WPA 2014 Wrap-up (finally)

Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73

I have finally recovered enough to write about my experience at Lee Lofland’s Writers’ Police Academy, which I attended last week. Oh my. Can I go back? Like next week?

First, there was the trip down. I was fairly certain that my traveling companions – fellow Sisters in Crime Annette Dashfoy, Martha Reed, and Susan Thibadeau – were going to be hilariously funny. I was not wrong. Annette and Martha I was used to, but we discovered that Susan – quiet, unassuming Susan – had a wicked sense of humor. My favorite exchange:

Martha: Tamerack – have you been there? It’s supposed to have every craft made in West Virginia.

Susan: Yeah, I’ve been there.

Martha: What do they sell?

Susan: Every craft made in West Virginia.

We learned to love Sheetz: refueling station for humans and autos.

For some of us, it was our first trip to North Carolina.

As we drove, we passed Mayberry, as well as Mount Pilot, which looks like a spaceship coming out of the mountain. We passed on the winery.

Annette and I shared a room at the Marriott. Imagine our delight when we learned that the drapes didn’t just conceal windows, but a balcony (not that we used it much – too busy and too hot outside!).

I had originally intended to drive down Thursday morning, but was very glad Annette convinced me that it was better to go down Wednesday, giving us recovery time. That’s why she’s the pro and I’m a rank amateur. Then I let her drag me to lunch with all the members if SinC Guppies who were at the conference, where I met some fabulous people. Sorry, I don’t have the picture of that, but it is on Facebook.

After registration on Thursday, we kicked it off – literally – with a session on how to disarm the bad guys. Some of it looked very familiar from taekwondo. The session was led by Eli Jackson, a fabulous woman who is a 2nd degree MMA black belt, a 3rd degree Isshinryu black belt, and not someone you want to mess with in a dark alley (her dancer sister, AJ Scuderi, agrees).

After that, it was bed. Friday morning, it was off to the academy and the non-stop action started. My husband was shocked to get a text from me at 6am, but hey, you miss the bus and you were SOL.

We started the morning viewing the response to a multi-victim crash site, complete with scruffy, handsome EMTs.

Then I went off to learn about “Romance Behind the Badge” – all about badge bunnies and what really happens behind the scenes. Sorry, no pictures, but good news for Jim and Sally fans – while their relationship will have challenges, it’s not a forbidden thing. There’s hope for them yet! And the instructor, former Secret Service agent Mike Roche, was a great guy.

I learned I never want to be an ambulance driver, but at least I didn’t crash.

And I got to see the K-9, which is always a lot of fun – and this dog was so adorable. She sat on my feet and just lapped up the attention.

Then a presentation by Lisa Gardner (sorry for the terrible quality) on how to write thrilling fiction with all the great new information we were learning.

Later that night, we saw the differences in lighting when investigating a scene at night.

We crashed into bed that night. But it was only the beginning. After sleep and fueling up with eggs, potatoes, and bacon, it was off for the second day. It started with a bang – again, literally – as we watched SWAT do a breaching demonstration. There was a failed breach on the interior door (the instructor was reportedly not happy, but as Martha said, great plot twist!). The exterior door, well…

I was very happy to see that I wrote the breaching scene in Every Other Monday is Murder correctly. It’s always nice when you get the details right – even accidentally.

From there, I met Chief Scott Silverii, PhD in anthropology, who gave a presentation on Special Ops and gave me a great peek into cop culture. This guy is super nice (well, they were all super nice, but I talked to Chief Silverii most) and gave me some great character development stuff for The Laurel Highlands Mysteries, as well as for Fallen and my new characters – especially the “yes, it really is still noble to suffer in silence.”

After that, I got to learn about what really happens after they find a body at a fire scene (great research for the second Laurel Highlands novel, which features – spoiler! – a dead body at an arson scene).

Then off to underwater evidence recovery. Yes, bodies in warm water decompose faster than bodies in cold water. So I got that scene in Fallen right, too (I love it when that happens).

Then it was off to a fantastic session on the 4th Amendment and search/seizure intricacies with Alafair Burke – prosecutor, professor, and author. I never knew just how common it was for cases to be resolved with a plea bargain – or how many exceptions there were to searches (warrants are also the exception, not the rule), and how many people just consent to searches. Alafair said we authors have an advantage: we can manipulate the facts of our story to suit the circumstances. Need a roadblock? Make the character get a warrant. Want to speed things up? Use an exception. Best explanation of this topic I’ve ever had.

Then the banquet, where there was much good-natured ribbing of the instructors (who knew a session called “Romance Behind the Badge” could generate so much laughter – apparently everybody but me!) and an interview with Michael Connelly, he of Harry Bosch fame, who said, “If you’re gonna be a writer, you’ve gotta write.”

With a seven-hour drive, we left after breakfast the next morning, so we missed the felony murder case presentation and the wrap-up. Bummer, but it was a long drive and we were more than a little punch-drunk (sorry, no details – what happens in the car to WPA, stays in the car to WPA).

I’ve been to a lot of fun conferences and met some fantastic people. Writers’ Police Academy was, by far, the best yet. It was literally impossible to do everything I wanted and I left feeling both satisfied and ready for more, despite my exhaustion. One thing’s for sure: now I know why people go back year after year.

I know I want to.