Events
The folks at the Jefferson City Public Library were kind enough to invite me to a book signing. Take a look at the poster they made up for the event. Find me at 108 City Center Drive, Jefferson City, TN. Call 865-475-9094 for more information. See you then.
THE PIGEON RIVER BLUES REVIEWS
THE PIGEON RIVER BLUES REVIEWS Sam Jenkins’ police work is the propelling motion of this fast pace read. Sometimes comical and witty, his style works on the written page. If you like TV police dramas, this book will be as intense, but more enjoyable because of Wayne Zurl’s spiffy character, Sam. Roy Murry, author and reviewer …Zurl does an excellent job of writing believable characters with their own special traits. Each is unique. [His] knowledge of police work and the military brings reality to Sam Jenkins’s character as he uses both to...
read moreWriters With Goals and a Schedule . . . Or Not
For a guy who’s spent an aggregate forty-one years in military and paramilitary organizations, I’m really not very structured as a writer. I look at my goals in writing much the same as I looked at my operational life as a cop. Back then, I wanted to make a lot of flashy arrests, get known for producing high quality work, and do everything possible to write an almost airtight case. I knew how to testify in court and always went in having more than the requisite reasonable cause to believe the bad guy was guilty. What happened in court was the...
read morePRACTCAL ADVISE FOR NOVICE WRITERS
Okay, here’s where I get to play coach. I’ve been given the opportunity to be didactic, pedantic, and if I’m clever, facetious. If Knute Rockne was a writer, here’s what he’d say about getting published and sharpening your work. When you begin the process of selling your finished work, follow the accepted sequence. Start looking for representation by an accredited literary agent. Not an easy chore, but worth the effort. Should that fail, don’t take it personally. Rejections are part of a writer’s life. If the agent search poops out, engage in...
read moreGuest post for Diane Coto, a literary blogger doing business as FICTIONZEAL
What Inspired You to Write a Police Procedural Series Set in the Smoky Mountains? Most cops would like you to believe that they worked their entire career in a combat zone-like sector with more inherent action and danger than that encountered by the Army’s long range reconnaissance patrols during the Vietnam War. Certainly, some places are busier than others and I worked in one that never lacked customers. On New Year’s Eve 1991, just four months before I retired, I left the headquarters building at five o’clock (okay, it was ten to five as...
read moreAre the Sam Jenkins books imitating life or the other way around?
Good cops are born actors. All you have to do is watch a pair of world-class interrogators go through their routine and you’d become a believer. And all cops have stories to tell. In many cases, their reality is that which much fiction is based. I’m surprised more cops don’t write books when they retire. What a reader likes is very subjective. But I’ve heard that some people like my stories. That may be true, because I sell a few books. Here’s where I confess—I have more of a memory than imagination. Most of my stories are based on actual...
read moreBOOK SIGNING TIPS AND HORRORS
When I began writing fiction I held many misconceptions; one being that after the final edits and the presses were humming away printing books, my job was almost done. My only other obligation would be to pull up a chair at a table sitting in a highly trafficked area of a local book store, smile at the customers, and sign anything but a blank check. Then I learned about the world of electronic marketing and promotions—but that’s another story. After twenty years as a cop, I figured sweet talking potential book buyers into choosing one of my...
read moreFIVE THINGS I WISH I HAD KNOWN BEFORE I BEGAN WRITING
No one begins a new venture knowing all the ins and outs of the business. I’d been writing non-fiction magazine articles for ten years before I decided to try fiction. How difficult could it be? You write something good and publishers will be fighting to sign you. I heard that having an agent was a good thing. Another easy thing, right? You want to sell a house, list it with a real estate agent. You want to steal classified military documents, send a secret agent. So, a writer should only have to pick the literary agent that appears to be the...
read moreON POLICE SHOOTINGS
On Police Shootings Over the last several weeks, two people, one on Facebook and one on Twitter, questioned me about the recent shootings by police officers, of unarmed civilians. Both of these individuals were white males. I wrote off the guy on Facebook as a crank, wanting nothing more than to vent his self-perceived anger and put someone from the police community in the hot seat. Unfortunately, he made a fool of himself by quoting many one-sided, unsubstantiated, and out-of-proportion statistics made by people with nothing more on their...
read morePIGEON RIVER BLUES receives its first review . . . 5 stars.
(On Amazon.com) Robert Lee Carey of Virginia Beach says: [Wayne Zurl’s] mystery novels are well-written, character-driven, and the plots keep the reader wondering. In Pigeon River Blues, the plot is tight, the good and bad characters are excellent, [and] the dialogue is realistic and humorous. Zurl’s main character, Sam Jenkins, performs at his best in this one…with skill, assembling his team to put down what could be a mass killing. The ending is tight; all ends are tied up, and just as you think it’s over…hang...
read morePAPER TRAIL, a new Sam Jenkins novelette finds a home in the UK
PAPER TRAIL, the Sam Jenkins mystery no US publisher had the courage to touch finds a home in Britain. UNCUFFED, an anthology of the works of several worldwide police writers was released on July 16, 2014 and PAPER TRAIL was part of it. Retired and currently serving police officers contributed stories to raise money for the UK based charity C.O.P.S. (Care of Police Survivors) that gives aid to the families of police officers killed in the line of duty. ALL PROCEEDS COLLECTED ARE DONATED TO C.O.P.S. UNCUFFED is available as an eBook from...
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