My day in court

I spent the morning in county court observing proceedings as research for a short story. My main objective this morning was voir dire, the jury selection process. Since I’m not eligible to serve on a jury in the U.S., I won’t ever experience the process first-hand. The case was a DWI, which seems fairly simple on the face of it, but the voir dire took over an hour and the attorney questions covered such territory as whether prospective jurors had past alcohol-related experiences that might cloud their judgment, whether they were more likely to believe a police officer testifying than anyone else, and the fact that the defendant might not testify might lead them to believe more in their guilt.

What I found fascinating was how the prospective jurors’ personalities emerged in such a short period. After a while, I could tell how certain people were probably going to respond to particular questions. If you have stories to share about being on a jury panel, feel free to add them as comments. The judge was a cool dude, who came down from the bench and opened himself to questions about anything (except the case) during lulls in activity. One of his most interesting revelations: a lawyer can become a judge without ever having tried a case. His admonition: know who you’re voting for in judge elections.

I watched the first half of the Saints/Bears game yesterday, but once the chasm opened, I switched over to the Law & Order marathon. I could hardly bear to look away from the screen during the Patriots/Colts game, though. What a nail biter. I was really rooting for the Pats, but not for any particular reason. They’re both excellent teams.

I got a grand total of 2000 words written on a new short story this weekend. It wasn’t a smooth process. I wrestled and wrangled with words, paragraphs, scenes. I think I finally discovered where the story is going this morning, only after writing and rewriting and re-rewriting the opening sections. This is either going to be a good story or an abysmal one. At this point I can’t tell any more. During the first football game yesterday, I also wrote a review of Joseph Wambaugh’s Hollywood Station. I also received the page proofs of my story “Sturm und Drang” from A Dark and Deadly Valley. I only made a couple of very minor editorial fixes—deleted a comma, uncontracted a contraction—and got the proofs back to the editor straight away.

I posted a batch of auctions on eBay yesterday. I decided that life’s too short and there are just too many books to read, so it’s unlikely I’ll ever reread most books I buy—so why keep em? So, I’m dumping six recent hardcovers that I’ve reviewed at Onyx Reviews, all with low, low starting prices. The seventh book, Reassuring Tales by T.E.D. Klein is one that I was looking forward to so much that I accidentally bought two of the 600 numbered, signed copies. Here’s your chance to get a $40 edition for less than ¼ of the price.

The books are

• Hollywood Station by Joseph Wambaugh (w/ promo material)
• Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris
• Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin (not yet out in US)
• Echo Park by Michael Connelly
• The Keep by Jennifer Egan
• Next by Michael Crichton
• Reassuring Tales by T. E. D. Klein (signed/limited)