Outliers Writing University Podcast Series

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Tori Eldridge

Tori Eldridge is the Native Hawaiian, Chinese, Norwegian author, The Ninja’s Oath, fourth book in the Lily Wong thriller series and the Brazilian dark fantasy, Dance Among the Flames. Her shorter works have been published in numerous anthologies including the Anthony Award winning Crime Hits Home. The first book in her new Hawai‘i mystery series, KULEANA, is set to release summer 2025. Tori was born in Honolulu where she graduated from Punahou School with classmate Barack Obama before performing as an actress, singer, dancer on Broadway, television and film, and earning a fifth-degree black belt in To-Shin Do ninja martial arts. Her literary works have garnered Anthony, Lefty, and Macavity Award nominations and the 2021 Crimson Scribe for Best Book of the Year. Tori is currently writing her next Hawai‘i mystery from Oregon where she dotes on her precious mo‘opuna (grandchildren). Learn more about her at ToriEldridge.com.
 https://torieldridge.com

GET TO KNOW Author Maddie Margarita

Maddie Margarita writes mystery/romantic suspense. She is the host of Lit Up! OC --a monthly writer’s salon in Southern California, and the Southern California Writers Association HUMP DAY BOOK TOUR, available on YouTube @SCWAwritersonline. When not writing, or talking, Maddie serves on the Board of the Southern California Writer’s Association and as President of Sisters-in Crime Orange County. A teaching artist at the Muzeo Museum & Cultural Center in Anaheim, CA., her short stories can be found in IT’S ALL IN THE STORY CALIFORNIA and BLOOD FICTION, both anthologies of short fiction.
https://maddiemargarita.com/

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Tamara Grantham

Tamara Grantham
Tamara Grantham is the author of more than twenty books and novellas, including many multi-award-winning fantasy novels for middle-grade through adult readers. Many of her novels launched as #1 bestsellers on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Some of her awards include two first place Rone awards, a Praiseworthy award, and an Indiefab book of the year award for fantasy. Born and raised in Texas, Tamara now lives with her husband and five children in Wichita, Kansas. When she gets a moment to relax, she enjoys reading fantasy novels and watching every Star Wars or Star Trek movie ever made. 
https://tamaragrantham.com/

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Laurie R. King

Laurie R. King is the third generation in her family native to the San Francisco area. She spent her childhood reading her way through libraries up and down the West Coast; her middle years raising children, renovating houses, traveling the world, and doing a BA and MA in theology.  (Her long autobiography goes into detail about how she uses these interests.)  King now lives a genteel life of crime, on California’s central coast.
Her crime novels are both serial and stand-alone. First in the hearts of most readers comes Mary Russell, who met the retired Sherlock Holmes in 1915 and became his apprentice, then his partner. Beginning with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Russell and Holmes move through the Teens and Twenties in amiable discord, challenging each other to ever greater feats of detection.
In the Russell & Holmes stories, King explores ideas—the roots of conflict in the Middle East and Afghanistan; feminism and early Christianity; patriotism and individual responsibility—while also having a rousing good time.  Various stories revisit The Hound of the Baskervilles and Kipling’s Kim, set a pair of Bedouin nomads down in a grand country house in England, and offer an insider’s view of the great quake and fire of 1906, all the while forging an unlikely relationship between two remarkably similar individuals who happen to be separated by age, sex, and background. King’s newest series, beginning with Back to the Garden, finds SFPD Inspector Raquel Laing working on Cold Cases that reach into the present.
King’s Stuyvesant & Grey series, also historical, follows American ex-Bureau of Investigation agent Harris Stuyvesant, damaged young Captain Bennett Grey, and Grey’s sister Sarah as they move through Europe between the Wars.
Five King novels concern San Francisco homicide inspector Kate Martinelli, Kate’s SFPD partner Al Hawkin, and her life partner Lee Cooper. In the course of the stories, Kate has encountered a female Rembrandt, a modern-day Holy Fool, two difficult teenagers, and a manifestation of the goddess Kali.
King’s stand-alone suspense novels include A Darker Place, the story of a middle-aged professor of religion who investigates “cults” for the FBI, and encounters a movement that embraces the dangerous beliefs of alchemy. Folly tells of woodworker Rae Newborne, who comes to a deserted island to rebuild a house, and her life. Keeping Watch is the story of Rae’s friend Allen Carmichael, a Vietnam vet who draws on his combat experiences to rescue abused women and children—until he comes across a boy whose problems may rival his own. Califia’s Daughters (a paperback original by “Leigh Richards”) is a post-apocalyptic sort of tale set in a near future where women rule and men are fragile.
She has collaborated on nonfiction works including How to Write a Mystery with Lee Child, The Grand Game of Sherlock Holmes scholarship, and several short story anthologies.
https://laurierking.com/

GET TO KNOW Best0selling Author Joseph Badal

Joseph Badal
Prior to his literary career, Joe served six years as an officer in the U.S. Army, including tours of duty in Vietnam and Greece, from which he received numerous decorations.
After his military service, he worked for thirty-six years in the banking & finance industries and was a founding director and senior executive of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company for sixteen years.
Joe is an Amazon #1 bestselling author, with 18 published, award-winning suspense novels. He has been recognized as “One of The 50 Best Writers You Should Be Reading.” He was named Writer of the Year by the Military Writers Society of America in 2021, is a two-time winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize for Best Fiction Book of the Year, a four-time Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal Winner, an Eric Hoffer Prize Winner, a Book Excellence award winner, a four-time “Finalist” in the International Book Awards competition, and a top prize winner on multiple occasions in the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards competition, including “Best of Show” in 2021.
www.JosephBadalBooks.com.

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Reed Farrel Coleman

Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the noir poet laureate in the Huffington Post, Reed Farrel Coleman is the New York Times bestselling author of thirty-three novels including six in the Jesse Stone series for the estate of Robert B. Parker. He is a four-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel and a four-time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories. He has also received the Authors on the Air Book of the Year, the Scribe, Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards. He is a former Executive Vice President of Mystery Writers of America and a former adjunct instructor at Hofstra University. Reed lives with his wife on Long Island. 
Reed’s Website: https://reedcoleman.com

GET TO KNOW Author and Screenwriter Paul Guyot

PAUL GUYOT has written and produced more than 200 hours of
television. He served as showrunner on the TNT hit series THE
LIBRARIANS. He was the Co-Executive Producer for NCIS: NEW
ORLEANS -- at the time the 8th most watched series in the world.
Guyot co-wrote the Warner Brothers film GEOSTORM starring Gerard
Butler and Andy Garcia, which grossed more than a quarter billion
dollars worldwide. But don’t hold it against him.
He has adapted books and foreign films for multiple studios, and
most recently is producing a pair of independent feature films.
He is the author of KILL THE DOG: The First Book on Screenwriting
to Tell You the Truth, which was an Amazon bestseller upon its
release in 2023. It’s available in print, ebook and audio
everywhere books are sold.
Guyot attended the University of Arizona. In his non-writing time
he enjoys golf, cycling, mechanical watches, and has been called
the Tony Hawk of making old fashioneds.

GET TO KNOW Author Steve Urszenyi

Steve Urszenyi served for over thirty years as a paramedic in Toronto and as a tactical medic (TRU/SWAT, CBRNE, HUSAR, and public order unit) with the Ontario Provincial Police. He is an expert in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNE/WMD) incident response.
Most recently, Steve was the commander of the Ontario Emergency Medical Assistance Team (EMAT), the province of Ontario’s disaster medical response and all-hazards incident management team.
Steve is the recipient of the Governor General of Canada EMS Exemplary Service Medal and Bar in recognition of his more than thirty years of distinguished service and career accomplishments.
Since he was young, Steve nurtured a love for writing, but he also felt a need to serve the public as a front-line first responder. Throughout his career, his fondness for storytelling never wavered. He cultivates his decades of experience in emergency response and tactical operations to write authentic and gripping stories that thrill readers.
Steve and his wife Lynne love international travel and riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle across North America, especially through the Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest’s always-changing landscapes.
They have two grown children and have had several dogs, including Steve’s former search and rescue dogs, K9 Timber and K9 Radar.
Steve is an avid photographer and outdoorsman who loves hiking, camping, canoeing, and exploring the wilderness. (You can see some of his photos here: https://flickr.com/photos/zaniac/)
Steve is represented by John Talbot of the Talbot Fortune Agency (see Contact page).
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https://steveurszenyi.com/

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 46: The Critical Opening Scene

Your opening scene carries a heavy load. It must hook the reader, introduce the story question—and often the protagonist/antagonist—-reveal the setting/story world, evoke emotion in the reader, and reveal the voice and tone of the story. That’s a lot of work, and pressure on the writer.
Why is the opening scene so important?
1—It must do all or most of the above
2—It’s all most people will ever read—-unless it’s compelling
3—It’s what grabs the attention of agents and editors
4—It’s you first—and perhaps only—chance to make a good impression
 
Things you must do in the first few pages:
 
Hook the reader
Introduce an interesting character or situation
Ask the story question
Set the tone and voice
Introduce the story world
Hint at what’s to come
Make the reader care, or at least curious

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 45: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

From FORENSICS FOR DUMMIES:
https://www.dplylemd.com/books/forensicscience
 
That Sneaky Carbon Monoxide 
Carbon monoxide is sneaky and deadly. When authorities find a suicide victim in her garage, sitting in a car with the engine running, they can usually chalk up that death to carbon monoxide. 
Carbon monoxide is a tasteless, odorless, colorless gas that is completely undetectable by humans. It results from the incomplete combustion of carbon‐containing fuels like wood, coal, and gas. Faulty stoves, heaters, and fireplaces can fill the air with CO. Carbon monoxide poisoning kills more people trapped in fires than the fire itself does. 
CO is particularly treacherous because it binds to hemoglobin, producing carboxyhemoglobin in your blood. Because carboxyhemoglobin contains no usable oxygen, cells containing this molecule can’t supply oxygen to the tissues of the body. Thus, the body’s cells become starved for oxygen. Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin 300 times more readily than oxygen does and thus takes oxygen’s place in the body. Your body can get very high blood levels of CO by breathing air that contains only small amounts of it. For example, breathing air that contains a carbon monoxide level as low as 0.2 percent can lead to blood CO saturations greater than 60 percent after only 30 to 45 minutes. 
Most people believe that CO is toxic only in an enclosed area, but that’s just not true. People have died while working on their cars in the open air; typically, someone finds the victim lying near the car’s exhaust. Similarly, swimmers and water skiers who loiter near the dive platform on the back of an idling powerboat also run the risk of CO poisoning. Carbon monoxide’s powerful attraction to hemoglobin explains how people can succumb to CO poisoning in open areas. 
The signs and symptoms of CO toxicity correlate with its concentration in the blood:
1--The normal level of CO in the blood is 1 to 3 percent, but it can be as high as 7 to 10 percent in smokers.
2--At levels of 10 to 20 percent, you experience headaches and a poor ability to concentrate on complex tasks.
3--Between 30 and 40 percent, headaches become severe and throbbing, and nausea, vomiting, faintness, and lethargy appear. Pulse and breathing rate increase noticeably.
4--Between 40 and 60 percent, the victim becomes confused, disoriented, weak, and displays extremely poor coordination.
5--Above 60 percent, coma and death arrive. In the elderly and those individuals with heart or lung disease, levels as low as 20 percent can be lethal. Victims of car exhaust suicide or those who die from fire in an enclosed room may reach CO levels as high as 90 percent.
Autopsy findings in CO poisoning depend, in part, on carboxyhemoglobin’s bright red color. When the ME performs an autopsy on a victim of CO poisoning, the blood and internal organs often appear bright red, and this offers a clue to the possible cause of death. 
Individuals who survive CO intoxication can suffer serious health problems. Carbon monoxide mostly damages the brain because it’s the organ most sensitive to a lack of oxygen. Symptoms and signs of significant brain insult may begin immediately or be delayed for several days or weeks. The most common after‐effects include chronic headaches, memory loss, blindness, confusion, disorientation, poor coordination, and hallucinations. The ME may be asked to evaluate a surviving victim if authorities suspect that the exposure was the result of a criminal act or they want documentation for a civil lawsuit.
 
Newser Story: https://www.newser.com/story/307939/students-drowning-due-in-part-to-carbon-monoxide.html
 
CO Deaths on Lake Erie: https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2021/06/two-men-boy-died-from-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-in-boating-incident-on-lake-erie-cuyahoga-county-medical-examiner-rules.html
 
CO Deaths From car Used as Heat Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/two-dead-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-after-using-car-heat-texas-n1257972
 
PubMed: CO Poisoning Deaths is US, 1999-2012: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26032660/
 
CDC: CP Poisoning: https://www.cdc.gov/dotw/carbonmonoxide/index.html
 
Famous People Who Died of CO Poisoning: https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-people-who-died-of-carbon-monoxide-poisoning/reference