Crime Scene Investigations: Diagrams and Articles for Writers and Researchers

While working on my current romantic-suspense novel proposal, I went trolling on the Internet to find some examples of arson investigations (the story involves a federal arson investigator), when I stumbled across a site called SmartDraw, a software product that helps people capture their thoughts/information as pictures. It contains numerous examples of mind maps, report templates and flow charts for different kinds of crime scenes -- handy for writers needing to understand the different types of investigations and their processes.  

Examples of Crime Scene Charts

Below are some examples from SmartDraw of crime scene charts and diagrams. 

You can also download a diagram for free, then use that image as a brainstorming tool for such things as a character's motivation or story crime scene. For researchers and investigators, these images provide a basic starting point for customization.

Order of Crime Scene Investigation Example

Crime Scene Investigation Models of Motive Example

Establishing the Role of First Responders - Preserve the Fire Scene

Mind Map of Threats of Evidence at a Fire Scene

Crime Scene - Drug Possession in Automobile Example

Examples of Crime Scene Reports

Below are some report examples from SmartDraw.

Crime Scene Investigation Report

Autopsy Report for Crime Scene Investigation Example

Gunshot Forensic Pathology Report for Crime Scene Investigation Example

Autopsy Report for Crime Scene Investigation Example

Other Crime Scene Resources

The Crime Zone: Software to create crime scene diagrams. You can use the product free ten times with no restrictions.  

Crime Scene Diagrams/Presentation: A PowerPoint presentation via TeachWeb.com.

Crime Scene Sketch Activity: This document was a homework assignment for teams creating crime sketches. Information includes types of sketches, scaling, equipment, labeling and more.

forensic-classroom.com: Crime scene forms, classroom activities and forensic/evidence publications.

Book Sale March 1-7, 2015: A Lawyer's Primer for Writers

“Put together with the user in mind, this intelligently organized handbook for practicing writers will make you sound like a practicing lawyer. Use it to transform your courtroom characters from stereotypes into engaging people”

— Warwick Downing, former DA in Colorado and author of The Widow of Dartmoor, a sequel to Hound of the Baskervilles

A Lawyer's Primer for Writers: From Crimes to Courtrooms will be on sale March 1-7, 2015 - The earlier you buy it that week, the more you save!

Below is a table of sale dates and prices - for example, buy it on March 1 for 99 cents, and you'll save 88 percent off the regular $7.95 price!

Tropes: To Use or Not to Use in Storytelling?

I used to think a trope was a bad thing, assigning it the taint of a cliche. Well, a trope can become a cliche if overused and bludgeoned senseless, but I wasn't bothering to think beyond that.

Took me a while to realize...

Tropes Are Not Bad

The key for genre writers is to balance well-known tropes with innovation

I have a writer friend who says that one reason she started hitting the New York Times best seller lists was she began applying tropes in her stories. I'm reading one of her books now, and I see exactly what she's talking about. The story is based on a "rescue romance" trope where Person A rescues Person B, causing Person B to fall in love with Person A. Think the knight in shining armor who saves the damsel in distress who the knight later weds. Except this writer did a fun, entertaining twist on this trope -- it's the woman in short-shorts who saves the guy in distress, and readers couldn't buy this book fast enough.

Tropes are not only a good thing, some believe their outright omission can negatively affect readers. In the article "Genre Tropes and the Transmissibility of Story," the authors state "When familiar tropes are missing or unfamiliar tropes present, this can lead readers to reject a story outright."

The Power of Tropes

Here's a quote from TV Tropes on "Tropes as Tools":

Stories such as The Christmas Carol, where a human is visited by the past in the form of a ghost, use the happily ever before trope.

Tropes are just tools. Writers understand tropes and use them to control audience expectations either by using them straight or by subverting them, to convey things to the audience quickly without saying them.

Human beings are natural pattern seekers and story tellers. We use stories to convey truths, examine ideas, speculate on the future and discuss consequences. To do this, we must have a basis for our discussion, a new language to show us what we are looking at today. So our storytellers use tropes to let us know what things about reality we should put aside and what parts of fiction we should take up...it's impossible to write something completely and utterly without tropes, anyway, so strop trying.

When Good Tropes Go Bad

On the other hand, using tropes doesn't mean go nuts with them. A trope can help a story, but it shouldn't be the story. Like my writer friend, she didn't pluck a tried-and-true trope off the shelf and make it her story; no, she took a tried-and-true trope and gave it an entertaining spin. 

Also, a trope isn't a "fix" for a story. If the writing's skillful, the characters complex and the plot is well-paced and interesting, a story can be thin on the trope side. Conversely, if a story is in bad shape, imposing a trope on it doesn't magically heal the story and make it better.

Time for me to get back to writing my new book proposal. In it, I've started with the popular trope opposite attract, which is basically a story where two very different people learn about the world through each others' eyes. This trope has worked for many stories, from Neil Simon's The Odd Couple to just about every buddy-cop story around. 

Tropes. Don't leave a story without 'em.

THE UNGRATEFUL DEAD: Cover Reveal

Just received book cover for THE UNGRATEFUL DEAD, the prequel to THE ZEN MAN, designed by the talented Kim Van Meter. THE UNGRATEFUL DEAD will be available February 2014.

New Year's Day: It's History and Apps for Keeping Resolutions

History of New Year's Day and Resolutions

There are references to the Babylonians, around 2000 B.C., celebrating New Year's in March.

Resolutions started in 153 B.C. with Janus, a mythical Roman king, who had two faces -- one to look at past events and the other to the future--and became an ancient symbol for resolutions.  Janus was also the protector of arches, doors, gates, endings and beginnings, as well as the patron of bridges.

Janus status at Pointe Fabricio, the oldest bridge in Rome, erected in 62 B.C. Fable is that touching its head brings good luck.

In 46 B.C., Julius Cesar developed a calendar, based on a 365-day solar year, that better represented the seasons than previous calendars. The Romans named the first month after Janus, hence our January.  At midnight on December 31, the Romans liked to think of Janus as looking back on the old year, and ahead to the next one.

The Abolishment and Return of January 1 as New Year's Day

In medieval Europe, the celebrations accompanying the new year were considered pagan, and in 567 the Council of Tours abolished January 1 as the beginning of the new year, and celebrations moved to different dates throughout Europe: December 25, March 1, March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation and Easter.

In 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform reinstated January 1 as new year's day.

Resolutions in Colonial America

As recently as the 17th century, Puritans in Colonial America frowned upon the liberality and overindulgences of New Year's Eve celebrations, some even calling January "the First Month" to avoid referring to Janus. Instead, they lectured their children on being reverential on New Year's Eve by reflecting on the past year and making resolutions for the year to come.

Apps to Help you Keep Those Resolutions

I can't personally vouch for any of these, although I'm looking for some type of goal-keeping app so I'll be checking these and others over the next few weeks.

21Habit

Lifetick

Habitforge

Weekplan

CheckMark Goals

Six Christmas Tips and Tricks

It's almost Christmas...have you finished your shopping? Are you baking goodies for family and friends?  Hitting the party circuit?

I have to admit, I've made this holiday season very low-key. Mostly because I was finishing revisions on a book and needed to focus on that, but also because my husband and I like to make our holidays as stress-free as possible. However, I did get stuck in a very long line at the post office yesterday -- probably should've gone early in the day, not at the end when people were leaving work early to mail packages. That's my theory, anyway.

Below are some tips and tricks that can help you save time, cut corners or are just plain fun. Happy Holidays!

Frozen Grapes to Chill Wine and Champagne

Freeze green grapes, then plop them into a glass of vino or champagne to keep it chilled without watering it down.

Cut Up Old Christmas Cards for Gift Tags

I've done this a lot--it's a great way to reuse old Christmas cards.

Make Granola, Listen to Tunes & Send Cards Without Leaving Your Kitchen

Red Stamp offers all three in this fun holiday blog: A link to their playlist (you'll need to set up an account on Spotify), a Granola recipe with step-by-step instructions, and a link to their online holiday cards that you can personalize and if you want, they'll address and mail for you! To check it out, click link below:

Granola Recipe, Tunes and Cards

Free Ebooks App

I love reading ebooks on my iPad, but finding free ebooks is hit and miss for me. Sometimes I see an author offering their ebook free on Twitter, or I troll Amazon seeing what ebooks are free. This app, eBook Search Pro, looks like a great way to automate downloading free ebooks. I haven't tried it, but as it's only 99 cents, looks like a cheap investment for a lot of free books.  Available for iPhones and iPads.

Click link below to read more:

eBook Search Pro

Free Christmas Game App

Like playing Hangman? Here's a free Christmas-theme Hangman app, available on iPhone and iPad.  Click link below:

Christmas Hangman Deluxe App

Easy One-Pan Breakfast for Christmas Morning

An easy, no-need-to-chop anything one-pan breakfast that takes 15 minutes to make. That's my idea of cooking! Click on link for recipe:

One-Pan English Breakfast

Happy Holidays!

Guest Post by Luke Murphy: How Important Is Setting in Fiction?

Today I'm pleased to introduce you to Luke Murphy, author of Dead Man`s Hand, who's sharing his thoughts about the importance of setting in a story.  I especially enjoyed reading Luke's article as he and I chose Las Vegas, or Sin City, as locales for our recent novels.

How Important Is Setting in Fiction? 

Guest Post by Luke Murphy

A lot of people wonder just how important the setting of a story is. I believe that the setting for any work of fiction is critical to how the book is accepted.

Choosing a city for your characters is crucial in not only entertaining readers who have decided to sit down with the book, but to me, it’s also a very important marketing tool when targeting the market of readers you have in mind.

I was born and raised (and still reside) in a small, rural town in Canada. When I mean small, I’m talking small (1200 people). So you would think that it would only make sense that I write a story that takes place in a small town, something I’m very familiar with. NO WAY!!

I’ve always dreamed big, and set high goals for myself. When I decided that I would write a novel with the goal of publication, I didn’t want to just write a book to have it read by friends and family. I wanted to write a novel that would be accepted worldwide, and be available for people everywhere. I wanted something that would be desired by people all over the world. That means I needed a setting in my book that interested people and they wanted to read about.

So that meant, for the setting, I needed a major market in the United States. Major American cities that have become popular in books are Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, New York, etc.

I chose Las Vegas, or as some people might call it, Sin City. Everyone is interested in this fast-paced, party-all-night lifestyle and city that is party-central.

I didn’t just choose this city on a whim. I had visited Las Vegas in 2000 with a buddy of mine and I instantly feel in love with the city. Las Vegas was the perfect backdrop for this story, glitz and glamour as well as an untapped underground.

Everyone knows about the bright lights big city that is Vegas, but for as much as we read and see about that side of Vegas, we seldom here about the other, darker side of LV.

I also have to admit that that my wife was pretty happy that I had chosen Las Vegas as my setting, since she joined me in my research trip (wink, wink). Nothing like being able to write-off a trip to Las Vegas (lol).

There is not a single moment in time when the idea for DEAD MAN’S HAND came to be, but circumstances over the years that led to this story: my hockey injuries, frequent visits to Las Vegas, my love of football, crime books and movies.

Dead Man’s Hand became real from mixing these events, taking advantage of experts in their field, and adding my wild imagination. The internet also provides a wealth of information, available at our fingertips with a click of the mouse.

What I learned most from my trip to LV is what is found outside of the “Strip”. Not all of Las Vegas glitters, and there are parts of the city just like everywhere else in North America. This is the part of the city that I wrote about—things you haven’t heard about in other books.

So I was fortunate enough to visit Las Vegas and do some real, on-site research for street names, hotels, casinos, venues, etc. All of my personal contact with people such as members of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was done via the Internet/email/phone.

When I had completed the first draft of my novel and sent it to my agent for her revision notes, I had a very long phone conversation with her. Because this was my first novel, and the first time I had worked with an agent, I didn’t know about things like how is copyright infringements dealt with in fiction writing.

So, because most of this book is based on real places in Vegas, I had to make up names to protect myself. You will probably recognize the descriptions of certain hotels and casinos or restaurants in my novel, but those venues have had name changes just to be safe.

So how important is setting for you when selecting a book to read?

DEAD MAN'S HAND by Luke Murphy

What happens when the deck is stacked against you…

From NFL rising-star prospect to wanted fugitive, Calvin Watters is a sadistic African-American Las Vegas debt-collector framed by a murderer who, like the Vegas Police, finds him to be the perfect fall-guy.

…and the cards don't fall your way?

When the brutal slaying of a prominent casino owner is followed by the murder of a well-known bookie, Detective Dale Dayton is thrown into the middle of a highly political case and leads the largest homicide investigation in Vegas in the last twelve years.

What if you're dealt a Dead Man's Hand?

Against his superiors and better judgment, Dayton is willing to give Calvin one last chance. To redeem himself, Calvin must prove his innocence by finding the real killer, while avoiding the LVMPD, as well as protect the woman he loves from a professional assassin hired to silence them.

Luke Murphy, author of Dead Man's Hand

Author Bio

Luke Murphy lives in Shawville, Quebec with his wife, three daughters and pug.

He played six years of professional hockey before retiring in 2006. Since then, he’s held a number of jobs, from sports columnist to radio journalist, before earning his Bachelor of Education degree (Magna Cum Laude).

Murphy`s debut novel, Dead Man`s Hand, was released by Imajin Books on October 20, 2012.

For more information on Luke and his books, visit: www.authorlukemurphy.com, ‘like’ his Facebook page www.facebook.com/#!/AuthorLukeMurphy and follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/#!/AuthorLMurphy

Praise for Dead Man's Hand

"You may want to give it the whole night, just to see how it turns out."
— William Martin, New York Times bestselling author of The Lincoln Letter

"Dead Man's Hand is a pleasure, a debut novel that doesn't read like one, but still presents original characters and a fresh new voice."
—Thomas Perry, New York Times bestselling author of Poison Flower

"Part police procedural, part crime fiction, Dead Man's Hand is a fast, gritty ride."
—Anne Frasier, USA Today bestselling author of Hush

Book Giveaways, Crime Chats and Who's Emma Peel?

Book Giveaway: Sleepless in Las Vegas

Goodreads Contest Now Closed

Thank you to the 691 readers who entered the contest!  Twelve winners' copies are being mailed November 27.

My December release, Sleepless in Las Vegas, is the second book in the private-eye-romance series, and is available in print and e-versions.  To order your copy, click here.

“I generally don’t read Harlequin books but I’m glad I set aside my bias of romance type novels because Sleepless in Las Vegas is so much more...a lot of intrigue, action, romance and excitement happening here and you’re not going to want to put the book down until you get to the end. To say that I enjoyed it immensely would be an understatement.”

— Carlana Charles, book reviewer, ThisLadyWrites.com

“Absolutely delightful! As a straight romance, I found this book to be well done and thoroughly enjoyable...What made me love this [book] is that this is it is wrapped up in a great detective story. Want something more than a love story? Read this!”

— Leti Del Mar, Words with Leti Del Mar

Chatting About Crime

Today my husband and I were guests of Alice de Sturler on #crimechat. Alice is a former human rights defender, educator and owner of the Defrosting Cold Cases blog. Below is an excerpt from Alice's recap on the chat, with a link to the full article at the end.

Sorry about the mishmash of green and white backgrounds -- had a little trouble cutting and pasting.

Alice de Sturler, owner Defrosting Cold Cases

Recap #CrimeChat Oct 25, 2013

Recap #CrimeChat Oct 25, 2013 with Shaun Kaufman &Colleen Collins a.k.a. the Writing PIs. It is always a pleasure to talk to these two. There are always new stories, new books they are working on, and they have a great sense of humour.

While Shaun was driving home from court, Colleen and I started off with a post I found really informative. It is about the difference between private investigators and bounty hunters. Many confuse the two. Both track people, conduct interviews, and have contact with suspects. However, they are governed by different sets of regulations.

Colleen told us that she got great reactions to her latest book “Secrets of a real life female private eye” including the comments that some younger readers did not know Emma Peel. I can still laugh about the differences in generations. As soon as that changes, I will alert you!

Shaun arrived and we spoke about the difficulties a criminal defense lawyer faces. Shaun described how law school taught him about procedure but absolutely nothing about criminal defense. He owes that to Walter Gerash.

We touched on the “chess coach case” which sadly involved child abuse. I asked them how they handle cases like this. How do you shake those images after cataloging the evidence and DNA test results? How do you move on from that? They both said that the only way to do that is to remain steadfast in the believe that the defense is about defending the system of checks & balances and not the deed.

End of excerpt.  To read the full recap, click here. 

Who Is Emma Peel? 

Photo credit: Wikipedia

As Alice mentioned in her above recap, there are those in the younger generation who have no idea who Emma Peel is. No idea?  Sadly, it's true. It's also a reminder that yes, we baby boomers are getting older.

Uma Thurman recreated the role of Emma Peel in the 1998 movie The Avengers, which earned a rousing 1 star from Rotten Tomatoes.   Well, really, could any actress other than Diana Rigg be Mrs. Peel?  Yes, yes, fellow baby boomers, I know there were other actresses who tried.  Honor Blackman, who preceded Diana Rigg in the series and later played Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, and Linda Thorson who came after Diana Rigg.  But let's get real.  Diana Rigg was the Emma Peel.

Here's an article on the 50th anniversary of The Avengers TV series, written by a fellow baby boomer: Classic 1960s Brit TV series "The Avengers" turns 50

Before I sign off today's post, I'll leave the recipe for the Emma Peel Cocktail.

Emma Peel Cocktail

Sweet and tart with a kick, like its namesake, this drink is a mix of fruits and champagne.

The Emma Peel

1 measure cherry brandy
1  measure pineapple juice
Top it off with champagne

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