Not a western range, not a kitchen range, but a gun range. Last Saturday, Clare and I went to a range to learn how to shoot a gun. Well, I went to learn, Clare turned out to be quite a markswoman, based on her experience trap shooting when she lived in Texas. Our foursome included Randy Kandel, the new president of the NY/Tri-State Chapter of Sisters in Crime, whose short story, “Name Tagging” will be released in Fall 2007 as part of the anthology, Murder New York Style, and another Sister in Crime, Tama Ryder, who is presently shopping her new thriller, The Loft. I don’t know how to do the “click here” links that my able colleagues whip out so easily, so I’ll just give you Tama’s website and you can read all about her and The Loft. www.tamaryder.com
So there we all were in Ridgewood, New Jersey with a very patient instructor named Mike Maione, who spent hours teaching us the intricacies of the mechanics and safety that every person should know before they pick up a gun. Shooting is definitely not as easy as the gang-bangers pretend.
After lunch, we each loaded, shot and reloaded and shot, etc. a .22 semi-automatic. Up close and personal, guns are loud, and when you pull the trigger, the gun has a definite kick. The shooter has to be in tight control.
Mike answered a lot of questions that probably don’t come up in his usual training sessions, but he’s taught other Sisters in Crime, so he’s used to weird questions.
Thanks, Mike, for helping us to more realistic writers. Someday one of us may have a character named Dirty Harriet filling her magazine and blasting away the bad guys. And she'll do it all safely!
Terrie
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Home, Home on the Range
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6 comments:
The things we do for our novels! I love forensic field trips. And interviewing homicide detectives. Writing mystery novels is a sure-fire way (grin) to never ever be bored again.
Lois, you are so right. Iam never bored and usually have too much to do! I am always investigating something.
While I was roaming the web for a few minutes, ( my reward for finishing a query) I came across a blog on the working stiffs blogsite. Their guest blogger today is Lee Lofland, author of Police Procedure and Investigation, a Guide for Writers. Since Lee's post ties in so well with mine, here is the link: http://www.workingstiffs.blogspot.com/
research can be a lot of fun and you never know when it will lead to some new interest.
Research is fun! There are so many little things about almost any activity that you just don't know about unless you do it. One day, we're going to read a very realistic "shoot 'em up" scene from you! Don't forget, if they're not on a firing range they probably won't have ear protectors and big guns make your ears ring!
How fun!
I can't tell you, as a reader, how much I appreciate it when authors make the effort to do their research. What a great idea for a serious group of crime writers to go to a range and get first hand experience! I'm impressed.
Can't wait to read the results of all your hard work!
Hi guys. Terri, thanks for passing along the link for my blog post on the Working Stiffs site. They're a great group.
I'm going to do a guest blog for the crew over at The Lipstick Chronicles in the very near future. I do hope you get a chance to take a peek.
Also, if any of you are near the Parsippany, NJ area I'll be presenting a couple of workshops for the Deadly Ink conference there at the end of June. I'd love to see you there.
Thanks again.
Lee
www.leelofland.com
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