I first “met” Lee Lofland through an online email group, Crimescenewriters. His comments and answers to questions others asked, to create realistic plots and characters, gave me tons of material I can use some day. After hearing he was a writer, too, I had to know more.

Lofland brings his experience as a veteran police investigator, who worked his way from an officer in Virginia's prison system, then a sheriff's deputy, a patrol officer, and a detective to his book Police Procedure and Investigation, A Guide for Writers. According to his web site, Lofland solved cases dealing with narcotics, homicide, rape, murder-for-hire, robbery, and ritualistic and occult crimes. He was an undercover officer and even a narcotics K-9 handler. He’s certified in the U.S. Department of Justice, Virginia State Police Academy, and the DEA, as well as continuing to be certified in Crime Scene Management and Crime Scene Investigations.

Nowadays, so many books are written for writers that this makes it difficult for a young author like me to choose one. However, Carolyn Howard-Johnson's book, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't, stands out from the crowd. Not only is she an instructor at UCLA's Writers' Program, but you can come across her name almost everywhere, which clearly shows her expertise in marketing and self-promotion. This is no coincidence. She has many years of experience both as a publicist and as an author, promoting her own books, This Is The Place and Harkening, which became award-winning best-sellers.