned by the prosecutors as a lobster is to throw himself into a pot of boiling water. Defense attorneys know the vast majority of their clients are guilty – and any time a defendant opens his mouth, he risks revealing that. As a writer, I understand why this scene is so popular – the prosecutor hero needs to find out what really happened, and only the killer can say for sure. But it’s pure fiction. (That said, I will always have a crush on Sam Waterston, the maestro of this scene on Law & Order.)