This entry begins a new section of the blog entitled Badges. This picture is of yours truly on vacation on Maui as well as doing polish on the next in the Shooting Shrink Series entitled Big Island Play. Otto Pozzo, standing next to me in uniform, helped edit Gun Play and is a retired Federal Officer, presently working for the Kahului Airport Police Department. A long time friend, Otto cooked and delivered enough of his world famous Eggplant Parmesan to feed a large gang of us celebrating my son Colin's wedding. Colin runs this website in his spare time when he is not designing at Microsoft. He and his bride, Laura, were married on Kauai by a kahuna.

Stay tuned for more real life Badges, the men and women of law enforcement who help me write the Shooting Shrink Series.

 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. 

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)

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!

Listen to the Prologue to Gun Play as read by the Author.

Listen Here

From humble storefront beginnings in 1971 on a derelict corner of northwest Portland, Oregon, Powell's Books has grown into one of the world's great bookstores, with seven locations in the Portland metropolitan area, and one of the book world's most successful dot-coms www.powells.com, serving customers worldwide.

Listen to it here first!!!

Also hear it in the coming weeks by tuning into Newstalk 920 KPSI-AM and Progressive Talk 1340 KPTR-AM in Palm Springs.

This ad will appear in issues of Desert Post Weekly and KEY Magazine in 2007.