Where Have the Children Gone?

Posted on March 8, 2012 by jchasenovelist

My friend, journalist and awesome blog talk radio host of Cubanarama Missing N America and Cold Cases  Marta Sosa wrote this beautiful poem last year for a cold case show.  I wanted to share this with you.  Thank you Marta.

Where Have the Children Gone?

by Marta Sosa

In the shadows of the night, you will hear my voice.  I had a life to live, I had a destiny to fulfill. A mission to accomplish and a dream to carry out. In the eternity of the dark you will feel my cry. You, you with your selfish desires and venereal appetite murdered me without mercy. In the midnight hour; You, you will remember my plea. You imprisoned my soul for a time and quelled my essence. Now and forever may your spirit be nauseated with the memory of your sin. In the shadows of the night; I promise you, YOU will hear my voice!

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In 2008, I was just finishing up my master’s degree in criminology and I was working on a paper about juvenile crime and punishment.  I came across some staggering statistics about missing children and it really made me stop and think about the real reality of it.  I couldn’t believe that approximately 800,000 children are reported missing every year.

It was a pivotal moment that spurred me to write my Emily Stone Thriller Series.  This fictional heroine not only hunts down serial killers but child abductors as well.

Below are yearly statistics of missing children according to The U.S. Department of Justice reports and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children:

  • 797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.
  • 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.
  • 58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.
  • 115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)

Statistics in regard to online exploitation:

  • Approximately one in seven youth online (10 to 17-years-old) received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet.
  • Four percent (4%) received an aggressive sexual solicitation – a solicitor who asked to meet them somewhere; called them on the telephone; or sent them offline mail, money, or gifts.
  • Thirty-four percent (34%) had an unwanted exposure to sexual material — pictures of naked people or people having sex.
  • Twenty-seven percent (27%) of the youth who encountered unwanted sexual material told a parent or guardian. If the encounter was defined as distressing – episodes that made them feel very or extremely upset or afraid – forty-two percent (42%) told a parent or guardian.

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Author Blog: https://authorjenniferchase.com/
Crime Watch Blog: http://emilystonecrimewatch.wordpress.com/
Book & Crime Talk:  http://blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase
Books: Compulsion  Dead Game  Dark Mind  Silent Partner  Screenwriting
Posted in crime | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Second Campaigner Challenge 2012 – More Flash Fiction Fun

Posted on March 6, 2012 by jchasenovelist

I have found that when presented with a writing challenge it forces me to use different perspectives and to take a writers jump into unfamiliar territories.  I usually write in the crime and thriller genres, but I enjoy exploring other genres for this challenge.  So here goes…

Here’s the link for the Fourth Writers Platform Building Campaign where the five prompts are listed.

 Second Campaigner Challenge Details:

Do one or more of the following:

  1. Write a pitch/logline for a book based on the prompts (less than 100 words) Done!
  2. Write a short story/flash fiction piece of less than 200 words based on the prompts Done!
  3. Write a poem with a twist using the prompts as inspiration (in less than 200 words)
  4. Write a story/poem in five sentences, each sentence based on one of the prompts
  5. Write a poem/flash fiction piece (in less than 200 words) about the water pear *without* using the words “pear”, “spoon”, or “droplet”. Done!

For added difficulty/challenge:

  • Complete at least three of the above activities and tie them all together with a common theme (feel free to either state the theme in your post or leave us to guess what it might be) Done!
  • Write in a genre that is not your own. Done!
  • Ask Challenge entrants to critique your writing. After the Challenge closes, you may wish to re-post your revised piece(s), and I’ll include a Linky List at the bottom of this post for those wishing more feedback on their revisions (note: revised entries will not be judged, so please label clearly your original post and your revisions. Please do not offer critique unless someone asks for it, as per the usual blogging conventions. If you do ask for critique, make sure you ask for it clearly so people know you want it, and please be prepared to receive feedback that may not be 100% glowing. If you are a critiquer, please be tactful and courteous, and remember to provide positives as well as negatives.)

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1. Book Pitch:

Lost Souls of Time

by Jennifer Chase

Megan and Tim were childhood friends, each with a long, happy future ahead of them.  One worldwide event changed everything they thought they knew about their own lives in a blink of an eye.  A massive cosmic flare hit the earth leaving the two eight-year-olds to fend for themselves for years – alone.  With each new time dimension shift, they scramble for safety as they continue to look for the single clue that would bring them back to the present time zone.  Will they survive long enough to find the answers?

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2. Flash Fiction:

Lost Souls of Time

Nothing was ever the same from that ill-fated day after the worldwide cosmic flare hit the earth.  We were only eight years old playing, romping, kicking our favorite ball when our lives suddenly somersaulted into the unknown realities of a time dimension tear in the universe.

Occasionally time stood still, while other days split into fragmented existences in our memories to replay the horror.

Years passed.

Some days we foraged for food and any lingering clue that would take us back.

The large pear-shaped water droplets that rained down from the sky for months at a time held an important clue.  I caught one with a wooden spoon to study.  There had to be an answer to stop the unstable time shifts.

As I leaned back against the rusted support girder and watched Tim nursing his wounded leg from the recent shift, I realized that each hiccup in our reality could kill us at any moment.

Thrown into a nearby pond as the bridge exploded, I managed to take cover and escape death once again.  The bridge had been the one constant reality in all the disturbances, but now it was only rubble and left no clues.

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5.Water Pear Flash Fiction:

Each well-placed thump of the oblong bundles of downpour made a distinct ring in the imagination as they continued to hit the ground, trees, and a few remaining structures.  The battering sound was hollow with a rhythmic beat of a band warming up.  Under ordinary conditions, the sound would lull you to sleep or even make you slightly tap your toe to keep time.

There was much more to the curious orbs of precipitation; in fact, the entire fate of human survival depended upon it.  Most stores and houses were long gone.  It was difficult to find anything that would hold these curious water entities.  A closer inspection was needed, more than necessary.

A wooden stick with a flat end buried under some heavy vegetation would do the trick.  Holding the utensil steady, horizontal, as the blob of rain held its shape for a moment.  It wavered on the stick, subtly changed colors with electric charges of green jetted out before it exploded and splashed to the ground.

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Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Girl Scouts Take on Crime!

Posted on March 6, 2012 by jchasenovelist

Have you bought your Girl Scout cookies yet?  If you’ve been to any grocery store or shopping mall or perhaps just taken a walk through your neighborhood, you likely have seen tables overflowing with Thin Mints and Tagalongs and Samoas.  It’s difficult to resist those girls and their cheerful sales pitches.  Perhaps you are able to walk by with a quick “no thank you” and the girls might be sad by the lack of a sale for a moment, but that can’t compare with the way a couple of Girl Scouts were treated in Texas this past weekend.

Girl Scout veterans Iravia Cotton and Rachel Johnson were selling their goods outside a Walmart in the Houston area on Saturday when a young man walked up to the booth and inquired about the cost of a box of cookies.  However, it seems his intentions were never to purchase.  He instead grabbed the money box and took off in his friend’s getaway car with the girls’ hard-earned cash.

Cotton and Johnson weren’t content to let this thief get away with what rightfully belonged to the Girl Scouts.  They chased after the two guys, with Iravia managing to get in a few swipes on the passenger and Rachel getting dragged by the car for a bit.  Luckily, both girls are fine.  They did not succeed in their attempts to stop the criminals, however, as the men are still on the loose after stealing around $200.

In my novels, protagonist Emily Stone is a grown woman who has dedicated her life to taking the law into her own hands.  While her skills bring many horrible criminals to justice, I can’t say I recommend that her tactics be replicated by young teenagers.  I do applaud their desire to fight for what is right, though, and not simply allow a bad thing to happen to them as they played silent victims.

What do you think of the Girl Scouts who fought back?

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Author Blog: https://authorjenniferchase.com/
Crime Watch Blog: http://emilystonecrimewatch.wordpress.com/
Book & Crime Talk:  http://blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase
Books: Compulsion  Dead Game  Dark Mind  Silent Partner  Screenwriting
Posted in crime | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Unveiling the Mystery of Forensic Facial Reconstruction

Posted on March 5, 2012 by jchasenovelist

After human skeletal remains are discovered, sometimes there is little to be done to determine the identity of the person.  Dental records are only reliable if there are any teeth left on the skeleton and if the medical examiner or forensic scientist can compare them to existing dental records.   Sometimes DNA can be extracted from bone, but it’s usually a difficult and expensive process.

With technology and experience, facial reconstruction can provide the answers needed to determine the identity of the victim.  This process is creating the identity of the face from skeletal remains through forensic science, artist rendering, anthropology, osteology, and anatomy.   This fascinating process has intrigued me ever since I began studying forensic science and the criminal mind.

I’ve written two previous articles about forensic anthropology:

Following the Clues of Forensic Anthropology

Back to Basics with the Body Farm

The skull provides the necessary clues to the appearance with the brow ridge, the distance between eye orbits, the shape of the nasal chamber, the chin’s form, and the overall profile of the facial bones.

There are carefully applied steps to begin the reconstruction process of the face.  Markers are placed on various areas of the skull to indicate the depths of tissue to be added (see photo above).  Studies over the years have indicated the measurements of the depth of facial features based upon different ancestral groups.

The strips of clay are then applied by filling in around the positioned markers by the artist.  The features are refined around the artificial eyes, facial contours are smoothed, lips begin to take shape, and details are added to accurately personalize the reconstruction.

There are limitations to the facial reconstruction by the artist/sculptor.  The hair color, hairstyles, facial expression, shape of lips, and eye color, and how much fat on soft tissue areas are generalized guesses.  However, the completed reconstructions have been successful in many cases to help narrow down searches and assist in identification.

Forensic facial reconstruction can put a name to an identified person or a face in an archeological investigation.  This powerful technique has proven its importance in cold cases and no doubt will continue to assist in police investigations.

Are there any cases using facial reconstruction that stand out to you?

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Author Blog: https://authorjenniferchase.com/
Crime Watch Blog: http://emilystonecrimewatch.wordpress.com/
Book & Crime Talk:  http://blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase
Books: Compulsion  Dead Game  Dark Mind  Silent Partner  Screenwriting
Posted in Forensic | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

What’s Happening?

Posted on March 2, 2012 by jchasenovelist

It seems that it’s that time of year for writing and the time is flying by with a vengeance.  I’m working hard on my next Emily Stone Thriller!  I wanted to let you know a few things that are going on in my world you might want to jot down on your calendars or check out at your leisure.

RADIO APPEARANCE – True Crime Uncensored with Burl Barer

When: Saturday, March 3, 2012

Time: 2:00pm, PST

Where/Who: I will be a guest and chat with the awesome Burl Barer, crime expert and bestselling true crime author, on his show hosted by Outlaw Radio.

Link: http://outlawcrime.com/

Listen Live: http://outlawradio.tv/listenlive.html

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SHAMROCKS-N-SIRENS – Crime Reader Book Event 2012

When: March 5th through March 17th

Who: 12 Crime Authors – books, interviews, and cool prizes

Link to Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en0YToXEPBI

Link to Website: http://michaelordeauthor.blogspot.com/

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MARCH MADNESS!  — Kindle Books all Under Five Bucks!

 When: The month of March 2012

Who/Where: Independent Author Network is hosting all genres of authors for this Kindle extravaganza – find your next great read!  Support your Indies!

Link: http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/kindle-under-5.html

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Author Blog: https://authorjenniferchase.com/
Crime Watch Blog: http://emilystonecrimewatch.wordpress.com/
Book & Crime Talk:  http://blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase
Books: Compulsion  Dead Game  Dark Mind  Silent Partner  Screenwriting
Posted in Dark Mind | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Guest Post — Crime Writer Benjamin Sobieck

Posted on March 1, 2012 by jchasenovelist

One of the most wonderful aspects about being a writer these days is that I get to meet so many wonderful writers and avid readers.  Without the modern marvel of the Internet, I would have missed out on some great new friends in my life.   Crime writer Benjamin Sobieck is a sharp, witty, and exciting crime writer.  Well… basically, he’s just an all around fun guy and he agreed to write a fun post for today. 

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Matching Your Beverage to What You’re Writing

by Benjamin Sobieck

In the early stages of my crime thriller novel, “Cleansing Eden – The Celebrity Murders,” I marinated my guts in vodka. It didn’t make paragraphs magically fall from the sky, but it did lubricate the creative engines in the early drafts. But like anything built under the influence, the end result was a bit wobbly.

I switched to coffee for the revisions. Caffeine also doesn’t make words magically appear, but it does help focus the mind for precision tooling.

I imagine this beverage schedule sounds familiar to other thriller authors. That got me thinking. Do beverages change according to genre? If they do, here’s my highly generalized list of matching drinks to genre.

Thriller – Booze then coffee, repeat.

Mystery/Crime – Booze and more booze, in that order.

Romance – Wine and sparkling water.

Erotica – Something salty.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy – Energy drinks and Mountain Dew, mixed to perfection.

Non-Fiction (journalists) – Antidepressants downed with a beer downed with coffee chased with a cigarette chased by a cop because you just did all that at once while trying to drive.

Horror – Is meth available in beverage form?

Western – Soda and chew juice because you used your soda bottle as a spitter.

Inspirational – The temptation here is to write “holy water and wine,” but I’m not up to tempting fate right now. So we’ll say “tears and lemonade.”

Humor – Vegetable juice and hot sauce to keep the spice up (not to be confused with the erotica beverage)

Incoherent Ramblings – Forget beverages, you need some sleepfpmdsaopfnads kfnewpijdfn3w9933333333333333333333

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About the author:

Benjamin Sobieck’s crime fiction has been featured in the Amazon Top 100, the national front page of Examiner.com and many “best of” lists. He is the author of the crime thriller novel, “Cleansing Eden – The Celebrity Murders,” the Maynard Soloman crime humor series and numerous short stories. His website is crimefictionbook.com.

Seven Things About Benjamin Sobieck

1) In 2010, a living donor gave me a kidney. It’s the only reason I’m up and writing today. The donor is still happy and healthy. I was lucky. Roughly 113,000 are hoping they will be, too, but 18 die every day. Please be an organ donor. Here’s information about becoming one.

2) Two-thirds of my caloric intake on any given day comes from peanut butter. Breakfast and lunch don’t happen without a jar of the good stuff. Purists like me prefer chunky.

3) I really enjoy cooking. To date, my talent doesn’t match my enthusiasm. My most recent successful culinary adventure was “duck nuggets,” made with wild duck hunted in North Dakota.

4) I work from a home office, but I still have a secretary. She handles phone calls, makes lunch and makes it easier to get things done. By that I mean, “jumps on my lap when I’m trying to dial a phone number,” “steals my lunch” and “bugs me to go outside and chase squirrels.”

5) I’m a big fan of horror movies. I used to rent old video tapes with my friends from this dump down the road. The B-horror movies were so bad. And at the same time, so good.

6) My two favorite authors are Elmore Leonard and Hunter S. Thompson.

7) I was in a garage band in high school and college. It was called Soylent Laxatives. Listen to our songs here on MySpace. (Wow, that felt weird to type. MySpace? Really?)

Posted in Guest Post | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Jeffrey Dahmer’s High School Years Depicted in New Graphic Novel

Posted on February 29, 2012 by jchasenovelist

Forensic psychologists are in the business of studying, among many other factors, the childhoods of our most notorious criminals.  How does someone’s past predict or play a role in the horrible pain they inflict upon others later in life?  Volumes have been written on what Stalin and Hitler were like as kids, and the parallels between the two men are eerie and striking.  Closer to home, any review of FBI interviews with serial killers will reveal lengthy discussions about parents, school friends, and formative events.

There also is a lot to be learned from the perspective of a person who knows the criminal in a different light.  One such individual has just published a graphic novel to share with the world the Jeffrey Dahmer who was his high school friend.

Cartoonist John Backderf attended Revere High School in Ohio with Dahmer, noting that his group of “band nerd” friends adopted Dahmer and welcomed them into their fold.  He remembers the eventual serial killer as a young man who was tortured by the voices in his head, who engaged in odd outbursts in the school halls, who drank alcohol to numb his internal suffering, but who also was funny and smart.

Backderf shares that he is releasing his novel, My Friend Dahmer, this week not to make the murderer into a sympathetic character, but instead to shed some new light on a person who both fascinates and repulses us.  As he said during a recent interview with CNN, “It’s a tale of emerging evil, told by someone who was standing just a few feet away.”

Is My Friend Dahmer by John Backderf a book that you will be adding to your must-read list?  I’ll admit, as someone who studies the psychology of criminals and writes from that mindset for a living, the concept is compelling.

What are your thoughts?

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Author Blog: https://authorjenniferchase.com/
Crime Watch Blog: http://emilystonecrimewatch.wordpress.com/
Book & Crime Talk:  http://blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase
Books: Compulsion  Dead Game  Dark Mind  Silent Partner  Screenwriting
Posted in Serial Killers | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments