Letting Go

“If we can just let go and trust that things will work out they way they're supposed to, without trying to control the outcome, then we can begin to enjoy the moment more fully. The joy of the freedom it brings becomes more pleasurable than the experience itself.”
― Goldie Hawn

Release Day for "A Guardian's Promise."

My first release day was in the fall of 2007. A small-imprint publisher had agreed to market a short story called "A Parasol in a Hurricane." Pat and I were in Mexico, at a resort near Playa del Carmen. We excitedly got onto the computer in their clubhouse - it being pre-readily available Wi-Fi - and awaited the announcement. And... There it was, my first published fiction work.

Release day means a lot of things. It means income. It means seeing a book cover with my name on it. And, it means - gasp - that it no longer truly belongs to me. I've let it go, given it to those who open the cover and begin to read. The book is now about wherever the reader's mind takes them.

Since then, I've seen the release of five full-length novels featuring three distinct characters - Sergeant Amy Painter, Detective Karen Sorenson and Deputy Cecilia (Cici) Onofrio. Each release day has been filled with feelings of accomplishment, anticipation and joy.

I don't write because I think it will make us rich - good thing. I don't write because I think I'm making a contribution to great literature - police novels are stories.

I write because I had an interesting job, and I think others would love to see what some of it entailed. "Guardian" is more of a classic police procedural - cops doing law enforcement like cops. But, it is also a cautionary tale, something being born out in headlines, in nightly news and via online video links from streets across the country.

Policing is a noble profession, and anyone who works as an officer has made a solemn pledge - that they will deal with the needs of their community, come what may. They have pledged to uphold the law, to risk their own lives to save others, and to do it day in-day out, for years. In spite of the stress, the ambiguities and the drama - day in-day out.

No human endeavor is perfect. What "Guardian" also represents is how imperfect people can sometimes forget who they serve, and why they are invested with the awesome power to deprive another citizen of their rights to life, liberty and property.

In that case, who stands up and says "No more?"