If you write haiku regularly, you observe nature and beauty. And you also learn the economical use of words. You can write a haiku when you’re out walking your pet, or communing with nature. Haiku is a great exercise to be more aware and become a better writer. Here are some of my haiku.

mountain brook gurgles
under a ceiling of pines
Yosemite high

rainy afternoon
chasing clouds and sand hill cranes
old friends who’ve just met

James W. Hall creates compelling stories about a loner named Thorn. For Thorn trouble seems to crop up at any moment. But he always finds a way out of the fix.

Robert Crais writes compelling stories about a private investigator named Elvis Cole. Cole had a sidekick named Joe Pike. Talk about your yin/yang characters. Crais writes stories that grab you by the throat in the first chapter and have enough twists and turns to keep you turning the pages.

Lee Child writes about another larger than like character, Reacher. Reacher’s ex-military and a drifter. Reacher sees something wrong when he arrives in a new place and does his best to make it right.

Backstory: An innocent man has been arrested. Yale Larsson, my protagonist won’t rest until he’s set free.

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Picked up my cell phone. Called the hospital. Spoke to Evans and told him what we’d discovered. He told me he’d make it happen. I thanked him and disconnected the call.

“Major Evans will grease the wheels. Good work, Janet. Thank you. Can you stay for dinner?”
“I’d love to Studly, but I have a date. How are things progressing with your social media page?”
“May have another fish on the line. Lady who wants to paint me.
“Reel her in.” She fist bumped me and found her way out.

Walked into the kitchen. As usual, Jayson was cooking. Smelled wonderful. He put something in the oven, poured two iced teas and sat at the dining room table. I joined him.

Jayson sipped his tea. “Productive day?”
“Major Evans, my old nemesis, greased the wheels. Janet Brown broke into Demetrius Robinson’s house.”
“Exigent circumstances?”
“Yup.”
“And?
“Found a Glock with two rounds missing. She’ll run it through ballistics in the morning. Also found a diary. Robinson put his girlfriend and her daughter through hell.”
“And if the ballistics match, Roscoe Love will be a free man.”
“Yup.” Sipped my tea. “Anything else from our social media pages?”
“Yup. You have a meeting at the Big Chill after school lets out tomorrow.”
“Great.”

To learn more about Yale’s previous capers, scan the following QR code with your phone.

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My goal is to publish the novel before Thanksgiving. Stay tuned.

This is the fourth novel in my Yale Larson Private Investigator series. To learn more about Yale’s earlier exploits, scan the following QR code with your phone.

The best way to get dialog, is to listen. Elmore Leonard was a keen listener. He was known as the “Dickens of Detroit”. I always carry a notebook with me. When I hear something interesting, I write it down. During a trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I had breakfast in a place called “Louies Cafe”, which is close to LSU. The chef, a guy know as “Frenchy” rambles on in a Jack Kerouac stream of consciousness. His dialog is colorful and witty. While cooking eggs, he said, “Pavlovian primates waiting for maturation of the egg.”

Frenchy the Chef

Authors in my writing group, tell me I write good dialog. My protagonist is a PI named Yale Larsson. He talks in short, staccato sentences. Just the facts, ma’am. His cohort in crime, half-brother and gourmet cook has different speaking characteristics. When you write a scene with many characters speaking, it’s important to identify a character by his speech. The eliminates the need for “he said”, or “she said” after every sentence. You can also differentiate between character, by having on do something before the dialog such as:
She furrowed her forehead. “I can’t condone that, young man.”

Here a snippet of dialog from my upcoming novel, “A Pocketful of Euros.”

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Blind Melon strummed the last chords of the song and placed Sweet Melissa in her case. A couple of people dropped coins in his singing bowl.
“Song was great, but Sweet Melissa sounded out of sorts,” I said.
Handed him the box that was delivered yesterday. He broke it open and smiled.
“Strings.”
“As promised. Six sets. Should last you a while. ”
Blind Melon tipped his Pork-Pie Hat. “Thank you, my friend.”
“Blind Melon, got a list of local kids from an Internet Social Media website. Wonder if you can identify them for me.”
“Okay.”
I read the list to Blind Melon. He knew five of the families.

To find out more about Yale Larsson scan the following QR code with your phone to see my Yale Larsson Private Investigator novels at Amazon.