Dependence and Other Woes

by Janis Patterson

Hello - my name is Janis and I am a computer dependent.

One of the glories of being a writer is that you can work anywhere.

One of the horrors of being a writer is that you can work anywhere.

My Mac laptop (my writing computer) has become my security object. I take it everywhere. Almost everywhere. I have so far resisted carrying it along when I go to the grocery store or the dry cleaners, but fatalistically I know it's coming.

I mean, what happens when I have this marvelous idea for a scene for my work-in-progress which has a deadline approaching as quickly as a speeding freight train? What happens if I have a superb idea for the next book in my somewhat stalled series? It's nothing to pull over to the side of the road or park in a handy lot and type away for a few minutes and I feel virtuous, satisfied and relieved.

But what about a notebook and pen, you ask, or a voice recorder? Surely those would be easier?

For some. Not for me. My dad taught me to type the summer before I entered the fourth grade, and from that first night's lesson I was entranced. How much easier, how much more legible, how much better typing was than handwriting. I vowed to use it all the time - which caused me no end of trouble. Do you have any idea of how difficult it was to get typed homework accepted in the early 50s? I remember having to prove my ability by typing in front of the principal - which I aced - but they still refused to allow me to type my assignments. For what it's worth I still hate and try my best to avoid handwriting anything to this day. At first it was just personal preference, but lately my increasingly arthritic hands have excitedly seconded that choice.

As for using a recording device, I worked too long as a voice talent to make that a viable option. When the recorder clicks on I immediately begin to think of my breathing, the pitch, tenor and resonance of my voice, my phrasing... everything except what I am talking about and - POOF! - the idea is gone, sacrificed on the altar of professionalism.

Now you see why my laptop is my security object. My last computer - a huge old (one of the first) 17 inch screen laptop - was great on the eyes, hard on the fingers and about as portable as a concrete block. Still, I carried it on every trip The Husband and I took, including tucking it into my backpack for several weeks traveling in Egypt. Believe me, my shoulder muscles prospered with the exercise - the rest of me, not so much.

When The Husband gifted me with my choice of Mac computers two years ago, weight was a decided consideration; so was battery life, as my previous one had a battery life of about 35 minutes. I settled on a medium-priced one, a 13 inch MacBook Pro - which still cost about the same as my first new car. I kind of worried that after a big 17 inch a 13 inch would be too small, too difficult to type on, and I'd have to get an external ergonomic keyboard, but I was wrong. I don't how they worked this magic, but the 13 incher's keyboard is so much easier to type on than the 17 incher's. My wrists don't hurt, I don't get stiff (in the arms and shoulders - back and legs are different) and after the first day or two on Mac (my singularly unimaginative name for the new computer) all thoughts of an external ergonomic keyboard just faded away. Like I said, magic.

However - such ease of use and light weight have their downside. I've had to buy new, larger purses which will accommodate Mac when I leave the house for anything longer than a quick grocery run - just in case. My calendar and my address book are on Mac, which means I don't have to write anything down by hand (yea!) and ideas and whatever which were once inscribed on unfortunately easily losable scraps of paper can be safely relegated to pixels. The only downside to this is that larger purses tend to accumulate larger amounts of stuff, and unless I watch my pack-rat self with care, I'll be weighted down with unimaginable amounts of (un)necessary things, a tendency which my uncertain back vociferously deplores. And sadly the problem only gets worse when The Husband hands me something and says, "Honey, stick this in your purse, will you?" Now we know why men's clothing only has a few meagre pockets - it's because their wives carry shoulder-strap suitcases! But we have to - how else could we carry our security-computers?

Yes, I am Janis and I am most definitely a computer dependent.

Mystery and Modern Technology

by Janis Patterson

Modern technology is taking a lot of the fun out of mystery writing. I mean, with caller ID, DNA, tracking devices, the ability to ping cell towers, virtual reality crime scene re-creation, instant background checks through multiple databases, ubiquitous surveillance cameras, facial recognition, computer access.... well, you know what I mean. What is there left to detect? A computer geek with access to the proper modern toys can often solve the mystery without leaving the comfort of his ergonomic chair in his mother's basement.

The more widely spread such electronic goodies become, the harder it becomes for mystery writers to find ways for their electronically-challenged sleuths to create a believable scenario. Some have frankly given up and fled into the past, where real, human-based detecting is the norm. Others twist probability into pretzels by locating their stories on remote islands, during power outages, and the like. A few - a very few - writers have mastered the balance of solving crimes with electronically available data and human detecting in a palatable form. I salute them. Many, many more have not.

Let's face it - while many if not most people use electronic toys such as cell phones and computers, how many are really conversant with how they work? We hit one button dialing or click a screen to make phone calls, we surf the net with a few clicks, but that's about the extent of a lot of people's knowledge. I'm one of them, and to me it's boring where in a mystery the detective (either by himself or with his super-techy partner) look at a computer screen, spout a couple of incomprehensible tech words (which to the average reader might as well be Urdu or Dogon) and poof! - there is a clue if not the entire solution to the mystery. Somehow some TV shows do this well and believably, but in books.... boorrring! And I suspect somehow the palatability of super-tech in TV shows has a lot to do with how hot the actor is spouting all the computer jargon!

So what is a tech-challenged writer to do? We can't all put our mysteries on desert islands or during power outages or someplace else where instant information is not the norm. We can't all have our sleuth continually forgetting to charge his/her cell phone or leaving it behind. Most people in real life seem to have their cell phones surgically attached! Now we not only have to craft a believable mystery but also create logical reasons why our sleuth can't jump on the 'net, do a few clicks and find out at least half a book's information, including, of course, the one pertinent clue that solves the mystery. All of which, sadly, would in real logically take place on page 25 or so. Sigh.

I don't have any answers. I've taken heat from readers because my sleuths are tech-challenged, then declaring that my stories aren't believable because my sleuths aren't in constant contact with the 'net. One of my solutions is to have a sleuth (Flora Melkiot, EXERCISE IS MURDER, MURDER IN DEATH'S WAITING ROOM) who is elderly - but don't let her hear you say that - and finds modern technology both unmannerly and common. Plus, she is wildly nosy and loves winkling information out of other people. She is also quite rich, and I think I would like to grow up and be her!

Anyway, this problem is not going away. For those of you who can believably construct a mystery using modern technology in a way that is palatable with the majority of readers - I salute you! For the rest of us... I don't know. I just might follow my betters and escape to the past, where rotary dials are cutting edge, cars have manual transmissions (my favorite!), and privacy was not only the norm, but valued. I know I'll see some of you there!

On another note, I would like to say that my YouTube channel is up and running - and I would be most appreciative if you would drop by. It's called Janis' Tips and Tales, and a new episode is released on the fourth Thursday of every month. Thank you!

A Rant Against Technology

by Janis Patterson

In case I haven’t said it before, I hate technology.

On a lot of my writers’ loops there have been conversations about formatting, with members giving each other hints about this and that. Now I speak four languages with reasonable fluency, but not one of them is ‘techy’ and there is not one word in those posts that I understand beyond ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’, etc. It’s like being plopped down in an alien world.

Don’t get me wrong. There are parts of this brave computerized world I like, such as simple word processing and the ability to change and print a manuscript at will. I like email and surfing the ‘net. I like being able to play backgammon (am I the only one who plays that now?) and Scrabble (no one I know will play with me) with the ease of a few mouse clicks.

What I don’t like is the constant change. I am not good with change in anything, but the way the computer geeks keep improving programs into complete unusability (in full sarcasm mode here) simply drives me wild. Worst of all, it seems that they don’t do it for any particular reason – they just do it because they can and there are tech-happy geeks who will buy it hot off the presses, whether it really works or not. I have an old Dell laptop with XP and Office 2003 on it. The only Office features I have ever used are Word (obviously) and Excel (spreadsheets are wonderful for keeping track of characters and timelines and daily progress),

Because of the imminent demise of XP (sob), I acquired a Gateway with Windows 7 and Office 2010. I do like the bigger screen (laptop, 17 inches) but that’s about it. Everything is so busy. Pictures flash. Colors change. Even the cards on the Solitare game are so fussy-fied that they’re distracting. Everywhere things dance and flip and do all kinds of weird things. And yes, I have gone into settings and turned off everything I can, but some just don’t!

The best ancillary writing tool I ever had was an ancient NEC pocket computer. It did a basic form of Word, fit easily into almost every purse I owned, went to just where I stopped writing whenever I turned it on (no lengthy start-up protocol – once set, just on-and-off), had an incredible battery life and let me do nothing but put words down. I loved it dearly and used it until it simply rolled over and died beyond resurrection. There’s never been anything so good for a writer who is away from their home computer a lot.

Here is where the pad and tablet people shout, “But have you tried…?” The answer is no, and I don’t want to. First of all the new pads et all are distressingly fragile. They have too much on them –games and internet movies and IMs and for all I know can make missiles lift off somewhere. I don’t want to be distracted. I want to be able to put words on ‘paper’ in a simple way on a simple device that is both pretty much indestructible and portable. On my office computer I want simple, clean functionality.

It seems today that computers etc are made for gamers and geeks who, like children running after soap bubbles, want what is new and shiny and next. I don’t. I want solid, simple tools and don’t see why the computer gods don’t let people like me have them. I don’t see why every few years I have to learn new programs and put up with different bells and whistles, all of which are totally unnecessary to me and takes time away from my work – putting words on ‘paper.’ It all comes down to money, of course, but if the computer companies are that desperately greedy I would be willing to pay a reasonable license fee every few years just to be able to keep the programs I have now.

But that’s too simple, of course. They have to show off their expertise and what they can do – and rake in a fortune from the soap-bubble chasers. What they haven’t yet learned is or even want to understand is that change for the sake of change is not progress.

High Tech Crime Detection

by Jean Henry Mead

White collar crime is on the rise and made easier through the internet. Few people are now taken in by Nigerian email promising millions of dollars if only you will help them transfer money to the U.S.

But phishing is a relatively new crime that involves criminals who send email requesting the recipient’s passwords and account numbers for various bank accounts and other financial institutions. It may be a fraudulent credit card offer or various merchandise with a legitimate appearing logo implanted in the email. However, the links they provide go directly to the crooks' computers. If the unsuspecting victim provides a credit card number or checking account number, within hours large purchases will no doubt be charged to the account. And the victim will spend years trying to clear his corrupted credit.

Highly trained investigators are taught the laws of search and seizure and are well acquainted with computer fraud. They know how data is stored and how to recover deleted files, examine hard drives, break passwords, detect computer viruses and how to discover devises that can destroy a computer's inner workings, according to Lee Lofland in his book Police Procedure and Investigation.

Cyber criminals have devised ways to prevent investigators from discovering their illegal activities by drilling holes in their hard drives or smashing them with sledge hammers. They’ve also submerged the hard drives in acid, the only effective way to destroy the data. Forensic computers are normally used to scan computers seized in raids on illegal operations and the hardware write blocker or HWD is a necessary tool in high-tech crime detection. The forensic computer operates by extracting information from the criminal’s computer and storing it for future investigation and evidence collection.

Lofland says the ”HWD functions much like the foot valve in a water line that’s connected to a pump and well system. The valve opens when the pump (HWD) pulls water (information) toward a house (forensic computer) but closes tightly when the pumping stops so the leftover water in the lines can’t return to the well (suspect’s computer). The one-way action of the HWD is designed to prevent cross-contamination of evidence."

It also prevents any evidence of the HWD probe in the suspect’s computer, which an attorney could use as defense. Lofland added: “It could be compared to planting evidence, such as a bloody knife or glove at a homicide scene.”

Inspirations That Didn't Pan Out

By Chester Campbell

My colleagues Mark Troy and Ben Small recently wrote about inspiration, so I thought why not (thoughts are usually italicized, aren’t they)? Mark wrote about things that inspired his plots, while Ben wrote about locations and music and such that inspire his muse. I decided to make mine a trip down memory lane, to use an appropriate cliché, and cover works never published.

Going back into ancient history, 1948 to be exact, my first mystery novel was inspired by the reading of No Pockets in a Shroud by Horace McCoy. The book told the story of a crusading newspaper reporter fighting crime. I was 22 at the time, a neophyte reporter for The Knoxville Journal at night, a journalism junior at the University of Tennessee during the day. In my spare time I pounded out a mystery on my little Smith-Corona portable about a reporter solving a murder. I later learned McCoy was born near Nashville, my hometown. Dear old Kirkus called No Pockets his worst book. They won’t get the chance to say that about Time Waits for Murder. It rests peacefully in the brittle brown envelope in which it was returned by THE EDITORS at David McKay Co. in Philadelphia.

Following an all-expense-paid vacation in Korea during the early fifties, courtesy of Uncle Sam, where I worked as an Air Force intelligence officer, I shifted my reading preference to Cold War spy stories. Helen Macinnes, John Le Carre, Graham Greene and Len Deighton were my favorites. And my inspiration. In the mid-sixties, while editing Nashville Magazine, a slick paper monthly, I squeezed in time to write a novel dealing with a Russian plot to foil U.S. radars in Iran that monitored the Soviet Union’s airspace. I got the idea from my familiarity with radar, having gone on active duty in 1951 with the 119th Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron of the Tennessee Air National Guard. This manuscript also resides in the historical section of paper piles on my office floor.

After retiring from the Air Force Reserve and from management of a statewide trade association, I turned to writing fulltime (more or less) in 1990. The Cold War was coming to an end with the Soviet Union going down the tubes, and I penned my first spy thriller. Actually, I didn’t pen it. Anything I write by hand is undecipherable a few hours later. I had upgraded my computer and bought a rudimentary word processing program that would only hold a few chapters in a file. The inspiration for the character was an ex-FBI agent I had met during my magazine days. His almost unbelievable experiences provided the protagonist’s background. The story involved a plot to save the Soviet system by killing the American and Russian presidents.

Titled Beware the Jabberwock, that was the first book in a trilogy. Number two came out of my service in Korea and a visit there shortly before my retirement. The plot involved the assassination of North Korean President Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim Jong-il. It would surely have saved us a lot of current trouble if the plot have proven true. My character from the Jabberwock was set up as head of a company that was a CIA spinoff. He made a business trip to South Korea to coordinate the operation.

Book three found ex-KGB agents working to thwart the governments of Russia and its former satellites and re-establish the old Soviet state. The inspiration for that one came from my habit of watching the Independence Day symphony concerts on the Mall behind the U.S. Capitol. As I watched the canon fire during the 1812 Overture, I thought what if somebody used that as a cover to fire nerve gas mortar shells into the crowd? This manuscript got me a contract with John Grisham’s first agent, who he later sued. I didn’t sue but wound up canceling the contract after they let this one and the next two gather dust on the shelf. When they had finally sent it to Tor Forge, the editor liked my writing but said the manuscript was “dated.” If it had been picked up and published when I first submitted it, the book would have come out about the time of the subway nerve gas attack in Japan.

A son and daughter who graduated in computer science and pursued careers in computer programming led to the story of a young programmer working on a voice synthesization program that would mimic a person’s voice enough to fool a voice print analysis. He gets involved with an investment firm I modeled after a famous Depression Era case. It winds up with a chase around Nashville by the bad guys and an attempt to eliminate my hero by funneling carbon monoxide into a sealed-off computer room.

The next book was inspired by stories told by my younger son who served for several years in Army Special Forces. A former Green Beret officer comes across a document that indicates a paramilitary outfit is preparing to bomb critical installations in two weeks. He talks to a former FBI agent who turns up dead. He winds up on the run from both the police and the secretive militia organization.

After that came a story that mirrored a trip I took with a church seniors group to New Orleans. In my version, one of the passengers is a former investment advisor to a Mafia family. He testified against the mob and went into the witness protection program but left it to pursue his own path. After several years, a mob enforcer finds him just before the bus leaves for the Big Easy. There are a lot of complicating factors, but it ends during a hurricane just outside New Orleans. The touring events on the trip are exactly as I experienced them.

I wrote one other manuscript during this period which I won’t go into for personal reasons. Suffice it to say after nine unsuccessful tries, I finally hit the shelves in 2002 with Secret of the Scroll, my first Greg McKenzie mystery. I now have five books out, but I’ve run out of space to talk about them.