How is YOUR writing?

Show of hands..how many of you out there have noticed a decline in the quality of your handwriting?  I swear, since I started typing a lot more on my computer, I've watched my formerly neat handwriting morph into something you'd see on a doctor's prescription pad.

Have we become THAT technologically advanced that actual writing is falling by the wayside?  Rarely do we send notes or letters in the mail anymore.  Even greeting cards can now be sent electronically! 

I wonder if there are any writers out there that actually WRITE?  And I mean

that literally.   I find I can't do it for two reasons - one, my thoughts &

hands are quicker in concert, and two -- when I do try it, I practically revert into my old standby of shorthand I learned many years ago just to keep up with my brain.  (yes I still remember it and even THINK in shorthand - weird I know, but hey, that's  how I've kept up with it.  It's like learning a new language-if you don't USE it, you lose it).

Also, if I write down my thoughts, my hand seriously cramps up after a while.  At that point, I throw down the gauntlet (I mean pen), and turn to my trusty laptop.  So..anyone ELSE out there ever actually hand write anything other than a grocery list?  Let me know..

I'm Baaaaack!

Wow, it's been six months since I last posted on my blog!  If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm a crime and trial junkie.  I've been wrapped up in the (in)famous Jodi Arias trial.  A woman who stabbed her ex-lover nearly 30 times, slit his throat, then shot him for good measure.  The epitome of a woman scorned.

This is the stuff of novels, though if anyone were to have written it, nobody would believe it was true.  Each new day brought with it another tale of filthy deceptions.  Anything to get her out of First-Degree Murder, which carries the death penalty.   It had all the hallmarks of great fiction -sex, lies, and yes....audiotape!

Perhaps a lot of you already know me from my HLN Crime Fan page on Facebook, where we've discussed this trial ad nauseam.  I've enjoyed meeting many new people that I now consider friends and hope they'll follow my blog as well.

I love reading, but I gravitate toward mysteries, detective stories, and true crime.  I write what I read, which is what they say authors tend to do.

So, for those of you that might have wondered what happened to my psychological thriller novel, it was put on hold while I allowed my mind to stray.  Not a good thing for a writer, as I've realized.  Much like exercise, if you miss one day, it can turn into two.then three..and so on. Writing is the same.  Every author will tell you to write EVERY DAY, and they're right.  If you don't, the 'muscle' becomes atrophied (yes, another metaphor to exercise, but if the shoe fits.).

When I received the feedback from my editor (who is WONDERFUL), I was overwhelmed by all the changes that were necessary, and I let it get to me.  I didn't know where to start.  I felt like I had to practically re-write the whole novel.  I've begun the process, and let me tell you, as a first-timer, it's ARDUOUS.  However, I want to make this happen, so I have to do it - no more excuses!  Life is way too short, and this has been my calling since childhood.

Now I see why some authors take YEARS to write a novel.the easy part (for me) is the writing - EDITING is the bear.  Learning what areas to tweak, which characters you (sadly) need to part with, and what you need to expand on to make the reader identify with your story and fantastical people.  It's a learning experience and can only serve to make me a stronger writer in the future.

There will ALWAYS be 'another trial' to follow, but now that I have a break, I'm making it my mission to forge ahead and work on the book.  I need to find a balance, which I've never been good at.  That Billy Joel song, "I Go To Extremes" seems to have been written for me!  I'm either gung-ho about a project or totally ignoring it.  I'm a great 'starter,' but this time, I need to be a 'finisher.'

DIANE DIMOND INTERVIEW.....

I've had the pleasure of getting to know Diane Dimond, acclaimed journalist and author, recently.  We enjoy spirited games of "Words with Friends" on Facebook.  She was kind and generous enough to agree to an interview.  Thank you, Diane!!

I remember first seeing you on Court TV and wonder how you got your start.  Did you always want to be a journalist?  
I started in the business in Albuquerque, NM. My best friend’s dad owned the local CBS radio and TV station and I got a job there answering the phones on the week-ends in high school. I naturally gravitated back to the newsroom because that’s where all the action was! 

Ultimately, I became the morning newscaster on the radio – and in the afternoon I covered the cops beat. I won a big award (American Bar Assoc’n Silver Gavel Award) for revealing corruption within the local Sheriff’s Department – and THAT helped me get a job at National Public Radio in Washington, DC.  I was the newscaster on the program, ‘All Things Considered’ for many years. Then, missing being a reporter (who wants to be stuck behind a desk, right?) I jumped to the RKO Radio Networks and became the Capitol Hill reporter. I also covered the White House, Pentagon, national political conventions – you name it.  Stayed there about six years and then figured if I was ever going to try TV I better snap to it.  I was 27 years old, a single mother and I was flabbergasted that WCBS-TV in New York offered me a job. I covered New Jersey for the station.

Next stop was a very short stint at Fox TV (it wasn’t even really a network then) where I did a pilot for a 60-minutes type show. That never got picked up but I was under contract so they put me on “A Current Affair” with Maury Povich. I liked the longer pieces I was able to produce there and when the boss jumped ship to launch “Hard Copy” he took me with him. 

We spent most of the 90’s living in Hollywood, California. My husband (yes, I re-married) is a radio anchorman at CBS in New York - and when we moved to Ca. he worked for station KFWB. While at “Hard Copy”, in late 1993,  I broke what was my biggest story:  The Michael Jackson molestation case. I also got to travel the country interviewing crazy inmates like James Earl Ray, Kenneth Bianchi (Hillside Strangler), Pamela Smart, Richard Allen Davis and Jeffrey McDonald. 

 In the late 90’s Geraldo called me and lured me to come back East to do a nightly newscast with him on CNBC called “Upfront Tonight.” After two years he lost interest and NBC transferred me to MSNBC where I anchored day-time hours, hosted a crime show called “Missing Persons” and ultimately was assigned to cover Al Gore during the disputed Presidential race. (I stood outside the Vice Presidents mansion in DC for 33 days waiting for that damned chad recount!)  

After that I was exhausted and decided to take some time off.  The only thing I did was a little freelance at Court TV, sitting in for Catherine Crier when she took time off. Shortly thereafter the tragedy of 9-11 happened – and I didn’t work for any bona fide news department anymore!! It was maddening.  But my old acquaintance Roger Ailes called me and asked if I would come fill in as an anchor on Fox News as he was sending all of his anchors overseas to cover the American response to the 9-11 attacks.  I did double duty at Court TV and Fox for about a year.  Then Court TV hired me – and well, you know the rest.  It was there I re-broke the Michael Jackson molestation story.  I had a duel contract with Court TV and NBC (The Today Show & Dateline) during the run-up to the trial and for about a year beyond.  You can see my full resume at my web site – www.dianedimond.net

Who were some of your favorite correspondents and anchors that you’ve worked with along your career? 
As a kid in Albuquerque I was inspired watching Liz Trotta cover the Vietnam War. I thought….wow! A woman as a war correspondent, I’d like to do that! Interestingly, when I went to Fox after 9-11 I got to meet Liz and she and I are fast friends. I’ve worked with so many great people … Josh Mankewicz, Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie (we covered the Jackson trial together) – Mike Wallace and Douglas Edwards  gave me wonderful pep talks along the way. So did Pauline Fredricks at NPR (she was the UN correspondent)  Brian Williams and I were quite a pair when he covered New Jersey for the CBS station of Philly and I covered for WCBS in New York.  He is hysterically funny off the air. Matt Lauer was always very nice to me – for a time we had the same agent. Ann Curry is a magnificently kind person and I hated to see what happened to her at the Today Show.   

You have a weekly column – how do you come up with topics?   Is it difficult to write every week?  
 Sometimes I get a bit stumped for a topic but not very often. I write about things that raise my hackles or touch my soul somehow.  I like to write columns that, after they’ve been read, the reader says, “Gee, I didn’t realize that!” or “I never thought about that topic that way…”  We are a society of laws and rules and when those start to crumble, or if there is unfairness in the system I think we need to pay attention to that.  Note: the Halloween column which will be posted this Monday or the TSA column I wrote recently or the one about the young woman who is doing LIFE IN PRISON for accidentally killing four people.  I like to introduce people to others they might never know about – like the Mother who fought for the right to see her son’s rapist/murderer be put to death (can you imagine that?!) or the woman who dedicated her life to trying to get the hundreds of thousands of old DNA rape kits tested after she’d learned her evidence kit had just sat there for 7 years!  There are so many great crime and justice stories out there…. 

What made you want to become an author?

 I had so much information crammed into my head about Michael Jackson – from 1993 to 2003 (when cops raided Neverland for the 2^nd time) – that I just had to dis-gorge it from my brain! Plus, no one had ever written a non-laudatory book about Jackson.  I wanted to put everything I’d learned into some perspective.  The book, “Cirque du Salahi” came out of me getting pissed off that the media started and then kept up such a stupid, silly for so long.  I had covered the White House. I knew you couldn’t “crash” the White House.  So I did an autopsy of the media coverage and unmasked the whole saga as being over hyped and senseless. (it started with 2 gossip columnists at the Washington Post on a slow Thanksgiving holiday – and all other media outlets pounced on it because, well….hey – it was the WASHINGTON POST reporting it and there was hardly any other news)

Did you experience any difficulties getting your first book published?  Any challenges?

Yes. The Jackson fans wanted to kill me already (seriously) because I dared to report what the police thought their idol had done.  Publishers did not want to venture into anti-celebrity waters – but finally Simon & Shuster/Atria books bought it.  The fans think I made a mint off the book. But, sadly, I did not.  The biggest challenge was trying to finish the book while I was still covering the Jackson trial. I would work at the Santa Maria, Ca courthouse all day – then go to my hotel room and write until I, literally, fell asleep at the computer.

P.S. to this day I still get about half a dozen death threats a month from Jackson fans  worldwide. Most are young kids who have no idea what the truth about MJ was.

How long does it take you to write a book?

Depends. I was so fired up over the stupidity of the White House Gate Crasher saga I think it took only about 6 weeks….and some of that time was spent doing research with the Salahis at their home in Virginia.  P.s. – despite what the haters say the Salahi’s did NOT have any editorial input into the book and they got no money from it….or me. Ever.

What things do you love & hate about writing? 
I love the feeling when I finish a piece. I hate the fact that sitting so long hurts my bad back.

From personal experience, I know you’re a mean “Words with Friends” player.  What else do you like to do when you’re not writing? 

I love to garden, tend my roses and my vegetables. I love spending time with my daughter and my three grandchildren. (Jenna and her husband and kids live about 2 hours north of us) I love to cook, listen to live jazz and go to comedy clubs. Believe me after writing what I write about all the time – one needs to take time out to LAUGH! Besides Words With Friends I find I’m very competitive in all sorts of games – we have a pool table (I usually win) and a dart board (hubby Michael usually wins) in the house. We have mean Monopoly games with the kids…
Oh, and I love my two fat cats, Miles and May.

Any suggestions or advice to help those of us that want to become published authors?

Take a class or course in how to write a good book proposal. Publishers are so shy these days about buying ANY new work – they are that spooked about the E-book craze. So, if you want to sell what you write you have to sell your idea FIRST via the book proposal.  My literary manger, Sharlene Martin, has written a book called, “Publish Your Non-Fiction Book” you might want to pick up.

Do you have another book in the works?

Not one that I’ve been able to sell.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor or inspiration?

Honestly, I just do what I do. I don’t try to pattern myself after others. Love John Grisham’s writing but I will never be able to write like him.  Scott Turow,

Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

My pals Stacy Dittrich and John DeDakis

When reading for fun, what are your favorite genres?

Crime, crime and crime …. Oh, and I just finished “50 Shades of Gray”

INTERVIEW COMING-DIANE DIMOND!!

Diane Dimond....Journalist, Reporter, Anchor, Author....My interview with her coming this week!

"Life After Death..."

I just finished reading "Life After Death" by Damien Echols.  If anyone has heard of the "West Memphis Three," he was one of the boys convicted of murder.  A mystery remains as to whether they were guilty or not, and it's a controversial subject.

After watching all three documentaries entitled "Paradise Lost," I came to believe they were innocent and that one of the victims' stepfather is the real killer.

Damien was the only one to be put on death row, and remained there for 18 years.  Rather than going into the entire story, he was just released last year and wrote this book, which I was anxious to read.

A lot of his prose makes him sound like a true poet at heart.  It was insightful and gave the reader a glimpse into his soul and his experience in prison.

I did have a hard time swallowing some of his talks about how badly prisoners are treated, because while he may have been innocent, the higher percentage of prisoners are guilty and belong tucked away from the rest of society.

If you're interested in this case and his story, I would highly recommend it.  My ratings range from 1-5, with 5 being the highest.  I rate this one a solid 4.