The Public Safety Writer

 Volume 1, Number 1                                                                                     Spring 2005

 Police Writers Changes Name of Organization
Now Public Safety Writers Association

            For eight years, first the Police Writers Club, then the Police Writers Association existed to help writers whose primary interest was law enforcement perfect their craft, network with others for ideas and inspiration and get their works published.  By popular demand, we’re now opening membership in our organization to all members of the public safety family, welcoming firefighters, security professionals, all those in agencies recently folded into the Department of Homeland Security and others who write about public safety issues.

Current members include writers of magazine articles, technical books, true crime, memoirs, poetry, novels, newspapers and various online publications. 

Although membership is expanding, the goals of the organization will remain the same – to offer new and experienced, published and not yet published writers the chance to meet at an annual conference, network through the organization’s website and newsletter and compete in an annual writing competition.  Members will also receive a continuously updated list of publishers and publications and tips from successful writers on everything from how to write a query letter, to how to find an agent, to what to wear to the premier of your Hollywood blockbuster movie.

In the planning stage is a mentoring program that will match experienced writers with those who are just getting started.  New also is a free manuscript critique service available on a one-time basis to all new and renewing members.

Our annual conference is tentatively set for March, 2006 in Las Vegas.  We’ll post more information on the specifics on this site in May, 2005.  Writing Competition winners will be announced at the conference.  You don’t have to be present to win, but it would be lot more fun if you were.  The rules and applications for the competition are now posted on this website.  Just click on Writing Competition for details.

Membership applications are available on this website, as well.  Click on Join for details.  Please mail yours in today.  We’re also recruiting members willing to serve on the committees necessary to make all this happen.

Marilyn Olsen of Bellingham, WA, who edited a magazine for the Indiana State Police Alliance for 15 years and co-edited Cop Tales 2000, is currently serving as president.  San Francisco, CA resident Armand E.R. Mulder, Ph.D., is vice president.  Monterey County, CA residents A.J. and Nancy B. Farrar are serving as secretary and treasurer.  A.J. is a retired Ventura (CA) PD officer and is currently a professor of law enforcement studies at Monterey Peninsula College.  Other board members are Las Vegas, NV resident Keith Bettinger, retired Long Island, NY police officer and author of many stories and articles and Springville, CA resident and author of 14 books, Marilyn Meredith.  Each of these folks has agreed to serve on the board for two years.  At the 2007 conference elections will be held and new board members will be chosen to serve staggered terms.

Benefits of membership include: 

*An annual writing competition

*A quarterly newsletter full of tips on writing and how to get published

*An annual conference where you can meet and network with published authors

 and receive a wealth of information on writing and publishing.

*Free manuscript review by experienced editors and publishers

*An opportunity to be mentored by a published author

*An opportunity to network with writers like yourself via our website and list serve.

 Annual Conference to be held in Las Vegas

 Our annual conference is tentatively set for March, 2006 in Las Vegas.  Specific dates will be announced in May, 2005 on this website.  The conference will begin with an opening reception on Thursday night.  All day Friday and Saturday and Sunday morning will feature a wide variety of speakers, workshops and time to network with evenings free to enjoy the sights. The conference will end with the awards banquet Sunday noon. We are now in the process of lining up our speakers, so if there are specific topics you’d like covered, please let us know.  Click on Conference on this website for up to the minute details.  A tentative agenda is also posted there.

 Writing Competition Open to All Members

 Writing Competition winners will be announced at the conference (you don’t have to be present to win, but it would be a lot more fun if you were).  The rules, deadlines and applications for the competition are now available on this website (click on Writing Competition) to give you plenty of time to work on your entry.

 Committees Now Being Organized

 We’re also recruiting members willing to serve on the committees necessary to make all this happen.  Committees include:  membership, conference, newsletter and writing competition.  If you’d be willing to serve on any of these committees or have any questions about any of this, please feel free to contact Marilyn Olsen at molsen@policewriter.com.

 The Website is Always There for You

 All members will receive a quarterly newsletter, however a vibrant organization like ours often has late breaking news that occurs more often than quarterly.  We are fortunate to have member Tim Dees as our webmaster.  Tim and the board are dedicated to keeping the website as up to date as we possibly can.  To that end, we will also need your help.  Just published a book?  Just got an article published?  Know about a new public safety organization or publication that you don’t see listed?  Let us know.

Or do you need some help with your manuscript?  Looking for a publisher? Need an agent?  Just need a little moral support when writer’s block hits?  If the website itself doesn’t have the information you need, chances are one of our members will. Contact us and we’ll see if we can help.  The website is available to you wherever you are, 24-7.  www.policewriter.com. (Yes, although we’ve changed the name of the organization, we still have the old domain name.  Soon we will also have access to www.publicsafetywriter.com.  Changes like this just take time.)

 Please Join Us!

 Membership in the Public Safety Writers Association is open to all new and experienced, published and not yet published authors interested in law enforcement topics and other public safety professionals (sworn and civilian) including fire, emergency medical, search and rescue and related fields and those who write about them.

  Membership applications are available on this website.  Just click on Join.  Please mail yours in today!

 Welcome New and Renewing Members

            The Public Safety Writers Association is pleased to welcome the following new and renewing members:

            Paul E. Doyle of Westwood, MA.  Paul served as a special agent with both the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and the DEA and is currently chairman of the New England Chapter of the Association of Former Federal Narcotics Agents.  Paul has just published Hot Shots and Heavy Hits, Tales of an Undercover Drug Agent.  An article by Paul, “Four Days at Ground Zero,” was published in 911 Magazine in 2002.  See a review of Paul’s book in this issue of the PSWA newsletter.

            Robert B. Cohen of Jamaica, NY.  A former New York City Transit Police and NYPD officer, Bob has been published in CopTales 2000, American Police Beat, Civil Service Chief Leader, Penthouse, the Queens Chronicle, Railcop, the Tin Can Sailor, and Women Police Magazine as well as online at Chuck Hawks.com, Gyrodyne Historical, Policeone.com, Soldiers for the Truth and Southern Cross Review.  There is also a rumor that Bob has something to do with a new book, The Electric Sewer (reviewed in this issue of the Public Safety Writer.

            Tony Kail of Jackson, TN.  Tony is author of A Cop’s Guide to Occult Investigations, “ The Occult:  Still a Police Problem?” (published in Law and Order Magazine) and “Afro-Caribbean Religions:  The Law Enforcement Response,” published in Police Quarterly.

            Dave Cropp of Sacramento, CA.  Dave is a 25-year veteran with the Sacramento PD with experience in narcotics patrol, internal affairs and investigations.  Dave also holds a master’s degree in social work and is currently working on a book about universal concepts of grief recovery.  Dave has had articles published in the California Narcotics Officer’s Association Quarterly and a short story in True Blue.

            James R. Tunney, Jr. of Chicago, IL.  James is a retired Chicago police sergeant.

            John Briant of Old Forge, NY.  John is author of the Adirondack Detective series of books and One Cop’s Story: A Life Remembered.

            Patricia Lunneborg of Seattle, WA.  Patricia is author of Women Police Officers: Current Career Profile and Women Police:  Portraits of Success.  She also belongs to the International Association of Women Police and writes a column for their quarterly magazine, Women Police.

            O.J. McLaughlin of Holland, OH.  O.J., a 34 year veteran of the Toledo, Ohio Police Department, is author of Tales from the Bat Cave.  O.J. has also worked as a loss prevention officer for the Lion Store and Dillard’s and a security officer for the University of Toledo football and basketball teams.  

 Book Reviews

 Each issue of The Public Safety Writer will contain reviews of books by our members and others we think our members might enjoy.  If you’d like to have your book reviewed in The Public Safety Writer, please send a copy of your book to:  Public Safety Writers Association, 2024 Falcon Court, Bellingham, WA 98229.

 I remember my first subway ride as a kid and how exciting it was.  However, it never compared to Trebor Nehoc’s subway rides as a NYC Transit Cop.  Although it is a dangerous job in many different ways the NYC Transit Police was probably one of the closest knit group of cops there ever was.  The adventures and misadventures experienced by both Nehoc and his friends had me worried for them some of the time and laughing with them at other times.  Pick it up and enjoy the ride through the underground city.

 Excerpt:  From a story titled “Music Under New York”

            “One night I was standing around with the gathering crowd listening to an impromptu underground concert.  People are tossing coins and bills into the open guitar cases lying on the subway platform, and some even forgo their trains.  I’m applauding along with everyone else after one set, when a concerned citizen tugs on my sleeve:  ‘Officer, they’re not supposed to be playing down here.  It’s illegal.’ Hmmm…He’s right.  ‘Hey fellas, sorry, but it is against the law for you to be playing here.’  The entire crowd turns silently and gives me a collective dirty look.  ‘So, uh, as soon as you’re finished playing, you’re gonna have to stop.’”

             I recently had the good fortune to meet Laurie Lynn Drummond at our local independent bookstore here in Bellingham, WA.  The talk she gave was so interesting that I immediately bought the book, went home and began to read.  Only when it fell on my face at 2:00 a.m. could I put it down.  For eight years Drummond was a police officer and her book is a collection of stories about five female police officers she knew and worked with in Baton Rouge, LA.  As is the case with many collection of police stories, some are funny, some poignant, all, in this case, a true slice of life as a female cop. 

 Excerpt:  From the story titled “Cleaning Your Gun”

 “You walk around for eight, maybe ten hours a day with that gun bumping and rubbing against your hipbone.  There is a permanent bruise on the skin; the area stays sore and discolored.  Your gun is a natural extension of your body.  It was not always this way.  At first, you couldn’t figure out how to hold your right arm down by your side – the gun got in the way.  So you tucked both thumbs into the front of the gun belt and rested your forearm on the gun and holster.  But you are told this is dangerous: you are unprepared, you can’t draw your gun as quickly. So you try resting your palm on the butt of the gun, but this is awkward, uncomfortable and threatening to the public.  You return to letting your right arm dangle out at an angle over the gun.  As you walk, the grip chafes a small, oblong spot on the inside of your forearm the color of grapefruit.  This becomes as natural to you as breathing.”

 To be reviewed soon:

 Hot Shots and Heavy Hits by new member Paul Doyle.  Paul’s book is not just a story about the cases he was involved with in the 1970s, but also a memoir.  About the book Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes said, “What makes Paul Doyle’s book different from other police memoirs is that it is suffused with compassion.  The writing is hard and direct except where leavened with good humor and deep feeling for the unfortunate of the world.  This is a book that should be handed to everyone everywhere in law enforcement or to anyone who wants to understand how men and women in the profession can keep their heads about the dark waters of crime, addiction, corruption.  Paul Doyle did –and he did it with style and a generous heart.”

Blown Away:  American Women and Guns by Caitlin Kelly.  Kelly, a freelance writer for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and other publications provides a comprehensive look at why women own guns or choose not to.

 NOTE:  We’d love to review your book in our newsletter.  Please send a copy of your book to:  Public Safety Writers Association, 2024 Falcon Court, Bellingham, WA, 98229.  Feel free to suggest excerpts.

 News from our Members

Books published:

            The Con Man’s Daughter

                        Ed Dee, one of the PSWA’s favorite conference speakers and writing competition judges, has published The Con Man’s Daughter.  Ed’s other books include 14 Peck Slip, Bronx Angel, Little Boy Blue and Nightbird.  For more information go to www.eddeeauthor.com.

            Bad Tidings and Wingbeat

                        Marilyn Meredith, award winning author of 14 books, announces Bad Tidings the latest in her Rocky Bluff P.D. series.  Also recently published, Wingbeat, the fifth in the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series.  For more information:  www.fictionforyou.com.    

Burden of the Badge

            Nine-year Saginaw PD veteran Michael East has just published Burden of the Badge: A Year in the Life of a Street Cop.  The book documents nearly 1,000 calls over a full year in the life of a patrol officer in Saginaw, Michigan.  For more information:  www.fire-police-ems.com. 

A Proactive Law Enforcement Guide for the War on Terror

            Long-time PWA member Lou Savelli has published A Proactive Law Enforcement Guide for the War on Terror.  Lou is also author of Pocket Guide to Basic Crime Scene Investigation, Pocket Guide to Gangs Across America and Their Symbols and Pocket Guide to Identity Theft.    To find out more about Lou’s books, go to www.looseleaflaw.com.

The Retail Manager’s Guide to Crime & Loss Prevention

            In her new book also long-time member Liz Martinez offers a rare, insider look at retail theft and the strategies that effectively combat it.  For more information, go to:  www.looseleaflaw.com.

The Beach Club

            In his newly published book, Richard Paloma reveals a behind the scenes look at the dark humor and aggravations of being a uniformed police officer.  Click on www.publishersdrive.com/beach_club_info.html. for more information.

Pension

            One of the Association’s most prolific authors, Dennis Griffin now has six books in print, the newest of which is Pension, a novel that features a private investigator caught up in a case of fraud in public employee pension funds.  Other books by Dennis include:  Policing Las Vegas, Killer In Par-A-Dice, One-Armed Bandit, The Morgue and Blood Money.  For more about Dennis and his books, go to www.authorsden.com/dennisgriffin.

Common Man Books series.    Police Writers Association Founder Roger Fulton and long-time PWA member Mike Carpenter are collaborating on a series of bicycle and hiking trail guides in Florida and New York.  So far there are four in New York (hiking and biking guides for the 1000 Islands area, and hiking guides for both the Lake George and Saratoga Springs areas).  There are two hiking guides and a biking guide in Florida and soon to come a wildlife viewing guide in Florida.  For more information on these books, go to www.commonmanbooks.com.

 NOTE:  If you’ve recently published a book or article, please let us know so we can share the good news with other members.  Send your notice to:  molsen@policewriter.com.

 Newsletter Needs News

 Since this is your newsletter, by definition it thrives on news.  Published a book or article lately?  Received an award?  Have a writing-related experience (good, bad, ugly or hilarious) you’d be willing to share?  Need some specific writing-related advice?  Have a joke or story we can send through the mail?  All submissions welcome.  Send them to molsen@policewriter.com.