Never Lose The Spark That Makes You YOU

Last month, my brother, Mychael Danna, held a fundraiser at our family church to celebrate his Oscar win. A packed crowd of 400 people came to hear him talk about his roots in Burlington, Ontario and his life as a film composer. A question and answer period concluded the evening. The final question of the night was asked by a student from Wilfred Laurier University who had made the trip out to see Mychael.

Her question: What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out in film composition?

His answer: Don’t lose the spark that makes you YOU.

He went on to explain that he gets demo CDs in the mail all the time and nearly every one of them sounds like John Williams (Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark); nothing made them stand out as original. He encouraged her to cultivate that part of her that made her sound original because it would make her stand out from the crowd.

It struck me that his advice applied to writing as much as composing. Each author brings something specific to the table. In our case, it was our combined backgrounds in and mutual love of science that gives our series its realistic forensic angle. Sometimes it’s tempting to look at someone successful—Stephanie Myers, Nora Roberts or James Patterson—and try to emulate their writing or storytelling style in an effort to harness their success. But it simply doesn’t work. To let your spark free, you have to write the book that’s in your heart, not someone else’s.

In many ways, this is like another futile effort—following the market. You see that the current hot trend in fiction is Amish goblins, so that’s the book you write. Except that most books take 2 – 3 years from concept to publishing, so by the time your book about Amish goblins comes out, the market has passed you and hobo erotica is the hot topic now.

Author Marianne Harden and I have had this conversation a few times. We both write mysteries—Marianne, hysterical cozies set in the Pacific northwest starring Rylie Tabitha Keyes, and myself, forensic police procedurals. We know we’re not writing in the hottest of genres right now; to do that we’d be writing urban fantasy, paranormal romance or erotic romance. But we agree that this is where we should stay as it’s not only where our strengths lie, but it’s also what we love to write. If you try to force yourself to write something simply for the market, that special spark you bring to your prose could easily be extinguished.

Part of the authoring life is about paying it forward. Most of us receive help from those who have gone before us; and then we, in turn, help those who come after us. And in helping those who are still learning their craft, we should always encourage their individuality. A new writer could be the next J.R.R. Tolkein, but if they try to slot themselves into the wrong genre or style, we may never see their talent bloom. And it would be a shame to miss out on that kind of brilliance.

Photo credit: Jessica Newton

Forensic Case Files: Cannibalism in Jamestown in the Early 17th Century

Jamestown, Virginia was settled on a swampy peninsula in 1607, making it America’s first permanent English colony. The soggy ground was considered un-farmable by the local Powhatan native tribes, and was rife with malaria-carrying mosquitos. But the lack of local inhabitants and a defensible position—the peninsula is surrounded by two rivers and Chesapeake Bay—made it ideal from an English perspective for the planned location of Fort James.

Initially, interactions between the local Powhatan tribes and the English were good—the natives provided food and hoped to continue to do so in trade for European metal tools. But the English, finding that the land truly wasn’t suitable to farm, especially after 1608’s poor harvest, couldn't produce enough food on their own. They attempted to force the natives to provide more food than they had even for themselves. The resulting conflict led to native raids on the fort and, eventually, to the Anglo-Powhatan War of 1610-1614.

The winter of 1609-1610 was especially brutal, and is referred to as ‘the starving time’ in historical records. The lack of food, ravaging disease, and attacks by the Powhatans led to dire conditions. By the time help finally arrived in May of 1610, only 60 of the original 500 colonists were still alive, and the fort was less of a military installation than a charnel house.

Writings of the time tell of cannibalism in the colony—including a husband who murdered his pregnant wife, and then salted and ate her flesh, a crime for which he was later executed. But no recovered remains provided evidence to support these tales. Until last week.

Archeologists were excavating what was essentially a 17^th century garbage heap in the a cellar of a dwelling inside the remains of the fort when they unearthed a human cranium, lower jaw and some shattered leg bones scattered among horse and dog bones. Dr. Doug Owsley, a forensic anthropologist with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History was called in to examine the remains. Long-time readers of this blog may remember Dr. Owsley as the forensic anthropologist who examined the remains of the unknown Union solider discovered in 2008 at Antietam. For the first time, Dr. Owsley was able to substantiate historical records, describing the discovering as ‘very strong evidence’ of cannibalism.

Kerfs from several tools are clearly visible on the bones of the skull. Chops from a hatchet or axe tentatively score the forehead, and then more substantially mar the back of the head as the attacker gained confidence and used more force. Knife marks on the cheeks and jaw show where muscle was sliced from the bone. The left side of skull is missing—tool marks from a pry bar on the remaining bone attest to the fact that the cranium was shattered when it was forced open to extract the brain. Blessedly,the regular nature of the kerf marks reveal that there was no struggle; most likely, the victim was already dead.

Forensic anthropology reveals clues about the victim of this horrific act—she was young, probably about fourteen years of age from the analysis of the skull, teeth, long bones and from epiphyseal fusion at the knee joint. Strontium analysis of the bone has determined that she grew up in England and arrived in America mere months before her death. She likely died of starvation or sickness in the first months of 1610, and, shortly thereafter, met her final fate at the hands of another colonist. Researchers have christened her ‘Jane’.

Most colonies did not last for even a year in the New World, so, in many ways, Jamestown is a story of persistence and survival during the worst of times. Sadly, it was at the cost of too many lives, some of them lived in desperation as the few remaining colonists struggled to hold on at all costs, buoyed by the faint hope of spring and the sight of a supply ship on the horizon.

Photo credit: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Forensic Case Files: 9/11—Postlude

First of all, for those that might not have seen the news, we’re now officially contracted once again with Five Star. The second full length book in our Abbot and Lowell forensic mystery series—A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH—is scheduled to release in early May, 2014.

And now, onto this week’s blog post…

Over the past three weeks, we’ve covered the 9/11 World Trade Center tragedy from a forensics point of view—how to handle a mass fatality, how to identify human remains following such an incident, and the challenges investigators have faced in identifying the dead from that day. We thought the series was complete with those three posts until last Friday when a news story broke, reporting on a piece of a Boeing 767 found three blocks from the World Trade Center. Originally thought to be part of the landing gear assembly, it is, in fact, the trailing edge flap support structure in the wing. The 5’ x 3’ x 17” piece was wedged into the 18” gap between a loft apartment building and a Muslim mosque, behind a gate, out of sight from the sidewalk, ensuring it remained undiscovered.

It was a stark reminder that even though September 11 happened nearly 12 years ago, it remains relevant to this day and the search is far from over.

The part was found purely by chance—a building inspector was on the roof and spotted it between the buildings from above. He called 911 and the NYPD responded, immediately cordoning off the area and later designating it as a crime scene. Police will investigate to ensure the piece wasn’t placed there deliberately, and the Medical Examiner’s office will do a toxicity screen and then determine if any human remains are associated with the site. Despite an identification number stenciled into the metal, Boeing has stated that it cannot trace where the piece originated.

The real question is how did the part get there? Because of the rope wound around one end of the piece, police are investigating whether it could have been lowered down into the gap. But what would be the intent behind such an act? Assuming the part did indeed come from one of the two doomed aircraft (not many people would be able to obtain parts from a 767, after all), it landed in that area eleven and a half years ago. It is possible that someone found the piece on the roof and then attempted to hide it between the buildings, but it would be a futile act considering all the other airplane debris in the area. If it was placed there in hopes of being found more quickly, then the wrong area was picked as it lay unnoticed for over a decade. If a recovery team had attempted to lift if from the roof and accidentally dropped it between the buildings, it would have been reported at the time. Conspiracy theorists may try to come up with alternative ideas, but what makes the most sense is the initial conclusion the inspector and most others came to—the piece landed there following the crash that fateful day.

It’s true that the statistical odds of the piece hitting in the exact orientation to fall between the two buildings and not bounce to an adjacent roof is extremely small. In fact, a piece of the landing gear went through the roof of the building next door to this current site. So while it’s hard to fathom the chances of a piece of that size landing as neatly as it did, it’s not impossible. Based on data included in a 2002 FEMA report (see the illustration to the right), this new evidence was discovered very near the ‘landing gear’ on the lower right of the diagram which came from United Airlines Flight 175 after it hit the south tower. It’s most likely that this piece also came from the same plane, simply from a physics standpoint of mass, velocity and inertia.

More details will be released as they come to light, but families of survivors are now calling for a full search of lower Manhattan to ensure that no other parts or remains stay undiscovered. Each time a new discovery is made, it pulls the families of the lost back into the past, opening old wounds. If there is any hope of moving on, all remains and debris must be recovered. The dead will not be forgotten, but we owe it to them and their families to finally lay them to rest.

Photo credit: New York Police Department and FEMA

Forensic Case Files: 9/11—Part 3: Challenges in Naming the Dead

Over the past two weeks, we’ve discussed the tragedy of the 9/11 terror attacks from a forensic perspective—how recovery teams worked tirelessly to collect the victim remains once all hope of rescue was exhausted, and how victim identification is established. Sadly, a full 40% of victims from the World Trade Center are still unidentified. Hundreds of thousands of man-hours have gone into the effort, so why has the process of naming the dead proved so difficult?

There were many problems associated with victim identification, especially in the years immediately following the tragedy, including:

• The sheer number of samples needing to be identified and the amount of data they produced: It is the duty of the Medical Examiner and his staff to identify the dead and issue death certificates. That duty doesn’t change simply because of an overwhelming death toll; each individual still deserves to be named. But because of the nature of death, many victims’ bodies were fragmented, leading to multiple samples from the same individual. Fragmented remains found in the same location may or may not originate from a single victim, so each had to be sampled and analyzed separately. Additionally, personal effects found loosely associated with human remains might not belong to that person, so DNA samples had to be taken from all items. While mass-casualty disasters are not uncommon, the data processing requirements for managing such a large database stretched the technology available to individual laboratories of the time.

• The size and condition of the samples: Due to the harsh conditions of the site, many samples were so badly degraded that DNA typing wasn’t possible. When samples were found five years after the attack on the roof of the Deutsche Bank Building, most of the bone fragments were less than one sixteenth of an inch in size, minimizing the chances of successful DNA extraction.

• Weathering/scavenging of samples found years after the tragedy: The Deutsche Bank Building fragments, for example, were subject to years of freezing in winter, and heat and direct sun in summer for five years. Remains in the lower levels of the World Trade Center, among the last to be excavated, were subject to water, fire, crushing, and toxic waste. Remains in the pile sent to Fresh Kills were subject to scavenging by carnivores, birds and insects.

• Location of the remains: The final resting place of the remains could not be used towards a definitive identification. It might, however, suggest a potential localization—bodies from upper floors may be likely to be less damaged due to the lighter load above them, and fire damaged bodies are more likely to originate from floors near the original crash sites and the ensuing fuel-amplified fire. Additionally, co-mingled remains might be thought to originate from similar areas of the building, if not the same area.

In the years since 9/11, a definitive ID for each victim has proven to be impossible, no matter how much effort has was applied to the task. In the end, at the request of families, 1,616 death certificates were issued without confirmatory identification.

The ultimate question in mass casualty disasters is: when is the project finished? When every victim is identified or when every sample of remains is tested? Sadly, with only 1,119 of 2,753 victims identified, the task of identifying the victims of 9/11 may never officially be complete.

In memory of those lost on 9/11. We will never forget…

Photo credit: WikimediaCommons – U.S. Navy, Wikimedia Commons - U.S. Air Force and Morgan.Davis

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ARC Giveaway:

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Forensic Case Files: 9/11—Part 2: Identifying Human Remains

Comparison points of ridge characteristics for fingerprint analysis.

Last week, we talked about the challenges of handing a mass fatality disaster such as 9/11, including the collection of human remains. This week, we’ll cover how those remains can lead to victim identification.

The path toward identification starts with the type of sample recovered. When the body is intact, presumptive identification can be made via visual ID or by directly associated personal effects (i.e. a driver’s license with matching photo found in the pocket of the victim). Confirmatory identification can then be made using one of several methods, including DNA matching, odontology or fingerprinting.

Sadly, considering the nature of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center (WTC), the overwhelming majority of remains could not be identified so easily. Officially, the New York Medical Examiner lists all of the deaths at WTC that day as ‘homicide due to blunt force trauma.’ This includes those who died in the collapse of the towers, as well as those that fell or jumped to their deaths after being driven out by flame and smoke (these deaths are not classified as suicides since they were not considered voluntary acts).

Because forensic anthropologists specialize in fragmented, burned, decomposed, and comingled remains, they are at the forefront working on victim identification. Well-known author Dr. Kathy Reichs was one of many forensic anthropologists who took time away from their own professional careers to help identify remains found at Ground Zero following the attacks.

For most victims, since only fragments of their bodies were recovered, identification had to be inferred from one or more of the following attributes:

• Personal surface markers like scars or tattoos.

• Forensic anthropologists’ estimate of age at time of death, race, sex, and stature.

• Description of antemortem (before death) characteristics, including evidence of disease or healed fractures.

• Discovery of prosthetics or surgical hardware (including serial numbers).

• Documentation of perimortem (at the time of death) trauma supporting cause of death.

• Fingerprint examination: Qualified personnel can collect antemortem latent prints from the homes or personal effects of suspected victims for comparison to recovered remains. Once identification is made, a second qualified examiner must confirm the match.

• Odontology: Comparison of recovered dental fragments to antemortem dental x-rays and charts. These matches can be difficult because dental remains may be fragmented; extremely fragile dental remains may require onsite radiography before transportation to morgue.

• Radiology: Comparison of antemortem x-rays to post-mortem (after death) x-rays and skeletal fragments in order to match healed fractures.

• DNA comparisons: DNA remains the best method of identification, especially when other physical traits such as fingerprints, physical stature, distinctive characteristics and dental features have been destroyed. The challenge in DNA matching can lie in finding a reference sample for comparison. More detailed information on the subject can be found in one of our earlier posts: Forensics 101: DNA Profiling for Identification.

In a perfect world, every victim would be identified, finally bringing closure to the families. But the task of identifying the victims at the WTC has proven to be extremely difficult in many cases. Join us next week as we close our series on 9/11 as we explore the challenges investigators have faced in trying to put names to the dead.

Photo credit: Vince Alongi

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ARC Giveaway!

A new Goodreads giveaway for a signed ARC of DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT runs until April 19th! Enter here: http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/49884-dead-without-a-stone-to-tell-it