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PUBLIC SAFETY WRITERS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER  

After Conference 2010 Newsletter 

Editor: Marilyn Meredith, mmeredith@ocsnet.net

This is your newsletter, please contribute articles, your news, book reviews, or anything else you think might be of interest.

IN THIS ISSUE:

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

CAPSULE INFORMATION FROM THE PSWA CONFERENCE

AMMUNITION

COMMENTS ON HANDGUN ARTICLES

POST CONFERENCE BLUES

TEARS ON THE WALL

NEW CRIME/MYSTERY ANTHOLOGY

PUBLISHER RECOMMENDATION

FUTURE OF BOOKS

MEMBER NEWS

* * *
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Look around the website and you’ll see the highlights from this year’s PSWA conference held June 17-20 in Las Vegas.  A special thanks to Marilyn Meredith for recruiting speakers, encouraging participation and telling everyone from long-time PSWA members to, I’m guessing, people she’d never met before in the supermarket check-out line what a great conference it would be.  And she was right.  It was the best ever! 

Another special thanks to Keith Bettinger our on-site logistics guy who (with the possible exception of a cantankerous microphone) made everything go smoothly and kept us all comfortable and extremely well fed throughout. 

Thanks to writing contest coordinator Michelle Perin, we also had a record number of entrants in our contest and many wonderful entries allowed the winners to head home with gold stickers declaring their published (or soon to be published) works “Award Winning.” 

Plans are already in the works for Conference 2011 to be held in July, 2011 again in Las Vegas, probably at the Orleans Hotel that this year provided excellent service, great accommodations and a short shuttle ride to the strip.  Chances are, we’ll set yet another attendance record with the 2011 conference, so be sure to keep checking the website for periodic updates. 
           
Remember that our writing contest has categories for both published and unpublished works, so start now thinking about what your entries will be for the 2011 contest.  The contest is open to all PSWA members, so if you haven’t yet joined, just go to the “Join” page and do so.
           
Also remember that as a member you’re entitled to a FREE manuscript review by an experienced writer and editor and access to the largest and most complete listing of public safety publications that accept work from freelance writers. For many of our members access to this list alone has allowed them to build relationships with some of the genre’s most prestigious publications.  So can you!
           
And, finally, be aware that your membership allows you access to the members-only list serve which provides you mystery writers with the opportunity to ask and get reliable answers to questions like, “What’s the best way to kill someone with poison?” or “How could I plan a really interesting arson?” and not find yourself under investigation by numerous secret agencies. 
           
Whatever you now write about or are thinking of writing about, just about anything you need to know is available to you through PSWA.  Hope to see your name on the membership list soon!

Marilyn Olson
President
PSWA

* * *

CAPSULE INFORMATION FROM THE PSWA CONFERENCE

If you missed this year’s conference you not only missed a good time, you missed a lot of great information. 

First, we heard from a group of authors and members (Sue McGinty, W.S. Gager, Michael Black, Bette and J. J. Lamb) what they wished they’d known in the beginning.

Michael Black gave a wonderful presentation on How to Outline Your Novel in an Hour using a poster board and lots and lots of post-it notes.

Moderator Keith Bettinger along with panelist Michelle Perrin, Kathleen Ryan and Kregg Jorgenson talked about writing for trade publications both paper magazines and on the net.

We had two editors and two agents who talked about the worst mistakes authors make. Some in the audience thought they were kind of mean—but the topic was the worst mistakes. Hopefully, we’ll all learn from what they had to say.

Steve Scarborough told us about the first real detectives and the fictional detectives that were based on them.

We had a dynamite promotion panel with Madeline Gornell moderating, and Sunny Frazier, Mike Orenduff, Morgan St. James and me describing what works best of each of us.

Mark Bouton, using a slide presentation, showed us how to tell if someone is lying. Fascinating stuff.

Kregg Jorgenson did a bang-up job giving tips on how to target articles for particular magazines and the best way to make sure they will be accepted.

Michael and his wife, Lau Orenduff gave a beautiful presentation on artistic representation that can be translated over into cover design.

Our keynote speaker, best-selling thriller author, Simon Wood, was a real charmer with his British accent and wry wit. He told us all about how to keep the suspense going in our writing.

I moderated a fun panel about spooky stuff and supernatural touches in our books. My panelist were Michael Angley, Monti Sikes, and Beverly Lauderdale.

Literary Agent Holly Sullivan McClure told what it meant to be an Empowered Author.

Did you ever wonder what the difference is between a mystery and a thriller? Mysti Berry moderated a panel of the following people, Bette Lamb, J.J. Lamb, Simon Wood, and John M. Wills who explained the difference quite succinctly.

Despite her talk being at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning, almost everyone showed up to hear Sunny Frazier tell us how much sex is too much.

The importance of setting along with why some authors use real places and other fictional was discussed with Sue McGinty, Rebecca Dahlke, W. S. Gager and Madeline Gornel.

Our last presentation was most valuable—Morgan St. James explained the importance of understanding POV.

Everyone received a folder with the names and bios on all of the attendees, the schedule for the conference and many handouts as well as lots of promo items from various authors. They also got a bag of goodies from Las Vegas and magazines.

Lots of the attendees books were sold through the bookstore. Those who wanted had one-on-one sessions with the agents and the publishers.

And one last and most important thing, the food was out of this world! Keith Bettinger does a fantastic job picking the menus for the conference.

It’s not too early to be thinking about next year’s program. I already have some commitments, but if anyone has ideas for panels or a presentation, don’t hesitate to email me at mmeredith@ocsnet.net

Marilyn Meredith, CRSA Conference Program Chair

* * *

AMMUNITION

There are many myths and misunderstandings about handgun and rifle ammunition, and about what happens when a bullet finds its target.

One of the myths that is constantly reinforced by scenes of shootings on television and in the movies is the belief that the impact of a bullet to a human body will lift the victim off of the ground and slam them into the wall or whatever else is behind them. For this to be true, we would have to suspend Newton’s Third Law of Motion: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If Dirty Harry’s .44 Magnum produced enough power to blow a guy through a plate glass window and several feet beyond, Harry would have been lifted off of his feet, too. Instead, we see Harry’s revolver barrel rise a bit with each shot before he gets back on target.
There are some less-lethal shotgun-type weapons that fire “beanbag” or “baton” rounds, each about the size of a cosmetic powder puff. These are relatively (as compared to a bullet) heavy projectiles with a large surface area. When they hit their target, the kinetic energy imparted to them by the propellant gas in the barrel of the weapon is delivered into the target.

Anyone who has fired a 12 gauge shotgun knows there is a substantial “kick” to it, much more so than with most rifles. If the shooter doesn’t have the butt of the shotgun stock firmly wedged into their shoulder, the recoil can break a bone. As it is, you’re likely to have a sore shoulder after a shotgun session at the range with regular ammunition. The upshot is that the force generated from a shotgun is substantial, and anyone hit with a beanbag round fired from one is going to be knocked down.

Bullets and the shot pellets contained in a regular shotgun shell have a much smaller cross-section than a beanbag. When the kinetic energy imparted to that projectile by the expanding gases from the barrel of the gun is focused on that small cross-section, it’s probably going to pierce the target, not just push it away. It’s the difference between hitting something with the end of a baseball bat or with an icepick. You can shove the end of a baseball bat into your sofa as hard as you can, and all you’ll do is make a dent in the cushion. Do the same thing with an icepick, and you’ll go right through.


Figure 1: Comparative sizes of ammunition in common use. The battery is included as a size reference.

Calibers
Ammunition is typically characterized as being of a certain caliber, as are the weapons that fire it. If you have found ammunition sizes or calibers confusing and/or inconsistent, that is only because they are.

In the simplest measurement, a bullet's caliber is the measurement of the diameter in inches. A .22 bullet is 0.22 inches in diameter. That wasn't so hard, was it? So, by extension, a .38 Special and a .380 caliber round should be identical, since that trailing zero can be dropped, right? Wrong.

The caliber measures the bullet's diameter, but as we discussed previously, there are four components to a cartridge or round of ammunition:

  • bullet or projectile
  • casing or shell
  • powder
  • primer

The bullet determines, more or less, the diameter of the round, but the shell or casing can vary in length. Generally, rifle ammunition is longer than handgun ammo, as the rifle will handle a heavier powder charge and generate greater muzzle velocity (the speed of the bullet when it leaves the barrel of the firearm). Cartridges for what are usually characterized as a “high-powered” or “assault” rifles are about the size of an index finger, and all but a small portion of that is the shell carrying the powder charge and primer. The upshot is that two similar calibers, such as .22 and .223, may be supplied in cartridges of markedly different size.

By the way, “caliber” substitutes for “inches” when the measurement of the projectile is in inches, but the measurement can also be in millimeters (mm). If that’s the case, the number will be followed by “mm” and there may be a second number denoting the length of the cartridge (e.g. 7.62 x 39mm).

Caliber measurement is of the projectile only. Certain calibers approximate the size of their projectiles, but refer to ammunition with different cartridge sizes for different firearms. A .22 Long Rifle (LR) cartridge is made for .22 rifles and handguns used for “plinking,” target practice, and varmint hunting. The entire cartridge is about the size of a thin medicine capsule. A .223 cartridge fires a projectile only 0.224 inches in diameter, but the cartridge is 1.77 inches (45mm) long. Why is a cartridge with a 0.224-inch projectile called a “.223”? Because it is, that’s why. Do you always ask this many questions?

There are hundreds—maybe thousands—of different ammunition types, especially when you take into account the numerous military and antique weapons in common use and in collections around the world. If you multiply that times the variants of each cartridge size (round nose, hollow-point, armor-piercing, semi-jacketed, full-jacketed, etc.), you can see why there are so many shelves of ammunition at the sporting goods store.
There are thick books devoted to describing different ammunition types and calibers, so it’s clear a complete discussion of the topic is beyond the scope of this work. That said, here are a few tips to keep you on the right path where common police and military small arms are concerned:

  • .380 Auto, .9mm, .38 Special, and 357 Magnum handgun ammunition all use approximately the same size bullet. The cartridge size and relative power of each type runs in that lost from smallest to largest.
  • .38 Special and .357 Magnum ammunition both use a bullet 0.357 inches in diameter, and the cartridges are of the same diameter, but different lengths (the .38 is shorter). .38 Special ammunition will fit into a .357 Magnum revolver and work just fine, but you can’t fit .357s into a .38 revolver.
  • The most popular police sidearm and ammunition combination is .40 caliber semi-jacketed hollow point ammo carried in a Glock pistol.
  • All NATO-member countries issue their troops rifles that chamber 5.56 x 45mm (diameter x length) ammunition, which is nearly identical to .223 rifle ammunition used for deer hunting. Military rifles can safely and effectively fire .223 ammo, but the military ammunition can fracture the chamber of a civilian rifle. Most law enforcement rifles will be variants of military weapons and will use the 5.56 x 45mm round.
  • The AK-47 is probably the most common rifle in the world, with at least 100 million manufactured (most as cheap copies of the original). It fires a 7.62 x 39mm cartridge, the same diameter and slightly shorter than the “old NATO” round still in use in some countries.

Full Metal Jacket, Hollow Points, and Dum Dums

In the 1970s and 1980s, there was some public discussion over the types of ammunition carried by police. Up until the 1970s, most police officers were carrying .38 Special or .357 Magnum revolvers with .38 Special round nose ammunition. The round nose or “ball” bullets were just that—lead spheres surrounded by a metal “jacket” that didn’t deform much when they hit their targets. Most military ammunition was of the same design, called “full metal jacket.”

The same bullet without the jacket on the exposed portion is sometimes called a “dum dum.” The name comes from the Dum Dum Arsenal that produced ammunition for the British Indian Army in the latter part of the 19th Century. Dum dum bullets flattened out or expanded when they hit their targets, often causing a larger, deadlier wound. An improvement in the design added part of the metal jacket back to the base of the bullet, but removed a portion of the lead in the point, producing the first hollow point ammunition. Hollow points contained less lead and were a bit lighter than ball rounds, so they had a greater velocity with the same powder charge. Bullets with metal jackets that cover all but the exposed portion are called “semi-jacketed.” Most modern hollow point ammunition is marked with its caliber and the suffix SJHP, meaning “semi-jacketed hollow point.”

Prior to the start of World War I, Germany protested the use of dum dum ammunition as inhumane, and it was banned in warfare. To this day, full metal jacket ammunition is standard in military ammunition stores.

For many years, handgun ammunition was available in full metal jacket (FMJ) designs only. Criminals and cops who hoped they wouldn’t get caught sometimes gouged crosses into the heads of their bullets to achieve a hollow point effect. An apocryphal innovation of Italian organized crime shooters was to dip the noses of their bullets in garlic oil to make the wound fester. In fact, garlic is more likely to sterilize the bullet than make it a source of infection.

Figure 2: Hollow point ammunition

Law enforcement slowly moved from FMJ to hollow point ammunition for a very good reason: hollow points generally stop at or in the first thing they hit. Officers shooting with FMJ ammunition commonly overpenetrated their targets and wounded people standing behind the person they wanted to hit, or had stray rounds penetrate windows and walls and strike people behind them. There was substantial public resistance to the adoption of hollow point ammo because of its deadly reputation. Advocates of a kinder, gentler police force thought that police should shoot to wound, not kill. The same people asked why their cops weren’t shooting for an arm or a leg instead of the torso, demonstrating a near-complete lack of understanding of the dynamics of a deadly force encounter. Eventually, this faction was made to understand (mostly) that it was best if police bullets stopped when they hit the bad guys, and hollow point ammunition became the standard of the industry.

Black Talon
In 1991, Winchester Ammunition produced a type of hollow point ammunition called Black Talon. Black Talon rounds were distinguished from other hollow point types by a star pattern of indentations around the hollow portion of the bullet, and a black coloring called Lubalox, which was a proprietary oxide formulation. When Black Talon bullets expanded on contact, small barbs popped up from the indentations, producing a larger, more penetrating wound. Law enforcement hailed the new ammunition, calling them “man stoppers” and adopting them as the standard for their officers.

These were the years following the assassination attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan and the disabling wounds suffered by his press secretary, James Brady. Anti-gun sentiment was high, and the so-called Brady Law was to follow, restricting sales and possession of certain firearms, ammunition and magazines for ten years until it was “sunsetted” in 2004. Some medical personnel claimed the barbs on the bullets could tear surgical gloves and injure physicians while exposing them to infection. There has never been a documented case of this occurring. Other critics of Black Talon ammunition characterized it as a “cop killer” and claimed the ammunition would penetrate the Kevlar body armor worn by law enforcement officers (it doesn’t). It was especially ironic that this objection was purported to protect police officers, who were enthusiastic about the ammunition. It didn’t help matters when a nutcase named Colin Ferguson (no relation to the Scottish actor/comedian of the same name) killed six passengers and wounded nineteen more on the Long Island Railroad in 1993, using Black Talon rounds in a Ruger 9mm semi-auto handgun.

Figure 3: Ranger ammunition. Note the "SXT" label on the box.

Mischaracterization of Black Talon ammo in television and the movies created the myth that Black Talon was banned for private use and available only to the police. This has never been the case, although Winchester did eventually pull the brand from the market because of the adverse attention it had gained. A short time afterward, Winchester marketed Ranger SXT ammunition, which has most of the features of Black Talon except the distinctive black Lubalox coating. Winchester says the “SXT” suffix stands for “Supreme eXpansion Technology,” but many shooters claim it means “Same eXact Thing.” Like Black Talon, Ranger ammunition is widely available, and there are no laws that restrict its use or possession apart from any other handgun ammunition.

Armor-Piercing Ammo
Armor-piercing (AP) ammunition is often mischaracterized and misunderstood. The aforementioned Black Talon ammunition was publicized as able to carve through police body armor when it would do no such thing. Occasionally, some random type of ammunition will be called a "Teflon round," inferring that a Teflon coating will slide through the fibers of body armor. Some AP ammunition does incorporate Teflon, but the presence or absence of Teflon has nothing to do with its ability to penetrate armor.

Figure 4: .50 caliber armor-piercing machine gun rounds, with a .357 Magnum handgun cartridge in front as a size reference. The projectiles are relatively small as compared to the entire casing, which contains a substantial powder charge.

AP ammunition is composed of a very hard projectile with a lot of energy behind it. Instead of using lead, the bullets are typically steel or some other alloy that is very hard, resistant to deformation, and pointy at the front end. They may be lighter than conventional bullets, so as to maximize range and velocity. The powder charge is extra-powerful because you want this bullet to have as much kinetic energy as possible when it arrives at its target.

Many of these bullets are coated with blue Teflon, but that isn't to aid them in penetrating armor. The Teflon is there to protect the gun barrel. Lead is a lot softer than the steel used to make gun barrels, and you can shoot a lot of lead bullets through them before they start to show wear. Machine guns that are fired a lot will go through a barrel pretty quickly. Infantry machine gun teams or two troops carry the machine gun, ammo belts, and at least one extra barrel, because a barrel is useless if a couple of belts are fired through it without allowing it to cool. Non-auto weapons, like handguns, very seldom need barrel replacements, no matter how much they are fired.

This all assumes the bullets fired through those barrels are made of lead. If the bullet is of a metal similar or of greater hardness than the gun barrel, the bullet will wear down the grooves inside the barrel that impart spin and stability to the bullet. A fired lead bullet carries the markings of the barrel that fired it, making it possible to match the bullet to the gun. An AP bullet might not be marked at all.

Teflon provides a slick surface to "lubricate" the bullet as it travels down the barrel. There might not be any Teflon left on the bullet when it arrives at its target, but that doesn't matter in terms of bullet performance. The only purpose of the Teflon was to protect the barrel of the gun.

Some AP rounds use a "sabot" (the proper pronunciation is "sabBO," but Americans frequently say "SAY-bot") to guide the projectile out of the barrel. A sabot is a shell around the projectile that falls off as soon as the projectile leaves the barrel. The sabot allows the projectile to be significantly smaller in diameter than the inside of the barrel. Military tank ammunition uses sabots for wire-guided missiles that are launched from the tank's main gun, and controlled by the gunner while in flight via a thin wire trailing the missile. Sabots are also used for AP rounds, which can be javelin-shaped to maximize penetration. Handgun and rifle rounds using sabots work similarly.

The best-known AP rounds used in handguns and shoulder weapons were made by KTW. KTW was formed and named for the men who invented their primary product. These were Paul Kopsch and Donald Ward, who worked for an Ohio coroner's office, and Daniel Turcos, a police sergeant. Their intention was to provide law enforcement with a tool to penetrate hardened targets used by criminals. KTW bullets were made of brass with a Teflon coating. The coating extended to the tip of the bullet under the belief that Teflon would minimize ricochets from rounds that didn't penetrate their targets.

Ironically, KTW rounds acquired a reputation as "cop-killer bullets," despite no reported incidence of one used against a law enforcement officer. A federal law eventually banned handgun ammunition on the basis of the materials used in the bullet itself, and didn't address Teflon coatings. Some states have separate laws banning or restricting the sale of ammunition using Teflon.

AP rounds will penetrate most police body armor, but so will many conventional rifle ammunition types used by hunters or the military. The combination of a larger powder charge and a longer barrel to accelerate the projectile far in excess of what a handgun can do imparts much greater kinetic energy to the bullet.

Glaser Safety Slugs
This brand of ammunition has acquired a mythos of its own. Glasers are made by the eponymous Glaser Safety Slug corporation in Sturgis, SD. They are commonly available in gun stores, usually in packs of six or eight rounds, and are made in both handgun and rifle ammunition calibers. A pack of six handgun rounds might run about $20.00 (this would buy a box of 50 conventional handgun rounds), so it's not hard to see why you might not want to stock up on a case or two.

Figure 5: Projectile of a Glaser Safety Slug. Note the blue polymer tip and thin projectile wall, holding in the tiny shot pellets until impact.

Glasers have many nicknames, such as "The Surgeon's Nightmare" and "Manstoppers." They are unique in their composition. Outwardly, a Glaser resembles any other conventional round, but with a blue or silver tip. The bullets are considerably lighter than conventional rounds, and leave the muzzle at higher velocities. The bullet is a hollow copper alloy shell filled with No. 12 or No. 6 birdshot. No.12 birdshot is 0.05 inches in diameter, like fine sand. No. 6 shot is about twice as large. The bullets filled with No. 12 shot have the blue tips, made of a polymer material. The No. 6 shot shells are tipped with silver. The bullets themselves have stress lines created in them at the time of manufacture, so that the bullet can fragment along those lines.

When a Glaser strikes its target, the bullet fragments and delivers the shot contained inside into the wound. Blue tips are intended to penetrate only a couple of inches into a human torso. The silver tips penetrate a bit farther and are intended for targets protected by heavy clothing. They are fairly worthless for targets more than a short distance away, or for targets behind any hard surface, such as glass or drywall.

If a Glaser strikes flesh, the wound is likely to be devastating. Instead of producing a small, bullet-size hole, the wound will be several inches across and the shot may penetrate into multiple internal organs. Someone wounded by a Glaser could easily bleed out and die, even if medical assistance was readily available. They will not over-penetrate a target, and ricochets tend to be composed of very small, relatively harmless fragments.

The film Manhunter falsely depicted the performance of Glaser Safety Slugs. Manhunter was the first film adaptation of Thomas Harris' book Red Dragon, which was the prequel to Silence of the Lambs. Manhunter made in 1986, and remade in 2002 as Red Dragon. The protagonist of Manhunter is Will Graham, an FBI agent/criminal profiler played by William Petersen, years before he would become Gil Grissom on CSI. Graham is hunting an unusually vicious and physically capable serial killer, and is furnished with a Charter Arms Bulldog .44 revolver, the same gun used by the "Son of Sam" serial killer in New York City. The gun is supposedly loaded with Glasers. In the scene where Graham shoots the bad guy (in repeated slow motion, just in case you didn't get enough gore the first time around), each round penetrates the killer's body, creating bloody splats on the wall behind him. Real Glasers would not exit the body, delivering their payload into the torso and stopping there.

Glasers have a reputation for uneven performance. The bullet can be deflected by something as innocuous as a jacket zipper or a button. The Federal Air Marshals Service experimented with and deployed Glasers in their sidearms in the 1970s and 1980s, but have now switched to conventional semi-jacketed hollow point ammunition, similar to that carried by other law enforcement officers.

Trivia point: a stray handgun round is unlikely to bring down an airliner. TV and movie depictions show windows and even fuselage panels blown out when penetrated by bullets, causing explosive decompression and people sucked out through the hole. If a bullet penetrated the skin of the aircraft or a window, there would be a loud whistling sound of escaping air, but the worst effect on the passengers would be to have their ears pop as the air pressure changed. The captain would descend to 10,000 feet or below, where there is enough oxygen in the air to breathe normally, and make for an airport.

--Tim Dees

* * *

COMMENTS ON HANDGUN ARTICLES

I enjoyed Tim Dees’ authoritative and clearly-written piece on handguns.  Or maybe I should call it his “piece on pieces.”

I am not an expert on handguns.  I’m not even an advanced beginner.  I’m a mild-mannered former professor and writer of humorous murder mysteries, but I decided to chime in with a few observations.  I have owned three handguns.  One is an antique that belonged to my grandfather.  I’ve never fired it for fear that it would explode in my hand.

The second handgun I owned was a Colt .45 revolver.  It was a well-made machine and functioned perfectly.  But it was too big and unwieldy for my taste, so I sold it about fifteen years ago.  The final handgun I want to discuss is the one I own now, a Smith & Wesson .357 Hiway Patrolman Model.  This gun originally belonged to my father when he was a deputy sheriff of El Paso County.  I believe it came in a chrome model, but this one is plain blued metal.  The Hiway Patrolman was available in a 4” barrel, but my father preferred the 6” version because he thought it helped him pass his annual shooting test, something he dreaded because he not only couldn’t hit the side of the barn, he couldn’t hit the zip code the barn was located in. 

I love the S&W .357 Hiway Patrolman.  I have found it to be light, accurate, and absolutely dependable.  Of course I’ve never been in law enforcement (unless you count shore patrol while I was in the Navy) nor have I had to use a gun under duress, but if I had to do so, the S&W would be my choice.

Tim says of the semi automatic that, “As the slide moves forward, it picks up a new cartridge from the top of the magazine and forces it into the chamber, ready to be fired at the next pull of the trigger.”  That’s what they are designed to do.  That’s what they usually do.  But sometimes they do not. I was around a lot of cops growing up, and I never heard of a single case of a revolver malfunctioning.  I suppose it is theoretically possible for a foreign object to lodge between the cylinder and the frame and prevent the cylinder from rotating, but it is equally possible for the gun to be hit by a meteorite.  Revolvers cannot jam.  They always fire.

Like Tim, I also never heard of cops “opening the cylinders of their guns to ensure they're loaded. “  The best line in Tim’s article is, “You're a model cop, and you don't remember whether you loaded your gun?”  Cops also knew how many rounds were left after a firing.  Of course back then our public schools were better, and most graduates could count to six.

Some people say six rounds is not enough and that a .357 doesn’t pack enough punch.  My answer – strictly the opinion of a civilian, not a cop – is that if six rounds aren’t enough, the problem is not the gun, it’s insufficient personnel.  Tactically speaking, gun battles should be determined by the number of shooters, not the number of rounds each shooter has available. 

Tim says, “Reloading a revolver requires two hands under most circumstances, and the gun is disabled and off target while reloading. To reload a revolver, the shooter uses his thumb to press a catch that releases the cylinder, then transfers the revolver to his left hand, gripping it by the frame. The fingers of his left hand push through the frame to rotate the cylinder out of the gun frame, and then presses an extractor rod at the front of the cylinder with his thumb, pointing the barrel in the air. The extractor rod moves a star on the rear of the cylinder that has edges inserted into the grooves at the bottom of the shell casings, pulling the empty casings from the cylinder and allowing them to drop to the ground. The shooter then uses his right hand to retrieve the reloads from the bullet loops, dump pouches, or speedloader/half-moon clip carriers, and inserts them into the chambers. The shooter then grasps the gun with his right hand in the conventional grip and uses his thumb or inertia to rotate the cylinder back into the frame of the revolver until it locks closed. The shooter adjusts his grip to the conventional shooting position, and re-engages the target. “ 

That’s not what I do.  When I want to re-load, I use the thumb of my right hand to push the catch that releases the cylinder, then make a hard flip motion to the left.  The cylinder swings out.  I activate the extractor rod with my left hand and the spent casings are ejected.  Then I insert new rounds using my left hand.  My gun never leaves my right hand.  So it does take two hands, and it is slower than putting a new “clip” into a semi-automatic (sorry to use that word, Tim, but that’s what most people call them).  Then again, I’m shooting at beer cans, and they aren’t shooting back.

As Tim notes, revolvers do not have safeties.   They don’t need them.  My S&W .357 is a double action revolver.  You can fire a round in one step by simply pulling the trigger.  But it takes considerable force to do so, so only Gomer Pyle could fire it by accident.  You can also firing it by cocking it and then pulling the trigger.  Once the gun is cocked, only a slight squeeze is required to bring the hammer down.

If you accidentally pull the trigger and there is a live cartridge under the hammer when it falls, the gun will go off.  No matter how accurately you aim, the force required to fire an uncocked revolver can throw off you aim.  Thus, when taking target practice, I cock the gun before shooting.  But I never pull back the hammer until I am absolutely certain that I am ready to fire. 

Thanks, Tim, for an excellent article.  It takes a good piece of writing to spur me to comment on a subject I know so little about.

Michael Orenduff, Author of the Pot Thief series

* * *

POST CONFERENCE BLUES…

This was my fifth PSWA conference, and it’s true that it certainly feels like family...like a family reunion. The panels were terrific—fun and informative, the networking was top-notch, and I listened to some great pitches for OTP projects. I feel very optimistic that at next year’s gathering, some of these dreams will be realities, displayed in the PSWA bookstore, with sales keeping Hap and Nancy hopping.

But, alas! All good things come to an end, and now I am back in the mid, back at the grind, working on OTP’s July releases. Coming this month are the winners of last year’s novel contests…OTP sponsors three, mystery, romance and law enforcement genres. There’s another 30 days to enter, so if you have a book project in one of these areas, check out the details on our website www.oaktreebooks.com

In addition, there is some exciting news coming out of my audience with The Queen…I would be sent to the dungeon if I revealed the plan, but, trust me, you are gonna love it. Stay tuned!

Write on!

Billie Johnson, Publisher, Oak Tree Press

* * *

TEARS ON THE WALL


A WIFE SEARCHES FOR THE NAME AND REMEMBERS THE END
BUT SMILES WHEN SHE FINDS IT SAYING, “YOU’RE AMONG FRIENDS”
A MOTHER WHO FINDS HER HUSBAND’S NAME & STARTS TO TRACE
AS THE TEARS WELL UP IN THE SAD EYES OF HER CHILD’S FACE

A FATHER WHOSE CHEST WAS FULL WITH HIS SON’S UNIFORM
NOW LEADS THE PROCESSION OF THOSE WHO MOURN
A FATHER MOVES IN THE MIDST OF THE CROWD
FINDS HIS SON’S NAME AND SAYS, “THEY’VE DONE YOU PROUD”

THE CHILD WHO REMEMBERS HIS FATHER’S SMILE
STILL CRIES AT NIGHT AND WILL FOR AWHILE
A LITTLE GIRL WALKS UP CLUTCHING HER CHATTY CATHY
PUTS A CARD NEXT TO A NAME AND SAYS, “I MISS YOU DADDY”

HIS BROTHER, HIS SISTER WHO WERE ALL THRILLED
UNTIL THEY HEARD THE NEWS THAT HE WAS KILLED
THE CHURCH WAS FULL WHEN HE DIED
AND EVEN THE MINISTER HAD TO CRY

HIS PARTNER STILL GRIEVES ALMOST EVERY DAY
OVER THE MILLION THINGS HE DIDN’T SAY
COULD HE HAVE DONE SOMETHING TO SAVE HIS BROTHER
AS THE WAR OF THE STREETS CLAIMS ANOTHER

EACH YEAR THEY GATHER TO SALUTE THEIR DEAD
ADDING NAMES TO THE WALL WITH THE USUAL DREAD
ITS THESE MEN AND WOMEN WHO GAVE THEIR ALL
WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS LEAVING TEARS ON THE WALL

By Retired Detective Joseph B. Haggerty Sr.

* * *

NEW CRIME/MYSTERY ANTHOLOGY

How Would You Like To Be Published?

JoRi Publications is a new traditional publishing house. Our next publication will be an anthology of fifteen to seventeen short stories in the Crime/Mystery genre. If you would like your Crime/Mystery considered for our new publication, read the following guidelines and submit your entry to us before the August 1, 2010 submissions deadline.

STORY REQUIREMENTS:
• All submissions must be in the Crime/Mystery genre
• Stories submitted can not be previously published works
• Your story must be 5000 words or less in length
• Stories cannot contain erotic content or hard core profanity
• All work must be edited prior to submission.
• Electronic submissions should be made in *.doc,*.wpd or *.txt format
• Hard copy submissions must be typed and double spaced with 1” margins
• Each submission must have a cover page with the title of the story, the author’s name and contact information.
• Subsequent pages should contain only the page number, story title and author’s last name in the header

Stories that fail to meet the above criteria will not be considered for publication.

MAIL SUBMISSIONS TO:
JoRi Publications
850 S. Boulder Hwy., Suite 436
Henderson, NV 89015-7564

Or send electronically to JoRi@joripublications.com

JORI PUBLICATONS OFFERS:
JoRi Publications will pay $25.00 USD for each short story (1 story submission per author please) selected for publication in the anthology.
• Authors selected for this collection will receive one copy of the completed book free of charge but will have the opportunity to purchase additional copies of the collection at $10.00* per copy prior to printing and $12.00* after printing. The retail price will range from $15.95 to $18.95 depending on the size of the book. Authors may sell pre-purchased copies at the retail price to earn additional compensation.
• JoRi Publications will place the collection online to generate book sales. A short author-supplied bio will be requested upon acceptance for publication in order to recognize their contribution to the project. JoRi Publications will coordinate distribution to other outlets.

*Plus shipping and handling costs which will vary based on the number of books ordered and destination.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
For more information contact us at JoRi@joripublications.com
or call 1-866-869-7842

* * *

PUBLISHER RECOMMENDATION

Member Kurt Kamm recommends the small press which recently published his book, Red Flag Warning. Aberdeen Bay was started three years ago by Andy Zhang, a Chinese American. Andy is a consultant to the publishing industry. Kurt says he’s gotten to know Andy Zhang in recent months and find both of his motives for starting Aberdeen Bay laudable
 1. Andy gets a thrill out of giving authors the opportunity to see their books in print and
 2. He feels he is doing his share to increase literacy in America (!)

Aberdeen Bay (the bay around Hong Kong) publishes print on demand. It has a small but growing list of books. You might want to take a look at their website.
http://www.aberdeenbay.com

Kurt Kamm

Editor’s Note: Print-on-demand is a means of printing. What is being printed are trade paperbacks. Almost all small publishers use this way of printing books because it means they don’t have to own warehouses to keep their books. Every author with a small press should learn to use the term trade paperback for their books.

* * *

FUTURE OF BOOKS

Want to hear a discussion concerning the future of books?  If so, “On the Media” has an interesting recording, “Books 2.0,” concerning the future of books.  Too many books, not enough profits. That is the lament of many publishers these days. Plus, there's the fear and loathing engendered by e-books. So, what is the state of the book industry and what can we expect in the coming years? Go to: www.onthemedia.org  Submitted by Ed Nowicki

(Editor’s Note: The state of publishing is definitely changing—it’s been changing drastically and will keep on doing so. But how different is that from anything else? Progress always means change.)

* * *

MEMBER NEWS

You may or may not follow my adventures each summer. But I just wanted to make you aware that I will be bicycling the 400+ miles of the Erie Canal across New York State this summer. I will be running a Blog as we ride from Buffalo, NY to Albany, NY, exploring other related canal trails along the way. It’s a fun adventure with some history and fun along the way. If you want to “ride” along with my niece and me, you are welcome to join us at: http://eriecanaltrek2010.blogspot.com/

Whether you join us or not, I hope you also have a great summer in your own way.

Best wishes,
Roger Fulton

(Roger Fulton is the founder of PSWA back when it was called Police Writers Club.)

Please check out our webpage at http://RogerFulton.com

* * *

Ed Nowicki wrote “Tattoos, Piercings and Personal Expression” for the May 2010 issue of Law and Order.

* * *
Editor in Chief, Dale Stockton, from Law Officer Magazine also saluted Ed in the May 2010 issue as the initial holder of the prestigious ILEETA and Law Officer Trainer of the Year (now known as the “Nowicki” award).

* * *
Tim Dees wrote “Things that go boom in the night” for the June 2010 issue of Police Magazine.

* * *
Member John M. Wills’ third book in the Chicago Warrior Thriller Series, Targeted, is set for release Spring 2011.

John M. Wills
http://www.JohnMWills.com

Freelance Writer/Speaker
Blog:  http://chicagowarriorsmysteries.blogspot.com/
Creator of The Chicago Warrior Thriller Series
Check out my books on amazon.com and on Kindle

* * *
Winner of first place in the unpublished novel Contest for PSWA.

Mitch Malone hates hospitals, but when a suspicious traffic accident lands a comatose victim in intensive care, he must put that aside to find the truth. The surface looks smooth but the more the crime beat reporter looks; the more bodies pop up including a private detective. Can he get to the truth before the survivor is murdered in her hospital bed and an elderly witness has a heart attack? Will he get his exclusive printed before he’s the next victim?

W.S. Gager
A Case of Infatuation-Now Available
A Case of Accidental Intersection - Coming this summer!
www.wsgager.com
Purchase the book today:
www.oaktreebooks.com
http://books.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=a+case+of+infatuation&
box=A%20Case&pos=4
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Infatuation-W-S-Gager/dp/1892343584/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246043800&sr=1-1

* * *
Member Kurt Kamm’s serial arson mystery, Red Flag Warning was published in May by Aberdeen Bay. It also won first prize in the 2010 Infinite Writer fiction contest (Mystery Category.) JPG Website info at http://www.kurtkamm.com

* * *

Bad Cop, No Donut
Edited by John L. French

Padwolf Publishing

Release Date: June 15, 2010

Stories by Michael Berish, Michael A. Black, Austin S. Camacho, James Chambers, O’Neil De Noux, Wayne Dundee, Ron Fortier, John L. French, James Grady, C. J. Henderson, Gary Lovisi, Art Monterastelli, Vincent H. O’Neil, Quintin Peterson, and Patrick Thomas
In this book you will find: good cops gone bad; bad cops gone worse; police in the city; sheriffs on the hunt; cops on the beach; cops on the take; fights to the death; ninjas and nunchuckas; hookers and dealers; good guys and bad guys; and the Devil’s own cop.
There’s supposed to be a line between the good guys and the bad guys, something that lets you tell them apart.  But sometimes the line blurs.  In BAD COP, NO DONUT it not only blurs, there are times that it gets wiped out entirely.
Sometimes the good guys make the best bad guys  - John L. French

Quintin Peterson
Author Noir
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BMCR2E
http://www.google.com/profiles/quintinpeterson

* * *
Marilyn Meredith switched gears from her usual mystery writing and launched a romance with a touch of the supernatural at the PSWA conference, Lingering Spirits. The story begins with the tragedy of the death of a deputy whose spirit lingers in an effort to guide his wife through her grief and decision making. Lingering Spirits is available in all of the usual places including Amazon. For an autographed copy go to Marilyn’s website at http://fictionforyou.com



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