The Top 8 of '08 and Resolutions

Canadian author and good friend KC Dyer invited me to join her Top 8 in 2008 year-end blogfest at leftwriter this week. We were supposed to come up with our top 8 picks for 2008. Picks of what, you might ask? Well, she left that up to us. It was tough deciding what to list, but I finally decided on my Top 8 New-to-me Discoveries in 2008.

1. Blog parties. Love them! I hosted a couple to celebrate my last two book releases and have participated in many more. They're a great way to connect, share the love, meet new people and have fun. And you don't even have to get out of your pajamas to party!

2. Scrivener. I'm a Mac user, but I had never thought of using this software until this year when I heard from other authors how much they love it. Perfect for organizing and laying out the story.

3. The Mentalist. My sister Trish introduced me to the series just this fall. I quickly caught up with season 1 online. Smart, funny, and Simon Baker = awesomeness.

4. Twitter. Microblogging on Twitter is highly addictive. But it's also a great way to keep up with other readers, reviewers, librarians, authors and other interesting people. Plus Twitter automatically updates my facebook status, so it's doubly effective.

5. Scotland. I've always felt a tug in my heart for Scotland since part of my ancestry is Scottish (we hail from the clan Colquhoun) but I hadn't expected the awe that came over me when we visited for the first time this summer. When we drove up into the highlands, it was like coming home. Alba gu Bràth!

6. Maggot Milkshakes. In preparation for my gig as the visiting author at our science center's CSI exhibit, I learned all sorts of gross but cool applications for forensic science in criminal investigations. And I got the chance to take my newfound knowledge on the road by offering Forensics in Fiction presentations for school visits.

7. Obama in my backyard. President elect Barack Obama visited our local high school on the campaign trail and we got to see history in the making on our own football field!

8. Ypulse. Geared at marketing for youth, their newsletter has interesting articles and insights from teen contributors. My kids might not think so, but I feel like I'm more in the know by keeping up with the trends.


And, just in time for the New Year, I was tagged by Dominique from The Book Vault to share at least three of my New Year's Resolutions. So here goes:

1. Enjoy the ride!
I tend to worry a lot and I hereby resolve to relax and look for joy instead.
2. Stop procrastinating!
One of the reasons I worry so much is because I procrastinate until small things become critical. Hint: this is not smart.
3. Reconnect.
This year has been crazy. Good crazy, but busy crazy. I've lost track of friends, family and myself. I resolve to give myself at least fifteen minutes a day (which doesn't sound like a lot, but believe me, it's way more than I'm getting now) to stop, reflect and reach out if needed.

So... as part of that reaching out, I tag Jen McAndrews, Nicole Maggi, Ginger Calem, Barb Aschliman and Julie O'Connell.

Have a happy and safe New Year's Eve, everyone! Don't forget to stop by the blog tomorrow for a surprise and Friday for an interview with Carrie Jones!

Friday's Penguin Post

More Fun with Forensics

This summer I had the opportunity to be the visiting author when COSI, our local museum of science, hosted the CSI Exhibit. Talk about being in research heaven! The exhibit featured three different crime scenes and walked participants through the process of using scientific inquiry to solve the crimes. I’ve been able to incorporate what I learned into a presentation I do for schools about the use of Forensics in Fiction. Today, for your entertainment, I present my top three favorite forensic fun facts:

1. One of the earliest ‘modern-day’ authors to make use of forensic science in his writing was Edgar Allen Poe. Edgar Allen Poe looks an awful lot like Bill Murray.

2. You probably know that forensic scientists can determine the approximate time of death by analyzing the larval stage of maggots hatched in a dead body, but did you know they can also use those maggots to determine if the deceased had taken (or been given) drugs before expiring? Entomologists (scientists who study bugs) whir the maggots in a blender and test the resulting liquid for the presence of toxins. Gross, but true.

3. The popularity of such television shows as CSI, Bones and Dexter has caused what some analysts call the CSI Effect, wherein viewers come to expect real-world investigators to solve crimes with the same high-tech efficiency we see on TV. Hint: it rarely happens.

What about you? What do you find fascinating about forensic science? Or, do you find it interesting at all?

Wednesday's Penguin Post

Lessons Learned - Confessions of a Rabid Researcher

One of the cool things about writing the Death By books was researching what happens when people die. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a serial killer at heart. I just found the whole dead body thing to be very interesting.

As I dug into researching various methods of murder, I discovered all sorts of fun and gruesome facts. In Death by Bikini, for example, I planned to leave my victim dead on the beach, strangled by the strings of her bikini top. While researching what the results of strangulation might look like, I came across an interesting article about a man who had strangled his wife and then stuck her body in the bathtub to make it looked like she had drowned. Investigators quickly disproved his story because of little pinpoint red marks called petechiae they found on the wife’s face and eyes. Petechiae are the result of blood leaking from the capillaries, which could be caused by the extreme pressure of strangulation, but would not be present from drowning.

Well, I thought I was pretty clever to have discovered this exciting fact, so I tried to work it into the scene where Aphra discovers Bianca’s body. While everyone else was speculating that Bianca drowned, Aphra wisely notes the petechial hemorrhaging on Bianca’s face, proving that she had been strangled. Here’s where the lesson comes in. I had never given Aphra any basis for knowing about petechial hemorrhaging. She’s just an average sixteen-year-old, not a forensic scientist. I never even gave her a keen interest in watching CSI or Bones or anything like that. My attempt to show off my newfound knowledge was obvious and clunky. I had to pull it from the scene.

I still love to research, but now I’m painfully aware of this kind of author intrusion and have to be very careful not to endow my characters with knowledge or sensitivities they haven’t ‘earned.’

Have you ever come across this sort of thing when reading a book or watching a movie? Does it pull you out of the story or do you shrug it off and just enjoy the ride? Inquiring authors want to know!