Tag Archives: writers

Drastic Measures Must Be Taken

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I’ve been retired from the LAPD for about eighteen months now, and I often get asked how I like retirement. The standard answer I give is that I like retirement just fine, however…I’m working harder now than when I was working a full-time job.

I won’t bore you with the many tasks that take up my days and my nights. But, I will say if you think writers sit in front of their computers and dash off ten pages of a novel, then answer hundreds of fan letters, promote their books on television talk shows, and then go sit by the pool eating bonbons and drinking champagne, you’d be sadly mistaken. At least most of us don’t.

My ‘to-do’ lists often have sub- ‘to-do’ lists. It’s not unusual for me to have a numbered list of maybe ten things to get done during one day. However, as the day progresses, I find I’m adding things to the list – or stapling an additional list to the bottom of the first one.

Because I’ve been lucky enough to gain a following with my first two books, I feel pressure to get my next book out there. But I have to find more hours in the day to make that happen. So…

Drastic measures must be taken.

If you know me or you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’m a big fan of reality television. Until I started to list the shows I regularly watch, I didn’t quite realize how much time my TV habit was taking out of my day – and it’s not just the reality shows.

Here is a listing of the shows I like to watch. They aren’t all on during the same time of year, so I’m not necessarily watching all of these shows every week.

American Idol
Dancing With the Stars
The Amazing Race
America’s Next Top Model
Big Brother
The Bachelor/The Bachelorette
Bachelor Pad (Yes, I’m hanging my head in shame)
Survivor
The Glass House (This was the first season of this show. I’ve only continued to watch because one of the players is a cop. I hope he wins.)

Then there are the non-reality shows I watch.

Southland
Dallas
Longmire
Shark Tank

Then there are the shows I sometimes watch when I happen to be flipping channels.

House Hunters
Storage Wars
Pawn Stars
Say Yes to the Dress
Keeping Up With the Kardasians ( I can hardly look at my screen while I type this. Watching these folks is a very guilty pleasure.)

Then there are the daily news shows.

KTLA Channel 5 (Mornings – sometimes for hours!)
KCBS Channel 2 (Usually 5:00 p.m.)

Most of the shows I save on the DVR so I can watch when it’s convenient and so I can zip through the commercials. But with my reality shows it’s tricky because if I’m not careful someone on Facebook or Yahoo will post the ‘dramatic’ results before I get a chance to watch the show.

Clearly, I need to cut down my list AND how much TV I’m watching.

Let’s start with the news. I can easily cut down in the morning. I don’t have to watch two or three hours of news to see what’s gone on overnight. I can probably par that down to about a half hour. Same goes for the evening broadcast.

The shows I sometimes watch I need to cut out completely – unless I’ve written my word/page count for the day. And then I should only watch them while I’m cleaning or something else where I can multi task. And to be fair, usually I’m watching these shows while I’m having lunch or dinner.

As for my non-reality shows I watch. This is where I’ll stand my ground. I don’t want to cut any of these shows. However, it makes no sense for me to be watching reruns of these shows, and sometimes I do. The endings don’t change.

But where I can make considerable impact on my time management is with my reality show viewing.

I’ve determined I’m only going to allow myself four – and one of those is on during the year when the other three are not. So, who will I be watching and who gets cut?

The four who made the cut are:

The Amazing Race
Survivor
The Bachelor/The Bachelorette
Big Brother

I’m sure I’ll find many more hours in the day if I can follow my new plan.

What about you? What are the shows you ‘must see?’ What are the shows you’re embarrassed to admit you watch? What television show could you give up easily?

Until next time,

KMA367

From Cop to Writer – Different But the Same

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One of the things an applicant for the Los Angeles Police Department has to do in the hiring process is to be interviewed.  In my day, there were two police sergeants and a civilian on each interview board, and part of their duty was to determine if a person ‘had the right mindset’ to be an LAPD officer.
I know that one of the first questions I was asked was: Why do you want to be a police officer?  My reply, in part, was about wanting to help people. Not surprisingly, ‘helping people’ is a very common thread in applicant replies to the question, about why a person wants to become a cop.
With my new career of writing stories, if I’d been asked why I wanted to write, my reply would have been: I want to entertain people while giving them a glimpse into the world of the LAPD.
Little did I know that my writing career would achieve the same result as my police career.  Through my writing I’ve touched someone. I’ve helped someone.
I got this letter from a young woman and I was so impacted by her story and her words I asked her if I could share them with you.  She agreed.
The lesson to writers: If you think what you write can’t or doesn’t make a difference…think again.
This is the actual letter by the young woman I’ll call, Miss H…
Reading is by far not my specialty. I’m about three grade levels under my own on reading skills. Sure I can read your average every day children’s book but anything over 100 pages puts my heart in shock. In other words, I don’t read much.  
When I bought my Barnes & Noble Nook Color, I for sure thought, “I just wasted a perfectly good 240 bucks!” 
See this is where I was wrong. I ran across your book, A Dozen Deadly Roses, one day while sitting on my couch listening to the bickering and arguing of my dysfunctional family.  
At first I just skimmed over it then I took a second look. I decided to buy the book and open a page or two to see if it was worth reading. My journey through your book began slow, to slow. Then something caught my eye, Jade.  
Shockingly, we have much in common; a remarkable, strong willed mother, filling her duties as a cop in everyday life. It was everything I dreamt of being.  
I felt a strong connection with her and Donnie. My father is an alcoholic, I knew exactly what Jade was going through.  
Although Jade became a new idol in my world, I felt myself many times screaming at her, “why won’t you tell Mac that he’s the father, why?!” Then I realized it was for the better. It opened my eyes to that you shouldn’t always do the expected but rather do what’s best in that situation for you and others involved.
I also love the fact that you use to be an actual LAPD cop. When I read that about you, my heart skipped a beat. I felt like I had even more of a connection with your book because for once a fiction book wasn’t so fiction anymore. Your book had more life in it; it wasn’t “just a book” anymore. I loved that.  
My desire to be a cop has been a dream of mine for a long time. However, my mom and others like to crush that dream. Jade gave me a lot of courage in reading this book. She showed me that I need to be brave and stand up in what I dream and love. Jade also gave me the strength in my heart that seemed so broken from others. She made a light shine in me like no one has ever done before.  
Reading your book has changed my life.  
I was doubting my future before I read your book; here I had planned my whole high school diploma based on wanting to be a cop, and then it was just gone, like it wasn’t even worth any of the time I gave it. 
I felt lost, like a loser in a big ocean of popular people. 
Jade’s character made me open my eyes and realize that it’s my life and I can do anything I want to do if I believe I can.  
I thank you, Kathy Bennett, for not only changing my mind but showing me a new way of life. 
I will read your book again and enjoy every page turning chase it gives me. I assure you that you book was so worth every minute I put in it.
Kathy here – Needless to say I wrote back to Miss H and we’ve corresponded a few times. I found that when I wrote back to Miss H I’d put on my  ‘police officer’ hat and tried to offer advice, encouragement and compassion.  And you know what?  I was glad to wear that hat again.
Miss H feels I’ve changed her life with my book. Little does she know how much she’s changed mine.
Until next time, 
KMA367

Kindle Owners Should Know This Exciting News

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So you’ve got your new Kindle and loaded it up with lots of books.  You’re bound to have hours and hours of reading pleasure from some of your favorite authors and probably some newly published authors as well.  Have I got exciting news for you!

For many people who buy books traditionally, one of the customary experiences  is to have an author autograph and personalize the book for them.  But now that you own a Kindle, how do you get the author to ‘sign’ your copy of their book?

The answer is Kindlegraph.   I’m no techno-wizard, so I’ll include a link to the Kindlegraph website in a minute.  But I want you to understand the process to get an author’s autograph sent to your Kindle is very easy.

The first thing you’ll have to do is sign up for a Twitter account because you use your Twitter sign-in to access Kindlegraph.  I don’t know why you have to do this, but don’t let it scare you.  Just because you sign up for a Twitter account doesn’t mean you have to use it.  I have a friend who signed up for Twitter and has never used her account except to sign up for Kindlegraph.  If you’ve already got a Twitter account you’re all set for Kindlegraph.

So, you’ve signed up for Twitter, then the next thing you’ll want to do is go to the Kindlegraph website.  I’m about to include the link, but I’m not sending you to the home page.  I’m going to send you to a page where there is a brief video that shows exactly how Kindlegraph works.  The video was made by Kindlegraph’s creator, Evan Jacobs.  Once you’ve seen the video you’ll see how it works and how simple it is.

Here is the link for the Kindlegraph video:  http://www.Kindlegraph.com/about

Here is the link for Twitter:  http://www.Twitter.com

Naturally, I’m hoping you’ll buy my book, A Dozen Deadly Roses, and ask me to sign it for you on your Kindle.  If that sounds good to you, here’s is a link to my book at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/A-Dozen-Deadly-Roses-ebook/dp/B0054EU1KQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326092602&sr=8-1

Oh, and for Nook owners…Evan Jacobs is working on a version for Nook as well!

If this is your first visit to my blog I hope you’ll come back again.  Take a look around my website and I’ll see you soon.

Until next time,

KMA367

Police Officer Evaluations – Writer’s Evaluations

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When a person is employed, usually the employer has some format in place to assess the performance of the employee.  For most of my career with the LAPD I received a yearly Performance Evaluation Report.  A few years ago, they scrubbed the old format and came up with the Standards Based Assessment.

It doesn’t matter what the department calls them – the officers just call it a rating report.  When the rating reports were changed to the Standard Based Assessment, the idea was the report would more accurately document the individual officer’s performance…without any subjectivity.  There were, basically, three levels of evaluation an evaluator could choose for the various categories of job performance: Needs Improvement, Meets or Sometimes Exceeds Standards, and Greatly Exceeds Standards.



But the problem is, no matter how many check boxes you put on a form, the person who is ‘checking’ those boxes is using their subjective opinion.  There is a section where the rater can add comments and usually, those comments reflect the rating of the officer.

Frankly, I wasn’t too concerned about my Performance Evaluations (or my Standard Based Assessments either).  I worked as hard as I could and did the best job that I could – no matter what my assignment was.  I hoped that my supervisors and commanding officers recognized how hard I was working, but the truth was I knew I was doing a good job and I was able to collect my paycheck without reservation.  (There were people I knew who should have been paying the city <g>).


But now I’ve started this new career as an author.  There isn’t anyone who will be giving me a written evaluation of my work product.  Basically, I have to rely on my sales…and reviews.  But for those of you not in the ‘writing arena’, you would be shocked at how few readers actually write a review for a book.   Currently, I stand about tied between book reviews and fan letters I’ve received.  I love to interact with my readers (so keep those e-mails coming).  But I’d also like to know how to generate more reviews from people who’ve purchased and read my book.



I’m not alone.  Many writers sing the same song…How do I get my readers to leave reviews?  And what we mean is, if you bought your book via Amazon, leave a review on the book’s Amazon page.  Same goes for Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords, or whatever retailer you purchased your book.

You might also be surprised to know that authors don’t necessarily expect you to gush about their book.  They’d rather have the truth than some overblown piece loaded with dozens of adjectives.  Of course, if you hated the book, you can say that – but even if that’s the truth, usually, you can find at least one thing to mention that the author did well.

So, if you are mainly a reader:  Do you write reviews for books you’ve read?  If not, why not?  Do you write fan letters to the author?

If you are mainly a writer:  Do you solicit reviews from readers?  Do you like getting fan mail?  Dumb question I know – but I have found some authors who don’t like interacting with their readers.

One thing I can tell you.  My work ethic hasn’t changed from one career to the other.  As a writer I still work as hard as I can and do the best job I can – no matter what aspect of writing I’m doing.  I hope my readers and peers recognize how hard I work, but the truth is I know I’m working hard and writing the best stories I can, so I’m able to collect my payment without reservation.

Until next time,

KMA367

Cops and Prejudice – Are You Guilty?

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One of the things I heard over and over in my career as a Los Angeles Police Officer was, “You don’t look like a cop.”   I always took it as a compliment, and yet, I’m not really sure what those people meant.   When classmates at my high school reunion heard I was a police officer, several comments went along the lines of, “What?  You’re a cop?  You’re so quiet!”  What was that supposed to mean?

What it meant was that I was not living up to those people’s expectations of what a cop is.  But are the general public’s perceptions of what cops are correct?

How many of you think this is what a cop typically eats?

How many of you think a cop can eat a bunch of donuts and look like this:

What about being ‘tough’?  Cops have to be ‘macho’ to do the job…right?

Or can there be a ‘softer’ side of law enforcement and still get the job done?

Oh, and we all know about female cops, right?  This is how they dress…

Just kidding.  This is how it’s really done…

We also know that when it comes to arrests, this is how they typically go down -

Cops never make a peaceful arrest – right?

We all know that cops love a good time and don’t care about family values…

unless the cop is like this guy – and most are.

We know that detectives are broken, brooding and drink and smoke too much…

Right???

And when it comes to a cocktail of choice, the beverage will be a ‘manly’ drink…

never anything with a fruit juice and a paper umbrella.

The truth is cops are regular people.  We have bills to pay, kids that are sick, coworkers who drive us nuts.  We have health problems, weight-gain and in-law issues.

If you’re a writer and think of cops in stereotypes, you’re missing the opportunity for authentic characters in your stories.   Don’t sell your characters short.  They work too hard for your prejudice to arrest their development.

Until next time,

KMA367

Book Reviews – Do You Write Them?

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Since I’ve been home with a duty-related injury, I’ve had the opportunity to re-discover my love for reading. I have no shortage of material to read. My ‘to-be-read’ pile is overflowing on my shelf. But often, what happens is that I forego my current stash of books and get books from my favorite authors. But every once in a while, I pick up a book from a new (to me) author. If the book is really good, I inwardly moan because now I have another favorite to try to fit into my reading schedule.

Sometimes, when I’m online and looking at books, I will read the reviews that go with that book – and yes, those reviews do impact some of my decisions.

Not too long ago, my daughter introduced me to Goodreads.com, a book review site. I’ve critiqued some novels there and will probably do more. Of course, I’ve left a few reviews on Amazon.com, and I’ve heard of Shelfari but haven’t gotten too involved with that site. As someone who started out writing romance novels; I’ve read reviews in Romantic Times Magazine.

My question to you – especially if you are a writer/author: Do you visit book review sites? If so, do those sites influence your buying decisions? Which sites do you utilize? If you’re published, have you looked up reviews on your own books? How did you react to negative feedback (if there was any)? If you received negative feedback on your work, did you continue to return to see what other readers had to say?

Until next time,

KMA 367