Cleveland Missing Women Rescued: A Day to Celebrate!

How wonderful to have positive news to celebrate ~ the rescue of three missing women. Three separate kidnappings that occurred about a decade ago. It's a joyous day for all Americans, but especially for the family and friends of victims Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight; and certainly every person in law enforcement, past or present, who has had to deal with the nightmare of a kidnapped or missing person, and the tragic effect it has on their loved ones.

It certainly brings to mind the heartening returns of Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Dugard, and Katie Beers.

During my 21-year police career, I spent several years working in the Public Information Bureau. I handled the media during the Katie Beers kidnapping in late December 1992 into January 1993. Just before leaving home to work a 4 pm to midnight shift on January 13, my mother called with news she heard on the radio that Katie Beers had been found. I held my breath, then asked, "Alive?" and to my biggest relief, she said "Yes." On January 13, 2013 (the 20th anniversary of Katie's rescue), her book (written along with Carolyn Gusoff), Buried Memories: Katie Beers' Story, was released.

Reunion of sisters Beth Serrano & Amanda Berry
photo via usnews.nbcnews.com

The exciting reunions have begun. The NY Daily News reports that Amanda Berry reunited with her older sister Beth Serrano. Beth also got to meet the niece she never knew she had. Sadly, Amanda's mom died from heart failure in 2006, but Amanda's family never gave up hope.
America has a new hero, Charles Ramsey -- a neighbor who got involved by assisting a distressed woman and her child. This interview with Charles Ramsey is fantastic. His 911 call is quite colorful but entertaining. The Daily Beast assembled some of the most unique witness interviews with folks who became internet sensations, which now includes Charles Ramsey:

Former bus driver Ariel Castro, age 52 and two brothers, Onil and Pedro, have been arrested. How frightening to learn that this man had access to children. It's bizarre that all three brothers apparently engaged in this crime.

Mugshots via hinterlandgazette.com

I look forward to the media coverage in the days and weeks to come, as more details become known about how these women and a young child survived this ordeal.

I hope this rescue gives the family and friends of missing persons a ray of hope that in the very near future that they, too, may be reunited with their loved ones.

Take a moment to review the FBI cases of kidnappings and missing persons; you never know who may be in your very own neighborhood or have been assimilated into society under another name and change of hair color or style. The U.S. Department of Justice has a website called NAMUS (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

God Bless these women (and Amanda's child) who have miraculously returned to their loved ones. May their futures be healthy, bright, and full of love and laughter throughout the healing days, weeks, months, and years ahead. Please say a prayer for the kidnapped or missing people who are currently being held captive so that they, too, may escape or be rescued by an attentive neighbor. 

National Poetry Month: "30 Days of the 5-2" Blog Tour

I'm happy to be celebrating National Poetry Month by participating in the “30 Days of the 5-2″ Blog Tour.

Editor Gerald So publishes an original poem in text and audio/video every Monday at “The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly."  Submissions of poems (crime-related, or the poet’s reaction to what he or she sees as crime), 60 lines or fewer per poem (any form or style) are open year-round. The 5-2 seeks original, unpublished work only. Read the complete submission guidelines for further information. Follow Crime Poetry Weekly on Twitter @poemsoncrime.

If you would like to help promote The 5-2 Blog Tour this month, use the hashtag #30OfThe52.

During the month of April 2013, sales proceeds of poetry publications by The 5-2 will be donated to the non-profit American Academy of Poets to support poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry. Sales proceeds from The 5-2 Shop at CafePress.com will also be donated this month.

I would like to feature a poem by Christine Aletti, called "Sylvia Plath: Gaslight Left On," which was published on The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly on February 11, 2013 -- the 50th anniversary of the tragic suicide of 30-year-old Plath. She was the youngest person to receive a Pulitzer Prize posthumously; it was awarded in 1982 for her Collected Poems.

Sylvia Plath, via Biography.com

SYLVIA PLATH: GASLIGHT LEFT ON

I waited by the phone for you to call

the coals from burning, burning off the bed.

I suppose I never knew you at all. 

When clouds' rims reddened, rope began to fall

& overanalyzed lies swayed and pled.

I waited by the phone for you to call.

Itch my anger, the skin's started to crawl;

Crack the coating, the olive oil's bled.

I suppose I never knew you at all.

In the street, villagers started a small

affair, stomping and singing, but instead,

I waited by the phone for you to call.

There’s no enamel left here to enthrall;

Stroke heaven’s match on its gelatin head.

I suppose I never knew you at all 

This little note was just what I could scrawl:

I’m sorry. I didn't mean what I said.

I waited by the phone for you to call.

I suppose I never knew you at all.

***

Come follow me on Twitter @katcop13

Novelist Makes $1M Before Book Hits Stores

image via wow-womenonwriting

Talk about a Cinderella story! This is the dream of every self-published author, or even those who've been tempted to take the plunge of self-publishing. This success story might very well prompt reluctant writers to give it a shot.

The story has been covered (quite nicely, I might add) by The Wall Street Journal, and there's an accompanying video, too. Read and/or listen how author Hugh Howey, a 37-year-old college dropout, wrote Wool (which originally began as a short story in 2011), a post-apocalyptic thriller about the remnants of humanity living in a giant underground silo, and how he was vigorously pursued by publishers.

Check out some of Hugh Howey's short stories. For more information on Wool, check out Wired's GeekDad Book Review by Erik Wecks -- his pick for Best Indie Fiction in 2012 (you can follow Erik on Twitter @erikwecks)

Here's an illustration by Mike Sudal for The Wall Street Journal:

Twentieth-Century Fox and director Ridley Scott ("Alien") have optioned the film rights.

Print publication rights for this New York Times bestseller were acquired by Simon & Schuster, and tomorrow, Wool hits the stores; it will cost $15 for a paperback version, $26 for a hardcover, or $5.99 digitally. In a rare move, Howey retains the digital rights.

For tomorrow's U.S. launch of Wool, Hugh Howey will be appearing at Murder by the Book in Houston at 6:30 p.m.

Congratulations, Mr. Howey ~ and best wishes to the reluctant self-publishers out there. May you be inspired to take the plunge!

"Guiltiest Dog Ever" Video

This is hysterical. It's very cute and oh so funny. I had to share it!

Enjoy!

Zora Neale Hurston Quote

Folklorist, anthropologist, novelist, and short story writer Zora Neale Hurston was born in Alabama on this date in 1891. 

One of her quotes:

"If writers were too wise, perhaps no books would get written at all. It might be better to ask yourself "Why?" afterwards than before. Anyway, the force from somewhere in Space which commands you to write in the first place, gives you no choice. You take up the pen when you are told, and write what is commanded. There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you." 

Zora passed away from heart disease on January 28, 1960, and was buried in Fort Pierce, Florida, in an unmarked grave. In 1973, novelist Alice Walker and literary scholar Charlotte Hunt found the unmarked grave and marked it as hers. 

A Reflective Thanksgiving

For the folks affected by Hurricane Sandy, this Thanksgiving may be quite different. Tragically, lives were lost. For the families and friends of those victims, the absence of their loved ones on this holiday and the holidays to come will be even more painful. I pray for their strength to get through it. Many people lost their homes, cars, treasured possessions, and more. Out-of-state utility workers left their families to help us. Public Safety workers have put in exhaustive hours. I hope that the majority of them can be home with their families for Thanksgiving. There will be much to ponder this Thursday when reflecting upon what we are grateful for in our lives.

One of my neighbor's uprooted trees

My family, our relatives, and friends got through it relatively unscathed; we were extremely fortunate, compared to the devastation experienced by some of our neighbors and fellow Long Islanders.

For those who might need assistance, or if you are interested in helping the victims of Hurricane Sandy, visit the website of the American Red Cross (@RedCross on Twitter).

Yesterday, on a brisk yet sunny autumn day, I took a long drive to attend a guided walking tour of Northport. Along the way, I admired the colors of the leaves which still clung to the trees that were left standing. I listened to one of my "mix-tape" CDs, which included (get ready, I have an extremely eclectic love of music): "Moondance" by Van Morrison, "The Rising" by Bruce Springsteen, "Forever in Blue Jeans" by Neil Diamond, "You're My Home" by Billy Joel, "Peaceful Easy Feeling" by the Eagles, and "Song for You" by Leon Russell, and many, many more. But it was some of the sights on this journey that encouraged me; the clean-up, repair, and rebuilding that has already taken place in such a short period of time. However, from seeing the photographs on the news, in the paper, and online, there is devastation on this island and surrounding east coast communities that will take months, if not years, to recuperate and rebuild.

Several Robert Frost quotes went through my mind, including:

"Nothing gold can stay."

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."

"Hope is not found in a way out but a way through."

I enjoyed the informative guided walking tour of Northport's historic Main Street. The Northport Historical Society's guided tour ("Parading Down Main Street") is offered approximately one Sunday a month, starting at 1:30 p.m. The next scheduled tour is December 16, 2012. A ticket cost $5.00, and it is well worth it. (The museum also offers a self-guided tour, Tuesday through Sunday from 1 pm - 4:30 pm). The tour guide, Dan, was a wealth of information. I highly recommend it ~ get ready to learn a lot.
If you've never visited Northport, you will see "Gunther's Tap Room," a favorite hang-out of Jack Kerouac's, and you will discover where a speakeasy existed during Prohibition.

The museum, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was built in 1914 with funds provided by Andrew Carnegie for a Village Library. It functioned as a library until 1967; it became the home to the Northport Historical Society Museum in 1974. The society was established in 1962, and this year marks the 50th Anniversary of the society.

Why the walking tour of Northport, you might ask?

My husband grew up in Northport; his parents were born and raised in Northport. My mother's family moved from Brooklyn to Northport in the early 1950s. My grandfather, Edward Welsh, ran the concession stand at Crab Meadow Beach; he installed a jukebox under the pavilion, and he filled it with records from some new singer named Elvis Presley. Tragically, a massive heart attack claimed his life at age 47, leaving my broken-hearted grandmother to raise six children (ages 4-16, my mom being 15) on her own.

Even more connections: I delivered mail one summer in Northport; I subbed as a music teacher in the Northport-East Northport School District shortly after graduating from LIU. When I became a Suffolk County Police Officer, I patrolled the East Northport and Northport areas outside of the Incorporated Village of Northport. Fate has been pointing me towards Northport my entire life.

My true crime memoir centers around the 1955 hatchet murder of a taxi driver on Scudder Avenue in Northport (today happens to mark the 57th anniversary); it was a case that my armchair-detective grandmother, who lived two miles from the scene of the crime, discussed with me regularly, among other unsolved cases. Sadly, she passed away at age 61 when I was 13. I often ache to have an "adult" conversation with her about the case and what I've uncovered over the past two decades.

Speaking of Northport, there's an unusual but fun event occurring on Saturday, November 24, 2012, at 7 p.m., in front of the Northport Hardware Company, 90 Main Street; the Annual Leg Lamp Lighting Ceremony (an homage to "A Christmas Story"). Check out this YouTube Video from last year's event.

Wishing you and yours a warm, relaxing, enjoyable Thanksgiving with your loved ones.

Here's one of my favorite Erma Bombeck quotes, sure to give you a chuckle:

"Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence."

Craft of Writing Quote

I enjoy collecting quotes on the craft of writing. I'd like to share a couple of quotes from American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley  who passed away on this date in 1999.  

“There's no "magic secret"; writing is like everything else; ten percent inspiration or talent, and ninety percent hard work. Persistence; keeping at it till you get there. As Agnes de Mille said, it means working every day—bored, tired, weary, or with a fever of a hundred and two.” 

"Think of this: a thousand pages sounds like a lot. But write three pages a day and a year from now you'll have a book."

In "What Is A Short Story?" Marion offers advice on the elements of the short story. 

Clipart source: Book Dreaming, Home of MG Author Shannon O'Donnell