I just posted a review of Mindy Mejia’s latest thriller, To Catch at Storm, at https://heyijustread.wordpress.com/2023/08/24/to-catch-a-storm/.
between the pages
Confessions of a Cop Camp ‘guinea pig’
It was was jam packed and over too soon
From the informal gathering the night before it started to the celebratory champaign at the end, Cop Camp in Appleton, Wisconsin, was amazing and inspiring.
Cop Camp is the informal name for the Cops and Writers Interactive Conference, and I was lucky enough to be in the inaugural group June 1-4.
Cop, writer and Wisconsin technical college instructor R.J. Beam approached Cops and Writers podcast host and author Patrick O’Donnell, a retired Milwaukee police officer, about setting up a workshop. They enlisted friends in law enforcement from across the nation, as well as friends from the indie writing world. Their goal was to develop a retreat for crime writers who want to get it right. Nothing too big, they planned to cap it at 30 to 40 writers.
Timing and conflict with other events reduced the number of the inaugural class to about a dozen. But for those of us who were there, it was both enlightening and inspiring. And, frankly, I am looking forward to next year. The small-group setting really appealed to my needs as a writer.
Most of us arrived the night before and gathered in the hotel restaurant for a casual gathering where we met, chatted, hoisted a few beverages, and waited while Patrick made trips to the airport to collect speakers whose flights were delayed. The friendly companionship we started the first night became a hallmark of the event.
Not only did we hear detailed first-hand accounts from folks who work in every aspect of law-enforcement, we also had time with some top-earning, fast-release indie authors, such as Michael Anderle.
I also enjoyed meeting some new authors — most from around the Midwest. One new friend, Madeleine Roberts, who writes as Madeleine Eskedahl, came all the way from New Zealand to immerse herself in US cop culture. (She also stayed for the following week’s Writers’ Police Academy, but I’ve talked about that before.)
Some of my favorite hands-on sessions were with Appleton, Wisconsin, crime scene investigator Falynne Gerisch. Not only did she help us collect fingerprints in a variety of ways, she also showed us some other techniques for evidence collection. And she’ll be showing up in my work-in-progress as my CSI.
I also loved the crime scene. We were teamed up with partners to investigate a shooting death at the police academy version of the “No-Tell Motel.” After we collected evidence and formed our theories, we got to debrief. And then, in one of the last sessions, B Adam Richarson of the Writer’s Detective Bureau podcast, turned our investigation into a murder board.
I could go on much longer, but I like to keep these short. Suffice it to say, I think if you are a slightly introverted crime fiction (or true crime) writer — or even if you are outgoing but love to get things right — you owe it to yourself to grab one of the seats at next year’s event.
You just can’t have mine.
(The top photo was provided by Cop Camp organizers; the rest are Sharon’s.)
between the pages
crime fiction
I just added a quick review of Dorothy Gilman’s The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax.
It’s the first in my focus on crime fiction, broadly defined. I also developed my own five-gun, violence-rating system, in case that influences your reading choices.
Female flyers worth celebrating
While I was in Appleton, Wisconsin, earlier this month, I met two women crime fiction writers from New Zealand and England. (But that’s another story.) Neither had a car, so I took them to a couple of places they wanted to visit. One was a shooting range. The other was the Experimental Aircraft Association museum in Oshkosh.
At the EAA museum, we went our separate ways to explore the huge museum and its many exhibits. I was surprised to find two areas of tribute to women aviators. There may have been more, but we only had about an hour to spend, so we kind of flew through. (No pun intended.)
One of the areas was dedicated to the history of the women called WASPs, variously defined as the Women Airforce Service Pilots, Women’s Army Service Pilots and Women’s Auxiliary Service Pilots. (There’s a bit of history at https://www.worldwariiaviation.org/women-air-force-service-pilots-wasp.) Posters showed the history of their service, and some of the things they did during World War II. There was also an example of their uniforms.
Another area was a walk-through portrait gallery. With these ten women (portraits with this post) were some of the men who contributed to aviation history. Sure, I knew about Amelia Earhart and Sally Ride, and I just learned about Bessie Coleman. But the others were new to me.
Roald Dahl wrote about fifinellas in his 1942 book, Gremlins. They are, he explained, female gremlins who plagued the pilots of the Royal Air Force. Walt Disney illustrated the book and developed the first image of a fifinella. The one at the EAA museum looks different, but her story is the same.
Disney and his empire are picky about the use of their illustrations, but in what I can only assume was generosity borne of the war effort, he allowed his original drawing in the Fifinella Gazette, the WASP newsletter, and to be used — for at least two years — as the official mascot of the WASPs. The initial permission could be renewed upon request.
Apparently (according to a history of the WASPs online), women pilots were already creating unofficial patches to wear on their flight jackets and other attire.
Another surprise to me was learning about Nancy Harkness Love, who was a civilian in the Army Air Force. She commanded the first units of female pilots during WWII. She earned her pilots license at age 16, after she saw Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis in Paris. (He has a section in the EAA museum, too, and there’s a replica of his plane in the exhibit.) Nancy, who later became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, earned a commercial pilot’s license in 1932. She flew people around the U.S. Northeast to earn money while a student at Vassar College.
Despite her work, she had to leave college after her junior year because she and her parents couldn’t afford it. She took a job selling aircraft in Boston, then worked as a test pilot for industry and for the Burea of Air Commerce (today, the Federal Aviation Administration).
She also flew across the country to try to convince communities and farmers to paint navigational signs on water towers and barns to improve flying safety.
If you plan to visit the Oshkosh area, this is the 75th anniversary of the EAA. That makes it a great year to consider attending the annual Airventure. I think it’s probably the biggest “family reunion” of pilots and flying afficiandos in the world. Check it out at https://www.eaa.org/airventure.
And be sure to make a stop at the museum. I plan to go back.
Backyard beauty
Sometimes the museum right “next door” is one you forget to visit. But I’m glad our recent painting party with Barry Treu turned out to be small enough that he could host us at the Freeport Art Museum. We had fun creating variations on his “rainy day” picture of flowers in boot vases, we were literally sitting in the midst of the 19th Regional Juried Exhibition.
Featuring artists from throughout the Midwest, working in a variety of two- and three-dimensional media, the show will remain at FAM through July 29. Perry Eden, Linda Vietmeyer, Sheila Welch and Kathleen Wilken, all of Freeport, are just some of the artists whose work is featured in the regional show.
Before we left, we also had a chance to wander through the museum to see some of the other items on display. They are immensly varied. One of my favorites may not be intentional art, but it appeals to my (possibly weird) sense of humor. The “Please Do Not Set Anything on the Piano” sign — set on the piano — strikes my funny bone.
But on a more traditional note, I liked the dyptich — two-panel painting — called Pelican Island by Tara Keating.
I also liked the late 17th century Samurai helmet and mask, and the flirty statue of peasants, carved in marble by Ferdinand Vichi.
No matter what is shown, its well worth a trip to enjoy the art in our midst at the Freeport Art Museum. And admission is a bargain at $3 for adults, $2 for senior citizens and students, and $10 for a family.
The museum is at 121 N Harlem Ave. Learn more at https://www.freeportartmuseum.com/
sharon p. lynn 