Category Archives: Writing

GOING BEHIND THE OUTLAW MOTORCYCLE GANG SCENE WITH KERRIE DROBAN

AA6Kerrie Droban is an award-winning author and criminal defense attorney in Arizona. Kerrie has written many books like Running With The Devil – the true story of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms takedown of the Arizona Hells Angels – and Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws – the true story of Charles Falco’s infiltration of three deadly biker clubs. Here, Kerrie shares her fascinating expertise into understanding the mindset of organized criminal bikers in the outlaw motorcycle gang (OMG) scene.

Kerrie, what’s the most surprising thing you learned about OMGs?

AA7The allure of biker gangs is not the so-called “freedom” the lifestyle promises, not the illusion of disorder and reckless abandon it glamorizes, but an outlet for the bloodshed it offers. And it doesn’t matter to OMGs who they kill, only that they leave behind plenty dead.

They meet, habitually, in public to discuss battle plans, share intelligence on rival members, regroup, report, and plan surveillance. Their sole reason for belonging, prospecting, and earning their coveted “Patch” is so that they can kill with purpose.

Many members are largely comprised of active and ex-military personnel and work a “day job” among us as pilots, stock brokers, car salesman etc…

Charles Falco? He lived a double life. What compels a guy like him to infiltrate three gangs and abandon the safety of the witness protection program?

It is a strange truism that it’s difficult to live “invisible.”

AA8After infiltrating the Vagos, Charles Falco was placed in the Witness Protection Program but, without an identity and stripped of even a driver’s license and social security number, he could not stand the isolation. He had purpose and direction and a sense of doing good in the world when he infiltrated the Vagos; ‘protected” he became a “persona non grata” and essentially ceased to exist. That was his “reward” for his sacrifice and bravery.

AA9Many who work undercover experience the same kind of loneliness. They find it difficult to obtain meaningful employment, sustain relationships (because the spouse or significant other necessarily has to live in isolation with them) and often cannot discuss their past achievements. They return to the life they know – a life that has substance.

Charles volunteered to infiltrate two additional biker gangs – the Mongols and the Outlaws and, by so doing, became the single most successful private contractor in the world and the only one to have his investigations result in RICO convictions.

What about Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws? You said you enjoyed writing this book the most?

AA5Charles Falco has a wonderful sense of humor and I thoroughly enjoyed working with him. Surprisingly, some of the funniest scenes to write involved his stint in San Bernardino’s Murder Unit.

The jail had its own ridiculous hierarchy. Inmates were separated by race and had specific roles and rules and in many ways was more restrictive than the outside world. Charles deftly navigated this internal place even rising to the rank of “Key Holder” (King of the Killers). He had a “want to be” serial killer for a cellie who, though completely crazy and brutal, offered some of the most engaging and humorous dialogue of the book.

You’re a woman investigating and writing about a fringe male culture – outlaw gangs who despise women as part of their criminal culture. What’s that like?

AA10It isn’t really about being male or female. It’s about being a good listener. I was once asked an interesting question at a seminar, “How do you, as a woman, get inside the head of a biker? How do you feel what they feel and describe it in such vivid detail that it’s as if you are that person and have witnessed their lives?” I have a unique ability to get inside people’s heads and feel what they feel and in so doing, bring the reader into their experience. If you tell a good story, people – even bikers – want to talk to you. They want you to be their voice.

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AA3Kerrie M. Droban is an award winning author and criminal defense attorney in Phoenix, Arizona. A graduate of The Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars and the University of Arizona, Kerrie studied playwriting with Edward Albee and poetry with Peter Sacks, Carolyn Kizer, and Joy Harjo.

Her collection of poems entitled, The Language of Butchers, earned numerous awards including the Academy of American Poets Award, the New Letters International Poetry Award, the Poet Lore Award and the Amelia Encore Award.

AA4Additionally, Droban’s true crime Running with Devil: The True Story of the ATF’s Infiltration of the Hells Angels and Prodigal Father Pagan Son: Growing Up Inside the Dangerous World of the Pagans Motorcycle Gang has received critical acclaim and earned the 2008 and 2011 USA News National Book Award for Best True Crime and Best Autobiography.

Kerrie has appeared on national television in A & E’s Gangland: Behind Enemy Lines and numerous local television and radio shows as an emerging expert on motorcycle gangs and the pathology of the criminal mind.

Visit Kerrie Droban’s website : http://kerriedroban.com/

Follow Kerrie on Twitter : https://twitter.com/kerriedroban  @KerrieDroban

MACK THE KNIFE – GREAT WRITING

AB1Great writing is not just found in novels, poetry, and screenwriting. It’s in all forms of communication like speeches and blog posts. Great writing is about getting your message vividly across – telling a story by painting a memorable picture in words. It’s captivating your audience so they expand that message in their mind and it sticks in like Macky’s knife.

Great writers use many devices. Descriptors. Metaphors and similes. Dialogue – sometimes with patois. Suggestion and innuendo. Beats. Pacing. Rhythm. Foreshadowing, shock, and tension building.

AB2I don’t know squat about songwriting, let alone music composition. I can barely play the radio, never mind making something intelligent come out of an instrument.

But I’m okay at writing and I can recognize great writing.

Last night I started humming the tune from Mack The Knife. I’m not sure what started it, but the dammed thing wouldn’t go away and I realized I knew few of the words. I had a limited understanding of the song – just that it was about some bad-ass with a blade and a good tune. I thought Frank Sinatra originally did it and was recently copied by Michael Buble.

AB4So I Googled it and, yes, both Sinatra and Buble sang it and so did Bobby Darin. A lot of other great singers did, too. Louis Armstrong. Bing Crosby. Ella Fizgerald and Peggy Lee. Of course Tony Bennett. And Liberace. Did you know Bill Haley & The Comets cut it? Roger Daltry and The Doors? Sting blew it away.

Simon Cowell was quoted calling it “The greatest song ever written“.

What’s so great about it? Who wrote this masterpiece? Here’s what Wikepedia says:

“Mack the Knife” or “The Ballad of Mack the Knife”, originally “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer”, is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. The song has become a popular standard recorded by many artists, including a US number one hit for Bobby Darin.

AB3I played Bobby Darin’s version about ten times and followed the words, trying to analyze the greatness in this writing – in this story. It’s there. It’s there in every word. Every line. Every paragraph. Descriptors. Metaphors and similes. Dialogue – sometimes with patois. Suggestion and innuendo. Beats. Pacing. Rhythm. Foreshadowing, shock, and tension building.

By God, this is great writing.

Copy this link  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEllHMWkXEU and paste it in another window to listen to Bobby Darin’s crooning while following the lyrics. Put on your headphones and enjoy a read/listen to some great storytelling.

Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear
And it shows them pearly white
Just a jackknife has old MacHeath, babe?
And he keeps it out of sight

You know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves, though wears old MacHeath, babe
So there’s never, never a trace ‘a red

Now on a sidewalk, on a Sunday mornin’ 
Lies a body just oozin’ life
Some, someone’s sneakin’ ’round a corner
Could that someone be Mack the Knife?

There’s a tugboat down by the river, don’t you know?
Where a cement bag, just a’drooppin’ on down
Oh, that cement is just its there for the weight, dear
Five’ll get you ten Old Macky’s back in town

D’ja hear ’bout Louie Miller? He disappeared, babe
After drawin’ out all his hard earned cash
And now MacHeath spend just like a sailor
Could it be our boy’s done somethin’ rash?

Jenny Diver, yeah, yeah, Sukey Tawdry
Hello Miss Lotte Lenya and Lucy Brown
Oh that line forms, on the right, babe
Now, that Macky’s back in town

I said, Jenny Diver, whoa Sukey Tawdry
Look out Miss Lotte Lenya and Old Lucy Brown
Yes that line forms on the right, babe
Now, that Macky’s back in town
Look out, Old Macky is back

Mack The Knife is not just a great song.

It’s great writing telling a great story.

Listen to Bobby Darin’s Mack The Knife here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEllHMWkXEU

MINING THE MINERS

A1Self Publishing is the book-writing gold rush for indie authors. There’s money in them thar words and that’s no lie. A lot of people are making a lot of money outside the Big-5 print publishers and good for them. But most of the money is made by people selling stuff to gold-stricken writers.

The ones who made good money off the gold rush sold shovels to the miners. That’s right. They mined the miners. They also sold food and packs and clothes and toiletries. They sold eggs at a dollar a piece and whiskey at five bucks a shot. They sold a shave & a haircut for two-bits, baths for fifty cents, and women for whatever the gal could command.

A2The miners did mine, and some got quite rich, but most got frustrated and gave up.

Indie writing is no different. There has never been a better time to be a writer and I believe that. There is a fortune of information available on line, in print, and in person which you can turn into golden words.

Thing is, you have to pay for most of it.

And a lot of it is good stuff.

A3In the three plus years that I’ve taken writing seriously I’ve spent hundreds, no, thousands of dollars on author services. I’ve got over fifty books, print and electronic, on the craft of writing and the business of marketing. I’ve taken webinars and seminars and sat in bars reading about writing. I’ve paid for editors, formatters, and cover designers. And I’ve given away gobs of information to others.

It’s paid off.

Not in gold – yet. That’s to come.

A4It’s paid off because I’m starting to figure this game out and it’s been because I’ve paid for the help from others. I’ve made tremendous on-line acquaintances. Some actually personal. Some are ether mentors. Some are those who struck it rich.

Here’s an example of someone from my home town who hit the motherlode. I met Chevy Stevens (pen name because her real name is hard to pronounce) when she was a realtor showing a house for me. She aspired to be a writer and she sold the farm to succeed. Literally.

A6Chevy so believed in herself and her craft that she quit the realty business, sold her own house to survive, and sat down to write. She paid a lot of money to have Renni Browne of The Editorial Department work her first book, Still Missing, into a New York Times BestSeller. Now Chevy’s on her fifth BestSeller and internationally known. She’s the first to admit that it wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t pay for good help.

Good help is not hard to find.

I see a lot of online bashing of Author Solutions – a division of Penguin Random House. Now there’s an example of mining the miners. These clever bastards saw the indie gold rush not as a threat to print publishing, but a new vein to be tapped. Author Solutions has some great outfits for sale and they’ll upsell the shit out of you. Draining your wallet is their aim. But if you take the gold dust out of your eyes, and know what you want, there’s value in their pack.

A7An interesting new outfitter is Booktrope. Rachel Thompson, who I highly respect (Rachel in the OC / Bad Redhead Media), referred me to them and she’s now heading one of their imprints called Gravity. This is an interesting concept where you can get published without spending any money. Yep, it’s for real.

Booktrope is a cooperative of writers, editors, designers, and marketers working together to produce quality books. All you have to do, as a writer, is to provide quality content. They’ll help you to get published and, in their model, no one makes money till they all make money. It’s an interesting concept and I hope they succeed.

A8They say that those who can’t do, teach. I’m not so sure about that, but here’s some free dirt from someone who’s still digging a shaft.

For gold on the craft of writing, read Stephen King’s On Writing.

For gold on grammar, read Strunk & White’s Elements of Style.

For golden motivation, read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.

For the gold on scientific storytelling, read Lisa Cron’s Wired For Story.

For a pot of gold on everything writing, go to Joanna Penn’s TheCreativePenn.com.

What have you dug up that makes a better writer?

I’m dying to see your mine.