Christine Husom

     My husband and I had been working long hours after work, trying to finish a kitchen and guest bedroom project in preparation for a young mom and the baby she is expecting next month. The previous September, we had won a bid--with two other couples--for a week at a condo in Big Sky, Montana. On one hand, it was difficult for us to leave when we were getting close to finishing what we planned to in the house. On the other hand, we thought it would be good to get away, relax and have fun with friends.

     I finished painting the guest bedroom walls and all the woodwork in the upper level two days before we left. The same day the drywall taper finished his job which included spraying our kitchen ceiling. So we left with confidence that we’d get done what we needed when we returned--in time for a shower I was hosting at the end of August and before our new family moved in in September. That was July twenty-second.

     We arrived in Big Sky on the twenty-third and settled in, surrounded by the beauty of the mountains. We attended a country church, enjoyed an open air concert, hiked, went horseback riding, drove into Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful, who is now faithful about every ninety minutes or so.

     On the twenty-seventh, Dan and I went to visit his niece who lives about 100 miles west of Big Sky. We were almost at her house when one of my daughters called with bad news. A fitting broke in our second floor bathroom and flooded our house, perhaps for three days. A check with the city revealed about 3,000 gallons of water dumped into our house.

     When my daughter and her three small children walked up to check the house, they saw water running out of the house onto the front patio. Bad sign. The water was two inches deep on the main level and ankle deep in the basement. The second floor carpet was soaked. Fortunately, my daughter is practical and knew the first thing to do was shut off the water. When they were there, the living room ceiling fell down. My grandson cried, “What is happening to Grandma and Grandpa’s house?”

     We were 1,100 miles from home and helpless. Our daughter called the insurance company, who gave her the name of the restoration company. They called people off other jobs and pulled out the wet carpet, the laminate floors, the rest of the ceilings that hadn’t fallen, a lot of the sheet-rocked walls. The others, they drilled holes along the bottom to aid in the drying process. They brought in their hug dehumidifiers--called air louvers--and around twenty big fans.

     The company moved some of the furniture out and put the rest of it up on Styrofoam blocks to dry. My son’s girlfriend took pictures and emailed them to us. It’s not a pretty sight to see your ceiling draped all over your furniture. My son told me, “I think the insurance company is just going to write you a check for the house.” We didn’t know what to expect, but we expected the worse. So when we walked in two days later and saw our house was actually still standing, it didn’t seem so bad.

    We removed and stowed all the contents of our closets, cupboards, buffets, dressers, computer cabinet, television cabinet, bookshelves, and put it all in storage. You think you know how much stuff you have until you actually pack it up in storage bin after storage bin.

We are still playing the waiting game almost two months later, waiting on our contractor and insurance adjuster. Dan and I look at each other and say, “We just want to be home.” I’m starting to feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. There’s no place like home.

     One of the characters in my mystery thriller series, Detective Smoke Dawes, uses the expression, “Truth be told,” from time to time. He says it when he is about to make a personal confession, such as, “Truth be told, bad dreams sometimes scare me more than bad things in real life.” But he might also use it in an interview or interrogation to coax out an admission of guilt.

     We encounter episodes of telling, thinking, and listening for truths countless times each day. I was at a book event this past week and a reporter from the local paper asked me questions about my qualifications, my writing, and a variety of subjects. One question he posed was if I thought it was honest for authors to write their books with other authors, i.e. Tom Clancy with . . . I think his point was, is it really a Tom Clancy book if another writer helps write it, perhaps does most of the writing? My reply was, “Sure, as long as they give the other author credit. What’s not honest is if you use--steal--what someone else has written and don’t give them credit.”

     The next day I took a class from a trained criminal investigator. He ran the Cold Case Division of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for many years and helped solve some big cases. He said, over and over, “Everybody lies.” A former FBI agent had said the same thing in another class I took. What did they mean? In addition to out and out lies suspects tell for obvious reasons, others lie because they are not telling the whole truth. Victims because they’re embarrassed, witnesses because they think they are telling you what you need to hear, what they think is important for the case.

     Victims sometimes have an irrational sense of guilt over what happened to them, or may have blocked out key facts. And when people witness a crime, it often happens very fast. One person may see the robber as a dark-skinned Latino man, age 35, five foot ten with thick wavy hair, and another will see that same person as a light-skinned Asian man, age 25, five foot six with short straight hair. But they both see the most important identifier--a dragon tattoo that covers his entire left forearm. If the suspect turns out to be a dark-skinned Caucasian male, age 30, six feet with short thinning dark brown hair and the dragon tattoo, it doesn’t mean the witnesses meant to lie, but they did. And some people are very sure of what they saw, even when it’s not true.

     I think most of us have had conversations with people we’ve shared an experience with and later compared notes. While you’re talking, one of you will say, “That’s not the way I remember it,” or, “No, that’s not what happened.” And you’re so sure you’re right, but start to wonder if you aren’t, after all.

     I am an honest person, but admittedly have not always told “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Why not? For many reasons: I didn’t want to hurt someone’s feelings by being brutally honest. I was embarrassed by something stupid I’d done and thought of a way to explain it so it didn’t seem as bad. No, not specifically a lie, but not the whole truth. I have not given information when I could have. Each instance burdened me to different degrees, and I’ve carried the weight of guilt.

     It’s usually pretty easy to tell when someone is lying and a good investigator will use that to his or her advantage. Like Abraham Lincoln said, “No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.” I love that quote. It’s like the tangled web--it’s hard work to be deceitful.

     “The truth shall set you free,” John 8:32

     Please share your thoughts. Thanks!

     February 2, 2011 will mark the 52nd Anniversary of the last concert Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson “The Big Bopper” performed at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. On that cold winter’s night, their small private plane took off from Mason City, Iowa bound for the Fargo, North Dakota airport for their next performance. It never made its destination.

     Their plane crashed around one o’clock, the morning of February 3, 1959, and claimed the lives of the three performers and their young pilot, Roger Peterson. Three of Rock and Roll’s most promising musical artists were gone. As Don McLean wrote in his classic song, “American Pie”, it was “the day the music died.”

After the crash, there was serious discussion of what to do: should they cancel the show, or find some local talent and carry on? I’m sure everyone involved was in shocked disbelief. The decision was to find some local talent to fill in. They picked a group of teenager musicians who quickly named themselves “The Shadows”.

     Bob Korum, Dick Dunkirk, Bill Velline, and fifteen-year-old Bobby Velline, later known as Bobby Vee, comprised the group. Instead of attending the concert that night, they took the stage, and their musical careers were launched, which led to years of booked gigs and hit records. When Bobby Vee moved on to lead other bands, the Shadows continued without him.

     So what was it like for the band members who stepped in to replace the three popular performers at the Armory in Moorhead, Minnesota on February 3, 1959?

     There is a man at the health club I frequent who was in the band that night and continued with The Shadows all these years. I talk to him on a regular basis and one day asked if I could interview him for a blog. He told me there has been much written over the years and a lot of it is false. He said he didn’t think anyone would care after all this time. There were several others in the sauna who said they would love to hear about what it was like, but he declined anyway.

     I was disappointed, but didn’t beg (for too many minutes). Over the course of many months, we’ve discussed a variety of topics, including his band, but those stories are mostly contemporary, their experiences when they have gigs. He said they’ve been lucky–their band never had to play in bars. He’s told me, more than once, “I never smoked, never drank, never did drugs.” That’s probably why he’s a very young-looking seventy-one.

     He talks about Bobby Vee and his brother Billy, who died fairly young. About knowing Bob Dylan when he was Bobby Zimmerman. About how the British Invasion in 1963 really hurt American bands. About how in the older days, they were paid three cents every time one of their songs was played on a juke box, and five cents when it played on the radio.

     But about the concert, the day after the music died, he doesn’t have much to say, except it was the first time the band had performed in public and that they knew only three songs. Maybe it’s difficult for him to put into words what it was like to be a teenager, shocked as the rest of the rock world to learn three young stars had been dimmed.

     Yet they took the stage that memorable night when it was decided the show must go on and the music couldn’t die.

I got involved in a fascinating project with eight other authors at Second Wind Publishing. We are writing a collaborative mystery novel that takes place in Rubicon Ranch, a desert community. Each of our characters is a suspect in the death of a young girl and we won't know who dunnit until the end.

Follow the link for my chapter, but please start at the beginning. A new chapter is posted each week. You can read a great book for free!  http://rubiconranch.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/chapter-6-cooper-dahling-by-christine-husom/

     It started with a phone call after midnight. The one nobody wants to answer.

     The caller’s voice was trembling. “Your father is dead. . . he drowned in the hospital pool.”

     Thoughts raced through my brain and collided with one another as I tried to process the words and their meaning. I didn’t know the hospital had a pool. How could that happen? It’s not true. Who should I call? What do we do now? He was fine when I saw him a few hours ago. He can’t be dead. He’s getting out of the hospital in the morning. What’s Mom going to do?

     It was late July and my father was being treated for pneumonia. He had been given a sleep aid, one, it was later discovered, sometimes caused sleepwalking. Dad went missing between one nurses’ round and the next. We will never know exactly what, why, or how it happened, but he got out of bed, around his bed rail, ripped out his IV needle, walked directly (evidenced by the blood trail) to the emergency exit and pushed open the door. The recently installed alarm did not sound. But when tested multiple times the next day, it worked fine.

     Dad went out into the pouring rain, made his way down a fairly steep hill, fell into a pond at the bottom, and drowned. The doctors determined he had suffered an episode of “Sundowning,” a condition where an elderly person waked up, sees he or she is not home, and feel compelled to get to the familiar. My father had no dementia. He wasn’t depressed. Was it Sundowning, or was it the drug he’d been given that caused such a bizarre scenario?

It is as unreal to me today as it was thirteen years ago.

     I obsessed about the whys for a year, then one day it occurred, What if it wasn’t an accident? What if someone did it to him? My father was a retired district judge. He was widely respected as a firm, yet compassionate and fair judge. But he had received threats over the years, nonetheless. He had been retired for some time. He was very active in community and church service, a devoted husband, father, grandfather. Would a person bent on revenge seize an opportunity to hurt him? Who would that person be? What would be his or her motivation?

     My imagination gave birth to a number of characters who lived in the fictional Winnebago County in Central Minnesota. As a former Wright County Sheriff’s Department officer, I didn’t want to use the actual name of the county, but local residents recognize the towns and landmarks in the books, even with thinly disguised names.

     Alvie Eisner is a woman who never recovered from her son’s suicide while in prison. She holds everyone in the criminal justice system, connected to his case, responsible for his death. When she sees the opportunity for revenge, it sends her on a killing spree, planning murders to look like suicides so their families will suffer as she has.

     Sergeant Corinne “Corky” Aleckson is a young sergeant with the sheriff’s department and gets the call when Judge Fenneman goes missing from the hospital.

     As the Winnebago Sheriff’s department characters, and Corky’s family members, developed and fleshed, I knew there were many more stories to be told. Murder in Winnebago County is the first in the mystery thriller series, released in 2008. Buried in Wolf Lake was released in 2009, and An Altar by the River will be out in October, 2010. Ideas are forming for the fourth book.

     Many people think writing the first book was a catharsis for me, and in some ways maybe it was. Although the idea was sparked by my father’s death, the judge in my book was a completely different person from Dad. While writing, it was sometimes difficult to see the computer screen through my tears. When I finished writing, and had an offer to publish the book, I asked permission from my siblings because I didn’t want them to think I was doing anything untoward. They all gave their blessings. If I could talk to my dad, I think he’d feel the same.

     I did not think something creative and rewarding would arise from deep sadness and loss, but it has. The residents and sheriff’s department personnel of Winnebago County are people you might enjoy meeting. One woman told me, “I feel like I’m going to run into these people on the street.” Another told me she’d love to hang out with Corky and her friend, Sara. I was touched and very complimented by their words.

     So what case is the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department working on now? Stay tuned.

     I attended a meeting of a service organization I belong to. The guest presenter spoke about a project the group supports to help people around the world who have been victims of a natural, or another significant, disaster. The organization provides practical support; a sturdy tent that accommodates a family of ten, a water filter, blankets, food, cooking utensils, tools and other supplies to last the family for six months. The project was started by someone thought about what his family would need in such an event. He wanted to help others in a way they could remain fairly independent; help them help themselves.

     We hear representatives from many worthy projects at those meetings. It is a frequent reminder to me, not only of the needs people have, but also of what is being done by individuals and organizations to address those needs.

I serve on the board of another organization that receives requests on a regular basis for countless projects, drives and missions. We consider each request, and generally speaking, vote to support almost all of them. An occasional one does not meet our criteria.

     So how do we decide who to help when our hearts go out to so many in need? By using our minds to consider the facts and circumstances. It’s easier when we have personal knowledge of the people involved, or proof they are doing what they say they are. Most projects are established and straightforward, and the need is obvious, other times they’re a bit hazy and gray and red flags go up. We let our minds lead, and our hearts follow.

     For personally deciding who to financially support, I practice the same principles. Too many sound great on the surface, but a little investigation reveals the majority of the donations collected pay for administrative salaries and expenses. It’s easy to give those requests a pass.

     How about you? I'd love to hear how do you decide which groups to support.

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9. These words are attributed to King Solomon. In the context of our writing and reading lives, I believe they are fairly true. We are humans. We are born, live, and die. Our experiences and lives are similar to some, vastly different from others, but we share the commonality that we are all people who love, hate, feel indifference, on and on. People do things to us that are both good and bad. An array of circumstances call for our response on a regular basis.

As writers, we know there are basic themes and plots. If there is nothing new under the sun, how do we spin our stories so they look different, fresh? What can we do to make them stand apart from others? As readers, what do you look for in the books and stories you read? Do you enjoy struggles between the characters, or other forces? Would you rather read a fast-paced, or slow-paced book? How about stories told in first or third person? Is setting important?

What are your thoughts? Tell me if you think there really is something new under the sun in books or stories you’ve read. 

     I was one of three guest authors on the "Red River Writers Live--What's Write for Me" Blog Talk Radio show with hostess Dellani Oakes. The others were Sherrie Hansen and Kris Radish. I was very nervous, but it turned out to be a lot of fun, and I learned new things about Sherrie and Kris. If you'd like to have a listen, please check it out: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rrradio/2010/06/23/whats-write-for-me

I slipped into the Sauna at the local health club at the end of my work-out the other day. I was alone for the first few minutes, then a man I knew came in, followed by two young men I didn’t know. The man I knew asked me about my book sales, and somehow the conversation wound around to one of the younger men asking me if I’d thought of putting my books on “podio.”

Since I’d never heard of podio, I asked what it was. The young guy said it’s audio books that you listen to on your Ipod. He told me the specific device he had, but the name was out of my brain by the time I got to paper and pencil. He said a lot of authors have become bestsellers after getting their start on podio. He was a commuter and listens to podio books and magazines “all the time.”

I wanted to ask more questions, but I was overheating and had to get out before I passed out.

Later in the day, I sat down for a little podio research, and started at www.podiobooks.com.

There are several negatives, but perhaps the positives out weigh them. Authors donate their work and the books are free to the subscribers. The answer to the question in the FAQ section, “But shouldn't the author get paid?” is “Certainly! Creative people have a right to receive compensation for their hard work. That's one reason why we don't charge authors to be a part of Podiobooks.com, and why we give them the lion's share of any contribution made by listeners.

“Podiobooks.com is simply one more arrow in the quiver that makes up the writer's career. To carry the analogy further, writers need to shoot as many arrows as possible in just the right places to ensure they have a writing career, and not just "a book". This site won't do that alone. Heck, nothing will do that alone.”

And “Can I donate to support the authors?” The answer is “Please do! You'll find a donation link associated with every book on the site. When you donate, we'll give 75% of the donation to the author of the book you have selected.”

Podiobooks has 8367 episodes available for download in 426 titles, and transmit books to 70,403 members. They give author guidelines for producing an audio version, such as using music in the background, keeping each recorded episode between 20 and 40 minutes, which is many peoples’ commute time, and using quality recording equipment.

There were a few other sites I checked. At www.booksinmotion.com, people can either purchase the audio or podio version. The book featured on the front page of the site is available on an audio CD for 31.99, or downloadable for $14.95.

A new site, http://www.weread4you.com/ is due to be released in August and promises 20,000 audio books to buy.

Another site you can join is http://www.simplyaudiobooks.com/. There is 15 day free trial, the for your $26.98 so you can get unlimited CD audio book rentals on the 2-at-a-time plan. If you cancel your membership before the trial period is up there is no charge.

There are many options for people. The audio book business is huge. I’ve had several people ask if my books will be available on tape. Besides the commuters, there are any number of people who need or prefer audio. Some are blind, others have lost their ability to read, still others may need their eyes to watch kids at the beach, but can listen to a book. When my mother lost her ability to read, due to dementia, we got audio books for her and she loved them.

Are you a fan of audio books? What are your thoughts?

Some months ago, a fellow Second Wind author, Margay Leah Justice, interviewed me on her blog. Here it is:

    When /how did you know you wanted to write? I was so excited when I learned to read because I finally had a means to get the stories out of my imagination and onto paper. I would sneak out of bed, stand by my dresser under the glow of my night light, writing little stories long after my parents had tucked my sister and I in.

     How long did it take to get published? I finished “Murder in Winnebago County” in 2003 and searched for an agent for several years, as my schedule allowed. I had 21 rejections and got notice one agency had closed. I entered a crime writer’s contest on gather.com and met Mike Simpson, the man who started Second Wind Publishing. Fortunately, he liked my work and published my book in 2008. I am very grateful to have him as my publisher.

     Do you do research for your books? I served both as a corrections officer and a sheriff’s deputy, so I have some working knowledge of law enforcement procedures. But, in “Murder in Winnebago County”, I did spend some time researching the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. In my upcoming book, “Buried in Wolf Lake”, I spent a fair amount of time over the course of several months studying psychopaths, sociopaths, serial murderers, sexual sadists and the like to get a true grasp of my bad guy. He’s pretty scary! I also studied horses and the diseases they suffer for part of the storyline.

Do you relate to your characters? I relate very closely to both Sgt. Corrine (Corky) Aleckson and to her mother, Kristen. Both share my basic moral standards. Corky has a true heart for, and dedication to, her work. She is young, inexperienced in love and still a bit naïve about life, even given her deputy sergeant position. Kristen is closer to my age and a mother hen. I can relate to that, though I am a little less neurotic about it.

     Where do your ideas come from? “Murder in Winnebago County” was born when the death of a family member didn’t have a good explanation. A year after the fact, I was struck with the thought, “What if it wasn’t accidental, what if it was murder?” Characters, motives and plot came rushing to mind and I had a book in the works. There were many times when writing I could hardly see the computer screen through my tears. I have a strong emotional connection to the one particular death.

What is your next project?: “Buried in Wolf Lake” is the second book in the Winnebago County series, featuring most of the same characters. It begins with a dog bringing home a young woman’s dismembered leg and was inspired by an actual event that happened when I worked for the sheriff’s department. But my story is completely fictional. You can see why my bad guy is one scary, creepy dude! Many of the questions readers have from the first book will be answered in the second. The big one concerns Corky’s love interests. I wrote a mystery thriller and people are wrapped up in the romances--go figure ;). That’s why you romance writers are so successful. I am currently working on “An Altar by the River”.

     Any advice for other writers? Persevere and you too may get published. Ask a lot of people read your book. It’s important to get people from all walks of life as your readers. Have a person who is a good editor/proof reader go over your work before you submit it. If you are looking for an agent or publisher, be sure you follow their submission guidelines.

     What are three get to know facts about you? Writing a synopsis is the hardest part of the writing/publishing process for me. Running three to five miles a day is my therapy. Having grandchildren warms my heart and gives me an inner smile all the time.

     Will you ever switch to another genre? I am currently writing in the murder mystery/thriller genre, but I have written two romance novels and have a stack of unfinished mainstream fiction novels as well. I find it easiest, at this juncture, to continue writing novels in the Winnebago County series, but I may bring out the romance or mainstream novels at some point--in fact, I plan to. I would love to be able to write full-time. My dream.

     Any valuable lesson to share? I learned the importance of taking critiques to heart to be a better writer. I wrote a romance novel some years back and asked a fellow writer to critique the book and give her honest opinion. Of course, I hoped she would return it with adulations of how wonderful it was and how she couldn’t put it down.

     Instead of rave reviews, I got pages of criticisms. I will call they constructive criticisms because she was offering them as an aid to make me a better writer. The thing that made the greatest impression on me was her suggestion to do a better job of developing my characters. I thought I had developed my characters just fine. After all, I knew who they were.

     My reviewer wrote some things that made me think more about who my characters were: What motivates them? How do they feel? What are their strengths, their fears, their vulnerabilities? How are they connected to each other? What role do they play in the story? I took her suggestions to heart and read various articles and books on the subject. When I began writing my first murder mystery/thriller, I wrote a background for each of my main characters to have a base for their motivations, their beliefs, their morals. Much of what they had become was based on their life experiences. Some aspects of their past lives were incorporated into the story and others were not.

     My best advice to unpublished authors is: study, read and interact with other readers, writers and publishers. Keep writing. When others tell you you’re a good writer, believe them. It’s a very competitive field, but if your goal is to get published, don’t give up. You all know the stories of famous authors who get hundreds of rejections or have over twenty books in their coffers before they sell one. Let that be an encouragement!