Colleen Cross's Blog, page 7
June 15, 2012
Crime Writer Spotlight: Liz Bugg
The Big ‘D’
Deception is something that has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that I’m not good at it (not that I want to be), or that I was brought up in a rather strict home where being less than transparently honestTo be successful, most crimes require the perpetrator to plan and execute the illegal act with a certain amount of secrecy, or at least attempt to cover up personal involvement after the fact. In writing a crime novel, the author must be able to inhabit the mind of the criminal as he or she weaves what will be an imperfect cloak of deception. The author must also play the part of whatever private or police detective is faced with the task of grasping the loose threads and pulling apart the fabric of the crime.In my latest novel, Oranges and Lemons, there are many forms of deception, but two are very obvious: one involves the initial crime which Calli Barnow, a Toronto private investigator, is hired to solve; the other involves the method Calli uses to solve the crime.
Calli accepts a case which appears to be financial fraud within an advertising agency. Whoever is responsible for the fraud is not only carrying out deceptive acts with the accounts, but is also wearing a false face on a daily basis within the agency. One can only assume that this individual is very accomplished in both areas, since the crime has been undetected but in progress for many months.
For the first time in her career Calli is required to work under cover. This form of deception might be second nature to some investigators, but for Calli it is not only a new but a challenging experience. While the fraud at the agency and the subsequent events are serious and increasingly dangerous, Calli’s attempts at playing a part are humourous. She knows nothing about advertising and looks nothing like an executive. As she endeavours to break through the duplicity in the agency, she also struggles to portray someone she is not.
Needless to say, without all the subterfuge and cover-ups there would be no crime novels. The deeper the truth is hidden, the bigger and more satisfying the surprise when the mystery is solved. Fortunately for the reading public, good crime writers don’t write about people like me; they are skilled at creating characters who are successful with their deceptions and would probably get away with their crimes were it not for the even greater skills of the law enforcers.
Liz Bugg is the author of the Calli Barnow Series. Red Rover, the first book in the series, won a Debut Author Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society in 2011. Oranges and Lemons, the second in the series, was released by Insomniac Press in April, 2012. Visit Liz at her website: www.lizbugg.com
June 3, 2012
The Sweater Curse
I was recently interviewed on Leanne Dyck's blog, The Sweater Curse.Leanne's blog is an eclectic mix of writing and knitting. Not only is Leanne a very talented knitwear designer, but also an impressive author. She combines the two in her thriller The Sweater Curse.
Have you ever heard of a sweater curse? I hadn't. Wikipedia offers this explanation. Apparently 41% of knitters live in fear of this happening. Pretty cool premise for a novel, don't you think?
Anyways, you should check out Leanne's blog. And, if you want, you can read my guest post here.
May 26, 2012
Why People Lie
Why do people lie? It's more complicated than you think.
Many of the biggest frauds in history started out with a lie, and grew over time. We have a perception of the perpetrators as greedy, selfish people without a conscience, but often there are other factors at play.
Perhaps, most surprisingly, is the willing help the fraudsters get along the way.
NPR's recent story on The Psychology of Fraud: Why Good People Do Bad Things provides a fascinating insight into how these frauds occur.
Check out the NPR link here.
Many of the biggest frauds in history started out with a lie, and grew over time. We have a perception of the perpetrators as greedy, selfish people without a conscience, but often there are other factors at play.
Perhaps, most surprisingly, is the willing help the fraudsters get along the way.
NPR's recent story on The Psychology of Fraud: Why Good People Do Bad Things provides a fascinating insight into how these frauds occur.
Check out the NPR link here.
May 23, 2012
Amazon Top 100 Reviews - 5 Star Thriller
I'm thrilled to say that Exit Strategy is in Amazon's Police Procedurals top 100, based on customer reviews!
Top 100!! And it's been there for a few weeks now.
I'm happy, can you tell? Writing a novel is a long and solitary journey full of surprises, setbacks, and self-doubt. Reader reviews and feedback are the best possible rewards.
As I'm writing, I always wonder whether you as a reader will like what you see on the printed page, or e-page for that matter. Will you identify with Kat, Jace and the rest of the Exit Strategy gang? Is there enough suspense to keep the pages turning? Just so you know, my secret goal is to keep you up way past your bedtime! Moo ha ha!
Okay, not so secret now.
Seriously though, these my thoughts as I write. After all, novels are entertainment. If you're investing a dozen or more hours of your life to read my book, I want to ensure you have a great reading experience.
I write what I know best, the best way I know how. And hope that will transport you to another world, away from your to-do lists, worries and tedium of everyday life.
Thanks for reading!
Top 100!! And it's been there for a few weeks now.
I'm happy, can you tell? Writing a novel is a long and solitary journey full of surprises, setbacks, and self-doubt. Reader reviews and feedback are the best possible rewards.As I'm writing, I always wonder whether you as a reader will like what you see on the printed page, or e-page for that matter. Will you identify with Kat, Jace and the rest of the Exit Strategy gang? Is there enough suspense to keep the pages turning? Just so you know, my secret goal is to keep you up way past your bedtime! Moo ha ha!
Okay, not so secret now.
Seriously though, these my thoughts as I write. After all, novels are entertainment. If you're investing a dozen or more hours of your life to read my book, I want to ensure you have a great reading experience.
I write what I know best, the best way I know how. And hope that will transport you to another world, away from your to-do lists, worries and tedium of everyday life.
Thanks for reading!
May 18, 2012
CrimeWriter Spotlight: Debra Purdy Kong
I'm very pleased to host Debra Purdy Kong for this month's Crime Writer Spotlight. In addition to Debra's impressive publication list, she also manages to find time to serve as Regional Vice-President for the Crime Writers of Canada. Here she is, with an interesting perspective on fraud and its impact on all of us.
The Truth About Fraud
Not that many years ago, fraud was thought of as a fairly benign, even victimless crime. After all, there was no bloodshed or violence involved. Numbers would be merely altered, for example, to make a company appear more profitable than it was. Money would be laundered by organized crime, Ponzi schemes would be hatched, or government agencies cheated from taxes owed. People lost money in varying quantities, and those caught usually received light sentences in a minimum security prisons. With technological advances, however, not to mention increased greed and desperation, fraud is far more prevalent and dangerous.
Consider this: in 2011, more than 11.6 million American adults were affected by identity theft, a 13% increase from the previous year. Between 2005 and 2009, 500 million people had their personal data exposed through corporate data breaches. Recent studies indicate that one identity is stolen every three seconds.
You might say, so what? It’s just money, and isn’t that money returned to accounts through insurance and so forth? Well, not always. When one’s identity is stolen it costs the victim, on average, $1,600 to reclaim their identity and about 165 hours of work, which means a lot of phone calls to cancel credit cards, notify banks, creditors, the police, credit reporting companies, and so forth.
Here’s the thing. Fraud might not involve shootouts and explosions, but it does destroy businesses, corporations, and lives. Too many crooks in positions of trust and authority can hurt entire economies. Would the U.S. economy have melted down in recent years if everyone (including other governments) were managing finances honestly and responsibly? How many people were thrown out of work? How many lost their homes? How many families have fallen apart due to stress from financial woes? How many people have committed suicide after having been victimized by white-collar crime? The answer is more than you want to know.
What about the bigger picture? What about technology with the capability to shut down a city’s entire infrastructure? Can you imagine every ATM machine, traffic light and computer-operated system, including air traffic control towers and hospitals, shutting down? Experts say it’s possible, often with the caveat that it’s highly unlikely. Is it?
The truth is that fraud never was a benign, victimless crime. It has, however, evolved into a complex, technological beast with the potential for global destruction. The many facets of fraud are partly what attracted me to writing about it over 25 years ago.
In those days, I was a secretary at a firm of chartered accountants. One day, an articling student said, “How come no one ever writes about us”? Thus Alex Bellamy was born and after concocting a plot about fraud, Revenue Canada, and murder (somehow not that difficult), Taxed to Death, was published. The sequel, Fatal Encryption, is about a department store chain that’s been hacked by someone who threatens to destroy all data unless he receives a large amount of money. In my books, a little romance and humor soften the reality, and the bad guys always get theirs in the end.
Although born in Toronto, Debra has spent most of her life in BC. After earning a Diploma in Criminology from Douglas College, she worked as a secretary before leaving day jobs to raise her children. In addition to publishing Taxed to Death, and Fatal Encryption, she’s also published more than one hundred short stories, essays, and articles for publications including Chicken Soup for the Bride’s Soul, B.C. Parent Magazine, and The Vancouver Sun. Employment in the security field as a patrol and communications officer proved to be useful research for her Casey Holland mysteries. The first novel in this series is The Opposite of Dark. The sequel, Deadly Accusations, was released by TouchWood Editions in March.
Her short stories have won first place awards in competitions sponsored by NeWest Review, and other publications. She’s also won honorable and finalist mentions for her short fiction at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference.
More information about Debra and her work can be found at www.debrapurdykong.com, or on her blog at http://writetype.blogspot.com She also writes a weekly blog about white-collar crime issues on AuthorsDen at http://tinyurl.com/dbe5rp
The Truth About Fraud Not that many years ago, fraud was thought of as a fairly benign, even victimless crime. After all, there was no bloodshed or violence involved. Numbers would be merely altered, for example, to make a company appear more profitable than it was. Money would be laundered by organized crime, Ponzi schemes would be hatched, or government agencies cheated from taxes owed. People lost money in varying quantities, and those caught usually received light sentences in a minimum security prisons. With technological advances, however, not to mention increased greed and desperation, fraud is far more prevalent and dangerous.
Consider this: in 2011, more than 11.6 million American adults were affected by identity theft, a 13% increase from the previous year. Between 2005 and 2009, 500 million people had their personal data exposed through corporate data breaches. Recent studies indicate that one identity is stolen every three seconds.
You might say, so what? It’s just money, and isn’t that money returned to accounts through insurance and so forth? Well, not always. When one’s identity is stolen it costs the victim, on average, $1,600 to reclaim their identity and about 165 hours of work, which means a lot of phone calls to cancel credit cards, notify banks, creditors, the police, credit reporting companies, and so forth.
Here’s the thing. Fraud might not involve shootouts and explosions, but it does destroy businesses, corporations, and lives. Too many crooks in positions of trust and authority can hurt entire economies. Would the U.S. economy have melted down in recent years if everyone (including other governments) were managing finances honestly and responsibly? How many people were thrown out of work? How many lost their homes? How many families have fallen apart due to stress from financial woes? How many people have committed suicide after having been victimized by white-collar crime? The answer is more than you want to know.
What about the bigger picture? What about technology with the capability to shut down a city’s entire infrastructure? Can you imagine every ATM machine, traffic light and computer-operated system, including air traffic control towers and hospitals, shutting down? Experts say it’s possible, often with the caveat that it’s highly unlikely. Is it?
The truth is that fraud never was a benign, victimless crime. It has, however, evolved into a complex, technological beast with the potential for global destruction. The many facets of fraud are partly what attracted me to writing about it over 25 years ago.
In those days, I was a secretary at a firm of chartered accountants. One day, an articling student said, “How come no one ever writes about us”? Thus Alex Bellamy was born and after concocting a plot about fraud, Revenue Canada, and murder (somehow not that difficult), Taxed to Death, was published. The sequel, Fatal Encryption, is about a department store chain that’s been hacked by someone who threatens to destroy all data unless he receives a large amount of money. In my books, a little romance and humor soften the reality, and the bad guys always get theirs in the end.
Although born in Toronto, Debra has spent most of her life in BC. After earning a Diploma in Criminology from Douglas College, she worked as a secretary before leaving day jobs to raise her children. In addition to publishing Taxed to Death, and Fatal Encryption, she’s also published more than one hundred short stories, essays, and articles for publications including Chicken Soup for the Bride’s Soul, B.C. Parent Magazine, and The Vancouver Sun. Employment in the security field as a patrol and communications officer proved to be useful research for her Casey Holland mysteries. The first novel in this series is The Opposite of Dark. The sequel, Deadly Accusations, was released by TouchWood Editions in March.
Her short stories have won first place awards in competitions sponsored by NeWest Review, and other publications. She’s also won honorable and finalist mentions for her short fiction at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference.
More information about Debra and her work can be found at www.debrapurdykong.com, or on her blog at http://writetype.blogspot.com She also writes a weekly blog about white-collar crime issues on AuthorsDen at http://tinyurl.com/dbe5rp
May 16, 2012
Exit Strategy Book Giveaway
I'm giving away a copy of Exit Strategy, book #1 in the Kat Carter fraud series over at Goodreads. If you haven't been to Goodreads before, it's worth a visit. You can find tons of books, giveaways, reading groups and more! Don't forget to enter my contest, and good luck!
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Exit Strategy by Colleen Cross Giveaway ends June 18, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Exit Strategy by Colleen Cross Giveaway ends June 18, 2012. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win
I'm giving away a copy of Exit Strategy, book #1 in the K...
I'm giving away a copy of Exit Strategy, book #1 in the Kat Carter fraud series over at Goodreads. If you haven't been to Goodreads before, it's worth a visit. You can find tons of books, giveaways, reading groups and more! Don't forget to enter my contest, and good luck! .goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; background: white; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important; text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; border: 1px solid #6A6454; -moz-border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif; background-image:url(http://www.goodreads.com/images/layou... background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596; outline: 0; white-space: nowrap; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(http://www.goodreads.com/images/layou... color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; }
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Exit Strategy by Colleen Cross Giveaway ends June 18, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Exit Strategy by Colleen Cross Giveaway ends June 18, 2012. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win
May 9, 2012
Whistleblowers
We owe a lot to whistle blowers. Without them, some of the largest frauds in history would go unreported. Some may eventually get uncovered, but only after much higher losses. Aside from fraud, other cover-ups can involve negligence or safety infractions. Lives are lost and careers ended due to safety non-compliance.
Yet most whistle blowers suffer for their actions. They often risk their careers, reputations and livelihood to do the right thing.
They may be fired, ostracized by their colleagues, threatened or blacklisted. To fight corruption, we need to offer greater protection to people who report fraud. Without it, corruption spreads like a disease, and it hurts all of us in the process.
Whistle blower protection varies widely from country to country. There are many jurisdictions with differing rules and protection. One thing is clear: few if any countries have adequate whistle blower protection.
Transparency International has done some interesting work on whistle blowing. You can read more here. Isn't it time we stopped turning a blind eye to corruption?
Yet most whistle blowers suffer for their actions. They often risk their careers, reputations and livelihood to do the right thing.They may be fired, ostracized by their colleagues, threatened or blacklisted. To fight corruption, we need to offer greater protection to people who report fraud. Without it, corruption spreads like a disease, and it hurts all of us in the process.
Whistle blower protection varies widely from country to country. There are many jurisdictions with differing rules and protection. One thing is clear: few if any countries have adequate whistle blower protection.
Transparency International has done some interesting work on whistle blowing. You can read more here. Isn't it time we stopped turning a blind eye to corruption?
May 4, 2012
Conflict of Interest
A major component of fraud is self-interest. Self-interest becomes a conflict of interest when you have a personal interest, and are simultaneously representing the interests of others.
Some, but not all, conflicts of interest form the basis for fraud. Fraudsters typically have a sense of entitlement. If they happen to be senior management, they will put their interests ahead of those of the company and its shareholders. Their interests may not always result in something illegal, but they will always be at the expense of others.
Before investing in a company, read the company's annual report. Some conflict of interest red flags are:
1) Management compensation
Does management receive compensation based on achieving certain targets? While it is normal to reward executives for targets, is the reward a huge part of their compensation? Some unsavory types may do whatever it takes to achieve these targets, even if it involves misrepresentation or outright fraud.
2) Related party transactions
Does company management has relationships with suppliers, customers or others? Or do company executives have loans from the company? These should be disclosed in the audited financial statements. While these in and of themselves do not constitute fraud, they should cause you concern about management putting the needs of shareholders ahead of their own interests.
Executive compensation should be open and transparent. Anything less should be considered deceptive, if not outright fraud. Sometimes misrepresentation and lack of disclosure is the first step before outright fraud.
If any of the red flags above are present, I won't invest in the company. It's that simple.
Some, but not all, conflicts of interest form the basis for fraud. Fraudsters typically have a sense of entitlement. If they happen to be senior management, they will put their interests ahead of those of the company and its shareholders. Their interests may not always result in something illegal, but they will always be at the expense of others.
Before investing in a company, read the company's annual report. Some conflict of interest red flags are:1) Management compensation
Does management receive compensation based on achieving certain targets? While it is normal to reward executives for targets, is the reward a huge part of their compensation? Some unsavory types may do whatever it takes to achieve these targets, even if it involves misrepresentation or outright fraud.
2) Related party transactions
Does company management has relationships with suppliers, customers or others? Or do company executives have loans from the company? These should be disclosed in the audited financial statements. While these in and of themselves do not constitute fraud, they should cause you concern about management putting the needs of shareholders ahead of their own interests.
Executive compensation should be open and transparent. Anything less should be considered deceptive, if not outright fraud. Sometimes misrepresentation and lack of disclosure is the first step before outright fraud.
If any of the red flags above are present, I won't invest in the company. It's that simple.
April 26, 2012
Exit Strategy Giveaway
I'm giving away a copy of Exit Strategy at Goodreads.com.
Only a few days left, so if you want to enter, follow the link below!
You can also find Exit Strategy at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Nobel and other book and ebook retailers.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Exit Strategy by Colleen Cross Giveaway ends May 01, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win >
Only a few days left, so if you want to enter, follow the link below!
You can also find Exit Strategy at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Nobel and other book and ebook retailers.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Exit Strategy by Colleen Cross Giveaway ends May 01, 2012. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win >
