Where Was God? Update (Royalty Donation – August 2020)

Well, if you are like us, 2020 has been, for lack of a better word, beyond hectic, but it is precisely at times like this that we need to take a step back and reflect. Reflect, not on the world, but upon God. You see, I truly believe that when we shield ourselves from the pandemonium that is all around us, we are able to hear God speak to us.

Several months back, my wife, Nancy, came across a YouTube video by Pastor J.D. Farag of Calvary Chapel Kaneohe, in Hawaii. His video sermons quickly became a part of her morning routine, and one day I joined her. To say that his sermon moved me would be an understatement. Unfortunately, this topic was not the traditional sermon one would expect, but dealt with the Bible prophecy of the End Times. Pastor Farag’s candor in teaching a topic that is often neglected at the pulpit struck a chord in me. Several videos later and I felt a sense of peace, deep in my soul, which replaced the heavy weight I’d been feeling throughout this COVID crisis.

I had originally intended to make a donation at the beginning of the year, but with everything going on it kept slipping down on the list. Not that I didn’t want to send it, but I didn’t know who to send it to. Sometimes I think God hits the brakes and you have to get to a place where you can hear his will for you.

When I first wrote Where Was God? I did so knowing that God was using me to send a message. Since I was only the messenger, it didn’t seem right that I should profit from any sales; God’s work, God’s reward.

Those who know me know that I am terrible in math. I mean, I make Common Core look easy.  So as I sat down to figure out how much I needed to donate this time around. Amazon, as good as they are, doesn’t give you much choice. I could choose to ‘figure out’ how much I owed, since the last donation, or I could take the simple way out. I chose the latter, hitting the button to show the ‘Life to Date’ amount. Since the book was first published in September 2018, I have made $592.76 in sales. I don’t believe you should ever ‘short’ God, so I decided to make this donation for the full amount, plus.

Today, Nancy and I were proud to donate $650.00 to Pastor Farag’s church. It is an honor to support him and provide some financial assistance so that the word he is inspired to preach reaches as many as possible.

If you are interested in watching his sermons, and I highly recommend that you do, you can view them on his YouTube channel here: Pastor J.D. Farag of Calvary Chapel Kaneohe

Thank you & God Bless,

Kindle Sales - Where Was God? Life to Date

Print Sales - Where Was God? Life to Date

Awakening: The Crystal Coven Saga (Pre-Order)

I’m pleased to announce that my latest book, Awakening: The Crystal Coven Saga, is available for PRE-ORDER on Amazon and will be officially released on July 31st.

This is a story I have been working on for a while now and I am so happy to finally release it. Up until now, the majority of my fiction books have fit into the traditional police procedural genre and this one will as well, with one exception. Awakening crosses over from the mortal realm to the supernatural and introduces a new protagonist, NYPD Detective Karl Sigurdsson.

When the body of an elderly man is discovered in a local park the unsettling clues point to something much more nefarious than the street-wise detective is accustomed to handling. Soon, he begins to see an unsettling pattern begin to emerge, but is the killer homicidal maniac or something even more terrifying?

Sigurdsson soon realizes that the criminal justice system is the least of his concerns, as he is drawn deeper into the labyrinthian world of vampires. As a power struggle brewing in the immortal world threatens to boil over into the mortal realm, Sigurdsson is forced to confront the fact that he could soon turn from being the hunter into the hunted.

The origins of this novel reside in a song called ‘Make me Wanna Die,"‘ by The Pretty Reckless. I’d heard it one day while I was at the gym and I thought it was an interesting premise, especially if you put it within the supernatural realm. It turned into the premise for Awakening: How far would you go to save the woman you love?

Karl Sigurdsson is about to find out.

You can pre-order the e-book now and it will be delivered to your Kindle on July 31st. The print copy will also be available on that day as well.

If you are new here, please don’t forget to sign-up for my FREE Newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest information.

Please don’t forget to follow me on TWITTER and like my FACEBOOK page.

Writing Tips: Getting your law enforcement characters right!

The tires on the unmarked, midnight black Ford Mustang locked up, leaving twin ebony streaks along Fifth Avenue and filling the air with the pungent odor of burned rubber, in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Colton Bane leaped from the car, his blued steel .44 caliber Smith & Wesson Model 29 in one hand and his NYPD detective badge in the other. He approached the group of uniformed cops standing outside the entrance. “Who’s in charge?” he asked gruffly. “I am, sir,” a sergeant responded. “I’m taking operational command,” Bane replied. “Give me a sit-rep.” “A terrorist is holding the Cardinal and several parishioners hostage in the sanctuary. ESU is responding, but they are a half hour out.” “No time to wait,” Bane scowled, “I’m going in. Give me your MP-5.” The sergeant handed Bane his weapon. “Secure the perimeter,” Bane said. “I’ll handle this.” “Yes, sir,” the sergeant replied, redirecting his cops. Bane racked the weapon’s slide, chambering a round, and entered the darkened church.

Thrilling, yes?

Realistic,………..?? Absolutely not, yet it is something that plays out in a lot of books and movie / TV shows.

As an author I get it. You want to create these dramatic events, or elevate the ‘badassery’ of your protagonist, but there is an inherent risk that you will also turn off a large segment of your readers / viewers and that is the last thing you should want.

Why do I say this?

While it is often acceptable to take some literary license with your work, the above paragraph completely ‘jumps the shark.’ If someone were to write the above paragraph it would conclusively show that they have either done zero research or they don’t care. It’s one of the reasons my family will not watch a NYC themed movie with me, because I pick stuff apart for their sloppiness.

In the above case, let’s point out the problems:

1.       NYPD does not assign unmarked Mustangs.

2.       NYPD does not use .44 caliber revolvers and the nomenclature for a badge is a ‘shield.’

3.       Rank is respected and a sergeant, who is a superior officer, would not refer to a detective as ‘sir,’ nor would they relinquish control of a scene if they were the ranking officer present.

4.       A sergeant would also not be the ranking officer at such a high-profile incident like a terror attack. You would have everyone from the P.C. down at the scene, and certainly an ungodly amount of chiefs present.

5.       Normal uniformed patrol officers do not carry heavy weapons, which an MP-5 would qualify as, and they would not relinquish it to anyone else.

6.       ESU would be on the scene within several minutes and they, not the lone detective, would be the ones making entry.

7.       MP-5’s don’t have slides, they have a cocking lever, but cops don’t carry their weapons without a round in the chamber.

Unless you are writing within the supernatural genre, fiction should fall within the realm of plausibility. Working within the lines of a particular subject, such as police work, establishes credibility with the reader. Then, when you have to dip slightly outside those lines a bit, in order to further your plot, they are less likely to be as critical. Take my character of James Maguire.

Do I take some literary license with him? Yes, I do. In my twenty-years with the NYPD I can’t say I knew too many 1st Deputy Commissioners or Police Commissioners who were as hands-on as he is, but prior to that I established who he was. First, he had been a sworn officer (detective) and second he has a background in special operations (Navy SEAL). So he isn’t the typical civilian political appointee. When it comes time to do an interrogation readers accept that he has the ability from his time as both a SEAL and a detective, or when he bursts through a door it’s because he was a sworn officer, so his response is seen as normal.

That being said, when a raid on a terrorist location is conducted, it is not Maguire going through the door, but ESU. Why? Because, even though it is something Maguire has done, it would be grossly inappropriate. A closer examination shows that he is more involved in the planning / investigative side. When he steps outside this bubble, it is beyond his normal role, such as searching for someone outside the confines of New York City.

As writers, we owe it to the reader to get it right. This means taking the time to research the topic so we are proficient in it. It’s hard to believe that, in the 21st century, we have access to unlimited information and resources, yet we continue to get it wrong. I remember when I was doing research for my debut novel, PERFECT PAWN. I made sure I got the correct radio call-sign for the New York State Trooper. Why? Because I didn’t want someone familiar with the state police to read it and go, ‘Oh, that’s bullshit, that’s the troop code for Farmingdale, not Batavia.’  Remember, the devil is in the details.

One of the glaring mistakes that turn me off a series occurred on the popular television show: BLUE BLOODS. Tom Selleck plays the lead character, Police Commissioner Frank Reagan. This is an NYPD show, yet we see Frank not only wearing a uniform (remember, the police commissioner is a civilian mayoral appointee), but he wears 4 stars which are equal to the 1st Deputy Commissioner or Chief of Department. The show effectively demoted him.

Sorry, Frank, that’s not how this works,…………….

There are other issues, but I don’t want to ruin it for fans.

If there is one piece of advice that I can give to authors, it is to know your subject. Never assume that the same rules in LA apply for a cop in NY. If your book involves a detective in Miami, make sure you take the time to learn as much as you can about how the Miami-Dade police operate. Don’t lose the reader because you screw up the terminology or something as seemingly insignificant as the gun they carry and never, ever, have detectives issuing orders to ranking officers. Remember, detectives are (almost) always an appointed position. A big difference when compared to promoted. They might give ‘orders’ to police officers at crimes scenes for which they are responsible for, but try that with a sergeant and above and I guarantee they will get an ass-chewing.

Do I get it right 100% of the time? No. Are there times when I have to be flexible to push a story-line? Yes. But the key is to keep it real as much of the time as you can. A book that takes longer to write because you spend the time doing research will always be much better than the quick one with glaring errors.

Happy writing!

If you are new here, please don’t forget to sign-up for my FREE Newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest information.

Please don’t forget to follow me on TWITTER and like my FACEBOOK page. 

4th of July Gift - Perfect Pawn $.99 !!

There’s nothing better than spending the summer reading a good book, so I have decided to make my debut novel, PERFECT PAWN, available on Amazon Kindle for only $.99 for the 4th of July weekend.

Starting July 3rd, 8 am (Pacific Time) until July 6th, 8 Pm (Pacific Time), you can get the book that started it all on Amazon Kindle.

“When his H.S. flame disappears from the scene of a one-car accident, retired NYPD detective James Maguire quickly joins the search for the missing woman, but he is soon left questioning why he’s the only one eager to find her. What other dark secrets will his homecoming uncover and just how much of his past can he keep hidden?”

I hope you enjoy it and I’d be grateful if you would leave a review when you finish.

Have a safe, healthy, and happy July 4th !!

Why Do I Write ?

It’s a question that I have been asked probably a hundred or more times and it is a question you would think I would know the answer to, but incredibly it is one that I have struggled with, until now.

In the past I would simply say, ‘I have a lot of stories to tell,’ and while that is true, it doesn’t answer the actual question. Everyone has a lot of stories to tell, but not everyone becomes a writer. My first novel, PERFECT PAWN, came about because my wife dared me to write it, but seven years later I have nine novels, two novellas, and three non-fiction books published. I also have a tenth book ready to come out and two more outlines queued up and ready to go.

So why do I write?

The answer didn’t hit me until I read a blog post by Jason Allison, a fellow retired NYPD detective and author. Jason writes some terrific posts and I highly recommend you check them out. But it was one particular post titled: You Can’t Go Home Again, which really resonated with me.

From the ripe old age of five I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up, a New York City Police Officer, and for two decades I had a front-row seat to the Greatest Show on Earth. My time with the NYPD was filled with incredible experiences. To quote Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”  There are no words to adequately explain a career spent with the largest police department in the United States, but one memory stands out and that was the day I retired from it.

After loading up my car and saying my goodbyes to my co-workers I walked out of my office, pausing for a moment to look back and it is this moment that is ingrained in me. My career was ending, but the job continued. It always does.

This month, the NYPD celebrates its 175th Anniversary. During that time, some of the most gifted and heroic police officers have been a member of the Department, but we all share a common legacy, and that is to say the job continued, long after we were gone.

It is true that my career gave me a lot of stories, both good and bad, that I draw from in my writings, but is that why I write? The answer to that question is no. I realize that the reason I write is to maintain that connection to the job.

As I sit here in my office, writing this post, I am surrounded by a collection of NYPD memorabilia that spans a period of time that is almost as old as the Department itself.  Sometimes I look at these items and think about the officers who wore or used them. What events, both good and bad, did they experience? Could they have ever imagined that the last time they touched it, that it would end up in the hands of another NYPD officer a hundred years later? The truth is that the NYPD is not who I was, but who I am.

My books are my link to the job. In creating the characters of James Maguire, Alex Taylor, and Angelo Antonucci, I have forged an eternal link between myself the Department. Long after I am gone, these characters will survive and so will my connection to the job.

Perhaps this is the reason other cops, such as Joseph Wambaugh, Ed Dee, and John Mackie, became writers, because as long as the characters live in the reader’s mind, so do you.

I could have retired from the job in 2005 and just walked off into the sunset, content in the knowledge that I had been a small part of the greatest police department in the world. But perhaps my greatest legacy will be that one day a reader will pick up one of my novels and say, ‘yeah, that’s what I want to do.’

Please remember to sign-up for my FREE Newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest information.