In a previous article, Shrinking Fiction: How Psychology Can Help You Write Good Fiction, I suggested an exercise for your project then asked:

In Episode I of Season I of the Tudors (Showtime), King Henry VIII asks his ambassador to France if the French king has strong calves. Why?

These are the first two answer/comments I have received, so far, to my question. I will sent each commentator a signed copy of Gun Play. When I have a few more comments, I will jump in with the follow-up article.

"Well, this is almost a shot in the dark - maybe a shot in dim light, since I haven't watched the Showtime series, I can't quite remember what you said on this subject in the workshop, but I DO have a little knowledge of the history of Henry VIII, and I know a little about anatomy. Calves are load-bearing muscles that can take a lot of exertion and bounce back fairly quickly. I think Henry might have been asking either a) physically, is the French king a capable warrior who can lead his troops to battle, or b) psychologically, is the French king a capable leader who can withstand an invasion? Or I could be completely off the mark... " Gayle Carline

"Vanity and personal insecurity. He's a Tudor, after all." bd

 The Edmonds Beacon     Thursday May 1, 2008

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Sunday May 4th

TIME 11:30PM - 12:30PM (BOOK SIGNING After Panel 12:30PM - 1:00PM) Palm Springs Book Festival
PANEL:  MYSTERY, LAUGHING IN THE FACE OF DEATH:
Using Humor in Mysteries  MODERATOR: Mr. Rick Copp, AUTHOR(S):  Ms. Harley Jane Kozak & Ms. Patricia Smiley & Mr. Michael Thompkins LOCATION:Palm Springs High School   2401 East Baristo Road   Palm Springs, CA 92262   Information (760) 564-3112
 

MICHAEL THOMPKINS, www.shootingshrink.com, is a retired psychologist who devotes most of his time to writing detective fiction. Gun Play, the first novel in his "Shooting Shrink" series set right here in Palm Springs is out from Sterling House  (read the review or listen to the radio ad). Michael has studied under legendary screenplay doctor and author Chris Vogler. Michael was a finalist for the prestigious Rupert Hughes Award at the Maui Writers Conference. He is currently working on his next book in the series, Big Island Play. His workshops on Shrinking Fiction, How Psychology can help you write Fiction, play to packed rooms at Southern California Writers Conferences in Palm Springs, Los Angeles and San Diego. 

First, let me thank Sharon Sergeant, who is becoming a pen pal and periodic conversant, for her stunning first guest article on the Misha Defonseca story; there will be more. I can't think of a more interesting topic for all writers and readers. She just so happens to reside in my home state of Massachusetts so when we talk, I catch up on my former turf.

Turning our attention to the subject at hand, Misha Defonseca, David Shields, writing for the one of the best alternative rags in America, The Stranger, lumps Eliot Spitzer, Margaret Seltzer and Misha together in his psycho/culture article entitled Vertigo. He posits, "Everyone's ambition is underwritten by a tragic flaw." He quotes Freud, "What lives wants to die again," and invokes Sophocles, "Even though you knew it would cost you your eyes..."  Finally and unfortunately, Shields leaves us with the psycho-physical death wish as our common fate. Shields appropriately entitles his article Vertigo, a disorder of balance; however, the exposed narcissist risks falling in to the water from where the reflection of reality originated. It is his tragic fate. There is hope; it is not our common one.   More...

Talk about Shrinking Fiction! Several weeks ago Sharon Sergeant contacted me through this blog to ask my professional comments on why someone fakes a memoir. More on my thoughts later. What do you think?

- from Sharon Sergeant

I am the researcher that led the Defonseca genealogical investigative team. Misha Defonseca, a Belgian national, was exposed as a fraudulent Holocaust survivor in February of 2008. Various book versions of Defonseca's story have been bestsellers, and the recently released French film "Survivre avec les Loups" (Surviving with Wolves) has reportedly had more than 600,000 ticket sales in France and Belgium. I became involved after I read a  blog written by Jane Daniel, the US publisher of Defonseca's first book in 1997. Daniel's saga with Defonseca began in 1994, when Defonseca  was speaking and soliciting financial aid in the local Jewish community. Lawsuits against Daniel by Defonseca and her ghost writer, Vera Lee, resulted in a 33 million dollar judgment. Daniel was facing the seizure of her home, her last asset and wanted to know what the real story was behind this bizarre turn of events.

In the meantime, Defonseca had become an icon in Europe with her story of a heroic Jewish child traveling through war torn Europe, protected by wolves and partisans, surviving significant events during the Holocaust. The French film heightens these fairy tale themes with visual cues, emotive scenes and sweeping landscapes. More than a decade of interviews with Defonseca in print, audio recordings and videos demonstrate her ability to suspend disbelief. Defonseca created a world that people wanted to believe in. Those that did question her story were dismissed by Defonseca and attacked by her believers. Although I believed that Defonseca's claims could be proved or disproved, I suspected that I was facing a formidable illusion. In addition, the appellate court ruling in the lawsuits against Daniel was an excoriating opinion of Daniel, extolling Defonseca's credibility. I contacted Daniel to tell her the case was solvable using modern forensic genealogical methods and asked for her cooperation no matter what the investigation revealed. She agreed, sent me several copies of the original US publication, ordered copies of other versions, supplied trial documents, and the meager results she had gotten from private investigators.  More...

Here is the first sketch from Jamie Linder, nationally recognized graphic artist, who will be creating the photo-realistic animated Flash movie intro to ShootingShrink.com. You will recognize the patio at Starbucks in downtown Palm Springs where Doc, Brett and Joan sometimes hang. The sketch after the screenplay, is a first draft of Doc's office.

 

Over the next few months, Jamie will be hard at work designing an animated trailer to introduce site viewers to the Shooting Shrink Series characters and setting.  Here is the screenplay I wrote for the Flash intro:

 

Scene I     Interior of Dr. Tom Reynolds office.

The interior has views out the windows of the steep and rugged face of Mt. San Jacinto, date palm trees and the bright Palm Springs morning sunlight. “Doc” is sitting at his desk going through what is obviously a patient record. The office is shelved with psychology books, diplomas and pictures of his beautiful wife and 20ish children. The office is well heeled but not ostentatious. There is a pix of him with several uniformed cops.
Doc Reynolds (present at opening of scene) A handsome white man in his mid-forties, youthful and athletic, with black hair and brown eyes, about 6 feet in height sits at his desk. He is dressed in a black worn cotton Polo and clean jeans. He is wearing cowboy boots. He looks of Irish-American nationality. Desk plate reads Tom Reynolds, PhD, Consulting Psychologist
 Lt. Brett Wade(enters scene later) also in jeans and a green tee with a logo on it(Special Forces.) He is also wearing a black wool felt baseball cap with Palm Springs Police stenciled on it. On his belt are a Lieutenant shield and a black Glock handgun in a nylon clip-on holster. Brett is black and built like  Matt Damon., 5’10”, 160 and well muscled.( More muscle than Doc.) Doc has a lean runner’s body; Brett has martial arts body. Brett is similar to Matt Damon in height, and weight  but not such a pretty face maybe a few more wrinkles.
Camera POV changes as it scans interior, scans Doc Reynolds, and comes to rest on the door. A knock on the door. Door opens and Lt. Wade enters.

                                               Lt. Wade
Doc, newspaper’s calling you the Shooting Shrink.

Wade  holds up the Desert Sun and reads the headline to Doc: Shooting Shrink, famous local psychologist, shoots hitman at the top of the Tramway.
Camera POV changes to pan Lt. Wade then the newspaper he is holding open.          More...

Introducing the Big Island Play inside cover map with some of the locations

from vol 2 ,The Shooting Shrink Series. (Publication TBA)

Full size version:

BigIslandMap.jpg (3.57 mb)

"Following his packed workshops at our L.A. and Palm Springs events, back to SCWCSD http://www.writersconference.com/scwcmain.html, by popular demand is 'Shooting Shrink' series author and semi-retired psychologist Michael Thompkins."

That is how this blog column all began for me. I signed up to do a workshop with Michael Steven Gregory, MSG to his friends, and the Southern California Writers Conference in October 2006. A year later in LA, and a year and a half later in San Diego, we were still packing the rooms for workshops devoted to “how psychology can help you write good fiction.”

 

Then, a month ago in San Diego, after a tremendous amount of interest and support from the conferees and SCWCSD staff, it became obvious to me that there were www.shootingshrink.com blog articles to be written. Each article, whether it is on writing character or plot, once posted, will appear on the blog until I write the next one. Then, it will be archived on the site.

Shrinking Fiction #I: Earliest Maps of Character

Some of the earliest Emotional Anatomy maps of character structure come from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Folk Medicine, world-views inherited from the ancients. In TCM, and Western Folk Medicine (Naturopathy, Homeopathy, et al.), there is no difference between the practice of psychology and the practice of medicine. Specific emotions, patterns of thought, and attitudes are associated with specific anatomical organs and other physical structures in complete systems of correspondence.  In TCM these are often called Five Element Theory.  In Western Folk Medicine these are call humours.

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Scenes from Gun Play

Check it out...

Reader Views, has just recently published a review of Gun Play. The reviewer, Richard R. Blake, gives a general summary of the books plot ending with gleaming praise for both the title and its author.


Reader Views reviews appear on Amazon.com, Fox News, USA Today, Reuters and NBC. They also appear on iVillage, in newspapers and on many online websites and blogs.

Check out the full review here!