I don't know if I mentioned this here or not, but Deke, my hero in the WIP, is a former LAPD officer turned private investigator. I've done some research in the past about the LAPD and read a book on a rookie officer's first year that was really good. (Boot by William C. Dunn) I really didn't think I'd need much info, though, on Deke's time on the force or his job as a PI. Well, I was wrong.
It turns out that I am going to need to know a fair amount about being a PI, so I headed online to find something along the lines of Private Investigators for Dummies. Fortunately, I found a couple of books that fit the bill. Unfortunately, the most helpful book of the lot was cheaper at Amazon than at BN.com, so I ordered it from Amazon. Why unfortunately? Because Amazon's free shipping thing is slow. Very slow. They told me forever ago that my Gaelic dictionary shipped as well as my copy of Liz's Crimson Rogue, but neither shipment has arrived yet. I seriously need this PI book soon, but I can't see spending the money for faster shipping. Yes, I'm cheap. I loathe shipping charges and have been known to cancel an order if they're too high.
So I'll wait, and I'll write and I'll hope that I can guess the proper way to handle an investigation by using my TV PI skills and logic. :-) This could be scary!
Last night, someone posted a link to an intelligence test and I went over there to check it out. There are 33 questions and 19 or more right is excellent. I started filling in the ones I knew. I had 14. I worked at it, came up with some more, had a total of 18. I wanted 19. I wasn't going to bed until I came up with one more answer. It was a long stretch of thinking. ;-) I did, however, finally come up with 19 and I didn't cheat! Unless you count looking up how to spell millennium--I always forget that second N.
I'm off from the day job today to get my taxes done. The guy is way out in St. Paul and because traffic is a bitch, I always make my appointment for after the morning rush hour and so that I get done before the evening rush hour kicks off. I'm actually hoping to get out of there in time to swing by an office surplus store and buy a couple of cheap bookcases. Maybe find a new modular desk for the computer room.
The excitement just doesn't stop!
