Sunday, October 9, 2011

Write what you know!

Many people say, "Write what you know and know what you write". So in my first two books I write about vampires. Does this mean I know about them? Well, I know a few people who resemble vampires.  Myself... well I have a tendency to bite, and the sight of blood does not turn me off. In fact it kind of excites me.  Is that strange?  I don't know... but maybe that comes from what I really know... law enforcement.

I have been a police officer, or cop as many of you call us, for 11 years. I won't go into the other names we are called, you all probably know a few of them. Anyway, in my years as a cop (I'll use that word because it is easier to type), I have seen and done a lot.  I work for a small department in Pennsylvania.  Right now we only have 7 full time officers and 4 part timers. Yes, we are small and we are country.  
Being a small department has it's benefits.  We aren't constantly on the run, and we get the chance to try different things.  Like trunk inspections, something I'm not personally interested in, but I have two guys I work with that are. We have all kinds of special details for traffic, Halloween safety, sports events and other things that pop up now and again. There are teams like SWAT, or what we call ERT that we are involved in too.

The thing that I like... Forensics... crime scenes... the Who-dune-it... part of the job.  The part that takes patience, intelligence and an ability to see things that some people don't or can't see. Earlier this year I received a huge certification from the International Association of Identification (IAI).  What is this? Well if you have ever seen the CSI shows on T.V. you might have heard they mention they are a CSI level 1 or CSI level 2.  It goes all the way to level 4.  Anyway, I received my certification to be able to carry the title CSI-1.  To me this was huge.  At the time in PA, there were only 109 other CSI-1's!  So I earned a rare title and it is something I am proud of.

But what does that mean to my readers? Well it means, that while some of my stories do talk about vampires, all of my books incorporate the skills of a patrol officer or detective.  I get to use my knowledge to bring stories to life that people watch on t.v. and wonder about.  I talk about patrol, partners, crime scenes and the sometimes terrible things that happen to people. 

Being in this line of work as a cop, not an author, allows me into the back door of so many things that people read about on-line and see on the news.  I don't write about any specific situations that I have been in, I would never do that to the people who were actually involved, but I do take some of those stories and twist them with other incidents to give you something to read and understand about what goes on behind those closed doors of your neighbor's houses. 

I love the law enforcement world. My favorite times are when I am in the lab fuming evidence to search for latent prints, or when I am on the side of the road helping someone who was just in an accident.  The best part of my job, is catching a bad guy in a lie during an interview, and then typing up the criminal complaint for his arrest. I touch lives in my job and I believe I do a good job of it too. With my writing, I am hoping to touch even more lives.  To bring to life stories and characters that fill my mind and make you wonder. I hope to hear from you and hope that you enjoy the worlds that I have created for you.

You can check out my website at Stacy S Eaton to see what other stories I am working on.  There are quite a few.  You can also purchase the two titles that I have already published, My Blood Runs Blue and Blue Blood for Life right there on my website, or download for your kindle application on Amazon.



Oh... and if you are wondering... we don't eat donuts anymore... we moved up to bagels and soft pretzels!

2 comments:

  1. Very cool. I have zero useful experience in anything that I want to write about, so I've gotta do it the hard way or stick to writing thin-air fantasy.

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  2. This is so true. There's no reason to have place limits on your imagination, but using your own expertise will always enhance a story, no matter how far removed from direct experience the plot can be. I'm interested to check out your book. A vampire story influenced by law enforcement experience sounds intriguing.

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