Justice for Baby Hope

Oct22

The dedication and perseverance of the officers in this case is so incredible, when I read this original post it moved me to tears. This is how it starts:

BY ORDER OF THE CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT, THE FOLLOWING IS TO BE READ AT ROLL CALL TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE SERVICE AND POSTED CONSPICUOUSLY WITHIN COMMANDS:
On July 23rd, 1991, twenty-two years ago, the body of a four-year-old girl was found in a cooler off the Henry Hudson Parkway. She had been starved and sexually assaulted. Despite a citywide appeal, the 34th Precinct Detective Squad was unable to locate her relatives. All leads were soon exhausted without even learning her name.

Using their own funds, the squad bought her a burial plot and a headstone. On the day she was buried, they christened her Baby Hope.

As life in a city of eight million people went on, the men and women responsible for Baby Hope’s memory never forgot about her. At the time, Assistant Chief Joseph Reznick was the 34th Precinct Detective Squad commander. No matter where his career took him, he would return to Baby Hope’s grave each year to collect evidence from the flowers and memorials left there.

There are good people in this world, capable of extraordinary things in the face of tragedy. To read the rest of the original post, please click here.

Author-Agent Pitch Sessions

Oct14

In a week and a half I will be in Surrey, BC at the SiCW, taking pitches most of the conference, and hanging out with all the awesome authors. Before I get there, there’s something I would like to share with all you authors out there.

For most, sitting down to pitch a book to an agent is like sitting down in front of a fire-breathing dragon who may, after hearing your idea, open their mouths and unleash a ball of fiery doom on your brilliance, reducing it to cinders and soot.

It’s terrifying, and very few authors are able to sit down and feel even remotely comfortable. But there’s something authors need to remember about agents, and it will make your pitch session pretty simple once you wrap your head around it.