The Crime Victim's Face

Aurora, Colorado . . . Oak Creek, Wisconsin . . . Tucson, Arizona. Blood and dead bodies everywhere. Everyone wants to see what the criminal-of-the-day looks like and to a lesser extent, know why he did it. Eventually the killer's photo is posted everywhere and citizens intently study the image for signs of obvious evil. People like to think that, if the situation were to happen to them, they would immediately recognize the insane grin or the racist glower or the orange hair and then be smart enough get the hell out of out of Dodge . . . or something. Lamentably, criminals of the future refuse to be defined.

The very saddest part is that the criminal's picture is the one we remember. Why? Because after the initial broadcast, it is then broadcast again. And again and again. And again and again. The deceased victims? The surviving victims? The heroes? The victims families? Not so much. Not at all really, after the first week or two.

And that is in the high profile crimes. When someone's child is murdered in a robbery or a drug deal gone bad or for no apparent reason at all, the public will most likely see a photo or two of the killer, if he's known, but no images whatsoever of the victim. That is wrong.

Why do these murderers' faces need to be shown over and over again? I understand once or twice but to the point of a previously unknown felon's face being burned into our brains? Created by that ubiquitous reality show - “the news”, which routinely turns criminals into celebrities.

If the victim happens to be famous already, like Gabrielle Giffords, that is another matter. Every moment of Ms. Giffords recovery was documented, which is fine. But when she was shot, there were other victims too. Some survived and some did not. If you are an everyday Joe, then it's as if you were killed in a car crash . . . sad, but not so memorable.

My book, “Escaping the Arroyo” is about a crime not as renown as the ones above, but notorious just the same - in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The mugshot of convicted kidnapper/rapist/killer, Michael Guzman, landed on the front page many times. There would have been even more pictures but his attorney informed the court that cameras made him nervous. Contrast that with murder victim Julie Jackson, who's beautiful face never made the front page at all. Recently, also in Albuquerque, another convicted murderer's image, Michael Astorga, who always seemed to be smirking at the camera, dominated the media. Victim Jim McGrane's photo was also shown, but again and even though he was a Bernalillo County Sheriff shot in the line of duty, not as often. As for pictures of Astorga's second murder victim, Candido Martinez, they were few and far between.

My point is, yes, these horrible crimes are going to be discussed ad nauseum, but why is it the criminal's face we remember? Reporting the evildoing is necessary but instead of repeatedly showing the murderer, how about showing the victims - not also, but instead . . . every time. In the case of the deceased victims, all they have left are their pictures and the memories they represent.

                                             
                                            Buy "Escaping the Arroyo" at Amazon.com

                                             
                                              Aurora Colorado Shooting Victims

Joyce Nance Talks About her Book on Channel 13

On Wednesday, August 1, 2012, my book was featured on a section of Albuquerque's Channel 13 - 10 o'clock news with Amanda Goodman.  Wow!  The story came on about six minutes into the show.  Double wow!!  I wasn't even sure I'd get on, let alone so early.  I was shocked.

I went down to the station this afternoon and in a back studio with a camerman and Amanda she asked me everything she could think of to get enough footage to piece something together.  I think she did a great job.  I will put up a link to the clip when it becomes available.

Also today, Bookworks Bookstore on Rio Grande Blvd accepted the book into their store.  That is great as well. 

This book is one learning experience after another.  I am grateful that Colene allowed me to write about her experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JirSpmKpIFc

What I have done this week to market "Escaping the Arroyo"

What have I done?  For sure not enough, but here's my list.

1. I had some flyers made for the two upcoming book signings.  I have attached a copy of the flyer for one to be held in Albuquerque at Gruet Winery on 7/28/12 from 12-4 on the blog. The other one, at East Mountain Grill is getting external press.

2. Re: that.  On Tuesday this week I was interviewed by The Independent, the local paper for the East Mountains and Estancia Valley. I was interviewed about the writing of the book and the upcoming book signing at East Mountain Grill on August 4, 2012 from 11-3.  That was cool.  The article  comes out next week.

3.  On Wednesday I brought a copy of the book and a press release for the Gruet Book Signing to the Albuquerque Journal and left it for Journal Sunday Book editor David Steinberg to peruse.  I never heard back.  Oh well.

4. Thursday got my GIANT poster made that I'm going to use for the book signings and book fairs.  It is 4 feet by 3 feet and looks FABULOUS.  Let me know what you think if you come by any of those events.

5.  Was contacted by the East Mountain Telegraph who also want to do an article about the EM Grill book signing.  I have not spoken to them yet.

6.  Did my first blog post on a blog called Laeland which is a crime blog http://laemonie.wordpress.com/.  I used some of the things I learned in my criminal investigations class at CNM to write the post.  It will be online starting August 4, 2012. 

7.  Spent the week going to Albuquerque libraries and senior centers giving them copies of the flyers.
If anyone would like a jpeg of one or both of the flyers to hand out to your friends and associates, let me know and I will email it to you.  My softball team is going to get hit up on Monday night.

Once again I thank everyone that has helped us so far.  We appreciate it and look forward to seeing as many people as can make it to the book signings.

A Lot Has Happened in a Month

It's been a little over a month since the book was first published on Kindle.  Then a couple of weeks later it came out in paperback.  In hindsight it all happened really fast.  But when it was happening, it all seemed so very slow.  I had no way to be patient.  Maybe I will be able to be more patient with the next book. 

I'm getting myself on the six year plan.  In six years I want to have sold a million copies.  Only about 17 authors have sold a million copies of one book so naturally I'm thinking I will be one of them.  Of course, at this point I'm not exactly a household name, except in my household, but I have confidence. 

Everyday I try to make a least one positive step towards my goal of selling a million.  Today was a rather weak day.  So far I have only added a new picture to my Goodreads author profile, connected this blog to the same author profile, and connected my facebook fanpage to my Goodreads account.  Plus I twittered about my paperback giveaway.  Plus I posted a picture of one of my fans reading the book on Facebook. 

Yep, it's all about social media.  I still have many other things to do towards that end but that will be on other days. 

There was a column written by Leslie Lithicum in the Albuquerque Journal about life imprisionment today.  I am going to respond to the column, not because I disagree with it but I want to give her my point of view.  I agree with the Parole Chief that life should mean life when a convicted murderer is sentenced.   I will post my letter here after I write it just in case the Albuquerque Journal does choose to publish it.

Crime Victims Deserve Respect Too

In our society, if an armed soldier goes off to war and receives a horrible injury because the "other side" is trying to capture, attack or kill him or her, that soldier is then hailed as a hero, and rightfully so.  On the flip side, if an unarmed citizen walks down the street and is captured, attacked, or killed, that citizen is considered an unfortunate crime victim and is all too often ingnored and even shunned by society.  The victim now makes others feel uncomfortable. The "incident" is discussed only in whispers for fear of upsetting the victim or it is not discussed at all in the belief that if you don't talk about the bad thing, the bad thing won't happen to you.

The crime victim gets no medals, no disability pension and no parades but does get the life long burden of shame. Shame in the sense that they survived and shame in the sense that somehow they brought the violence upon themselves.

The situation typically goes from something bad happened to me, to I am bad because something bad happened to me.

PTSD is an expected and understandable disabilty for war veterans.  For crime victims, PTSD is oten considered a weakness.  They are told to "get over it".

Soldiers, for the most part, volunteer and are trained and armed. They are to be commended for the service they provide to their country.  Civilians, for the most part, are unarmed, untrained and never agreed to fighting an attacker to the death. 

But sometimes they must.

The Book is Finally Up on Kindle

Wow.  It has taken two years and thousands (and thousands) of hours to complete but the book is up on Amazon.  It is also up on Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony Reader, Apple iBookstore and the Diesel ebook store. 

Now I've got to run it a flagpole and see if I can get anyone to salute it.  Hopefully people will want to read this story and the story of Colene's survival - against ALL odds - and the stuggles that she encounters every day, relating back to that fateful night in 1981.

Apparently Formatting is NOT Instantaneous

I finially finished everything, everything on the book . . . EXCEPT the formatting . . . and I thought it would take one day to format but apparently formatters take the weekend off.  I did not know that.  I'm in the 24/7 world and I thought everybody else was too. 

So just like every other day . . . I wait.  Bums me out. 

On the bright side, I finished enrolling myself for my 2 necessary ISBN numbers.  That took awhile.  Everything does.  People look at me and think I'm goofing off on the computer all the time.  Like I'm playing solitaire or something.  No, I am not.  It's work, work work.  And what do I have to show for it?

I'm not sure.

Well, at least I am closer to fine.  Just regular fine, not Joe Fine.

We will see what tomorrow brings.