Chapter #3 Homeless not Harmless won second place on the Writers United "just for fun" contest on Face book. here is the link: http://thewritersunited.blogspot.com/p/competitions-and-events.html

Interview with all books review

Author Interviews

Please state your name and location. Zach Fortier, Colorado, USA 

Tell us the title and publisher of your book: Curbchek. Self Published

Tell us about yourself: I have been a cop for 28 years. Started in the military at 18. Pretty much been doing it ever since. I have toyed with the idea of writing a couple of books about those years for some time. Finally sat down and did it

When was the book released?: The Kindle version was released Aug 20th, 2011. The paperback was released Aug 30th, 2011

Give us an overview of your book. Curbchek is a compilation of short stories, each a complete story in itself. Some having ties to other stories but written much like they would happen on the street. The chaos of the types of calls and the emotions they put you through are similar to what any extended period of time in a patrol car would be like

What inspired you to write this book? Dumb really, my wife watches crime dramas a lot. I can always tell what is going to happen in the first 2-3 minutes. She asked me about my stories and when I tell her she is always amazed and says you should write a book!

How is your book different from other books in this genre? My book is different in a few ways. There is no Femme Fatale; there is no nudity on the cover, and no sexual scenes in the story that are not as they happened on the street. It is what the reader would experience riding along in a cop car in any city in the US.

Where can people buy your book? The Book is available on Amazon.com and at the web site: www.curbchek.com

Are you working on another book? If so when do you expect it to be published? I have been working on another book called StreetCreds. It will take the reader inside the realities of gang life. From peewees to Older gang bangers. As seen for the cops point of view. The reality of the life style, and the toll it takes on them and it took on me being assigned to investigate their cases.

If you self published, what advice can you give to fellow writers? I did self publish. No Agent or publisher has ever walked in my shoes and to have them try to remake my book into something more streamlined and marketable was not what I wanted. I received a lot of feedback all wanting me to go different directions. I did not want to lose the reality of what I had written for some desk weenies idea of what cops are and do. So my advice is follow your gut. The book is yours, run with it. The success or failure will be yours as well

Can you share one of your marketing successes with us? I have been surprised by the reaction of the people that were on the street at the time I was. Not as cops but living there, seeing these cases unfold, living in the neighborhoods I worked in. They have been very positive towards the book and me as well. As a cop you are very much a part of their lives. How you treated them determined your success on the street and in court. They are surprisingly friendly and open to the book.

How did you find Allbooks Reviews and what are you hoping for in your relationship with us? I found All books on the web looking for someone to review the book besides readers. I wanted an honest review. 

 What other things would you like Allbooks Reviews to offer writers? I don’t know what more you could offer. The successful selling of any book is such a fluke. Right time right place seems to be way more important than any advertising campaign. Word of mouth seems to have the biggest impact on my sales so I would guess the more exposure you could provide the more valuable your service would become to authors.

 Thank you and I hope to continue with your service for Streetcreds. Coming out soon!

IF

Funny comment from a "fellow cop" the other day. He or She e mailed and said "if the people you worked with were so bad and the people you worked for were so bad, why did you stay? OR was it that it wasnt that bad and your just angry? Let the anger go.....
REALLY? .....You read my book and this is what you got from it?  The book Curbchek isn't about my anger. Anger over all that was wrong, anger over all that happened, anger period. It is about the reality of what being a cop is and does to you. If( and this is a big damn IF!) If you worked the street and did not hide in the cemeteries at night sleeping, If you actually patrolled your area and looked for more than the calls that were given to you. IF you crawled your fat ass out from behind the radar gun and stopped giving mom and pop traffic tickets and went out and actually battled on the street. If you were not in the LTs office telling him once again how you really wanted to transfer off the street into a specialty so you could have an office.If you didn't sign out on every parking problem as soon as an in progress felony call came in. IF..... I could go on... but why? IF what you took from reading Curbchek is that I am angry? that's cool. We may have worked the same streets, same department, but we did not work the same way... are not the same kind of cop. Go back to watching Dragnet, John Wayne, Barney Miller etc... go back to patting yourself on the back about how amazing you are. That is cool too. Others have read the book and cried, relived old painful memories, grieved and heard the point of the book. We are all in this together...in case you missed that point.

Am I an angry guy? You decide. ZF

Training day

I have heard it described many ways. First it was described to me like this "to be a good cop you have to have been in some trouble"...got your feet wet so to speak. Later like this "you have to have been there to know how to get there". See a common thread? Then I read this paragraph about  "How most people are sheep and cops are like the sheep dog protecting the sheep from the wolves"...I thought about that a lot. It did not ring true for me I never felt like a big happy sheep dog tending the flock bounding around ears flopping in the breeze barking and wagging my tail when the master called...running back to get a pat on the head for a job well done....Not likely.

Then I saw Training Day. Alonzo(Denzel Washington) kicked ass. Dark edgy and off the damn chain. This was no damn sheep dog. Zo did not care about the sheep or the "pat on the head from the master" for a job well done. He was a wolf hunting the wolves..as he put it "to catch a wolf you have to be a wolf" None of this sheep dog shit.... and no catchy phases and having been there(done that). Officer Hoyt on the other hand is fierce as well, scrappy and still has the thin veil of  the facade left to help him filter the reality of the street. By the end of the movie Hoyt has come to grips with reality. He shoots Zo wounding him and leaves him in the street to the thugs.

It came to me after this movie... I am not a sheep dog or a wolf. I do work with a lot of sheep dogs. Happy stupid, barking dogs eager to do the masters bidding. They can fight the wolf and protect "the sheep" if necessary. But they are not wolves.... and they have never been there or know how to get there as the old cops used to say. I am one of those "Hybrid wolf dogs" you read about that everyone fears and no one understands...Not able to be controlled, neither a "wolf", or "sheep dog". Neither are comfortable around me. I belong no where, I can fit in temporarily anywhere, but in the end all sides watch me out of the corner of their eye and wonder...what will he do next? What guides this hybrid? part criminal, part cop... I marvel at the sheep for their ability to pretend they are "Ok" and that all will be alright in the end. I have an internal battle between Zo and Hoyt....who wins the day? Don't know,  they are balanced...jockeying for position to own my soul... fortunately they are balanced... "Yin and Yang"

So for you cops that read the blog...no disrespect meant. If I say something you don't like. That is ok. I am not one of you.(as Lt. Leeds said so loudly announced one day in my book) To the criminals as well, sorry homies, not part of you either. One foot in both worlds.... belonging in neither. I am more like "Hombre" the character Paul Newman played in a western of the same name. Check out the book and you will see what I mean. That is what Curbchek is all about.  ZF

Top 30 in Amazons Hard boiled new releases!

I am sitting here on the "Mountain" watching the does bring the 4 month old fawns to the water and surfing the Net. What did I find? I found out Curbchek has been listed by Amazon.com in their top 30 new releases in Hardboiled crime stories! I was pretty happy about that. I have been working the net every waking hour trying to generate interest in the project. Hopefully it is momentum that continues! Here is the link:          http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/digital-text/157312011

Curbchek Day One

Day One of the Blog, Who blogs? Guess I do now.  Been trying to create interest in a Book...Curbchek. Maybe you have heard of it? If not what are you doing here? Go out buy the book and then come back and we can discuss it. Curbchek  has become the focus of my life the past 12 months. Prior to this I was planting pine trees, raising bees, and hiking in the mountains of Colorado. I get off in the mountains here and run into the REAL residents like the one pictured above. Notice the interested look in his eye? Not at all, more like  "hey dude are you lost, your kind belongs down by the road"...move along before we turn you into a snack,  in short get off our Mountain.

         The mountain? The mountain has become my refuge, my place to heal, recover, regroup. The Mountain is where I hope to die some far off day old and frail, still hiking, planting and raising bees. Till that day I leave the house and hit the deer trails, looking for antlers, bear scat, and the ever elusive Mtn lion.  I listen to the wind and think back.....back to when Curbchek was brutally real to me. It was my life. I could smell the powder from gun fire, hear the screams of wounded and injured women and children( and a few men). I would be responsible to try and find a way to bring order to chaos. Justice to those that had been wronged. Light to darkness.... impossible tasks I undertook willingly. Thinking really stupidly that I could make a difference for my children, and others children. Work hard enough I thought and maybe I can make this a safe place. Maybe I can battle successfully the crime that has destroyed the city I barely survived as a child. Maybe my children will never know what it is like to be in a knife fight at 10 with three kids trying to rob you. (Rob you for a couple of bucks, by the way). That was my hope. Curbchek is my description of the journey.

 This is supposed to be my Blog, but reality is it is your blog as well. Ask questions, post comments about my whining, tell me what you think! That is what blogs are in my mind. Have at it, give me your best. you may piss me off, I may piss you off! who knows... regardless here we go, Once more into the breach.....