Join Jan Burke and I as we discuss sex crimes with best-selling author Linda Fairstein.
Linda Fairstein is an honors graduate of Vassar College and the University of Virginia School of Law, a former prosecutor, and one of America’s foremost legal experts on crimes of violence against women and children. For three decades, she served in the office of the New York County District Attorney, where she was Chief of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit for twenty-five years. She was the lead attorney in the famous the Robert Chambers “Preppy Murder” case. She is an internationally bestselling author of a series of crime novels, which feature Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper. Linda is also the author of a non-fiction work. Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She is a sought-after media consultant on the issue of the criminal justice system and crimes of violence against women for major networks such as CNN, MSNBC, and cable affiliates. She continues to practice law as a pro bono representative of victims of violence. She and her husband Justin Feldman live in Manhattan and on Martha’s Vineyard.
Want to write a better thriller? Want to crack into publishing? Or maybe the bestseller list? Here’s your chance.
Thriller School begins April 7th.
Fiction writing isn’t easy. Not for anyone. Whether you’re writing your first manuscript or your fiftieth, it’s difficult and time-consuming work. And a life-long pursuit. Professional writers never cease improving their craft. I think every writer understands this simple truth.
Virtually any writer will tell you that regardless of how many times you’ve done it or how far up the best-seller list you’ve climbed, that first blank page is a scary proposition. Fears and self-doubts always rise up.
But experienced writers will quickly add that the more you know, the more you write, and the more tools you have at hand, the less intimidating the process.
This is where Thriller School comes in.
For years ITW has presented CraftFest at ThrillerFest each July in New York. The success of CraftFest is primarily due to the outstanding cadre of teachers, many of whom are New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors, that come each year and share their knowledge and experience with both aspiring and published writers.
Now ITW has developed a new program to help writers continue their growth: Thriller School. In this seven-week program, the craft of thriller writing will be front and center. Each instructor will teach an aspect of craft though a podcast, written materials that include further reading and study suggestions, and an entire week of on-line Q&A with the registered students. The goal is simple: To make each student a better writer.
We are very excited about this new endeavor. I think you will be also. Here is the schedule for the inaugural program along with a few words from our instructors:
4-7-14: Storytelling: What Makes A Good Story?—Steven James
From Steven James:
I became a novelist because I read a novel that sucked.
Years ago when I was toying with some ideas for my first novel, I read a thriller that everyone was talking about. Well, the further I got into the book, the more problems I found. Honestly, I was astonished how bad the story was, and I remember actually pelting the book against the wall when I reached the end—I was so angry at having wasted my time on it. I thought, “If that’s the best that’s out there, I know I can write a better one.” So, I set out to do just that.
As it turned out, reading that novel was the best thing that ever happened to my writing career because it motivated me to write and taught me several lessons about what makes a story work.
For example: How do you keep a story escalating and believable while also providing twists and surprises that delight and satisfy readers? How do you shape a scene so that everything follows logically from the things that preceded it? These questions are vital to the storytelling process.
Back in the 1990s when I was studying for my master’s degree in storytelling, I learned principles that helped lay the foundation for my life as a novelist. The keys to great storytelling aren’t complex. Once you know what you’re looking for you’ll be able to improve the stories that you write by providing a stronger orientation to the world of the story, a more impactful crisis or calling event, and better, more believable escalation that leads to a transformative moment at the story’s climax.
Taking the principles that I learned in an academic setting and have fleshed out and applied over the last ten novels, I’ve sought to share these storytelling tips that will help all novelists—both those who are accomplished and those who are aspiring—to become more successful.
So, get angry at mediocrity, get informed on how to write well, and then get busy producing stories that will impact and change the world.
What is voice? Where does it come from? Why is it important?
Voice is your distinctive writing style. Your way to tell the tale. It’s phrasing and word choice. It’s sentence and paragraph structure. It’s the single thing that is distinctly you. It’s the sound and feel and emotion of your writing. It’s what you “hear” in your head when you read a story. The thing that identifies the writer.
Think about your favorite writers. If you opened a coverless book to any page, could you identify the author from the words on the page? With many authors that’s exactly the case. James Lee Burke, Elmore Leonard, Hemingway, each had such distinctive voices that there heart and soul is there on each page.
Make no mistake, voice is not east to come by. It takes time. It requires reading widely, writing extensively, and the confidence that comes from these two activities that you can tell your story your way.
And it is critically important. Ask any agent or editor what they re looking for and the will say things like:
I want something fresh.
I want something that speaks to me.
I want something that stirs my emotions.
I want something personal and unique.
What they mean is that they are searching for the next great voice.
In this class we will look at voice. What it is and what it isn’t as well as some practical tips that will help you find your own unique voice. Examples will be provided in both the lecture and the handout and the further-study assignments will lead you down the path to discovering your own special way of “spinning your yarn.”
4-21-14: Plot: Not Just One Damn Thing After Another—Gayle Lynds
From Gayle Lynds:
For me, plotting is the most difficult part of writing. It’s like banging my head against a concrete wall. It’s like having to take a dose of castor oil. Worse, it’s like being stuck in a traffic jam on the George Washington bridge trying to get into Ft. Lee, New Jersey. We know how well that worked.
Still, I had to learn to plot so I could create the kinds of books I loved to read.
So my class is full of information, anecdotes, and examples of what I wish someone had told me back in the Dark Ages when I began writing. First up, fyi, “plot” is not a dirty four-letter word. It’s a beautiful word because it describes the muscle of storytelling. Ever since cave folks sat around fires chewing leather and telling stories, plot has been critical. Beowulf, one of the Western world’s earliest thrillers, is a fine example. Without plot, we’d know only that Beowulf killed a monster called Grendel. But with plot, we get to see the whole exciting drama.
Unfortunately, plot has a bad rap these days. Some people believe being able to plot well means you’re a hack, that you’re a commercial writer who writes only for money, and/or (take your pick) you don’t have the talent to do any better.
With those prejudices in the literary air, it’s no wonder many authors want to be known as character-driven writers. That’s nonsense for a lot of different reasons, primarily that without plot your story would be dead on the page. At the same time, of course, one doesn’t want the plot to be the only dominant force.
The truth is, great plots illuminate stories and give characters the opportunity to reveal themselves not only to the reader but to themselves. In fact, the best plots are invisible. That’s how good they can be. In other words, when characters and story are so interwoven that one can’t imagine the events with any other characters … the writer has succeeded. The plot is so very good no one’s paying attention to it.
You, the writer, may not get any credit for it, but your story will soar, and the irony of it is, you’ll be known as a character-driven writer.
There’s an old saying in writing – no one can be taught to write, but you can learn to write. In the same vein, you really can learn to plot.
4-28-14: Character: Who Are These People and Where Did They Come From?—Robert Dugoni
From Robert Dugoni:
What is it about certain books that when we finish the final page the memory of the characters stays with us for days? We wonder what will happen to them next and will their lives turn out well? What is it about those characters that has made them so memorable? Why do characters in a novel need to evolve and how do authors show those characters developing along with the plot? How can we create characters that are real, yet larger than life, show our characters strengths and limitations, and get the reader not just thinking about, but caring about what is about to happen next? Using examples from his own work, as well as other well known novels and movies, Bob teaches time-tested techniques to help writers make their characters well-rounded heroes and villains readers will root for and against and, most importantly, stay up long after bedtime to finish the adventure.
Excerpt From Podcast:
5-5-14: Point Of View: Who’s Driving The Scene?—Andrew Gross
From Andrew Gross:
Discussing Point of View may be as dry as a subject can be… Especially when we’re talking about Thrillers. Yet we’ve all faced it at some point: Whose perspective to set it in. Which works best? A limited, but familiar voice or more of a universal, all-seeing narrator? Do I bring the lens close-in, so you’re right inside the hero’s mind, or go for a more distant, more authorial viewpoint? Each comes with both advantages and costs. And it’s important you know them. I can’t tell you how many times in the Q and A after some talk I’ve done, people have come up to me with that befuddled look in their eyes and the question has something to do with point of view.
So I’ll do my best to show you why, in my view, there are no unbreakable rules—only how deftly and artfully you carry it off. And I’ll give you some specific take-home value to determine what’s best for you. I’ll show you how a scene changes, grows, simply by shifting point of view. And, how changing it can also ramp up the pace. So despite its inherent dryness, point of view may be the most important stylistic decision you’ll make, because it’s handprint is on every page. You want to make the right call, and I’m pretty sure, this little talk will help you.
Excerpt From Podcast:
5-12-14: Dialog: What Are Your Characters Really Saying?—Linwood Barclay
From Linwood Barclay:
I love dialogue. I like writing it more than any other part of a novel, aside from the last line. I’d rather write ten pages of dialogue than a single page of description.
Why do I love writing dialogue so much? Let me count the ways:
A line of dialogue can tell us more about a character than a page of description.
2. Dialogue can move the plot elements forward.
3. Dialogue is as much fun to read as it is to write. It makes the story move more swiftly.
4. You can break all the rules in dialogue. When someone says “who” when they should have said “whom” and a know-it-all reader sends an email to tell you about this, you can say it wasn’t your fault, the character just didn’t know any better.
5. Ditto for swearing.
Long passages of description certainly have their place in a novel, but I kind of come down with Elmore Leonard on this one when he said that these are the parts people skip over.
I believe a reader’s eye often jumps to the passages of dialogue because that’s where they get the real information. People are saying what they’ve done, and what they’re going to do.
In my Thriller School class, I’ll get into why dialogue works for me, and offers some suggestions on how to make what the characters say in your own thriller more believable, more entertaining, and more productive.
Excerpt From Podcast:
5-19-14: Setting, Mood, Atmosphere: What’s the “Feel” of Your Story?—Heather Graham
From Heather Graham:
I remember reading from the time I was a child—and how time and place and atmosphere became such characters within themselves that I couldn’t wait to see, feel, and experience different places and environments.
Naturally, children and young adults pick up the reading material in their houses. My dad had been a US Navy man in World War II and through some of his books, I could feel the swampy heat of certain Pacific islands, I could hear the sirens that warned of bombs and imagine the natural beauty of a pristine beach—before the guns and the bombs destroyed them. A Scotsman brought to the new world, he came with tales of Wallace long before Mel Gibson wore a kilt—and I couldn’t wait to go home to Stirling with him, see the rise of great castles and feel the dampness of the moors.
My Mom was born in Dublin. This created a bit of controversy in the family—understandable only if you come from such a background where history—more than the reality of people—created bloodshed throughout the centuries that, to an American born child, made no sense. So I read books on “the Troubles” and Bloody Sunday and how the first president of the Republic of Ireland had been born an American—and had only lived to serve in such a capacity because he had been American. I wanted to see Dublin and Temple Bar and relive the Viking founding and . . . .
Well, a good book does that to you.
At the same time, my parents were both Poe fanatics and I would read tales in which the atmosphere was so intense, I actually felt as if my blood was running cold. All this with words.
One of the first books my father ever gave me was a Reader’s Digest Treasury for Young People. From its pages I learned about Pompeii and the incredible power of a volcano. I leaned about the Titanic, and while I didn’t learn everything, I could imagine the horror and had to learn more. As a child growing up in Florida, I didn’t understand at first why the people didn’t just swim. And so my next book explained to me the absolutely frigid temperatures that could exist and how one didn’t have much time before dying of hypothermia.
Perhaps it’s not really so important that every reader want to go to a place. I mean, let’s face it—there is no way any of us can really go back to the Civil War or the Revolution or other great and momentous era in history. But our history shapes us—and remnants stay with us.
Perhaps we don’t need to go back in history. But, take New Orleans. (Please do; if you haven’t been come down and visit—it’s an extraordinary city.) The decaying elegance of above ground cemeteries, the balconies, the heat, the French and Spanish architecture . . . all this forged through time, and yet, we now have a city where mystery and mystique are in the air. In the best books, you’ll see and feel it; you’ll want to walk the grounds and breathe in the air (even when it’s a little rank on Bourbon Street before the street cleaners sweep through!)
I love time and place. And I love the concept of making someone long to gallop across the moors, touch the grave of Marie Laveau, or tread the streets where Wall Street meant a wall and where financial deals still govern the fate of nation. See it, feel it . . . know it. Think about it—your favorite books put you there, right in with the action, and right in with the people experiencing it all.
Excerpt From Podcast: Coming soon
Please join us and let us help you take your writing and storytelling to the next level.
More Information and registration can be found at:
“The mood, the tone, the characters, the dialog, the entire story will draw you in and hold you . . .”
Megan Abbott didn’t win an Edgar Award by accident. She writes wonderful stories with wonderful words and creates worlds and characters that stay with you long after you close the book. The Fever is just such a book. Set among high school angst, and with a dose of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, this is a dark and sinister story that revolves around friends, several of whom suffer a mysterious illness. Is it real or simply a case of mass hysteria? Is it the result of recent HPV vaccinations or perhaps caused by a potentially toxic pond that seems to draw students to it—as such lore-filled pools seem to do. The mystery is convoluted and unfolds through the lives and social connections that only teenagers seem to live. The mood, the tone, the characters, the dialog, the entire story will draw you in and hold you until the final page. Highly recommended.
Crime and Science Radio: Burning Down the House: An Interview with Fire Investigator John Lentini, Saturday, March 15 at 10 a.m. PDT
John Lentini will educate us about scientific fire investigation, what can be learned from examining the scene of a fire, and why improved training and scientific approaches to fire investigation are so important.
John Lentini, author of Scientific Protocols for Fire Investigation, is one of the leading fire investigators in the U.S. He is the president and chief investigator of Scientific Fire Analysis, LCC. He is a certified by both the International Association of Arson Investigators (IAAI) and the National Association of Fire Investigators (NAFI). and is a certified Diplomate of the American Board of Criminalistics, with a specialty in Fire Debris Analysis. He was a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences 2009 President’s Panel on Scientific Integrity. He has authored over 3000 technical reports and testified in over 200 cases since 1975. He has testified for both Plaintiffs and Defendants, and as a neutral court-hired expert. He has appeared on Frontline, 20/20 and other television programs.
This story is convoluted and complex but the real delight is the writing, the voice, of the author.
This story will grab you by the lapels and drag you right into the woods and hills of the Missouri Ozarks, where the novel is set. It revolves around two women, mother and daughter, separated by time and the mother’s untimely disappearance. Is mother Lila dead or alive? This is the question that haunts daughter Lucy Dane. Oh yeah, and the brutal murder and dismemberment of her childhood friend Cheri Stoddard. The story jumps between Lila’s story in the past and Lucy’s in the present. The two are similar in appearance and temperament and each tale is as scary and deeply disturbing as the other. This story is convoluted and complex and populated with a host of unusual, deeply-drawn, and deeply-flawed characters, but the real delight is the writing, the voice, of the author. It will stay with you long after you finish reading.
There are many ways in which cyber crimes are perpetrated and technologically savvy attackers are indeed inventing newer ones to outwit law enforcement too. However, the main kind is as follows:
1. Unauthorized or unsolicited access to computer systems or networks with malicious intentions or motives also termed hacking
2. Data theft of electronically stored information
3. Stratified e-mail bombardment
4. Manipulating electronic data before and after processing
5. Salami attacks mostly on financial and economic data
6. Denial of Service Attacks
7. Virus or worm attacks
8. Trojan Horse or data infiltration to cause damages, or suspension of services
How are they detected?
Usually, cyber crimes are detected when the individual or institution notices large sums of money are unreasonably withdrawn from their accounts, or their system has become corrupted or malfunctioning. Complaints filed with the relevant Cyber Cell Departments or law enforcement are also ways of detection such genre of crimes. Many new anti cyber crime technology, tools and softwares are now being provided and installed which are able to detect cyber crimes sometimes even before the real damage sets in. Anti Virus Software (AVS) and other lingering software in computer systems are able to detect and resolve many instances of illegal entry.
Universal laws and not country- specific laws are the need of hour for addressing cyber crimes:
Another major reason why there needs to be universal laws against cyber crimes is that there may be some different sets of cyber laws enacted and enforced by different countries of the world. While the EU may have one set of laws, the Middle East may have another and the Far East yet another, with the Americas, distinguishing itself with the fourth set of different regulatory regimes regarding cybercrimes and its treatment. Thus, enforcement of laws and bringing culprits or perpetrators before the due process of law would be a very difficult proposition, especially if this is of trans border kind with many conflicting enactment, laws and procedures. With country specific laws, it is also difficult to agree on which laws the violators could be tried and punished- the laws of the cyber crime perpetrating country, the laws of the victim’s country or the preponderance of global laws since the crimes were committed on global internet highway.
There is every possibility that with nebulous laws, the perpetrators could stand good chance of going scot free, due to lack of evidence and even lack of law enforcement techniques.
But if there is preponderance of global set of cyber security laws and their enforcement, there is every likelihood that perpetrators would be made to stand trial and pay for their crimes.
Reasons for apparent need for globally enforceable, universal anti cyber crime
¬ Changes in global, regional and domestic demographics have indeed warranted the need and urgency for universal laws to combat cyber crimes. Governments of various nations of the world, even involving the Interpol needs to be placed at the disposal of cyber crime fighters, wherever and whenever necessary to do so.
¬ Dramatic and major developments in online communications have indeed aided and abetted cyber criminals, some of whom may be masters of the cyber crime business. They regularly outwit law enforcing agencies and many global cyber crimes remain unsolved to this day due to lack of needed evidence and enforcement laws
¬ Since cyber crimes are now not bound to one country or state, encompassing, as it were, several States and nations through globalization, it has become imperative for States to act together and work in much closer manner to control menace of cyber crime and its after effects, on individuals, cohorts, agencies, institutions and governments. This could indeed be greater advantageous if there is a consistent, cohesive and solid set of Universal laws to which all signing countries need to adhere, abide and to enforce in a consistent, comparable and cohesive manner.
¬ Criminals do take advantage of weak and inconsistent laws to wreck havoc with apparent impunity. They know that current laws are insufficient to indict or even charge them. Global law enforcement with strong legal armory could indeed stop many varieties of online crimes dead on their tracks
Conclusion: Global cyber crime can only be effectively apprehended, prosecuted and eradicated if all nations of the world join together in a determined manner to try and wipe out this scourge from the face of the earth through Universal laws, that act and impact on every nation on earth which is in dire need of robust anti cyber crime fighting mechanism.
Author Bio: I am Ronnie Custer and I am intended on writing academic cases for the past several years that are assisted me to gain knowledge in writing grading assignments for all sorts of students. I have worked in different companies in writing industry.
DNA profiling is considered the gold standard for individual identification. DNA-containing bodily fluids found at crime scenes can often be linked to the perpetrator with a high degree of accuracy, often measured in one per billions. It is highly individual and therefore highly accurate for identifying a given individual.
But since identical twins begin as the same fertilized egg, they have identical genetic material (DNA). After fertilization, the fertilized egg divides into two cells. To produce identical twins, these two cells separate and then each progresses forward to produce an individual. This results in two identical individuals with identical DNA. Or does it?
Standard DNA testing uses the concept of Short Tandem Repeats (STR’s). STR’s are simply short segments of DNA that repeat in certain areas of the very long DNA strand found in all of us. The number of these repeats in the various locations are what allow DNA profiling to distinguish individuals so accurately. This is a complex, though not really difficult to understand, technique which is discussed in great detail in two of my books: Forensics For Dummies and Howdunnit: Forensics.
But scientists have known for years that the DNA of identical twins is not perfectly identical. It might or might not start out that way at that first cell division but for sure as the cells divide and the individual grows within the uterus, minor DNA changes can occur. These are on the level of the base pair sequences that make up the DNA chain.
Another DNA technique called Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) actually looks at each base in the DNA strand and uses this for comparison with another strand to determine if they came from the same individual. This is the direction that DNA testing is going but for now STR remains the method of choice.
Identical twins would look the same using STR analysis but a deeper analysis using SNP would reveal variations, thus allowing identification and separation of two identical twins. Let’s say, blood is left at a crime scene and that blood is matched to a particular individual. Let’s further say that this individual is an identical twin. STR DNA analysis would not distinguish between these two brothers, But if SNP is employed, the one who left the blood at the scene can be distinguished from his identical twin.
The recent French serial rape investigation involving identical twins Yohan and Elwin would be a case in point. Applying the SNP technique in this situation would likely solve the case.
Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is a new technique that will likely see increased use in the future. The major problem at present is that it is expensive. We saw that RFLP fragments were fairly long, a drawback that lessens their value in degraded or damaged samples (discussed later). This problem was circumvented by the discovery of STRs, which are very short fragments. But, what if the DNA examiner could use single nucleotide bases as the standard for matching? This would increase the discriminatory power of DNA even further. This is what SNP does.
Let’s say that two sequenced DNA strands looked like this:
CGATTACAGGATTA and CGATTACAAGATTA
If we searched for an “ATTA” STR repeat, these two strands would be indistinguishable
since both have two ATTA repeats. But, with single nucleotide analysis the strands differ by a single base: The ninth base in the first sequence is guanine (G), while it is adenine (A) in the second one. SNP can be used with restriction enzymes in the RFLP technique, or with PCR, where it can be easily automated. Theoretically, this will allow for discriminating two DNA samples based on a single nucleotide difference.
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