The Eyes Tell a Story

Posted on January 23, 2012 by jchasenovelist

I think we all can agree that you can tell a few things about a person just from their eyes.  Some people have sad eyes, sparkly eyes, sleepy eyes, or even happy eyes.

Do you find that you’re attracted more to people with engaging eyes? 

In writing, sometimes it is difficult to pinpoint a solid description of a person’s eyes in order to convey a deeper feeling.

“steely gaze”

“eyes filled with overwhelming tears”

“darted from side to side”

From my newest thriller Dark Mind, “a stare that could stop an angry mob dead in its tracks”.

Eyes definitely tell a story, you just have to look and examine them.  Sometimes we cannot put an exact finger on it, but there are a few people who have darkened eyes like a deep abyss.  We all carry our experiences throughout life and many times, it shows in our eyes.

I’ve looked at more than a hundred homicide investigations, which includes mug shots of suspects and various photos of victims.  One thing that stands out to me is the look in the eyes of criminals.  I know that isn’t scientific by any means, but there are definitely signs of a much darker side into a criminal personality, especially in serial killers.

When a person is questioned by police detectives for a homicide investigation, authorities study the entire person including their body language, speech pattern, and how they answer questions.  It’s important to pay close attention to not only what they say, but also what they don’t say.

How can you detect a lie?

According to experts, there are some basic visual accessing cues:

Eyes up to the left

Indicates the person “visually constructed” or thinking about what someone asked or said with an imagination aspect.

Eyes up and to the right

Indicates the person “visually remembered image” with something that they’ve seen or remembered.

Eyes to the left

Indicates the person “auditory constructed” when they’ve never heard a particular sound before.

Eyes to the right

Indicates the person “auditory remembered” a particular sound they’ve experienced sometime in their life.

Eyes down to the left

Indicates “feeling” when they’ve remembered or recalled a smell, feeling, or taste.

Eyes down to the right

Indicates “internal dialogue” when they’re talking internally to themselves.

These visual accessing cues are not completely accurate on their own, but must be taken into consideration with overall body language and verbal content.

I thought I would post a test about eyes for fun.  I have randomly put together seven sets of eyes.  Can you pick out the serial killers and identify them?  I’ve posted the answers at the bottom of this post.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

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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
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Answers:
1. Ted Bundy – serial killer
2. Aileen Wurnos – serial killer
3. David Berkowitz – serial killer
4. Jennifer Chase – author and criminologist
5. Luke Goss – actor
6. Joachim Kroll – serial killer
7. Anthony Hopkins – actor
Posted in Criminology, Dark Mind | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Photography Sunday — My Escape

Posted on January 22, 2012 by jchasenovelist

I love the beach.  No matter what problems or stresses that exist in my everyday life, they seem small when I get to a beach shoreline.  The subtle breeze, fresh sea air, and the picture perfect view makes me more relaxed and focused.  In fact, I get some of my best writing ideas when I’m strolling along the beach.  I always take the opportunity to view my world through a camera lens.  I like to think of it as my mini vacation for my mind.

In my opinion, some of the best waves and sunsets in California are found during fall and winter.  Surfers, paddle boarders, and kayakers can be seen with frequency, not to mention whales, dolphins, otters and harbor seals.

The dramatic calm before a storm…

And finally…

Enjoy your weekend and take some time to notice the beauty and inspiration that your surroundings have to offer.

Posted in Photography, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Can Vigilante Detective Emily Stone Handle Herself Among Today’sTough Female TV Police Detectives?

Posted on January 21, 2012 by jchasenovelist


Okay, I admit it.  I watch a couple of television cop shows on a regular basis, usually with strong female characters of course.  Some of my favorite cop shows are Law & Order SVU, Rizzoli & Isles, Castle, and The Closer in addition to true crime and forensic shows.  I watch these shows whenever my schedule permits.

It is refreshing to see so many shows today that illustrate that women can be strong, intelligent, and capable as detectives and cops.  The interesting thing is that with every tough female detective there is an equally strong, intelligent male partner.  In some cases, an entire crime unit backs up the heroine.  This makes for a great combination for any storyline.  I think that’s one of the aspects I love the most about these types of crime dramas.

When I first developed my heroine Emily Stone in Compulsion, I wanted to create a character that was tough and could hold her own as she hunted down these dangerous serial killers – most of them child predators.  These types of killers were not only a disturbing issue to address, but also I wanted the protagonist to be a woman who would successfully and anonymously hunt them down.  I felt that it raised the stakes and suspense level in the story with a petite woman relentlessly investigating and tracking these frightening deviants of society.  She had to be smart and capable of handling herself physically if she had to, which included managing firearms. and fighting techniques.

As I began to develop Emily Stone further in Dead Game and Dark Mind, I realized that she needed more than her “lone wolf” approach if she were to grow as a character and continue her quest.  I decided that she needed someone who would not only understand her drive and life’s calling, but this particular character needed to hold his own with her.  That was a little bit of a sticky crime writing situation for me, but out of this new development, I created the strong, confident ex-detective Rick Lopez.

I love the challenge of writing about this crime fighting couple because I think that so many things are possible in the storylines.  As with any relationship, there are struggles and compromises, but with Emily and Rick there are life-threatening choices that are at stake as well.

Therefore, the big question is…

Could Emily Stone handle herself among today’s TV detectives such as Detective Olivia Benson (Law & Order SVU) or Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson (The Closer)?

 Who is your favorite female cop or detective?

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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, Police | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Body Parts Found Near Hollywood Sign

Posted on January 19, 2012 by jchasenovelist

The Hollywood sign high atop a hill in California has stood as a symbol of glamour and celebrity for generations.  There aren’t too many people who do not recognize those large white letters and think of being a movie star, even if the reality of the town is far from the glitzy appeal of the celebrity spotlight.  This week, the iconic sign played host to a scene that would be quite disturbing to the average star struck tourists who come to take great pictures.

A severed head was found in a Hollywood Hills park on Tuesday by two people who were out walking several dogs along a dirt trail.  The next day, two hands and two feet, all believed to belong to the same man whose head was discovered, were found scattered near the Hollywood sign.

Authorities believe that the body was dumped somewhere in the area and that wild animals may have then dragged the severed parts to different areas of the park.  While the identity of the man is still unknown, police are saying that he is a man between the ages of 40 and 60 and perhaps of Armenian descent.   As the body was not in an advanced state of decomposition, it is thought that the death of this man occurred only a couple days ago.

This is the kind of scene that you may expect to read as an opening to a new crime novel, with an unsuspecting jogger happening upon a grisly discovery and then two worn out police officers who claim to have seen it all musing over their hypotheses on the likely killer.  But, this isn’t fiction.  It a real and gruesome story that has left a neighborhood with plenty of questions and probably a bit more fear when they go to bed at night.

Let’s hope that this man is soon identified and the criminal who murdered him is brought to justice, perhaps answering some questions about the nature of this bizarre attack.

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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, Forensic | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Can Bare Feet Benefit Your Writing and Overall Health?

Posted on January 18, 2012 by jchasenovelist

You know that exhausted, tired feeling after a long day of standing on your feet?  You come home and immediately kick your shoes off and peel off your tired old socks.  Ahhh, now that’s relief.  You even feel a little bit lighter and brighter in spirit once you have shed these articles of clothing.

I’m taking a short detour from forensics and the criminal mind because I’ve received some funny comments recently about the quirky fact that I like to write barefooted.  It’s true and I never thought too much about it until it was pointed out numerous times to me recently.  When I’m writing in my home office, I do so without shoes or socks.  Why you ask?  The only answer I can convey is that I like it.  I feel more relaxed and ideas seem to flow easier.

Once something grabs hold of my curious mind, I can’t seem to let it go until I’m satisfied with the answer.  I began to think about the “barefoot syndrome” and here are a few things that I found out that I wanted to share.

There’s actually a society called Society for Barefoot Living founded 1994 with over 1,400 members from around the world.  Here’s a quote from their homepage, “Set your feet free and your mind will follow…”

According to an article written in the New York Magazine, we walk wrong and we’re hurting our feet by wearing shoes.  This immediately caught my attention and I probed a little bit further in this phenomenon to find out exactly why.

 “Natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person,” wrote Dr. William A. Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management. “It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of gait, a remarkable feat of bioengineering. Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot.”

There are definite health benefits to going barefoot.  I was amazed to find out that my quirky habit when I write actually has some scientific merit to it.  Think about all of the cultures and martial arts disciplines that involve being barefoot.

Kicking off your shoes can actually:

  • Keep your feet properly exercised, agile, and in shape.  Stronger feet help to make a stronger body.  Wearing shoes can actually make your feet lazy and potentially increase the risk of injury.
  • Fight varicose veins by improving circulation.
  • Relax the body and mind.  It changes the mindset that we associate when we’re wearing shoes.

I don’t know if I’m ready to toss all my shoes for the barefoot lifestyle, but I know that when I’m writing I feel more relaxed and ready to take on any challenge with ease.

What do you think?  Are you going to go barefoot more often?

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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 Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Investigating Four Types of Serial Killers

Posted on January 16, 2012 by jchasenovelist

In my Emily Stone Thriller Series, Emily Stone goes up against a ruthless, diabolical and somewhat eccentric serial killer in my thriller Dead Game.  This serial killer “Samuel” uses his unique signature as a “voyeuristic” serial killer to commit his crimes.  I created Samuel to be a “power and control” and perhaps a bit of “hedonistic” type of serial killer.  In Dark Mind, the serial killer known to readers as “Keo” has a much different approach that would be considered to be a “mission” or “visionary” type of killer.

Serial killer is defined by the act either of two or more separate murders, acting alone or with another, during a period of time with breaks in between each murder or what has been referred to as a cooling off period.  They are a unique breed of individuals that make special efforts to elude detection of being caught from law enforcement.

It is not exactly known how many are practicing at any given time across the US.  The FBI has given an estimate of 200 serial killers roaming in the US, but according Joel Norris, author of Serial Killers, he suggests that there are three to four times more.  We do not really know the exact count with any certainty until we catch these elusive killers.

These are the four basic types of serial killers:

1.      Power & Control

This type of serial killer experiences complete sexual gratification from the domination and humiliation of the victim.  This killer is a true sociopath and lives by his own personal set of rules and guidelines.  Many of the famous serial killers we have seen in history would fall under his type of serial killer.

2.      Visionary

This type of serial killer is compelled by voices or visions they experience and are considered psychotic.  These voices and visions compel them to kill certain kinds of people.

3.      Mission

This type of serial killer feels a “need” or duty to kill certain types of people or “class” of people such as religious or racial groups or prostitutes.  This type of serial killer is not considered psychotic.

4.      Hedonistic

This type of serial killer makes a strong connection between personal violence and sexual gratification.  This type of killer can also be described as a “lust” or “thrill” killer.  This killer receives pleasure from the act and has eroticized the experience.  They generally take the time to torture or mutilate their victims.

I feel that these descriptions are a fair assessment of the types of serial killers.  It gives us a reasonable description that begins to help law enforcement investigators to piece together the motivations and clues of serial killings.

Recently, I have found some honest, thought-provoking comments made by professionals from:

Behavioral Analysis Unit-2
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime
Critical Incident Response Group
Federal Bureau of Investigation

There were several additional observations made by the attendees regarding causality of serial killers:

• Predisposition to serial killing, much like other violent offenses, is biological, social, and psychological in nature, and it is not limited to any specific characteristic or trait.

• The development of a serial killer involves a combination of these factors, which exist together in a rare confluence in certain individuals. They have the appropriate biological predisposition, molded by their psychological makeup, which is present at a critical time in their social development.

• There are no specific combinations of traits or characteristics shown to differentiate serial
killers from other violent offenders.

• There is no generic template for a serial killer.

• Serial killers are driven by their own unique motives or reasons.

• Serial killers are not limited to any specific demographic group, such as their sex,
age, race, or religion.

• The majority of serial killers who are sexually motivated erotized violence during development. For them, violence and sexual gratification are inexplicably intertwined
in their psyche.

• More research is needed to identify specific pathways of development that produce serial killers.

I have also thought that perhaps these four basic types of serial killers could also benefit from “degrees” similar to how we define many of our laws, such as 1st degree, 2nd degree, etc.  In other words, the level of violence, locations, and frequency should be documented into subgroups for further study in each of these types.  By separating some of these cases into subgroups, we can begin to see subtle details in each of the cases that might prove to be helpful in future investigations.

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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 Criminology, Serial Killers | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Bullseye – 1 Star Book Reviews

Posted on January 14, 2012 by jchasenovelist

“Hit me with your best shot!  Fire away…!”

Book reviews are an interesting case study, but there is a distinct psychology behind them.  When I’m surfing online bookstores for new books to read or even anticipating new releases of some of my favorite authors, I cannot help but notice those glaring “1 Star” reviews.  I admit it, they make me shudder a little.

Are “1 Star” book reviews legitimate (for the most part) or are they from spiteful, unhappy people with too much time on their hands?

Here are some classic quotes that I randomly found from various books throughout Amazon:

“worst book I ever read”

“too many typos and couldn’t read”

“waste of time”

“author should pay me”

 “truly awful”

Here are some big clues to reviews that are written by someone with an ax to grind or just the fact that they hate seeing so much praise for a particular author:

  • The review is the ONLY one they’ve written under a certain name (it’s simple to set up new emails).
  • All of their reviews are similar in content (or exactly the same), usually one or two sentences.
  • There is no constructive comment as to why they didn’t care for the book (characters, storyline, etc.), just that it sucked.
  • They explained that they didn’t like the particular genre, but read it anyway to give it a bad review.
  • Sometimes the review just doesn’t make any sense.

My take on 1 star reviews is that everyone has an opinion and generally are not afraid to use it.  If someone has taken the time to post a review, whether a 1 or 5 star rating, and they explain in an intelligent manner why they loved or hated the book.  I commend them, no matter what rating they gave – even if it’s my own book.  It gives credibility to the book, reader, and the overall written book review.

If someone doesn’t like a book, it usually means that the reader is outside the intended target audience.  For example, a person who loves erotic romance wouldn’t necessarily like science fiction, but that’s okay because there’s always something learned from it.

From the January issue of The Writer, there was an interesting article titled, Can bad reviews be good for book sales? by Chuck Leddy:

“While bad reviews can certainly damage author egos, a new study from Stanford University suggests something surprising: Bad reviews can actually lead to increased sales, especially when the author is unknown.  The authors of the study suggest that even bad reviews increase consumer awareness of a new author.  And while the reader of a poor review may remember the bad impression it leaves behind, the negative impression soon wears off.”

For all you fellow authors out there, take heart and don’t worry about “1 Star” reviews.  If it’s a legitimate review, take note and don’t fixate.  It’s all a part of the process of being an author.

Please feel free to leave me a comment.  Would love to hear your opinion of “1 Star” book reviews.

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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 Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments