Good Cop, Dead Cop

Book signing at Union Station

2011-12-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

I was recently invited by the Platte Valley & Western Model Railroad Club to sign copies of Good Cop, Dead Cop at Union Station. If you’re unsure of the connection, I refer you to the footnotes for Chapter One. I had a great time and sold several copies of the book, including two to members of Dr. Watson’s Neglected Patients, my local Sherlock Holmes scion society. I even had one person who bought the book at the Tattered Cover cross the street to have it signed.

I’m sorry for the slightly out of focus photos my husband Jim took of me at my table and for the fact that I look slightly cold, because in truth it was quite warm near the station’s boiler room. You’ll see the basement still has the spooky look that contributed to what I hope was a suitably creepy opening for the book.

Chris Rand of the PV&W also gave me a quick behind the scenes tour of the basement and the now blocked off tunnels that originally led to the Oxford Hotel.

Of course I also had time to view the amazing train layout of the group, which naturally includes a miniature of Union Station. I couldn’t compose the photo to match the cover of my book unfortunately. The railroad club was also hosting VIP guests from the RTD board because the redevelopment of Union Station is very much in the news, with competing plans for how best to integrate a hotel into the building while still preserving the charm of the lobby.

And Jim and I also got a chance to drive some trains; and here’s some video of Jim doing a complicated exchange of railcars.

Good Cop, Dead Cop book signing

2011-12-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

Get your copy of Good Cop, Dead Cop signed where the story begins, in the bowels of Union Station. I’ll be at the open house for the Platte Valley & Western Model Railroad club in the basement of the building from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 17.

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If you’re not familiar with the book, it opens with my dead cop looking for a shooting suspect in the same basement, and Union Station, of course, is on the cover of the book. The club’s open house will actually be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and if you’ve never visited the club, definitely visit even if you don’t care about my book. It’s actually a fun Christmas thing to do so bring the kids.

I’ll have copies of the book to sell, or you can pick up your copy at the downtown Tattered Cover that’s just across the street.

Good Cop, Dead Cop on Denver’s Channel 7

2011-11-29T15:52:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Cathy Langer, lead book buyer for the Tattered Cover, Good Cop, Dead Cop was mentioned on the 11 a.m. 7News broadcast today. Langer was meeting with anchor Bertha Lynn to discuss local authors and GCDC was the second book (of nine) mentioned. Some of the details may have been incorrect, but the book cover was shown, my name was mentioned and the essential information about a dead cop communicating with his partner through the Internet was explained.
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Outlining The Background Noise of Souls

2011-11-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

For those of you dying to know the progress of the sequel to Good Cop, Dead Cop, I will inform you that I’ve entered the deadly dull outline stage. You see my usual way of writing a new book is to just start hammering away at a scene I particularly like, and it doesn’t have to be the opening scene. I then jump around writing scenes that amuse me and I usually keep typing until I run out of words, which is around a thousand.

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When Steve Jobs arrives on the AfterNet …

2011-10-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

… everything will change.

Darrin Bell, creator of the comic strip, Candorville, has his main character being visited by the ghost of Steve Jobs. Yes, it is a case of “too soon” as Jobs admonishes Lamont, but I’d like to think that if anyone would understand the power of the AfterNet, it would be the former CEO of Apple.

Of course in my world, Apple has already created a low-cost home AfterNet terminal, and I’m sure the innovations in that terminal are responsible for a lot of the user interface improvements in the present-day AfterNet terminals that you’ll see in the sequel, The Background Noise of Souls.

Chapter 8 Footnotes

2011-09-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

There are few footnotes for Chapter 8, although I should mention that the news article at the beginning has a lot of relevance for the sequel, The Background Noise of Souls. The story concerns the death house at a Texas prison and the fact that shortly after execution prisoners show up online. In a sense, those prisoners are now free to leave the prison and enjoy the same access to the AfterNet as anyone.
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New sequel title

2011-09-23T14:50:00.000-07:00

Although Merely Dead was a pretty good title, a line that I’ve written in the sequel just jumped out as an even better one.

“What was that?” Munroe asked after the sound — he could only describe it as such — faded from the AfterNet field.

“That was what Shel calls the cosmic background noise of souls,” Feore answered.

So the new title is: The Background Noise of Souls

Merely Dead

2011-08-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Merely Dead is the working title for the sequel to Good Cop, Dead Cop, which is currently being written. It’s set eight months after the events of the first book, just about the time that Hurricane Katrina is targeting New Orleans, in fact.

Chapter 7 Footnotes

2011-08-09T22:03:00.000-07:00

Currently the foundation’s statutes read: “Work produced by a person since deceased shall not be considered for an award. If, however, a prizewinner dies before he has received the prize, then the prize may be presented.”

It’s true that since 1974 the Nobel prize cannot be awarded posthumously.

Antonia Simone, the woman whose invention and death led to the discovery of the afterlife, praised the decision … Nobel watchers agree Simone is unlikely to be nominated.

Dr. Antonia Simone invented what later became known as the AfterNet field. Unfortunately her zeal in trying to develop the field led to the deaths of two volunteers.

“But Dr. Olaf Bols definitely deserves recognition and it would help dispel the notion that he ‘stumbled into his field.’”

Bols’ accidental death helped establish the validity of Dr. Simone’s work. It was he that determined that a living person’s fields could be “fingerprinted” for later identification, and was the first person to be so validated after his electrocution.

Munroe had been asked to stake out a bench in Cheesman Park and observed a payoff between a driver’s license examiner and the person running the scam.

Cheesman Park is a lovely park east of downtown. With the high-rise apartments surrounding it, it has a little New York Central Park feel. It’s named after Walter Scott Cheesman and was, appropriately enough, originally Prospect Hill Cemetery. When you’re walking through the park, you may occasionally observe slight depressions in the ground that might have been someone’s grave (not all were removed when the cemetery became the park).

“The usual,” he said. “Caught one of the games at the sports bar next to Coors Field.”
She opened her eyes. “You mean Hooters, don’t you?”

Coors Field, is of course, home to the Colorado Rockies, who have, as I write this in August 2011, pretty much given up any chance of a pennant race. The Hooters has closed, much to Munroe’s annoyance.

Yamaguchi and Munroe parked on the street next to the church in the Five Points region of Denver.

Five Points is an historically black area northeast of downtown Denver. But like many areas has seen a lot of gentrification as lower downtown spread northward. It is so named because Washington and Welton streets meet 27th Street and 26th Avenue, a consequence of the 45° angled downtown streets meeting the north-south/east-west oriented streets of the rest of the city.

“Wow, demotivators,” she said.

My particular friend Lee adores demotivators, and I’ve always enjoyed this poster. I think it says a lot of the Rev. Anderson that he would have this in his office.

… like the picture of Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot.

I’m always happy to toot the horn for a fellow Coloradan.

Munroe spent a few hours that night at Duffy’s, a bar near the eastern end of the 16th Street Mall.

In my world, Duffy’s bar never closed.

Thanks to the 951 entrants to the GoodReads book giveaway

2011-08-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

After two weeks, the GoodReads giveaway is over, with 951 registering in the contest and over a hundred people adding it to their to read shelf. I’ve gotten one text review so far and three ratings, all five star.

The three winners were all women (based on their first names), two in Florida and one in West Virginia. Congratulations and I hope you’ll enjoy the book and want to review it.

The afterlife explained as a slide show

2011-08-02T17:45:00.000-07:00

Dilbert edges eerily close to the AfterNet

2011-07-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

The dead outnumber the living

2011-07-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

The dead outnumber the living. Simple fact. You may be surrounded by more disembodied people right now than living. You may be sharing your house with several dead people, in fact.

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GoodReads Book Giveaway!

2011-07-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Good Cop, Dead Cop

by Jennifer Petkus

Giveaway ends August 08, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Union Station photo

2011-07-23T13:55:00.001-07:00

Here’s the original photo of Denver’s Union Station:

Chapter 6 Footnotes

2011-07-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

There aren’t many footnotes for Chapter 6, although it does introduce the central idea behind the plot of Good Cop, Dead Cop, and you might want to stop here if you haven’t read or finished the book.
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What was the AfterNet?

2011-07-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

The AfterNet preceded Good Cop, Dead Cop. I’d actually had the idea for an online community for the dead long before the popularity of the Internet, even before the creation of the world wide web.
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The dead fly for free on Southwest

2011-07-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well, at least I hope Southwest Airlines will never charge the dead for flying. OK, now that I have your attention, what is this all about?
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Woke up dead and unemployed

2011-07-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

Looking for work is probably not the first thing you’re going to do after waking up dead. You’ll have to suffer through all the stages of grief first and then you’ll have to learn how to use the AfterNet field so you can access the Internet. But after a while, you’ll probably give some thought to making a living, or whatever.
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E-books very popular with the dead

2011-07-15T08:56:00.001-07:00

The Tattered Cover has ordered 15 copies of Good Cop, Dead Cop to be sold at their three metro locations: Colfax, downtown Denver and Highlands Ranch. Obviously I’m excited at the thought of GCDC available at a real book store. Update: I just delivered the books today, July 15.

I should explain that the TC has a Rocky Mountain Authors Program where they highlight books by local authors, and since I live in Denver and the book is set in Denver, I thought I’d qualify for the program and so I dropped off a copy of the book for review. I also set a scene in the downtown Tattered Cover, which wasn’t just a clever ploy to get the TC to stock the book. It just seemed natural to set a scene at the TC, especially when I thought that one of the more popular pastimes for the dead would be reading.

Chapter 5 Footnotes

2011-07-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

The AutoShark is Bodigger’s pride and joy: an autonomous robotic shark that can effortlessly prowl the deep ocean for up to a month.

The AutoShark was inspired by RoboTuna, developed at MIT. There’s a further article here at Smithsonian Magazine and at National Geographic. It makes a nice companion to the Asimo robot mentioned in the Chapter 5 footnotes.

Chapter 4 Footnotes

2011-07-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

Encyclical of Pope John Paul II on developments involving communication with the dead.

My brilliant husband Jim wrote the encyclical that starts Chapter 4. I had had the idea that the church would need to rationalize the existence of the AfterNet and asked Jim if he could write a church encyclical, basically a letter from the pope explaining something to the faithful. He basically found an existing encyclical and adapted it.

Chapter 3 Footnotes

2011-07-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

The trees in the Aokigahara forest can cast dismal shadows even in summer, but in the winter, the funereal gloom looks especially inviting to those who brave the maze-like trails of this haunted forest.

Firearms blunder

2011-06-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Roger McPherson who spotted a mistake I made concerning the M1911 .45 ACP. Turns out you can’t engage the thumb safety unless the hammer’s cocked.
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The influence of A Christmas Carol

2011-05-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

After writing GCDC, I was amazed at the influence of A Christmas Carol on the book. The story is a favorite of mine and I refer to it at least twice: Alex hoping he could clank chains like Marley’s ghost and he and Linda watching the Alastair Sim movie together.
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Good Cop, Dead Cop available as paperback

2011-05-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Finally, you can buy the book as a paperback at Amazon. Still don’t have the look inside feature working yet and Amazon hasn’t made the link between the Kindle and the paperback, but it is progress.

Credit where due: My husband

2011-05-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

My husband, Jim Bates, wrote two of the fake stories that begin most of the chapters. He’s really one of the smartest people I know, and when I needed a fake papal encyclical, he whipped up the Encyclical of Pope John Paul II on developments involving communication with the dead that starts Chapter Four. I think he combined an existing encyclical and his high school Latin to produce it.
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The dead are not a minority

2011-05-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

The dead, of course, are the largest majority group ever. Everyone, presumably, will end up dead and so the ranks of the dead, the most non-exclusive club ever, are growing every day.
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Science fiction without the giant killer robots

2011-05-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

Please don’t get me wrong, I love giant killer robots, and I would love to write a novel involving evil alien overlords or apocalyptic doom, but sadly my mind doesn’t work that way. I keep coming up with ideas where the world looks fundamentally the same — no flying cars or jet packs or giant killer robots — but at the same time the world is fundamentally different.
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Good Cop,Dead Cop proof here!

2011-05-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

After a lot of back and forth, I’ve received a proof from CreateSpace. So GC,DC is now a 5x8 paperback, 304 pages long.

It looks incredibly good but I’m going to make a few changes including lightening the top half of the Union Station picture on the cover (just a little PhotoShop magic) and probably switching to a cream-colored paper. The very bright white just makes it look a little too self published, and yes I know that’s what it is.

Good Cop, Dead Cop to be a paperback

2011-04-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

After lots and lots of work, Good Cop, Dead Cop will soon be available as a paperback from Amazon (and through bookstores, but by special order). I’m awaiting a proof and if all goes well it should be available in about two weeks.

Good Cop, Dead Cop available at Google Books

2011-04-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

You can find Good Cop, Dead Cop at Google Books. If you’re unfamiliar with Google Books there’s a video here explaining the benefits.

Approved for Apple

2011-04-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, Apple has approved my application, which means I can now submit my book to Apple and hope that it will be included in the iBookstore. You can keep checking Mallard Press to see me document my experiences.

UPDATE: I’ve sent the epub to Apple and will now await Apple telling me I’ve done something wrong. One of the things that’s bad about a company that sweats the details is that they really, really sweat the details.

ANOTHER UPDATE: At least the iTunes Connect web page now lists my book as Pending. My biggest gripe with the Apple submission process so far has been the lack of automatic confirmation emails. You know: “This is an automated reply to inform you … do not reply to this …”

Is it science fiction?

2011-04-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

I just had to defend my book as science fiction in the Amazon science fiction discussion forum. You’d think most people would consider a book where the dead can chat on the Internet as science fiction. But I guess everyone has their own definition of what constitutes science fiction.

Here’s the link to the discussion: Good Cop, Dead Cop

Chapter 2 Footnotes

2011-04-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

… and Linda Wertheimer reports that non-profits are feeling the pinch.

I love listening to Linda Wertheimer. And yes, I am a National Public Radio junkie. Listening to NPR and Colorado Public Radio kept me sane while remodeling my house. I remember being in my gutted house, probably trying to puzzle together the plumbing, when I heard the Shuttle Challenger exploded. And Linda Wertheimer just reeks of professionalism. I apologize for dragging her into my book.

How to read Good Cop, Dead Cop

2011-04-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

For the moment, Good Cop, Dead Cop remains an electronic book, which you can buy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Lulu. And I’m hoping Apple will shortly approve my application that will will allow me to submit my book to the iBookstore.
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Chapter 1 footnotes

2011-04-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

No electrical or water services seemed to enter this room in the sub-basement of the old train station

Denver’s original Union Station opened on June 1, 1881, in the central Platte Valley but was heavily damaged by fire in 1894. It was quickly rebuilt and is the building that stands today, but it was not until 1914 that the building took the shape that is recognizable today (and can be seen on the cover of this book). There is only a basement, no sub-basement (that I know of).

Amazon Kindle check list

2011-04-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

The .mobi format the Amazon Kindle uses is very, very simple, and it’s important to remember what you must and cannot do. First up are the don’ts:

No tables
No frames

Next are the musts:

Use Latin-1 encoding. (What’s really nice about the Latin-1 encoding is that if you have smart quotes in Word, they will automatically be turned into the named entities (“ and ” and ’) when pasted into a Dreamweaver document whose page properties specify the Latin-1 encoding. Unfortunately, you’re better off using the UTF-8 encoding if you’re creating an .epub.

Amazon Kindle encoding

2011-04-01T14:34:00.001-07:00

Interesting, it seems Amazon Kindle would prefer files uploaded with the Latin-1 encoding, rather than the UTF-8 encoding I just switched all my files to. This is not a huge problem, because it's a simple matter to switch them back and I prefer the Latin-1 encoding.