Research...

I've been in contact with the Riverside District Attorney's office and got the okay to send them some questions about their procedures as regards arrests, arraignments and how certain types of cases are handled. So off they went, this evening. I've read up and dug into how things work in most DA's offices, but I found when talking to a sheriff's representative that it's the details that count, and those range very widely.

For example, if you're arrested for assault, you usually don't get a bail hearing for about 48 hours in the jail in Indio, which could stretch to 96 hours if your timing's off. That did not work at ALL for what Jake was getting into, so it has to be redone, completely...but in a way that's probably for the better. So I'm trying to get the correct methods worked into the storyline in this next draft.

Jake's also open to discussing what he did in prison to survive...and it's something he's yet to come to terms with. He's headed for a world of deepening shadows and sharp drops into the void. But he's not going there alone. I'll be right with him.

I'm also going to fight to keep some humor in the tale. Bobby Carapisi got too caught up in its tragedy and that hurt it. I never thought of myself as that bleak of a writer, but I've heard from a couple people that they couldn't finish it because they knew something terrible was going to happen and they cared about the characters too much.

Which is an odd sort of back-handed compliment.