Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Ten Things You DIDN'T Need to Know About Me! by Diane Adamson, Our June Speaker




#1:          I asked my 82 year-old-mother if she was a virgin when she met my father.
                I’ve never been hesitate in asking intriguing questions.  Besides, I’d heard my mother had a pretty serious boyfriend before my father (who she married at 18).  Hadn’t she been shaking her naughty finger at me all my teenage-hood warning “Be a good girl.”

#2:          I’ve said I was a great many things in life before I became those things in life. I told everyone I was a journalist before getting a job at a small Oregon newspaper. I told everyone I was a writer before believing I was one. There’s a saying, “Act as If.”  Way before I’d heard the saying, I was already practicing, “Tell as If.”

#3.          My second grade teacher, Mrs. Whitaker, said I was such a good liar, I should be a writer.
I remember telling such a whopper in my second grade class’s show-an-tell that it took more than a month to get away from the lie. Dang Mrs. Whitaker, every show-an-tell she’d call my name and say… “Tell us more about the….”

#4.          Most of my characters come from my real life.  Yes, Dahlia is one of those characters!

#5.          None of my villains come from my real life. Thank goodness!

#6.          While most of my work is set in Iowa, and my family roots have grown deep there since     1865, I would never want to live permanently in Iowa. Vacations are good enough for me. Although, the people I meet there are walking characters good enough to print.

#7.          I met and became friends with Anne Perry, June 2015.
                We aren’t BF’s or anything, but we had great conversations for about a week and I got to know a good deal about her, instead of her work.

#8.          I tell everyone I hate to clean the house, but actually, cleaning the house and gardening takes me out of my head and grounds me back into reality.

#9.          The love of my life is still the love of my life.
                Guess who????

10.          I’ve written now for so many years that when I wake in the morning, I never have to decide which writing project to work on. The protagonist is the one who wakes me up.

Diane Adamson's Bio:

Published in poetry, short story, and literary criticism, D. J. Adamson won awards for her  YA work from SCBWI before publishing in 2014 her first mystery novel ADMIT TO MAYHEM, first in the Lillian Dove Mystery series. OutrĂ©, a mystery-sci-fi novel, came out early in 2015.  OutrĂ© received a 2015 Midwest Book Festival Award. She is also the editor for  Le Coeur de l’Artiste,  an online newsletter that interviews authors and reviews their work.

D. J. is Vice President for the Central Coast Sisters in Crime and Membership Director for Sisters in Crime, Los Angeles.

Buy links:



 

Monday, May 9, 2016

Learn about Sisters in Crime

The latest issue of Kings River Life has a most interesting article about the organization called Sisters in Crime.

The San Joaquin chapters is just one of many chapters of this gathering of mystery writers and readers.

Originally started for women writers, men are now allowed to become a part of the organization.

Read all about its beginnings here:

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Terrific Meeting Today!

If  you missed the San Joaquin Sisters in Crime meeting today, you did certainly miss out.

Myrl Stebbens  described what it was like gathering evidence to help the defense attorney with his case.

He reiterated that all the TV shows with CSI are entertaining but aren't anything like what really goes on. No crime labs exist like the ones on these shows.

He gave us some rather surprising news--sometimes cops lie on their reports, putting someone in jail who ins't guilty, and it's up to him to discover those lies.

Stebbens reads the reports and goes over everything looking for discrepancies and conflicting statements. He and the attorney always go to the crime scene to check it out. Both he and the attorney are fighting for the clients.

Stebbens said he gathers buckets of shit (evidence) and gives it to the defense attorney to decide what he can use.


Defense Attorney Mugridge discussed the problems he faces as the defense attorney.

He said the constitution is being tweaked by the government. What is being said is that a person is being judged by a jury of peers--but the constitution says, that the accused should be judged by an impartial jury, one that is open-minded.

A large percentage of the people don't realize how important it is to have a criminal defense.

Not all criminal attorneys do a good job, no one judges them.

He gave some really interesting examples of people he's defended. He says he must do the best he can to defend the person.

He never asks, "Did you do it?" Some confess who aren't guilty

This was a meeting well-worth attending--and the food was great.

And by the way, I got some ideas for my next book.  Through the years, I've gathered many ideas for plots for my books.

Marilyn