Outliers Writing University Podcast Series

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author CJ Box

GET TO KNOW Author, Screenwriter, Playwright Matt Witten

Matt Witten is a TV writer, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter who has written for many TV shows including House, Pretty Little Liars, CSI: Miami, and Law & Order. His thriller novel The Necklace is published in eight languages and optioned for film by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his latest thriller Killer Story, about a true-crime podcaster, came out last year. Matt wrote four amateur sleuth novels, including the Malice Domestic Award-winning Breakfast at Madeline’s, and he has been nominated for two Edgars and an Emmy. His published stage plays include The Deal, Washington Square Moves, and The Ties That Bind. He wrote the movie Drones, produced by Whitewater Films. Most recently Matt wrote a Hallmark Mystery Movie based on the novel A Dark and Stormy Murder, by Julia Buckley.
https://mattwittenwriter.com/

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author and TV Producer Roger Simpson

Roger Simpson is one of Australia’s leading writers and producers. He has created seventeen series for television, including the highly acclaimed telemovie series Halifax f.p. and its sequel Halifax: Retribution, the cult series Good Guys, Bad Guys, the police drama Stingers, the much-loved rural serial Something in the Air, the teenage sci-fi sensation Silver Sun, and the top-rating streaming series Satisfaction. Roger is the winner of twelve awards for writing, including nine Australian Writers Guild AWGIE Awards, as well as numerous awards as a producer.
https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/people/catalog/view/cid/302100/

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 17: DNA and Twins

For years it was felt that the DNA of identical twins was indeed identical. Since they come from a single fertilized egg, this would seem intuitive. But, nature likes to throw curve balls—and the occasional slider. After that first division of the fertilized, and after the two daughter cells go their way toward producing identical humans, things change. And therein lies the genetic differences between two “identical” twins.
LINKS:
One Twin Committed the Crime—but Which One?: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/science/twins-dna-crime-paternity.html
The Claim: Identical Twins Have Identical DNA: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/health/11real.html
The Genetic Relationship Between Identical Twins: https://www.verywellfamily.com/identical-twins-and-dna-2447117
Identical Twins’ Genes Are Not Identical: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/identical-twins-genes-are-not-identical/
Rare Australian Twins Are “Semi-Identical,: Sharing 89 Percent of Their DNA: https://www.inverse.com/article/53633-semi-identical-twins-share-78-percent-of-dna

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 16: Arsenic: An Historical and Modern Poison

From HOWDUNNIT:FORENSICS
Toxicology is a relatively new science that stands on the shoulders of its predecessors: anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and medicine. Our knowledge in these sciences had to reach a certain level of sophistication before toxicology could become a reality. It slowly evolved over more than two hundred years of testing, starting with tests for arsenic. 
Arsenic had been a common poison for centuries, but there was no way to prove that arsenic was the culprit in a suspicious death. Scientist had to isolate and then identify arsenic trioxide—the most common toxic form of arsenic— in the human body before arsenic poisoning became a provable cause of death. The steps that led to a reliable test for arsenic are indicative of how many toxicological procedures developed. 
1775: Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786) showed that chlorine water would convert arsenic into arsenic acid. He then added metallic zinc and heated the mixture to release arsine gas. When this gas contacted a cold vessel, arsenic would collect on the vessel’s surface. 
1787: Johann Metzger (1739–1805) showed that if arsenic were heated with charcoal, a shiny, black “arsenic mirror” would form on the charcoal’s surface. 
1806: Valentine Rose discovered that arsenic could be uncovered in the human body. If the stomach contents of victims of arsenic poisoning are treated with potassium carbonate, calcium oxide, and nitric acid, arsenic trioxide results. This could then be tested and confirmed by Metzger’s test. 
1813: French chemist Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila (1787–1853) developed a method for isolating arsenic from dog tissues. He also published the first toxicological text, Traité des poisons (Treatise on Poison), which helped establish toxicology as a true science. 
1821: Sevillas used similar techniques to find arsenic in the stomach and urine of individuals who had been poisoned. This is marked as the beginning of the field of forensic toxicology. 
1836: Dr. Alfred Swaine Taylor (1806–1880) developed the first test for arsenic in human tissue. He taught chemistry at Grey’s Medical School in England and is credited with establishing the field of forensic toxicology as a medical specialty. 
1836: James Marsh (1794–1846) developed an easier and more sensitive version of Metzger’s original test, in which the “arsenic mirror” was collected on a plate of glass or porcelain. The Marsh test became the standard, and its principles were the basis of the more modern method known as the Reinsch test, which we will look at later in this chapter. 
As you can see, each step in developing a useful testing procedure for arsenic stands on what discoveries came before. That’s the way science works. Step by step, investigators use what others have discovered to discover even more. 

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 15: Introducing Characters

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. The same is true for your fictional characters. So, make them vivid and memorial. How do you do this? There are many ways. Let’s explore a few of them.

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 14: Elmore Leonard's Rules of Writing

Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing
1-Never open a book with weather
2-Avoid prologues
3-Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue
4-Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”
5-Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose
6-Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose
7-Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly
8-Avoid detailed descriptions of characters
9-Don’t go into great detail describing places and things
10-Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Lee Goldberg

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Mary Burton

GET TO KNOW Best-selling Author Cody Blocker