Imagine me firing a gun. (All my family members are rolling on the floor laughing right now.)
In case you haven’t noticed, I am a peacenik pacifist, so the decision to attend the Writers’ Police Academy August 9-12 in Green Bay, WI was a tough decision. Hanging around law enforcement people for three days thrust me out of my comfort zone in a hurry.
But I have wanted to attend the WPA conference for a long time. When my friend Maris Soule encouraged me to go, it seemed the right time. (See Maris’s take on the conference here.)
The email I received a couple days before the conference was a bit intimidating. In it we were explicitly told three things:
- Do not bring any guns or weapons to the conference
- Do not videotape any part of the conference
- Do not post photos on social media
Now sometimes at conferences, I like to take a break and relax in the pool or the hot tub. Have a leisurely cocktail in the bar while chatting with other authors about the industry and our current projects.
No time for that. We were there to experience tactics and procedures, and the sessions were set up as they would be for actual law enforcement training. We could fire pistols, rifles and tasers, drive a patrol car in a pursuit, learn how to lift fingerprints and more. Lee and Denene Lofland created this conference so mystery/crime writers could “get it right” in their books.
Unlike other conferences I’ve attended, there were no leisurely breaks and the first cocktail hour included the Kooky Cop Carnival. That’s where I learned how to handcuff someone, use pepper spray, and had my mug shot taken. I was the only “criminal” to request I hold my cocktail in my photo.
There is no way to explain all I learned in one blog post, so this is the first in a series. All kidding aside, this conference challenged my dearly held convictions as no other conference I’ve ever attended had. It was a paradigm shift for me. Over the course of the next few weeks . . . months??? I will give you peeks into one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended.
Tune in soon to find out:
What new vocabulary did I learn?
How did my attitude change?
What made me cry?
What writers of famous TV shows did I hobnob with?
What prize did I win?
Did I shoot or didn’t I?
It was great being there with you, Betty. Thanks for sharing the experience.
I think our blog posts will be very similar for a while, Maris 😉