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****Randee Green’s CRIMINAL MISDEEDS is
#56 in the never-ending series called INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION where
the Chris Rice Cooper Blog (CRC)
focuses on one specific excerpt from a fiction genre and how that fiction
writer wrote that specific excerpt. All INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links
are at the end of this piece.
Name of fiction work? And were there other names
you considered that you would like to share with us? The title
of my mystery novel is CRIMINAL MISDEEDS. My agent, Jessica
Alvarez of BookEnds LLC, is the one who came up with the title. I had
originally been calling my novel FAMILY TRADITION in honor of the
Hank Williams Jr. song. Trust me, once you meet Carrie Shatner’s family, you’ll
understand how it was a fitting title. But Jessica didn’t think that FAMILY
TRADITION sounded like the title of a mystery novel. Jessica pitched
some new titles at me, and we agreed that CRIMINAL MISDEEDS was a more genre
appropriate title.
What is the date you began writing this
piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of
fiction? I worked on writing CRIMINAL
MISDEEDS off-and-on for three-and-a-half years. I began writing CRIMINAL
MISDEEDS in January 2011 when I was in grad school working on my MA in
Creative Writing. It wasn’t until the summer of 2014 that I felt that CRIMINAL
MISDEEDS was ready to be submitted to agents. I was almost immediately
signed to BookEnds LLC. After some revisions, my agent began sending my novel
out to publishers in the fall of 2014. It wasn’t until January of 2017 that CRIMINAL
MISDEEDS was picked up by Coffeetown Press. Then it was another year of
edits and revisions before the novel was published on July 1, 2018.
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. And can you please include a photo? I wrote most of CRIMINAL MISDEEDS while sitting on my couch. I like to be in a quiet, comfortable place when I write. My couch is a good place to relax with my laptop. To be honest, it’s not the most comfortable couch and I have to sit on a big throw pillow to spare myself from back pain.
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. And can you please include a photo? I wrote most of CRIMINAL MISDEEDS while sitting on my couch. I like to be in a quiet, comfortable place when I write. My couch is a good place to relax with my laptop. To be honest, it’s not the most comfortable couch and I have to sit on a big throw pillow to spare myself from back pain.
What were your writing habits while
writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write
in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? At the time I was writing CRIMINAL MISDEEDS, I was
in graduate school and was only working part-time. I would do most of my
writing in the afternoon or at night. I am a night owl, and I would stay up
late into the night to write. I do a lot of my plotting using pen and paper,
but I do the vast majority of my writing on my laptop.
I usually have a big glass of ice water on
hand when I write so that I don’t have to get up whenever I get thirsty. For
the most part, I have to work in silence. I can get very easily distracted, so
I won’t listen to music or watch television while writing. The only time I
might watch TV while writing is when a NASCAR race is on or my favorite soccer
team is playing. Even then, I will have the sound on just barely loud enough to
hear it.
What is the summary of this specific fiction work? Detective Carrie Shatner comes from a long line of criminals, and, while she’s reluctant to admit it, she’s somewhat proud of her ancestry. As far back as the Shatners can be traced, they have been breaking the law and running from it, too. It’s a family tradition. Over the years, Carrie has tried to distance herself from her family’s criminal activities. But that is easier said than done. Carrie works for the Wyatt County Sheriff’s Department in Eastern Texas, and her main job is to cover up her family’s crimes and keep them out of jail.
Good news: the dead man is not a Shatner.
Bad news: the Shatners are now suspects in a homicide investigation.
Soon, the fairgrounds are overrun with law enforcement, including a Texas Ranger who is taking over the investigation. Sergeant Jerrod Hardy has never met any of the Shatners, but he has heard plenty of stories about their criminal activities – most of which are true. Even though Hardy’s initial suspect list is entirely made up of Shatners, even he’s having trouble believing that any of Shatners were dumb enough to kill someone and then leave the body at the scene of the family’s party.
Despite serious
misgivings, Hardy decides to allow Carrie to help him investigate. She’s
convinced that the Shatners are being framed, and she believes that, with
Hardy’s help, she can find the person responsible. Unfortunately, her family
isn’t doing much to help prove their innocence. And outsiders aren’t making it
easy for Carrie either.
Can you give the reader just enough information
for them to understand what is going on in the excerpt? This
excerpt is from the very beginning of CRIMINAL MISDEEDS. It is an
introduction to my main character and her family. Carrie Shatner is a detective
with the local sheriff’s department. She is also related to a bunch of
criminals. Her family members expect Carrie to use her job to help them get
away with their crimes. This is Carrie’s justification for why she does what
she does.
Please include the excerpt and include page numbers as reference. The excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer. Excerpt from CRIMINAL MISDEEDS (pages 1-2)
I come from a long line of
criminals.
Moonshiners, rumrunners, and
drug dealers. Horse thieves and carjackers. Bank robbers, burglars,
pickpockets, and con artists. And then there has been the occasional killer.
You name it, whether it’s a felony or a misdemeanor, somewhere along the line a
member of my family has committed it.
As far back as the Shatner
family could be traced – from southern England to the mountains of western
North Carolina, and now to the Piney Woods of East Texas – we had been breaking
the law. And running from it, too.
It was a family tradition.
You see, the Shatners have
never swum in the baby pool of life. We’ve always been out in the deep end, and
we jumped in headfirst.
As for me, every day I fight my
genetic predisposition to break the law. Some days I’ve been more successful
than others. You see, I can’t break the law when I’m the one who is supposed to
be upholding it.
My name is Carrie Shatner, and
for the last three-and-a-half years I have worked as a detective and crime
scene technician for the Wyatt County Sheriff’s Department in East Texas. That
would put my Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State
University to good use except there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of serious
crime in Wyatt County. I mainly sat behind my desk all day, twiddling my
thumbs, playing Sudoku, and keeping up with my various social media accounts.
While my official job was to
process crime scenes and deal with all parts of criminal investigations, my
unofficial job was to cover up my family’s illegal activities and keep them out
of jail. I’d be the first to admit that what I have been doing wasn’t ethical.
It was probably also criminal. I tried not to think about that too much. To be
honest, I tried not to think about any of it too much. Most days I felt like
quitting my job. Family obligation prevented that.
I’m not saying that all of the Shatners have
been hardened criminals. Sure, most of the older ones were. But at least some
of the younger ones shied away from the family business and seemed to be
sticking to the straight and narrow. And they were the reason why I do what I
do. Yes, I clean up the crimes of the guilty. But I do it to protect the
innocent.
These days, the laws my various
family members break have been fairly minor ones. Okay, some were still kind of
major. But it was nothing compared to what we used to engage in. I mean, I’m
pretty sure we were no longer involved in contract killing or organized crime.
What I did know was that my
great-uncles had a moonshine still out in the woods and a marijuana crop
concealed in a bunch of old Cold War bomb shelters. Every time I caught one of
my family members selling the homebrew or the pot, they would promise me it was
the last time. I didn’t believe them. I didn’t arrest them either, because I
knew it wouldn’t stop them. It would also infuriate the rest of the family.
And, while tempting, that wasn’t a risk I was quite willing to take. At least
not yet.
Occasionally, one of the
younger Shatners would steal a car or deface some public property or get busted
for underage drinking. The older Shatners were always getting nabbed for public
indecency and public intoxication. Some of them were also heavily involved in
insurance scams. And then there had been the occasional assault. But we hadn’t
killed anyone – accidently or on purpose – in years. Or, if someone had, I
didn’t know about it.
When you got down to it, the
majority of the bad things that the Shatners have done were just plain dumb.
And, as far as I knew, being stupid wasn’t illegal. We would have been in
serious trouble otherwise.
I don’t want you to go into
this thinking that all of the Shatners were bad people. Most of them have just
been a little misguided.
At least that’s what I kept
telling myself.
Until I found the body.
Why is this excerpt so emotional for you? And
can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific
excerpt? While this is in no way an emotionally taxing scene, it is a
difficult admission for Carrie Shatner. She is aware of her demons (ex: her
criminally-inclined family members), but she does her best not to think about
what they do until it directly affects her. She is about to be forced to take a
deeper look into her family, and she’s worried about what she might uncover.
She has been ignoring the elephant in the room for a long time, and now that
proverbial elephant has turned into a dead body.
This scene was more draining than
emotional for me. Like Carrie, I needed to explain that the Shatners are bad
people. But they aren’t all that bad. Carrie and Shatners may not be very good
role models, but they are interesting people.
Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. I didn’t delete too much from the scene, but I did rewrite it a lot. Getting it worded right was a process. I didn’t want to include too much that wasn’t necessary, but I wanted to make sure that I included the crucial facts. I also wanted to keep it humorous.
Other works you have published? The second Carrie Shatner Mystery, CRIMINAL CHOKEHOLD, is due out later this year.
Anything you would like to add? Thanks for the interview!
Twitter: @RandeeGReen_12
Instagram:
randee_green_author
INSIDE THE EMOTION OF
FICTION links
001 11 15 2018 Nathaniel
Kaine’s
Thriller Novel
John
Hunter – The Veteran
002 11 18 2018 Ed
Protzzel’s
Futuristic/Mystery/Thriller
The
Antiquities Dealer
003 11 23 2018 Janice
Seagraves’s
Science
Fiction Romance
Exodus
Arcon
004 11 29 2018
Christian Fennell’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
The Fiddler
in the Night
005 12 02 2018 Jessica
Mathews’s
Adult
Paranormal Romance
Death
Adjacent
006 12 04 2018 Robin Jansen’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
Ruby the
Indomitable
007 12 12 2018 Adair Valerez’s
Literary
Fiction Novel
Scrim
008 12 17 218
Kit Frazier’s
Mystery Novel
Dead Copy
009 12 21 2019 Robert Craven’s
Noir/Spy Novel
The Road
of a Thousand Tigers
010 01 13 2019 Kristine Goodfellow’s
Contemporary
Romantic Fiction
The Other
Twin
011 01 17 2019 Nancy J Cohen’s
Cozy Mystery
Trimmed To
Death
012 01 20 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
Crime Novel
Second
Story Man
013 01 23 2019 Alexis Fancher’s
Flash Fiction
His Full
Attention
014 01 27 2019 Brian L Tucker’s
Young Adult/Historical
POKEWEED: AN ILLUSTRATED NOVELLA
015 01 31 2019 Robin Tidwell’s
Dystopian
Reduced
016 02 07 2019 J.D. Trafford’s
Legal
Fiction/Mystery
Little Boy
Lost
017 02 08 2019 Paula Shene’s
Young Adult
ScieFi/Fantasy/Romance/Adventure
My Quest
Begins
018 02 13 2019 Talia Carner’s
Mainstream
Fiction/ Suspense/ Historical
Hotel
Moscow
019 02 15 2019 Rick Robinson’s
Multidimensional
Fiction
Alligator
Alley
020 02 21 2019 LaVerne Thompson’s
Urban Fantasy
The Soul
Collectors
021 02 27 2019 Marlon L Fick’s
Post-Colonialist
Novel
The
Nowhere Man
022 03 02 2019 Carol Johnson’s
Mainstream
Novel
Silk And
Ashes
023 03 06 2019 Samuel Snoek-Brown’s
Short Story
Collection
There Is
No Other Way to Worship Them
024 03 08 2019 Marlin Barton’s
Short Story
Collection
Pasture
Art
025 03 18 2019 Laura Hunter’s
Historical
Fiction
Beloved
Mother
026 03 21 2019 Maggie Rivers’s
Romance
Magical
Mistletoe
027 03 25 2019 Faith
Gibson’s
Paranormal
Romance
Rafael
028 03 27 2019 Valerie Nieman’s
Tall Tale
To The
Bones
029 04 04 2019 Betty Bolte’s
Paranormal
Romance
Veiled
Visions of Love
030 04 05 2019 Marianne
Maili’s
Tragicomedy
Lucy, go
see
031 04 10 2019 Gregory Erich Phillips’s
Mainstream
Fiction
The Exile
032 04 15 2019 Jason Ament’s
Speculative
Fiction
Rabid Dogs
033 04 24 2019 Stephen P. Keirnan’s
Historical
Novel
The
Baker’s Secret
034 05 01 2019 George Kramer’s
Fantasy
Arcadis:
Prophecy Book
035 05 05 2019 Erika Sams’s
Adventure/Fantasy/Romance
Rose of Dance
036 05 07 2019 Mark Wisniewski’s
Literary
Fiction
Watch Me
Go
037 05 08 2019 Marci Baun’s
Science
Fiction/Horror
The
Whispering House
038 05 10 2019 Suzanne M. Wolfe’s
Historical
Fiction
Murder By
Any Name
039 05 12 2019 Edward DeVito’s
Historical/Fantasy
The
Woodstock Paradox
040 05 14 2019 Gytha Lodge’s
Literary/Crime
She Lies
In Wait
041 05 16 2019 Kari Bovee’s
Historical
Fiction/Mystery
Peccadillo
At The Palace: An Annie Oakley Mystery
042 05 20 2019 Annie Seaton’s
Time Travel
Romance
Follow Me
043 05 22 2019 Paula Rose Michelson’s
Inspirational
Christian Romance
Rosa &
Miguel – Love’s Legacy: Prequel to The Naomi
Chronicles
044 05 24 2019 Gracie C McKeever’s
BDMS/Interracial
Romance
On The
Edge
045 06 03 2019 Micheal Maxwell’s
Mystery
The Soul
of Cole
046 06 04 2019 Jeanne Mackin’s
Historical
The Last
Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli
and
Coco
Chanel
047 06 07 2019 Philip Shirley’s
Suspense/Thriller
The
Graceland Conspiracy
048 06 08 2019 Bonnie Kistler’s
Domestic
Suspense
The House
on Fire
049 06 13 2019 Barbara Taylor Sissel’s
Domestic
Suspense/Family Drama
Tell No
One
050 06 18 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
Short Story/
Crime Fiction
“No Good Deed” from Down to the River
051 06 19 2019 Rita Dragonette’s
Historical
Fiction
The
Fourteenth of September
052 06 20 2019 Nona
Caspers’s
Literary
Novel/Collage
The Fifth
Woman
053 06 26 2019 Jeri Westerson’s
Paranormal
Romance
Shadows in
the Mist
054 06 28 2019 Brian Moreland’s
Horror
The
Devil’s Woods
055 06 29 2019
Epic Fantasy
Wings
Unseen
056 07 02 2019 Randee Green’s
Mystery Novel
Criminal
Misdeeds
