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What a Wild Start

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 Trust but Verify  January 2025 What a Wild Start         Following a difficult 2024 with a bout of COVID and pneumonia, the new year has taken on a new but extremely challenging set of obstacles. Whether an act of nature or the hand of an evil culprit, the California fires are the worst in that state’s history! From my end, it is full speed ahead, but the Hollywood side of this project is on a slow but very steady move forward. While the movie sites are untouched, everyone and everything else is heavily impacted.  Some of the people involved have lost their homes; others have taken leave to help their extended family, friends, and neighbors recover from the devastation—mostly from the Palisades fire. For those not directly involved in the destruction, many have been impacted by the air pollution slowing down or bringing to a halt normal activity, and even more so with those suffering from respiratory issues.  From the home front, I am assured by ...
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 Blog December 2024 What Drove You to Become a Cop?  This is the most common of all the questions I have been asked over the years. My response is short, sweet, and to the point. I needed a job. Fresh out of the USMC and highly skilled with the Browning Automatic Rifle and a subset of the arts and sciences of the installation and removal of explosive devices—that is, manufactured and improvised anti-personnel mines—I came to civilian life with absolutely no marketable skills.  One evening after dinner with my parents, I drove across town to meet my buddies and have a cup of coffee. Halfway to my destination, and with the radio tuned to KTKT, the tones of Dragnet caught my attention. As the music faded, a Jack Webb type of voice spoke with a commanding tone; “Are you looking for a career? Now is the time to join a force of professional officers at the Tucson Police Department.” That short little blurb in the quiet of the Tucson streets caught my attention. Yes, I needed no...
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  Blog November 2024 What are you up to? That is a typical comment when old friends gather for dinner, drinks, and the simple enjoyment of companionship.  I “retired” three times—one each from the City of Tucson, the City of Lubbock, and the Lubbock Independent School District. However, after each one, I knew I still had gas in my tank and miles to go. Using skills I learned from a broad formal education, and over my fifty-year police career, I turned to writing for pleasure: writing what I wanted when I wanted and, hopefully, opening up a new late-in-life career. It wasn’t and isn't easy, and certainly not for the fainthearted. It is not for casually coasting through my old memories and spilling out a story everyone has been waiting a lifetime to hear.  That is not real life. Nevertheless, having dealt with editors, publishers, booksellers, critics, and scam artists, I have found my “retirement” to be a full-time job but a labor of love. With eight published novels, two ...
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