Kindle Book Bargain 99 cents: HOW TO WRITE A DICK: A GUIDE FOR WRITING FICTIONAL SLEUTHS

March 23 & 24: Kindle Bargain Book
HOW TO WRITE A DICK: A GUIDE FOR WRITING FICTIONAL SLEUTHS FROM A COUPLE OF REAL-LIFE SLEUTHS
on sale for .99! (normally $5.99)

“I was surprised how much I learned and how much fun this book is. It’s a ‘what’s going on in the field’ that’s like a pre-write fact checker…It can stand alone as an insider’s guide to the world – the real world – of the private detective.”
~David Y.B. Kaufmann

“If [this book] had been around when I was fiction editor for THE THRILLING DETECTIVE WEB SITE, my job would have been much easier.”
~Gerald So, editor, writer, book reviewer, moderator DetecToday

“If you want authenticity in creating a fictional private investigator for your stories, then this is a must-have reference book. Its authors, Colleen and Shaun, are living breathing PIs with years of actual experience in the PI game.” —R.T. Lawton, 25 years on the street as a federal special agent and author of 4 series in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

To purchase, click here

Book Blurb

The private eye genre has come a long way, baby, with new subgenres — from teenage PIs to vampire gumshoes to geriatric sleuths — attracting new readers every year. Unfortunately, most writers are not aware of the state-of-the-art developments that shape today’s professional private investigator, which sometimes leave writers floundering with impossible and antiquated devices, characters and methods in stories. Which is why we wrote How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths, whose material we culled from our combined 14 years as private investigators, and also from our teaching online classes and conducting workshops at writers’ conferences about writing private investigators. How to Write a Dick isn’t about how to write a novel, but what you need to know to write an authentic, compelling 21st-century sleuth character or story.

Book Excerpts

Click link to read excerpt:

How to Write a Dick: Catching the Cheater

How to Write a Dick: Financial Investigations

How to Write a Dick: Intellectual Property Investigations

To purchase How to Write a Dick, click here.  Remember, book is .99 March 23 & March 24, 2013 only.

Have a great weekend, Writing PIs

Should You Hire a Private Detective to Watch Your Spouse at a Holiday Party?

Some investigators who specialize in infidelity investigations believe that if you’re suspicious that your spouse or significant other is having an affair, holidays are a prime time to hire a private detective to watch that person, especially at company holiday parties where their guards might be down.

Note from Shaun Kaufman, Shaun Kaufman Law: There are a number of reasons why you might want to have a legal case filed, or ready to be filed, before hiring a private investigator to follow your spouse, whether at a holiday party or not.  One reason is that the evidence gathered by the private investigator is given to the attorney, and then it is protected by the work product and attorney-client privileges (meaning, your attorney controls whether and when the information is released).  Another reason is so that the surveillance can be tailored to the needs of the case — such as watching the soon-to-be-ex-spouse for excessive drinking/drug use and to document the amount of money the ex-spouse-to-be is spending on his paramour.

At our investigations agency, we get more “is he/she cheating?” cases around the holidays

At our agency, we specialize in legal investigations, but occasionally the “Will you investigate if my spouse is cheating?” case comes into our office, and yes, we typically get a few more of these requests around the holidays.  We’ve been asked to watch the activities going on at a company party at a restaurant, for example.  And a few years ago we spent a chilly Christmas Eve outside a family’s party…we were ready to leave when we caught the wife sharing a holiday kiss with her brother-in-law.  The husband was right–she was seeing someone else.

If you suspect your husband or wife, or someone within whom you’re in a serious relationship, is having an affair, it’s a good idea to hire a level-headed, experienced third party–a professional private investigator–to check it out rather than take it upon yourself  to play sleuth for several reasons:

You’re emotionally involved. You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re tense, drinking holiday punch, feeling paranoid and looking for clues.  In your fraught state, you might see clues and behaviors that don’t really exist, or are due to something quite innocent.  Or, worse, you do find clues and you fall apart, grow enraged, get into a fight…not good.  We’ve handled cases where nice, law-abiding people, who’ve never received so much as a speeding ticket, become out-of-control monsters after discovering their partner kissing/etc. someone else–and guess who gets hauled off to jail for disrupting the peace or worse?  The finder, not the doer.

A PI has the experience and tools to document infidelity. A qualified PI has done this kind of work before, so he/she knows how to blend in, locate the subject, and document the case.  A good PI, observing evidence of infidelity, does not call their client at that moment–remember the wife in Texas who ran over her dentist-husband three times in a hotel parking lot?  That’s because the PI she’d hired called her from the hotel with the information that her husband was there with another woman.  A PI not calling a client at the “scene of the crime” goes back to being emotionally involved (see above item).  A good PI will, instead, make it clear before they accept the case that the PI discusses their findings with their client after the incident has ended.  At that time, armed with photographs or other evidence, the client can decide how to discuss the infidelity with their spouse…or attorney.

If you’re tempted to skip hiring a PI and instead ask a good friend or relative to sleuth, don’t.  As well meaning as friends and family are, they don’t have the background and tools (cameras, recorders, etc.) to conduct the case.  Also, there’s a good chance your spouse/partner might recognize the friend or the cousin’s vehicle and be alerted what you’re up to.

If a “I think my husband/wife is cheating” call comes into our office, the first thing we do is ask if they’ve discussed these concerns between the two of them.  If not, we encourage the person to do so.  If they say they have, and they’re still suspicious, we suggest marriage counseling.  After that, we suggest hiring a PI.

Writing PIs

Interested in reading about the real-world of private eyes? Like reading crime stories? Check out Three Book Ideas for the Holidays.

Best Classroom PI Course (for PIs and Writers): The Private Investigators Academy of the Rockies

 

Rick Johnson, founder and president of The Private Investigators Academy of the Rockies

 

There’s a lot of online training courses on how to be a private investigator, but one of the best (if not the best) classroom courses is The Private Investigators Academy of the Rockies in Denver, Colorado.

We know because we took this course years ago when we first opened our private investigations business. Since then, we’ve taken many other courses, and taught a fair share ourselves, but if you’re starting out in the business, want to brush up your PI skills, or are a writer wanting to learn about the world of private investigations, take this class.

Here’s a sampling of why it’s an excellent course of study:

• Rick Johnson, founder and president of the academy, has 35 years of experience in law enforcement and private investigations.
• Course study includes investigative tactics, techniques, tools, as well as the appropriate ethics and legalities of the profession.
• Investigative topics include these specialized areas of investigations: domestic relations, legal investigations, criminal defense investigations, insurance investigations, financial fraud investigations, and process service.
• Presenters include lawyers and experts in the fields of financial fraud, surveillance, family law, criminal defense and process service.

But don’t take it solely from us–read about the course, contact them, ask questions:

Click this link to read more: The Private Investigators Academy of the Rockies

Or send an email to Rick Johnson at rick@denverpi.com

Oh, we’re not affiliated with this class, just passing on the information to those who want to learn from one of the best.

Have a great weekend, Writing PIs