Ah, thank you, Elsie! :lol: I have to confess that my initial expectation --- when offered the opportunity to write a book based on the CSI Las Vegas characters --- was exactly what you said: all I needed to do was give the readers a couple of possibly-entwined crime scenes and some interesting evidence for their beloved and very-well-established characters to dig at. It sounded like a pretty easy thing to write. And that was basically what I sent to Pocket Books as a first draft: a story that didn't dwell much on defining --- or elaborating about --- the CSI characters themselves because I assumed most of my readers would have watched the TV episodes and knew the characters intimately [I was right about that!]. What I didn't understand, because I'd spent all of my energy during all of those years of working crime scenes trying to understand the emotions and motivations of the suspects and victims based on the evidence [we --- the CSIs --- were not supposed to be emotionally involved with the suspects and victims themselves, much less each other! ], was the simple fact that the fans of CSI were deeply involved in all of the intertwined emotions of the CSIs and wanted more. Ed Schlesinger, my editor at Pocket Books, and several of the posters here at Talk CSI went to a lot of effort to make sure that I understood the importance of including those emotions in my manuscript. So if IN EXTREMIS does work as a story, it will be because all of you cared ... and, hopefully, because even a (relatively) old dog/CSI can still learn a new trick or two.
Ken, You came thru like a champ! And your point rang true as a bell! Despite my previous trepidations, I was really very surprised! Well done!
Thank you kindly, sir! BTW, to the other readers/posters: please don't let the fact that I'm engaged with this web site stop you from making whatever comments you might want to make re IN EXTREMIS, positive or negative. You have every right to your opinions, and authors like myself aren't going to improve their skills if readers fail to let them know what they didn't like [I have a feeling I may regret saying this! ]. But don't worry about hurting my feelings. I've got a pretty thick hide from 40 years in law enforcement; and besides, you'd have a hard time outdoing the fellow who wrote a review of one of my earlier thriller novels, saying that the book was "basically a waste of a prefectly good tree." And no, it's not considered sporting (or legal) for me to use my law enforcement training and resources to hunt the fellow down.
Ken, For future reference, call me Victor. "Sir" sound more like your my employee. (If you recall, the two of us had a discussion around the time you were preparing the drafts to be published.)
Agreed ... so to amend my early post: thank you kindly, Victor! I really did --- and still do --- appreciate your comments and concerns when I was setting out to write IN EXTREMIS. It really does help to get honest and straight-forward input from thoughtful readers. However, as a bit of an ironic twist, I would also note that because you were an early purchaser of IN EXTREMIS, I was very definitely "working for you" ... and for pay!
I'm about halfway though In Extremis and loving it! The fact that from the beginning you had me drawn in to what was happening is a huge plus. It's very hard to put down, and as much reading as I have done in my life time that marks this as a great book. Thus far you have shown you do amazing writing, please do keep up with this. Also the characterizations are spot on and just the way they are in the show. I have seen a few spelling errors, but that's more the fault of the editor than yours.
As I stated earlier, a true CSI must both gather and interpret the evidence, otherwise he/she is naught but a technician.
I'm sure my editors would prefer to receive a manuscript with a minimal amount of spelling and grammatical errors that they have to catch; but that is what they get paid to do ... in addition to putting up with eccentric/ornery writers, of course. :lol: And it's nice to hear that you're enjoying the story.
Well I read an average of 6-8 books a month, including a lot of CSI books. So I'm used to seeing odd things in different places. I want to edit books for a living, so I hope I can live up to the job.
I read a lot of of books:CSI, Forensics and Crime Scene Investigation. One of my favorites is "An Intro to Criminalistics" by Charles O'Hara and James Osterburg, espcially chs. 23-27.
Hey Ken, you've been so gracious to answer my questions in the forensics thread. I wanted you to know that I read "In Extremis", very good story. Enjoyed it a lot. Great writing. So are you going to write another CSI LV book? Oh, by the way, I think it's great that you belong to this board and participate. Not many authors would.
stokesgirl, I once read on the Star Trek message board that writers always have to be careful not to accidentally use something from the boards in their novels, otherwise they run the risk of being sued.
Glad to be of help ... and it was very nice to hear that you enjoyed the story. Not sure what my current status is with PocketBooks and the CSI novels. I imagine they want to wait and see how the first one sells before signing me up for another one ... which is probably a good thing for me because I'm working hard on trying to finish a book I've owed Bantam for quite some time [it's often tough to find writing time in between the day job, ranch & family]. Several of my fellow crime lab directors and I try to put a lot of effort in looking for that next generation of forensic scientists to take over when we retire. It occurred to me that that was a great site to encourage folks who were drawn to the profession by the TV shows to take a closer look at the jobs. And besides, I've enjoyed engaging with posters on this site ... lots of good questions and thoughtful follow-ups ... exactly what you'd expect out of a well-trained CSI.
Ummm, I suppose that could be an issue if the author took a major plot line from a website discussion; but (and I'm not a lawyer!) it would probably be tough for the suing party to claim theft of 'personal' material that was freely posted on the site. As a 'pending' author: if you've got a good idea for a story, keep it to yourself!!! Re author protections: Most authors I know are very careful to maintain copies of their ongoing drafts of their manuscripts, so they could show, if necessary, that they had the idea for a story --- and were actively working on it --- starting at a certain date. But the real concern seems to be receiving (and then reading) unsolicited manuscripts from other want-to-be authors, and then being accused of plagiarizing at a later date. I resolve this in a fairly simple manner by destroying any unsolicited manuscripts sent my way without opening the package. I supposed I could be sued anyway; but its highly unlikely that any story I write is going to match up in any significant way to another manuscript if I haven't read that manuscript. And then, too, I'm always willing to take a polygraph.