How I Made a Corpse Dishonest

BY Bill Hopkins

My latest book Dishonest Corpse came out in the summer of 2016. It’s book five in my Judge Rosswell Carew series. To bring you up to date, Carew would rather be a detective than a judge who has to listen to people whine all day in a stuffy courtroom.

It wouldn’t be any fun if Carew did everything right. The cops don’t want him around and neither do the bad guys, who are a mysterious bunch of sex traffickers, led by Nathaniel Dahlbert, a guy who would make Doctor Moriarity cringe in fear.

“Fun?” you’re asking yourself. How can sex slavery be fun? It isn’t. It’s a serious problem all over the world. I spoke to several of my writer friends asking them how to make a “humorous” story about a despicable crime.

Here’s what I came up with: All first responders and emergency workers (cops, CSIs, coroners, fire fighters, etc.) have a graveyard humor that is often raunchy and disrespectful. It’s done to relieve tension and stress. My books are PG and there’s no graphic sex, violence, or bad language. But Carew still gets himself in a giant pickle or two. And they’re funny.

Earlier in the series, Carew irritated the powers that be so badly that they kicked him off the bench. (You need to read the whole series to find out how and why!)

Now, oneday recently, disgraced and “benched” Carew gasps in horror early one morning when he watches the report of a girl murdered under the Mississippi River bridge on the waterfront, a couple of blocks from his downtown office in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Although this victim reeks of the evil handiwork of Carew’s nemesis, Nathaniel Dahlbert, Carew and his beloved wife, Tina, herself a retired sheriff’s deputy, can’t let themselves become distraught. Their new detective agency is up and running and they convince themselves this murder has nothing to do with them. Later that morning, two different people come to their agency and hire their services. Within hours, the married detectives are involved in a different murder case that not only points to the girl’s killing, but also to a possible third homicide. Rosswell and Tina find themselves caught up in a deadly cat-and-mouse game that’s got only one solution: The capture of Nathaniel Dahlbert—or the death of Rosswell Carew!

The plot is the basic chase to the death. What makes my books stand out is my characters. I’ve had lots of fans tell me that the characters can never be mixed up with one another. They all have memorable names and memorable (though short) descriptions.

The characters are an amalgam of a lot of people I know plus a lot of stuff that’s made up. There are repeating characters in each book, but also in every new book, I introduce new characters. Some survive. Some don’t. Some are heard of again and some disappear.

Cliffhangers abound. Once you reach the end of a chapter toward the finish of the book, you have a resolution, you think, then up pops the Devil!

I chose Southeast Missouri as my main area of action. It’s my little part of the world and I know it well. I make strange things happen in everyday surroundings.

I will never run out of ideas and I’ll be dead before I can write them all. All my books are fun to write. I love writing and making up situations that I’ve never heard of before.

If I ever get stuck, I ask, “What’s the worst thing that could happen next?” Then something happens that’s even worse! That keeps the story moving.

Oh, and what’s a “dishonest corpse”? You’ll have to read my book to find out. And I’ve littered a lot of clues and foreshadowing throughout the book, so you can’t say you were surprised.

But to get the full feel of Carew’s world, you need to read all my books.
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Bill Hopkins is retired after beginning his legal career in 1971 and serving as a private attorney, prosecuting attorney, an administrative law judge, and a trial court judge, all in Missouri. His poems, short stories, and non-fiction have appeared in many different publications. He's had several short plays produced. Bill is a member of Horror Writers Association, Missouri Writers Guild, SEMO Writers Guild, Heartland Writers Guild, and Sisters In Crime. Bill is also a photographer who has sold work in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He and his wife, Sharon Woods Hopkins (a mystery writer!), live in Marble Hill, Missouri, with their dogs and cats. Besides writing, Bill and Sharon are involved in collecting and restoring Camaros. COURTING MURDER was his first novel and his second novel RIVER MOURN won first place in the Missouri Writers' Guild Show-Me Best Book Awards in 2014. Visit Bill and Sharon at http://www.deadlyduo.net/.To get started on my series, try the first: Courting Murder. The ebook is FREE. And the series is addicting. Get my free book here: books2read.com/u/3JKplK The Deadly Duo http://www.deadlyduo.net/ My Amazon Author Page:  Audible Audiobook http://tinyurl.com/audible-courting-murder

Make Your Characters Real Characters

By Bill Hopkins

"No one ever gets your characters confused," a writer of some note told me. Besides being a thrill, the compliment caused me to make a list of how I do this. (You DO make lists, don't you? How else can you keep things organized?)

If you want your characters to stand out, try my Character Builder List. Define the people in your work using four points: speech, action, name, and looks.

Speech: If all your characters talk the same, then your readers must jump a hurdle when, for example, you have rapid-fire dialogue in the story. One trick is to give your characters a catch phrase. If Winebibber (how's that for a name?) says, "Freaking frost!" when he gets excited or surprised, the reader will know who it is, as long as no other character says that. Thus, you won't need a tag like this "'Freaking frost!' Winebibber said." Needless to say, don't overdo the catch phrases. They wear on the reader quickly.

Action: A character should have an action that he, she, or it does that no other character does. "Winebibber rubbed the mole on his left thumb." If Winebibber does that a couple of times, you've not only given him an action that no one else can do, but you've also described one of his physical characteristics.

Name: Winebibber is a name you won't forget. But if your character is named John or Jane, you're begging the reader to forget a forgettable character. If you must use John as a name, give him two names. Who can forget John Boy of the Waltons? And don't use similar names. If one of your characters is named Max, avoid Mary, Maggie, Marty, etc. In fact, don't use a second name beginning with a letter you've already used.

Looks: Give your characters distinctive appearances. Maybe the character has one eyebrow. Or an odd tattoo. Maybe one green eye and one blue eye. Here again, I advise spare use of the oddity. Mention it once early in the story and perhaps a second or third time if you're writing a novel.

Here's a final caveat: Don't name or describe a character if that person plays a mere walk-on part. Irritating is the word for it when you're reading along and a named character pops up accompanied by a detailed description. Then the character disappears. I've seen this done in many novels, some by REALLY BIG NAMES. It's like putting a speed bump in the middle of the Interstate at rush hour. You're jolted out of the story and lose your concentration. And your reader may mutter imprecations.

Now you're asking yourself, "What the heck does Winebibber look like?" Make something up. You're a writer!

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Bill Hopkins is retired after beginning his legal career in 1971 and serving as a private attorney, prosecuting attorney, an administrative law judge, and a trial court judge, all in Missouri. His poems, short stories, and non-fiction have appeared in many different publications. He's had several short plays produced. A book of collected poetry, Moving Into Forever, is available on Amazon. Bill is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Dramatists Guild, Horror Writers Association, Missouri Writers Guild, and Sisters In Crime. Bill is also a photographer who has sold work in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He and his wife, Sharon (a mortgage banker who is also a published writer), live in Marble Hill, Missouri, with their dogs and cat. Besides writing, Bill and Sharon are involved in collecting and restoring Camaros. CourtingMurder is his first mystery novel. Website: www.judgebillhopkins.com  LinkedIn: Bill Hopkins   Twitter:@JudgeHopkins

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