Getting through…

C.E. Grundler

As I work through my third book I’m running into an obstacle I’d managed to avoid in the first two stories. In each of those cases, I’d been writing within my own range of knowledge. Boats. Trucks. My own home waters and turf. True, I had to teach myself data encryption and a few other new tricks, but in the end everything I needed to work with was either already rattling around in my head, or an afternoon of research away. I had a few conversations with helpful individuals who had a bit more expertise in certain areas, but simply to verify my facts.

This time around that isn’t the case. Instead, I’ve built up a stack of index cards with specific questions, each awaiting answers. Search warrants and where you home falls under the 4th Amendment when the home in question is a boat, a mobile home or even a converted school bus? Arrest procedures. Bail, when you don’t have a fixed address, which makes the individual in question a flight risk. Trials and mis-trials when evidence comes into question. Inadmissible evidence and exclusionary rules. Google can get you only so far, and it can make you crazy as it leads off into random tangents and contradicting information. I need to talk with someone in the know.

The challenge, I’m discovering, is that I don’t have any direct connections to anyone in law enforcement, and the people with the answers don’t know me, and they’re either too busy or too hesitant to discuss this sort of subject matter. So my question to all of you who have cleared this bridge: how did you get your answers?

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