Today I Remembered what I had forgot.

Today I got up and checked the news and weather, the news said 6 cops had been shot in the City I grew up in and worked in. One had died, the rest were seriously injured. I could feel the rage starting to build inside. I found out who the officers were. I knew some of them....worked with them, bled with them. We had our differences true.

Jumped on Face book and started to read the hatred spewing forth... People saying kill the fucking cops, and hating on the cops.... other people saying the same shit about the guy who shot the cops.... every one hating angry and hurt.  Then I jumped to a friends page by this time I was near blowing up. Anger boiling over... My friend is an old adversary from the street. Yes, we were adversaries, a definite line drawn between us. Me a cop, gang cop no less on one side......him a Crip, banger, street reputation as a soldier on the other. Between us is respect... Hard to imagine for an outsider how two adversaries can have that respect. But there it is

Guess who is teaching his FB. friends about respect... respect of another human being. The Crip,  take a look at the post I cut and pasted from his page:   "Its a sad day in the O! Rip to the fallen.. now on to you feeble minded clowns praising death on a public servant! He was a father of two & a husband!! You fuccin toy tuff guys make me shit sick!! Kings & true LEADERS dont wish death upon anyone so continue to be followers!! Ps pussie muthafuccas...."

then there is another:  
Its too funny how you brilliant minded fb friends of mine can say fucc tha police! But at the same time when you go out side your not being attacked bye your enemies on a every minute bases! Why because of the veil of police protection you & I live under! And I read a females post that said we're being dramatic about all this and fucc the police! Wow with out them who's gonna stop a mob of rapos or molesters from getting to you! Oh wait your enemies are to scared to pop at you or ain't nobody gonna take nothing from me! !! I commend all you billy badasses of the world! 

Other old school bangers jumped in as well.... these are not wanna bes, but hard core, been there done that:

"The police have nothing to do with your choices....nor do they sentence any of us that choose to violate others....when called they are called by many around you...either to protect you or others around you...encounters with the police are choices we choose....good or bad....death is a spiritual fight amongst good. and evil..."
 
and then..........."In order to understand ....you must first experience loss...not loss of life...nor loss of freedom...but loss of ones own hate..."

 I was stunned. To be painfully honest this brought tears to my eyes. No one will ever know how these street soldiers tried to make others realize we are all in this together.... we all make mistakes, some really big damn mistakes, take lives in anger, hate others we don't know. Fire weapons in rage.... people on both sides of the law have done that, myself included. 


To me this is the difference in the world today. The old school, be they cops, gang bangers, criminals or what ever had a code... Respect. No matter what, respect was present. You may be adversaries, you may end up in life and death battles with each other... but you respected each other as human beings. The new up and coming on the street on both sides.... have forgot the code. Today a soldier died....he has the respect of both sides of the old school.  These are my thoughts... had to put them out there in the Web... cant let this go unnoticed. Z

What a difference perspective makes!

The following are two different comments posted on Goodreads. The are of the same book, Curbchek. Same edition, within 24 hours of each other. Always amazes me how different people are in what they see and expect from the world around them. Take a look..... The first reader has grasped exactly why I wrote the book,  the second reader is bored with the entire book.... what a difference their perspectives make.  What are your thoughts?

The readers venture into the darkest realms of the world after "Daywalkers" have safely crawled into their beds for the night. In the whirlwind rides under the cover of darkness, Zach Fortier tries to remain human and relatively normal while patrolling messed up streets and neighborhoods. The author does a great job presenting the grit police officers face on a daily basis as well as the tension that arises between officers. He also stresses frequently the need for officers to listen to people, pay attention to detail, remain loyal to their code of honor, and find some comic relief in all the madness. Anyone who has ever had police officer friends hears tales told in this same way. Police officers take whatever calls come in during their shift; these calls range all over the board from the ridiculous call of the woman locking herself inside her car to vicious acts of murder. When recounting the calls, there is typically a hint of arrogance, extra added fluff, and sometimes all around madness. 'Curb Chek' portrays a fairly honest image of real life on the darkened streets from a police officer's point of view and recounts comical, sad, and other stories in the fashion expected if sitting down with him at the end of his weekend shift.

 "Curbchek chronicles the experiences of a police officer, describing different patrol calls he answered and trying to balance some kind of a "normal" home life.

The premise behind the book seemed very interesting, and I was really looking forward to reading it. I was quite disappointed and totally bored with the whole thing. Each story was only a few paragraphs long, leading from one story to the next without any sense of organization. Even going from chapter to chapter seemed pretty random. I suppose that another police officer could relate to what he went through on a day to day basis, but I believe that is as far as it would go.

Had the author went into more detail and grouped the stories together in a way that related to each other, it could have had the potential to be the mind gripping novel that I was hoping to find.

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