A Determined Retriever

by Steve Osborn (via Ben Small)


[Note: My friend Steve Osborn is a retired FBI Special Agent still working on contract, who also publishes articles in various hunting magazines. Ben Small]

The lake was mostly frozen.  It was mid-December, and my long-time hunting partner, Larry, and I were duck and goose hunting at a reclaimed mine area in southwestern Indiana.  The temperature hovered below freezing and the wind was whipping around us.

After our arrival, we flushed out about 200 to 300 ducks, mostly Mallards, Ringnecks, plus a few geese, We placed a group of goose decoys in a harvested bean field behind us.  We stood in Indian grass in the northeast corner of the field, across from a small island near the south area of the lake where the north, south, and east fingers of the lake meet.  There were about two acres of open, shallow water near that small island.

My partner knocked down one goose which fell about twenty-five yards in front of me and about 10 yards east of the island.  It landed on ice.  I sent my five-year-old, female, 60-pound, Chocolate Lab, Ryder, to retrieve the goose.  As she took off running, the goose ran to the island, then onto a mud flat before heading into the water on the west side of the island.  Ryder stayed right with her retrieved the bird and brought it to me.

Soon after this, my hunting partner, Larry, shot another goose which fell dead into the bean field.  Then, Larry knocked down a Hen Mallard into the field. It got up and flew southeast.  Ryder headed back to the field, and I assumed she was going to run down the mallard.

While Ryder was in the field, Larry shot another Mallard, this time a Drake, which looked as if it would fall a few yards off shore, but it actually landed 30-35 yards out on the ice.

Ryder saw it fall, and before I could call her off, she was running full speed ahead, out onto the ice.  She retrieved the bird and started back.  She had advanced about 10 feet before she fell through the ice.

We immediately began shouting for her to leave the bird and come back, but she stubbornly kept that duck in her mouth and fought to get out of the icy hole.  We continued to shout for a few minutes and realized she was in real trouble, but would not give up the bird.

Since we had no poles or flotation devices with us, I decided to return to my truck, which was parked 200 yards to the east.   I drove the truck back to a spot closest to the water and removed a canvas bag of decoys for floatation assistance, an extension pole and proceeded to ease my way across the ice. 

I made it about 15 to 20 yards and fell through the ice.  I was able to keep my upper body well above the water by holding on to the decoy bag.  The ice was about one and a half inches thick.

Ryder continued to tread water with her legs.  She kept trying to exit the hole, but repeatedly slipped back into the water.  All the while, she would not release the bird.

We called a friend who lives within a few minutes of the lake and asked him to bring a small boat and ropes.  We continued shouting for Ryder to leave the bird and come, but she would not release it, and she could not make out of the icy waters.  This lasted for 15 to 20 minutes.  Then, all of a sudden, for whatever reason, divine intervention, luck, and a very strong, determined dog, she finally made it out of that icy hole and began walking very quickly toward me.  It was even almost a run.  She wasn’t worn out by a long shot. 

I was walking toward her.  She still had the bird in her mouth.  A few steps later Ryder fell in the hole where I had earlier fallen.  I was able to reach her with the decoys, remove the bird from her mouth and assist her out of the hole.  She immediately picked up the bird and proceeded to the shore, where she appeared to be a little cold, but otherwise seemed fine.  After a big shake, getting water everywhere, she went to the truck with me.  I removed her Avery Vest and placed her in the warm, waiting truck.

My back was wet.  The inside of my waders were wet from when I fell and crawled out of the icy hole I'd fallen into, but otherwise, we were very thankful we had a safe dog.  We estimated Ryder had been in frigid water for about twenty minutes.  I am not sure, but I feel that might have been my last hunt for a long time if I'd lost her.  I am sure I probably could not have gone home, as Ryder is also an important member of the family and my wife’s child since the children are all out on their own.

Needless to say, we have a strict rule now: no birds will be shot unless we are very sure they will fall on land or in open water. 

The next afternoon, Ryder was back at work and retrieved two geese that fell in the water.  I feel the fact that she was wearing her Avery Vest was very helpful in keeping her afloat and preserving her energy.  

The Story Behind the Story

My newest ebook, just available on Amazon for the Kindle, is titled Beware the Jabberwock. It has quite a story behind it. Actually, several stories. I wrote it back in 1990 after I retired from an eighteen-year career as executive vice president of a statewide trade association. I had written non-fiction for years as a newspaper reporter, free-lance writer, magazine editor, and a few other permutations. I had written two book manuscripts over the years and told everyone I intended to write novels when I retired.

I was an avid spy story reader all through the Cold War, so it was natural that I turned to this genre when I looked for a plot. I had read extensively about the KGB and CIA and had no trouble creating a situation involving both agencies. With the Iron Curtain shredding and the Soviet Union falling apart, clandestine warriors on both sides found their futures in jeopardy. I chose that as my starting point.

Since this was an international thriller, the setting was anywhere. I had been on a fifteen-day tour of Europe in the early eighties and spent a month touring the Far East in 1987. With that background, I had lots of possibilities to choose from. I started the story in Vienna, then moved to Washington, DC.guide I had to depend on guidebooks for scenes on Cyprus and in Tel Aviv, but I had visited Hong Kong and most of the locations in the States. I created a small island off the Florida coast south of Apalachicola.

For the main character, I turned to a man I had met back in the sixties when I was editor of Nashville Magazine. He was a close friend of one of my colleagues and I got to know him pretty well. He was an ex-FBI agent with a wild story to tell. I did a long interview with him, and we talked about writing a book. Then he had second thoughts about writing it as a true story. The statute of limitations hadn't run out on some of the things he had done.

According to his story, and my colleague vouched for his authenticity, he had gone to Washington out of high school and worked as a clerk at FBI Headquarters while getting an accounting degree. His job involved taking documents to Hoover's home, and he became closely associated with the director. He attended the FBI Academy after graduation and worked as a field agent. He was tapped by Hoover to be a member of his Goon Squad, a select group of agents who carried out sometimes illegal acts for the director. According to my guy, some of it involved cases outside the U.S.

Hoover and his assistant came up with a plan to infiltrate the Mafia and chose my agent for the task. He was told to resign from the FBI, commit a few crimes to establish his bona fides, and work to get in with the mob in Las Vegas. But after months of trying, he never managed to get connected. When he came back to Washington, Hoover refused to talk to him, calling him a failure.

All of this is covered in the background of my character, Burke Hill. I lost contact with the ex-agent but learned he died several years ago. It makes for quite a story. You can check out Beware the Jabberwock at  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VQJ3PY.

Chester Campbell

Visit me at Mystery Mania

Tweeting and other anti-social media

I have concluded that social media, especially Twitter and Facebook are colossal wastes of time. I know that is heresy among writers struggling to find readers, but has anybody actually bought a book because they read a tweet? Has anybody's tweet sold a book? Tweeting is like walking through a madhouse where everybody is saying something but nobody is conversing.

Right now I'm following 70 people but I have no idea where they're going. About the same number are following me. To where? For what?

Here are some sample Tweets from the last hour (Tweeter's name not included.):

• "However the Muse May Strike--OR Beware the Headwriting Author." I don't know what that means. Do you?
• "My Giant-Size Man-Thing, a birthday gift from (email address redacted)" I too have a monster in my pants, but tweeting about it is creepy.
• "Robot prostitutes. No, not the Page 3 celebs at Bombay Times parties." (Followed by a link to the Huffington Post.) Is this about journalism or marital aids?
• "I haven't teased you with any spidey stuff yet. So here you go." I don't want to know what this means. Arachnophobes stay away.
• "Game of Thrones. Instagrammed." Does anybody speak English?
• "Rangers win all games in a series in Boston for first time since 1997. Winning streak at 6. Rangers 6, Boston 3." Finally, something I can understand. But is it worth scrolling through the other stuff to get to? It's nothing but an ESPN crawl, which I seldom read anyway.
• "The smaller the squirrel, the bigger the nut." I can't wait to drop this gem into my next department meeting.

Here are some things that are more productive than tweeting.
1. Playing Computer Solitaire. Recent research finds that a game of solitaire can reduce stress.
2. Watching a game between the Twins and the Yankees. The Twins might be the worst team in baseball and the Yankees are ready for medicare. Plus, they are in the American League where pitchers don't bat. But it's baseball.
3. Spraying for bagworms on my evergreens. It's gotta be done.
4. Ukulele lessons. Nothing like plunking an uke to put a smile on your face.
5. Learning how to mix an Amaretto sour. Need I say more?
6. Rereading a classic novel such as one of John LeCarre's
7. Discussing said novel with your wife or close friend who lived through the cold war.
8. Finishing your own cold war novel. How satisfying is that?
9. Revising that short story you've been trying to sell.
10. Walk outside and get to know your neighborhood.

I could be all wrong about social networking. If I am. let me know. I'd really like to know how many tweets you read, on average, to find one book worth buying and, on the other side, how many tweets you write to sell one book.

Mark Troy
http://hawaiian-eye.blogspot.com

The Book I'm Writing Now

Though I am in the middle of a blog tour for No Bells, the latest in my Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series--and you have no idea how complicated it has been--I am also writing the next in my Deputy Tempe Crabtree series which will not be due until the fall of 2013. (A good thing since I'm only about 1/2 of the way through.)

This particular book is full of spirits and ghosts and a bit of devil worshiping. Spirits and ghosts I know a lot about, devil worshiping, not so much and have had to do some research. Of course there's murder and a haunted house.

When I saw that they are reviving Dark Shadows I was thrilled. My kids used to rush home from school to watch each episode of Dark Shadows with me. Yes, it was cheesy, the acting was way overblown, the sets thrown together, but oh, it was so much fun. I've watched the trailer for the movie and I can hardly wait.

Johnny Depp will be a great Barnaby Collins.

What does this have to do with the book I'm writing? I hope I can put some of the same atmosphere into the book that the old Dark Shadows TV movie exuded. Corny or not, it was spooky.

Marilyn

Where Does the Time Go?

It's a mystery to me where all the time goes. It's got to be around here somewhere, but where? I'm now retired, but not really, since I spend a lot of time online marketing and writing, usually in that order. Most of the important stuff seems to happen online in the morning, and if I wait until later, I know I'll miss something.

Today, I promised myself I'd get through my emails, support other authors where needed, do my blog, and then hurry over to my work in progress.

Well, I'm just now doing the blog. Also, the last part of my list never happened. I made the mistake of bringing something down to the basement, and realizing I had tons of work to do there. So, I spent my afternoon cleaning the basement. Six bags of garbage, some recycling items, some giveaways, and I finally called it quits for today. Last week was the same thing. I made the mistake of going downstairs and many bags of garbage and recycling later, I still wasn't through.

Wait a minute. I just solved the mystery. I know where the time went. It went into the basement.

Where does your time go?

For Excerpts and Buy Links to all
of Morgan Mandel's Books, Go to
http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com/

Free Download of Diary of Murder

Diary of Murder can be downloaded today on Kindle at tinyurl.com/79vflvg. It's the second novel in my Logan & Cafferty mystery/suspense series and features two baby boomer women amateur sleuths who are traveling in Colorado in their motorhome when Dana Logan receives a call from her brother-in-law telling her that her sister Georgi has committed suicide. Dana knows her sister would never take her own life and, with her friend Sarah Cafferty, drives through a Rocky Mountain blizzard to Wyoming to prove it was murder. They find a diary written by Dana's sister and place their own lives in danger by investigating Georgi's death. Along the way they discover more bodies as well as a vicious drug ring. Humor, light romance, mystery and suspense.

The Language of Love? by Christine Duncan

Ever notice how, when you are in a relationship with someone, you tend to speak in shortcuts that the other person knows but maybe someone else won’t understand?

I’ll give you a couple of examples from my own life. When my children were very little, when they wanted to know why I did something, I would answer “only, ‘cause.” My children would then parrot back at me, “Because you love me?” and of course, the answer was yes. As they got older, they stopped adding the second part. But still, “only ‘cause” was one way I could still tell them during their teen years what I felt without embarrassing them.

My husband and I also tend toward verbal short cuts. He might tell me how irritated he got driving because he had both a regulator and bumblebees to contend with. A regulator is our word for someone who rushes to pull his car out in front of you, and then drives at least 20 miles under the speed limit. He wasn’t referring to the insect either in this conversation, when he talked about bumblebees. He meant bikers, who tend to dress for whatever reason in black and yellow and who can get pretty testy with drivers sometimes.


 The reason I’m writing on this today, is that I just finished a book where the main characters were supposed to be very close. They did a lot of hugging, a lot of hand holding and yet, I missed those little, telling, verbal shortcuts. Give your characters a real relationship, with no backstory. Have them use language that lets your reader know they have a shared past. I know it will enrich the story.