How I Met the Coroner

Please enjoy this guest post from a fellow writer and Sisters in Crime member:

Guest Post by Donnell Ann Bell

You've heard of How I Met Your Mother? Well, today I'd like to talk about How I Met the Coroner. If you're a mystery writer, chances are you need knowledge of bodies now and then, and perhaps you need to know how to bump somebody off. When I began my fiction career in 2001, I wasn't particularly versed in either. I thought experts such as coroners, police lieutenants and FBI profilers were akin to God.
     What I learned later is that they're just people and some actually like to talk to writers. But stuck in that I-could-never-contact-an-expert mentality, I started off by annoying my pharmacist--actually he was quite nice. It's the customers around us who were rather shocked. They seemed to take exception to my questions like how do I get my hands on a controlled substance? or I need something that would trigger a heart attack but don't want it to show up in an autopsy.
     I wasn't having any luck. One day I picked up the phone and dialed the El Paso County (Colorado) Coroner's office, and a booming--and I mean booming, female voice answered. I, on the other hand, did a fine imitation of a mouse. "I'm a writer," I squeaked. "I wonder if you could answer a few questions."
     I'll never forget her response. "You're who? You want to do what?" But when she finally answered my question, I thought, oh, my gosh, this woman knows EVERYTHING. Still, she had a job to do and I didn't want to make a pest of myself. I went back to writing, and because the pharmacist now had a restraining order against me, I decided to not overdo it with my new contact. I would only ask questions that I absolutely couldn't find out on my own.
     Every once in a while, though, I was stuck and I called her. After all, I was completely anonymous, and once you realize that these coroners (and experts) possess the knowledge of the world, you can't go back. You realize things on CSI or Criminal Minds aren't accurate. You take on a zombie-like persona with arms outstretched, mumbling...must get it right.

Tom Adair, Kris Herndon, and her husband Karl

     The addiction wasn't going away. In fact it became stronger. So, I enrolled in my first Citizens Academy. (I've completed three, including The Writers Police Academy.) But I loved my first two so much, and appreciated what these people do for a living, that I volunteered.Then one day, our coordinator announced, "Today, our speaker is Chris Herndon, Deputy Coroner for the El Paso County Coroner's Office."
     I slumped in my chair. This was the woman. It was fine as long as she didn't know who I was. But what if she recognized me? What if she put two and two together that I was that crazy writer?
     My curious nature isn't always my friend, and as she talked, I naturally had questions. The moment I asked, however, she zeroed in on me like a torpedo from a destroyer. Her eyes narrowed and she knew. And later when she asked, "Don't I know you from somewhere?" I had to tell the truth.
     Turns out, she didn't think I was that strange. In fact, we've become good friends. But I couldn't keep a goldmine like Chris to myself. Soon, I invited her to talk to my writers' groups. She and I wrote a mock coroner's inquest, presented by my local Sisters in Crime.

     

Recently, Chris and her husband Karl (a former depuy sheriff), and CSI expert Tom Adair presented a workshop for Pikes Peak Writers Conference on how to process a crime scene.
     If you're looking for accurate research, don't be afraid to contact a professional. What's the worst that can happen? They're too busy? They'll hang up? Since 2001 very few people have hung up on me. Most enjoy helping writers. As for me, I'm still hooked on getting it right. That's why I co-own Crimescenewriters with Veteran police officer Wally Lind (retired), a Yahoo group dedicated to writers who love to ask as many questions as I do.
     Have questions for an expert? Pick up the phone, volunteer, and get involved. When it comes to getting it right, you'll never go wrong by going to the source or better yet getting hands-on training.

Donnell Ann Bell is the author of three best-selling novels brought to you from Bell Bridge Books. THE PAST CAME HUNTING, DEADLY RECALL and BETRAYED. Her next book will be released September 2014. Check out her website on www.donnellannbell.com or follow her on TWITTER @donnellannbell or find her on Facebook.

Expert Sources: The Often Unsung Heroes of Mysteries

It's hard to believe that three weeks ago I was sitting in The Sugar Bowl in Old Town Scottsdale having lunch with Annette Mahon, enjoying the blue Arizona skies, and loving the mid-seventies temperatures. Annette is the author of five quilting mysteries about the St. Rose Quilting Bee group. Now, in early March, I'm looking out my living room window at the snow blanketing my Illinois yard and contemplating the zero temperatures.

At least the sky is blue. Today.

It always stirs my thoughts when I talk with other writers. Something Annette said caused me to consider the expert sources I use for my mysteries. She explained that the Scottsdale Police Department has a public relations person whom writers can call for answers to their police procedure questions. That thought stayed in my head for several days. The entire Phoenix/Scottsdale area is so huge that comparing it to my little town is ludicrous. I don't think we have a specific public relations person designated as "the one most likely to return calls to authors."

Annette and I are members of the Sisters in Crime Scottsdale chapter called Desert Sleuths, and at a recent meeting we heard a Phoenix police detective discuss the procedures used for arresting people in the metro area. The scenarios were quite different from those used in our little town. Needless to say, the severity

of the crimes differs considerably between Phoenix (pop. 4.3 million) and Monmouth, Illinois (pop. 10,000 on a good day.) One trip walking past the waiting room of a Mesa, Arizona emergency room told me that. Gun shots, stabbings, and domestic violence aside, those scenes are rare here in our little hamlet.

I remember thinking, "Gosh, I have such great experts I can call and have a sit-down, face-to-face, interview. It might cost me a cup of coffee, but I come away with amazing information that finds its way into my mysteries. While most of my experts have worked earlier in more populated places, they now deal with small town crime and police procedures. That's what I'm writing about, so I'm really fortunate to have these resources at my fingertips." Every expert I've interviewed in the past year has been pleasant, funny, professional, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable.

I also have secret weapons. Over my many high school teaching years, I came into contact with some 4,000 students. Many of them are now in positions where they have information I need. A quick

phone call: ("Really? You got a 'D' on that Moby Dick paper twenty-five years ago? What can I say? I was young and inexperienced. On the other hand, can you tell me...") The internet has made it speedier to contact these former students when their areas of expertise collide with information I need to know. Believe me, I'm not beneath calling in a few favors, just like my protagonist, retired teacher Grace Kimball.

Back in our town I must admit that as a first time mystery novelist I was a little worried about calling these "expert" people. What if they didn't want to talk to me? After all, I don't really have a murder mystery published yet. I'm just writing it and maybe I won't find a publisher. Then I had one of "those talks."

"What's the worst thing they can say?"

"No."

"So, they say 'no.' That just means you go to Plan B, right?"

"Right. And Plan B is?"

As it turned out, I discovered that people are very pleased, enthusiastic, and flattered to talk about their work. Here I

am, a novelist who used to be an English teacher, and who knows nothing about bullets, dead bodies, or arrest warrants, but I'm learning fast. Yes, I've done my research from books on these topics, but the real expert is so much more informative. Believe me, people who are police officers or coroners are happy to fill me in on those details--especially the grizzly ones--and I'm happy to give them credit for doing so. Readers today call authors out when they see errors in crime procedures so it pays to be accurate. So far no expert has turned me down, and each has been amazing at clarifying answers to my questions and making suggestions that I might not have considered.

These unsung heroes are going to be the subjects of several blog posts over the next few weeks. I plan to begin with a post about how an author might go about preparing and doing an interview when working with expert sources. Then I'll follow up with descriptions of the experts I used and the kinds of information I gained from talking with them. I'll discuss "my" police chief, fire chief, coroner, and police detective. I know it doesn't have quite the lilt or alliteration of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, but it works for me.

Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day

Librarians definitely solve mysteries!  I spent the day working as a volunteer at the Warren County Public Library in Monmouth, Illinois.  Monmouth is a town of 10,000 in west central Illinois about twenty miles from the Mississippi River. 

Kathy is the saintly woman designated to keep an eye on me.  What a patient person! In this photo were are standing in front of books by authors who are members of Sisters in Crime. We solved a lot of mysteries such as figuring out what is in all the nooks and crannies of the huge old building.  Some of the doors in the upstairs are heavy metal and slide open and closed as if we were in a meat packing plant. Very, very old.

Here I am checking out a book for a patron.  The library is a hub of activity in this little town.  Working here would help you see a huge cross section of the town.


A librarian's job is a lot like teaching.  First, you rarely sit down or get a chance to go to the bathroom.  Second, you are always answering peoples' questions or trying to find things to help them.  I learned how to check books in and out, how to shelve, download digital books, figure out how to check out a book with a hand-written barcode, and how to make the *&(!!# wand work to check out books.


Kathy told me of an amazing mystery.  They had some books that were overdue and tried to reach the patron by sending a letter.  The letter came back from the post office marked "deceased."  So, instead of just writing it off, the librarians began asking selected patrons if they had seen this person  [Remember, this is a small town!] One of the question-ees had not seen the person, but a few weeks later she approached the desk and explained that the person they had been seeking was sitting at a computer a few yards away.  So the librarian was able to confirm the person's name and give him that bad news that he owed money for books.  The good news was that he wasn't dead.

This is one of the "nooks and crannies" where "old technology" goes to die.  Remember the old card catalog?




I also learned of a guilt letter.  Someone who had stolen books years ago and not returned them had an attack of guilt and wrote the library a letter.  He wanted to apologize for taking the books and offered to make restitution after quite a few years had gone by.  I wonder what the statute of limitations is on stolen books?


All in all it was a great day and I felt like I had done my share to say "thank you" to our library for all they do in supporting local authors and educating people and providing amazing services.  

Sisters in Crime Loves Libraries!

Libraries have always been a huge part of my life, so I am especially thrilled to be working on Saturday at the Warren County Public Library on behalf of Sisters in Crime, an organization that promotes women writing crime fiction and mysteries.  It's a way to say "thank you" for the wonderful help libraries and book stores give to writers.

Growing up in Galesburg, Illinois [population 35,000], I spent many Saturday mornings in its library's children's room.  The Galesburg Public Library was built in the 1870s, a product partly of the generosity of Andrew Carnegie.  A huge, dark stone structure, it was built in the Romanesque style.  Even though I was a child at the time, I remember the unique glass floor on the second story and the doll's house in the children's department.  Many a Saturday I sat and peered into the windows of the doll's house, wondering who could have created such tiny people and furniture. It was a never-ending source of imagination for small children.


When I was twelve, that beautiful library burned to the ground on May 9, 1958.  I remember that night because my father managed the drive-in theatre, almost three miles outside of town.  I was at the theatre that night and we could see the flames roaring high into the darkness.  It was a terrible loss, even for the mind of a child.  For a brief time the city had a temporary library housing what books hadn't been destroyed by fire or damaged by water.  Then, in 1961, a new, more modern building rose on the same site as the old library.  It wasn't the same, but it still became a place where I researched debate topics in high school and checked out books. 


At the same time I was aware of the library at Knox College, also in my hometown.  A friend of my father's was a librarian there.  In fact, I was allowed to use the rare book room as an 8th grader, poring over the papers about Lewis and Clark.  The library fed my love of history and that love became the major of my undergrad studies at Knox.  I worked at the library as part of my work/study job and loved every minute.  I can still smell the books,  see the row after row of non-digital newspapers and magazines, and remember the historical artifacts and papers.

So that brings me to a magnificent library, one I have used since 1968, when I moved to the small town of Monmouth, Illinois [population 10,000], and discovered the Warren County Public Library <www.wcplibrary.org>.  It began as a reading room and library in 1868, shortly after the Civil War, housing only newspapers and magazines.  In 1870, a donor offered funds to build a two-story building, the first building in the state of Illinois given for a people's library.

The library grew and branched out, literally!  By 1904, WCPL had five branch libraries and in 1920 it became a library supported by state funds under a new law.  In 1921 the branches had grown to twelve.  The library expanded in 1962, 1992, and 1996.  A genealogy area was added and a children's area expanded.  Since then a teenage area has been added.




I came into this picture in 1968.  By then the WCPL had begun issuing library cards.  My number is in the low two-hundreds, a badge of honor, because today the library has 14,035 current patrons with library cards.  I have used this library for 44 years and have yet to stump them when it comes to acquiring or having on hand a particular item I want.  Recently, I used both the library and genealogy room to research information for my book, The Education of a Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks).  In fact, the library sold hundreds of copies of my book locally and sponsored a reading and book signing when my book first came out.  


Currently, I am researching a mystery which has historical ties to events that happened in Monmouth.  The library has been an incalculable source of information.  


In short, the Warren County Public Library is a gem that would be impossible to replace!


[Photos from the websites of the Galesburg Public Library and the Warren County Public Library]