Believe in your Story and Never Give Up

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By Donnell Ann Bell

I do not consider myself a vain person. Uncertainty follows me on a daily basis. And like most authors insecurity has me on speed dial. But if I write something that corresponds with the vision in my head, then I develop a strong belief in my project. It doesn’t happen with every manuscript. I have a drawerful of attempted projects that haven’t quite measured up.

My debut book, however, the unpublished title Walk Away Joe, earned me a Golden Heart nod and agent representation. Afterward, I set to work on book two. Based on the plot, the title Deadly Recall came to me almost immediately. The story was a romantic suspense spinning off from my elementary Catholic school days and my court reporting legal experience.

The characters in Deadly Recall came to me equally fast. I was so confident in that book, I almost ignored the advice offered by Donald Maass, renowned literary agent and author of Writing the Breakout Novel. I attended a seminar in which Maass warned writers that if they knew who the killer was throughout the book, the reader would too.

What did he know? I remained steadfast in my belief I’d chosen the right antagonist for my story. Yet as my page count increased, reality intruded on my pipedream. I was a brand-new author; Donald Maass was an expert. I remember the precise moment I flipped the script and changed my killer’s identity. It was near the end of the book. To this day, I credit Donald Maass’s advice. Thanks to him Deadly Recall became a more cohesive and suspenseful story.

After I finished the novel, I entered writing contests but didn’t send it to my agent just yet. She hadn’t sold Walk Away Joe, and if Deadly Recall did well, I hoped to convince her I wasn’t a “one-book wonder.” Deadly Recall won several contests, one of which included agents and editors as the final round judges. I confess my head was the size of a pinata when one contest coordinator wrote, “This is so good. Can’t wait to see it in print.”

I was still flying high until weeks later I opened my entry to learn I’d received an honorable mention. Obviously, my writing peer judges liked the story, New York professionals, not so much. Needless to say, I was disheartened. Still, I believed in that book. So, when a well-known editor from a respected house announced she was accepting on-line pitches, I participated. Her response to my pitch? “Nice idea. But Catholic stories don’t sell. Put it under your bed and never get it out again.”

I don’t have to tell you that left a mark! At the same time, I was smarting from that rejection, my agent wrote me about Deadly Recall. She said she’d shared the book with her team, and they all agreed with her that it “wasn’t my best work.” At that, I sent her a 30-day termination notice and cancelled our agency agreement.

Along with the Deadly Recall rejections I was receiving, I was still hopeful for Walk Away Joe. At a writer’s conference, I pitched the book to an acquiring editor of a major house, and she asked me to send it. I sent it, knowing I was engaging in a proverbial longshot as New York publishers rarely, if ever, accepted unagented submissions.

About this time, RWA’s 2010 Golden Heart calls went out, and I was both happy and stunned to learn that Deadly Recall was a finalist in the organization’s largest and most respected contest. This was my second Golden Heart final, so some (not all) of my confidence was restored as I felt it gave me some street creds.

A short time later, I queried BelleBooks/Bell Bridge Books about Walk Away Joe and Vice President Deborah Smith wrote me back saying, “Send it. Send Deadly Recall while you’re at it.” I’ll never forget when BelleBooks sent me an offer letter for both books. I had huge respect for Debra Dixon and Deborah Smith, both legends in publishing, and decided to accept. As a courtesy I wrote the New York editor with whom I’d submitted Walk Away Joe. All my rejection bruises seemed to fade when she wrote back, “Congratulations. This is our loss. I love Melanie and Joe.” FYI, Melanie and Joe are characters from the WAJ manuscript that BelleBooks/Bell Bridge Books subsequently renamed The Past Came Hunting.

In the early days of my publishing career, Amazon, had a marketing tool called Deal of the Day on Kindle. Both The Past Came Hunting and Deadly Recall hit the top ten of the overall paid deals. I was on my way to Santa Fe when Deborah Smith messaged me to tell me Deadly Recall had hit #1 in the overall paid category! For a brief time, my book was listed alongside John Grisham and Clive Custler. Typically, I couldn’t get a signal to capture a screen shot but did manage one a couple days later in which the book still held the #1 spot in three genre categories.

I tell you this long drawn-out story to remind you that while others may not believe in your work, if you’re passionate about it, never give up. Deadly Recall remains my bestselling book. Imagine if I had done what that editor suggested and put it under my bed. Deadly Recall is one of the books in The Stiletto Gang’s Summer Bonanza. The log line is: A terrifying memory is locked deep inside her. A Killer wants to keep it that way. https://donnellannbell.net/books/romantic-suspense-thrillers/deadly-recall/   Now that you know its history, I hope you’ll give it a try. And remember this business is subjective. Whatever you’re passionate about, it’s important to believe!  Happy Reading!

 

What’s the big idea?

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One of my favorite lines from a film is during The Trouble with Angels when Hayley Mills who plays a troublemaker teenager says, “I have a scathingly brilliant idea!”

Mine may not be scathingly brilliant but for many a spark or an idea can be a figurative pot of gold. I got my idea for The Past Came Hunting after listening to Trisha Yearwood and Don Henley’s country song “Walk Away Joe.” The lyrics surround a seventeen-year-old girl who refuses to listen to her mother and runs off with her bad-news boyfriend. As the song goes, the girl waits in the car while the young man robs a gas station.

During a police ride-along, I asked the officer I was riding with what would happen to the girl?

“Seventeen. In the commission of a felony,” he replied. “She might be charged as an accessory—might even be tried as an adult and go to prison.” My kids were near that age at the time and I was appalled.

Later I asked him, “What’s the worst thing that could happen to you as a police officer?” Without hesitation, he answered, “If an ex-con moved next door to me.”

Boom! I had my story.

I researched how some authors came up with ideas and discovered:

J.K. Rowling got her idea for Harry Potter from a delayed train journey.

J.R.R. Tolkein, creator of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, got the idea for the Hobbit from a random sentence he wrote while grading papers.

Suzanne Collins, Hunger Games, was channel surfing and watching young people compete for a million-dollar contest.

Still, ideas can be nebulous and are often fleeting. Author Hank Phillippi Ryan and I discussed this during an interview. She said her muse show up at a restaurant. She reached for a napkin, then her pen and started writing. All I can say is if an idea or inspiration strikes, be ready to focus and find a way to jot it down.

Finally, my favorite anecdote about ideas and inspiration has to be from musician John Tesh who shared his backstory when he created Roundball Rock, the Chicago Bulls theme song, which in 2025 became the overall theme song for the NBA. The story as well as the score is breathtaking. Here’s the Youtube link and well worth a listen:

https://youtu.be/V_h7Lm7C9Nk?si=L-qVONhk5fTx3ej1

How about you? Got any goldmine ideas you’ve encountered to write a book or otherwise? Where do you get your ideas?

Down the Rabbit Hole

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By Donnell Ann Bell

I’m glad I only blog once a month on The Stiletto Gang. Mainly because when I stumble on a topic I’d like to discuss, that’s how long it takes to condense the mushroom cloud in my brain into a few cohesive paragraphs.

Case in point, I recently read an ad in American Police Beat Magazine for a device called the MX908 mass spectrometer. This handheld gadget is portable, and because of its cost, (close to $60K per unit) is currently being used by elite first responders.

What does it do? The MX908 mass spectrometer is capable of detecting real time chemical identification (such as explosives, HazMat operations and priority drugs such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and more). 908 Devices – YouTube

I can’t tell you how happy I was to learn about this advancing technology. During ridealongs and citizens academies, I’ve learned that while cops live daily with the knowledge they may take a bullet, they and their fellow first responders, face a greater risk known as exposure.

Exposure to explosives, chemicals and toxic drugs. I’m excited about the advancement of this mass spectrometer. I believe it will save innumerable lives.

I didn’t mean my blog to be an ad for the MX908, however. My original intent was to pinpoint how and when the technology may have evolved and how fiction authors (in particularly science fiction authors) may have contributed.

That idea proved fruitless and of little merit.

DeForest Kelly as Dr. McCoy Source: Public Domain

Lois Winston and I are critique partners, and I told her about the device and quipped something like Gene Roddenberry, screenwriter and creator of Star Trek, would be proud. If you recall Roddenberry created Star Trek in 1964. One of his characters, Dr. Leonard McCoy, aka Bones, used a medical scanning device on patients to determine illness or injury.

Still, Gene Roddenberry can’t take credit for the spectrometer. As I dove further down the rabbit hole, I learned the first mass spectrometer was invented in the 19th century and before that Issac Newton and others were delving into the color spectrum, telescope, microscope and myriad other devices. Did you know Newton is responsible for calculus?

And please don’t get me started on Benjamin Franklin!!!

I did learn quite a bit about science fiction authors while I was researching but I’ll save that for another blog. There are some amazing authors I’d like to include.

Also, during my explorations, I discovered I was attempting to engage in what is known as Synoptic philosophy, which comes from the Greek word συνοπτικός synoptikos (“seeing everything together”). Add synoptic to the word philosophy, it means the love of wisdom emerging from a coherent understanding of everything together.

Obviously, although my curiosity knows no bounds, I have much to learn.

Does your research lead you down the proverbial rabbit hole? Have you heard the term Synoptic philosophy?

About the Author:  Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author who began her nonfiction career in newspapers. After she turned to fiction, her romantic suspense novels became Amazon bestsellers, including The Past Came Hunting, Deadly Recall, Betrayed, and Buried Agendas. In 2019, Donnell released her first mainstream suspense, Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense, which was a 2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. In 2022, book two of the series was released. Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense won Best Thriller in 2023 at the Imaginarium Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently, she’s working on book three of the series. Readers can follow Donnell on her blog or sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.net.

 

Steps In A Journey

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The creative side of writing is a joy, but, as we all know, the business of getting your novel into the world can be daunting. As I’ve learned, it takes a village and a support network along with a healthy dose of determination to birth a book.

I started my publication journey by joining Sisters in Crime. It was during one of their book clubs that I had the good fortune to meet Stiletto Gang member Donnell Ann Bell. She took an interest in my legal thriller featuring a former Miami prosecutor, which I hadn’t shared with anyone other than my husband, critique partners, and a few close friends. I nervously let Donnell, an award winning published author, read my first chapters. As a result, she demanded (and if you know Donnell, that is not an exaggeration) I enter writing competitions.

That was three years ago. Despite winning or finaling every writing competition I entered, my novel couldn’t find a publishing home. I kept writing my legal thriller series and faithfully scoured Manuscript Wish List and Query Tracker for agents representing my genre. No one was looking for a legal thriller. I began to doubt myself. Was there no market for anyone outside of the big three — Grisham, Connelly, and Turow?

Time for my own market research. An Amazon search on “legal thriller” turned up many authors with hundreds and even thousands of four-star and higher reviews. This confirmed that there was a huge number of readers and buyers out there, hungry for legal thrillers. An even bigger surprise was that outside of the big three, almost all were self-published, with only a couple of exceptions.

One of the exceptions caught my attention: Severn River Publishing. Curious, I researched the company. What I saw resonated with me. Relatively new, the company “was founded by military veterans and family members who shared a love of story.” When I saw they focused on thriller and mystery genres including — I held my breath—legal thrillers, I submitted my first novel to them.

Fast forward three months. I signed with Severn River for a four book series and couldn’t be happier working with a publisher that exceeds expectations. I’m excited to share their announcement in Publisher’s Marketplace with you.

“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

– Harriet Beecher Stowe, author

Donnell Ann Bell

Reading: The Panacea for What Ails Me

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By Donnell Ann Bell

When my children were small, I’d plop one kid on my left side, the other on my right, and open a book. I’d read one page, hand it off to the one on the left and say, “Your turn.”

My daughter would read one page and hand it back to me. I’d read the following page, then hand it off to my son, and the ritual continued.

Over the 2025 Christmas holiday, I was reminded of this special time when I learned the tradition continued. My son and daughter-in-law take turns reading to their children every night before bed.

Reading is the gateway that makes all other learning possible.

Already at age nine, my granddaughter has read nine of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. “Grammy,” she asked, “Do you want to hear me read?”

Nothing would please me more, so I answered, “Of course.”

Not to be outdone, her brother, age seven, cut in, “Grammy, do you want to hear me read?”

“Love to,” I responded immediately.

My grandchildren’s elementary school hosts reading challenges, and clearly the competition is working. When I learned my granddaughter was reading C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I reread it so I could discuss it with her.

On this trip, I listened to her read chapters from The Curious Tale of the In Between by Lauren DeStefano, which I found to be an amazing middle grade book. While she stumbled over some of the bigger words, when that happened, we paused and discussed their meanings.

It was such an important, joyous time for me. I can’t think of a better bonding scenario.

For the past few months, I’ve been busy updating my books to become a hybrid author. What I thought would be tedious has turned into a fun opportunity for me to correct, tighten, and the best part is, I get to reconnect with my characters.

Periodically, Stiletto Gang member and critique partner Lois Winston asks if I have time to read a few chapters or even the rest of an edited book before she publishes. In no way is reading her work a sacrifice. I love to spend time with her reluctant amateur sleuth and the rest of her zany New Jersey crew. 😊

I certainly can’t read while I’m driving, so I turn to audio books. During a recent trip to Colorado, I listened to John Grisham’s The Widow.  Audio books make long car trips fly by!

Back to the recent 2025 holiday, not everything was perfect. Christmas afternoon, I came down with the flu, which sadly cut my family visit short. The bug lasted well into New Year’s, forcing me to reschedule my planned company for New Year’s.

Don’t feel too sorry for me, though. In between sleeping I spent the time reading. Whether I’m healthy, sick or simply in need of escape, I turn to reading. It’s the panacea for what ails me.

Glad to be back, Stiletto Gang. Wishing everyone a happy and productive 2026!! By the way, what are you reading?

Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author who began her nonfiction career in newspapers. After she turned to fiction, her romantic suspense novels became Amazon bestsellers, including The Past Came Hunting, Deadly Recall, Betrayed, and Buried Agendas. In 2019, Donnell released her first mainstream suspense, Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense, which was a 2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. In 2022, book two of the series was released. Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense won Best Thriller in 2023 at the Imaginarium Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently, she’s working on book three of the series. Readers can follow Donnell on her blog or sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.net.

 

The Games People Play & the Value of Improvisation: Part Two

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Donnell Ann BellBy Donnell Ann Bell

Last month I wrote a blog called The Games People Play & the Value of Improvisation | The Stiletto Gang

My point in writing the blog was to explain how word games and improvisation can activate our brains. For writers, games and improvisation not only are fun, we can also use them as tools. Tools to inspire or to help us get unstuck. Further, working these puzzles often churn out writing nuggets worthy of a goldmine.

In last month’s blog I gave an improv example and invited others to play. This month, I’d like to post the participant contributions, and to put myself on the spot as well, I even gave it a whirl.

Special thanks to Marianne Shields one of the Stiletto Gang Readers who I think is a closet writer!!! Be sure to read her gem of an improv.

Here’s how my improvisation assignment works:

Assign five random words and the start of a sentence. (Words are from the Merriam-Webster Deluxe Dictionary. The start of a sentence is from a random book on my shelf.)

Instructions: Create a paragraph or two using the five random words. Participants were free to start with the fragmented sentence or use it further inside their narrative.

Finish this sentence:  Nothing explained the. . .

Five Random Words:

Damage

Firepit

Mirror

Plumbing

Stretch

~~

Participant: Brooke Terpening

Nothing explained the cracked Mirror in the Firepit or the Damage that Stretch(ed) from the broken Plumbing line.

 

Participant: Mary Lee Ashford

Looking in the mirror I surveyed the damage from the firepit. I stepped into the shower and prayed the plumbing was feeling cooperative and I’d be able to adjust the water temperature. It was a stretch to reach the faucet, and I winced. Nothing explained the cruelty.

 

Participant: Marianne Shields

Nothing explained the awful damage to the pearl beading on Margaret’s scarlet ball gown When she went for her final fitting a few days ago, it looked fabulous. She brought it home and carefully hung it on her closet doorframe beside her bedroom mirror. It was quite a stretch to get it up high enough to be out of the reach of Susie, her nosey little scotty. Looking out the bedroom window, she noticed Mack’s plumbing company van parked at the curb in front of the house. Her handyman was scheduled to connect a gas line to the patio firepit this morning.

Meantime the mystery of what or who had torn the lovely beading away from the bodice and skirt of the dress needed to be solved. As she retrieved the beads that were scattered on the floor, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a long green feather. Good grief, she thought, was Petie loose in the house again? A month ago, her parrot had somehow escaped from his cage and had been flying freely about the house. The brightness of her red dress no doubt attracted Petie and his natural curiosity. He could not resist the shiny beads.

 

Participant: Donnell Ann Bell

As an arson investigator I was often called in to confirm questionable fire scenes. But as I talked to the lead cop, I couldn’t sign off on his report just yet. True, the winds had been 40 miles an hour two nights ago. I simply found his theory that firepit sparks had ignited the blaze a stretch. Not that it couldn’t happen, (embers were a leading cause of forest fires) But nothing explained the considerable damage. A typical house fire didn’t melt the plumbing or reduce a three-bedroom house to the foundation. Still, I’d yet to discover any evidence of an accelerant or any other point of origin besides the pit.

Clad in my rubber boots and gloves I traipsed through the ash and rubble one last time, ready to accept defeat and add my signature to the report. That was, until my boot kicked up something solid. At the sight of an uncharred ladies’ compact, I froze. I also suspected I’d find the mirror inside undamaged as well.

It wasn’t a lucky guess. I’d found an identical compact at a scene I’d investigated the month before.

 

Thanks to the participants for playing improv with me. See you next month! 🙂

 

The Games People Play & the Value of Improvisation

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Donnell Ann BellBy Donnell Ann Bell

For a while now, Lois Winston, Stiletto Gang member and critique partner, and I have been sharing our Wordle and Connections results. Typically, we have no problem with Wordle. (We’re pretty adept at words.) However, when it comes to Connections, it’s a glorious day when I get all four rows right, and there are times I lose altogether. My husband, who is a linear thinker, gave up on Connections completely. He continues to work the New York Times crossword puzzles and Sudoku. My son and daughter, ages 38 and 41, work Wordle and Connections with us and we compare results. It’s a terrific way to hear from your adult kids each day.

I work Connections because, even if I bomb, I like to see where the editor was going with the clues. It’s educational, right?

Know something else that’s educational? Improvisation.

Have you ever watched the game show Whose Line is it Anyway? The program ran for twenty-two seasons, beginning in 2013, ending in 2024. In each episode, these talented comedians and actors, featuring Drew Carey, Aisha N. Tyler, Ryan Lee Style, Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady, musicians Laura Hall and Linda Taylor, along with other guest stars, performed and excelled at Improvisation.

Acting as host, Carey, and later Tyler, gave the crew a scenario in which they were required to act out skits for points. Other times they were tasked with putting lyrics to music. The show, performed in front of a live audience (who often got into the act), was a hit because the members were so outrageously funny and the cast so good at thinking off the cuff and ad-libbing.

 

Years ago, I belonged to Toastmasters and reached the level of Competent Communicator. During meetings there is a section called Table Topics. Table Topics was created to help members get comfortable with public speaking. Members are given an unrehearsed topic and must discuss it in front of others for two minutes. As an introvert, I found Table Topics unbelievably hard, which is no doubt why I was so impressed with Whose Line is it Anyway?

As a writer, I love improvisation, especially when I have time to sit back and think about it. I ran a group a while back in which I would assign five random words and the start of a sentence. I took the words from the Merriam-Webster Deluxe Dictionary and the start of a sentence from a book off the shelf.

The instructions for my game were simple. Create a paragraph or two using the five random words. Participants were free to start with the sentence or further inside their narrative.

I think those who participated found the game fun and muse-inspiring. Several wrote exceptional paragraphs; some created short stories.

Would you like an example? Would you like to play a game?

Here’s how it works:

Finish this sentence:  Nothing explained the. . .

Five Random Words:

Damage

Firepit

Mirror

Plumbing

Stretch

Do you enjoy playing games? Love a challenge?  Be sure to comment here about the games you play. Feel free to work my improv and send it to me at www.donnellannbell.net/contact If I get enough responses, I’ll post three submissions on my next Stiletto Gang blog date, and with your permission, cite you as the author. For purposes of this contest, let’s keep the length to 250 words.

Happy thinking outside the box!

About the Author:  Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author who began her nonfiction career in newspapers. After she turned to fiction, her romantic suspense novels became Amazon bestsellers, including The Past Came Hunting, Deadly Recall, Betrayed, and Buried Agendas. In 2019, Donnell released her first mainstream suspense, Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense, which was a 2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. In 2022, book two of the series was released. Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense won Best Thriller in 2023 at the Imaginarium Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently, she’s working on book three of the series. Readers can follow Donnell on her blog or sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.net.

 

 

 

Decisions Decisions

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Donnell Ann BellBy Donnell Ann Bell

Some changes are in store for me in the upcoming months. As I write this, I’m about to join the ranks of hybrid author. After 25 years in business, my publisher BelleBooks/Bell Bridge Books/Imajinn is closing its doors. Debra Dixon, who has owned and operated the publishing house (and admirably I might add), will retire.

As far as this author is concerned, as a publisher and editor, Debra Dixon has been exemplary, following through on every commitment she’s made. And to have the author of Goal, Motivation and Conflict as my editor for my Cold Case Series, has been both and education and has made me a better writer. So, now it’s time for this fledgling duckling—I mean author—to decide what she wants to do next. As I await my rights reversion letter, I look at this transition as an opportunity. For the most part, I’m thrilled with the product that Bell Bridge Books produced that bears my name on the covers. Still, like most books, dare I say, every published novel contains surprise gremlins. These gremlins called errors pop up in spite of critique partners, beta readers, editors, copy editors and proofreaders.

My friend Annette Dashofy is famous for saying if a mistake makes it into our books upon publication, after an author’s painstaking review, followed by the numerous editorial eyes on it, that typo deserves to be in there!!😉While I think her philosophy is clever, I respectfully disagree and want that typo corrected. Being traditionally published, I haven’t had the luxury of fixing a digital copy after it’s published. When my books are returned to me, I plan to fix those pesky errors that have plagued me these many years.

Which brings me to something else I’ve been thinking about and would love your opinions. Over the years I’ve received both good and bad reviews. Some readers lamented I didn’t put enough sex in my books, while other readers appreciated that I didn’t. Then there’s the subject of expletives. My mother worked for a doctor who claimed that using foul language was a sign of a weak mind. Moreover, if the speaker did use expletives, it was because he  couldn’t think of anything else to say. As a young woman, I heard that story so many times, I came to believe the doctor had a @#$% valid point!

In my debut novel, The Past Came Hunting, I used expletives. Namely, because my protagonist is a cop. Further, the story begins with a rebellious seventeen-year-old in the process of making the mistake of her life when she hooks up with a California bad boy (later a vengeful ex-con). While my female protagonist cleans up her act (and her language), and the cop occasionally expels an oath, the ex-con absolutely refused to say, “Gosh” and “Darn.” Honest, I asked him!

My debut won several awards, was requested by agents and was responsible for my publication. I remember receiving one letter about the language while the book has hundreds of positive reviews and hit #7 on Amazon’s list as a new author. I’m pretty proud of that. Here’s another question for you. What is it about criticism that we can receive numerous accolades, but we continually focus on the negative?  Also, as I’m going over the book line by line and have the opportunity to sanitize this manuscript, I’m not sure I want to.

Do I still hate expletives? Absolutely. I try hard not to use them. But it’s not about me. It’s about the characters. Fortunately, my other books don’t include a truculent psychopath. Brooke Terpening, another Stiletto Gang member, sent me the following blog written by author Harry Bingham to help me weigh my decision: Click here (content warning).  Mr. Bingham has an incredibly interesting take on the subject. By the way, the article provides an “f-bomb” score. Believe it or not my index is 28/82 = 0.35 which means my book is “unsweary.” Seriously?

Meanwhile, decisions, decisions.

About the Author:

Donnell Ann Bell is an award-winning author who began her nonfiction career in newspapers. After she turned to fiction, her romantic suspense novels became Amazon bestsellers, including The Past Came Hunting, Deadly Recall, Betrayed, and Buried Agendas. In 2019, Donnell released her first mainstream suspense, Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense, which was a 2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. In 2022, book two of the series was released. Until Dead, A Cold Case Suspense won Best Thriller in 2023 at the Imaginarium Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Currently, she’s working on book three of the series. Readers can follow Donnell on her blog or sign up for her newsletter at www.donnellannbell.net.

Nixing the Crime Scene (Part 2) The Ladder Fiasco

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Nixing the Crime Scene (Part 2) the Ladder FiascoDonnell Ann Bell

By Donnell Ann Bell

Last month on my day to blog I talked about a broken coffee cup handle that led to my spilling coffee all over my carpet. Nixing Crime Scene Cleanup as a Career | The Stiletto Gang  I made light of that accident because though cosmetic, no harm was done. Today, I want to continue the saga because the accident that followed, e.g. the cleanup of said carpet and surrounding walls, was no laughing matter.

I’ve always been a “do it myself” kind of person. I clean my own house because I’ve learned that if I hire someone, I clean it before the housekeeper comes anyway. So, when I saw all the coffee that had splattered off onto my newly painted walls, I thought, well, this isn’t the great room with its twelve-feet ceilings, this was the master. The ceiling was only nine feet and the floor wasn’t tile, it was carpet.

Off I went to get our seven-foot ladder from the garage. I climbed the ladder, went up and down several times and completed the task with no problems. On the last fateful descent, however, I wrongfully assumed I was closer to the floor. Big mistake! I estimate I must have been closer to two or three feet off the floor.

I remember thinking when I landed, Thank God for the carpet because I could have been hurt far worse. When I hit the ground, it knocked the breath out of me, and as I lay there with my body parts screaming, I remember thinking Okay, I don’t think anything’s broken. But in the upcoming hours and days, I would discover bruises on my left butt and arm that were in a word Shocking! I’d never bruised so badly.

When I called my friend to complain, she said, “Oh, you didn’t count the rungs!!”

I did not. That was my second mistake. My first mistake was doing it in the first place without anybody home. As age creeps up on me, I’ve been in denial. I thought I was competent and in relatively good shape. You know that old saying about “Assuming,” though.

Source Vecteezy Free Graphics

I could have saved myself plenty of embarrassment and not blogged about my stupidity. But from what I’ve learned, I’m lucky to be here, and I want to share if it prevents another from making a similar mistake.

Falls are the second leading cause of unintentional injury and death all over the world.

  • There are more than 300 ladder-related deaths and over 130,000 emergency room visits related to ladders each year.
  • Ladders were the main cause of 161 fatal work injuries in 2020.

March is National Ladder Safety month. I wish I would have known and paid attention.

For anyone who will climb a ladder in the future, here is a vital link that talks about Safety First and the Three Point Contact rule when ascending or descending a ladder. Here is a great blog about the 3 Points of Contact  3 Points Of Contact Rule Of Ladder Safety

From the blog’s opening . . .The rationale behind this rule is that it ensures stability and minimizes the risk of falling off the ladder. Maintaining three points of contact distributes your weight more evenly. . . . I hope everyone who reads my blog about ladders will take a moment to study this blog and its in-depth information.

I will also add to this information to do as my friend suggested. Count the rungs when you’re going up and going down.

Everything a writer does is all material. However, this isn’t something I’m glad I experienced firsthand. Accidents happen, but this one could have been so easily avoided.

 

 

 

Nixing Crime Scene Cleanup as a Career

/in , , , /by

Donnell Ann BellBy Donnell Ann Bell

My day started out well. My alarm went off; I rose without hitting the snooze button and had an hour to get to my destination. I was organized and ahead of schedule, I even had time for a cup of coffee!

Coffee brewed; I poured it into my favorite mug (a cup given to me by my daughter years ago). In fact, the cup was so ancient, my husband had glued the handle once, and except for a tiny fissure in the porcelain, you barely noticed the flaw.

By now if you’re following this woeful tale, you can guess what happened. I hadn’t even taken a sip when I entered my bedroom and the body of the cup fell away, leaving me with nothing but the handle. There was no crack, no warning. I was surrounded by silence, a twelve-inch puddle at my feet, and coffee soaking my carpet.

Great. The clock was ticking. I had some place to be, but my carpet! I wet a towel, squeezed Dawn onto the fabric, dropped to my hands and knees and commenced scrubbing. This was going to stain. Still, it could’ve been worse. The stain, though large, was limited. I’d clean up the rest when I got home.

Can you spot the coffee cups in the picture? That’s where the cookie crumbled…I mean the coffee spattered!

A limited stain? What was I thinking? Oh, I’d done an adequate job of cleaning the mess I made on my carpet. What I hadn’t noticed was that in my rush to get out the door, the coffee wasn’t restricted to a circular spot on the floor. Suddenly, I felt like a detective entering a crime scene who discovers blood spatter. All right, the evidence caking my walls wasn’t red; it was  Seattle’s Best with a dash of creamer. But it had spattered! Everywhere I looked I saw coffee! An additional stain on the carpet, streaks on the wall and the baseboards. Droplets hurled from the cup had even made it onto the fireplace wall and the ceiling.

When my coffee cup fell from my hand, the distance to the floor was maybe three feet. There was no significant energy involved–no projectile(s), no brute force. Yet, look how far that liquid spread.

In Citizens Academies, I’ve studied pictures of blood spatter and the grotesque coverage of mattresses, headboards, additional furniture, floors and walls. So much goes into an investigation and the crime scene is just the beginning. Detectives and crime scene analysts must decipher and analyze these scenes to determine the timeline, how the suspect entered, where they stood in the attack, what type of weapon was used, e.g.(baseball bat, knife, gun, etc.) and so much more. Particularly when families demand justice, and the victim(s) aren’t alive to share.  Here’s a website I found that provides a good explanation. https://www.forensicsciencesimplified.org/blood/how.html

It’s no secret that many of the things I experience in life, I write about. I found the physics behind the dropped cup so interesting. Especially since it’s applicable to my genre of crime fiction. I know one thing is for certain after cleaning up my mess. I prefer writing about crime scenes as opposed to working them. And after the coffee incident, I’m also nixing crime scene cleanup as a career.

 

 

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