Author Stacy Eaton is back again today, with another guest post and an interview (that's in a separate post). Stacy has been busy promoting her releases, "My Blood Runs Blue" and "Blue Blood For Life".
Currently Stacy works full time as a Police Officer for a small township in Southeastern Pennsylvania. While her current position is that of a patrol officer, she spends a lot of my time doing investigations and crime scene processing. She loves forensics and takes her job seriously.
She is also Police Officer's wife and with their constant schedules life can get very hectic in their home. She's been blessed with two children; a son and a daughter. Her son is currently in the United States Navy, and she's very proud of him for what he is doing and for serving his Country. Her daughter is a priceless princess who loves to help her market her books to teachers and other parents while she is at school and church.
She is also Police Officer's wife and with their constant schedules life can get very hectic in their home. She's been blessed with two children; a son and a daughter. Her son is currently in the United States Navy, and she's very proud of him for what he is doing and for serving his Country. Her daughter is a priceless princess who loves to help her market her books to teachers and other parents while she is at school and church.
When she's not working the job that currently pays all the bills, she works on her business. Yes, she even has her own business.
She has two Shiloh Shepherd dogs, Garda and Callie. They are a bit different than the standard German Shepherds most people are use to. They are larger and less aggressive and they have more fur! Man do they have fur!!! Garda has a face that resembles a wolf, which makes her love him even more. (You can see by her photo that I wear a wolf pendant). Garda actually means "The Guardian" in Irish. It is also the name of the Irish Police. Rather fitting for their family of officers don't you think?
In her spare time...She writes.
She has two Shiloh Shepherd dogs, Garda and Callie. They are a bit different than the standard German Shepherds most people are use to. They are larger and less aggressive and they have more fur! Man do they have fur!!! Garda has a face that resembles a wolf, which makes her love him even more. (You can see by her photo that I wear a wolf pendant). Garda actually means "The Guardian" in Irish. It is also the name of the Irish Police. Rather fitting for their family of officers don't you think?
In her spare time...She writes.
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I have been asked several times if my writing ever interferes with my career as a law enforcement officer. I would have to say no. As a police officer, my life is filled with stress. Most of this stress is from taking on the stress of others, helping them to deal with their problems, trying to be there for them when they need someone or need guidance with a problem. I see my writing as a way to let the stress out.
While some of the incidents that I respond to, do prompt me to write about them, I do not write those things exactly. I use them as a direction to help people understand what it is that we as police officers do. Some crime novels talk about the investigations, some about the details, but what do you really know about what a cop does? In Blue Blood for Life you follow Kristin through a shift. Like any other day, we deal with a huge array of issues. Kristin deals with an animal complaint, a civil issue, helping someone with a flat tire, a car accident, having to rush to the scene to do CPR. It shows the little things that police officers do on a daily basis. My intent is to not only engage readers in a good story, but to educate them also.
The guys I work with are pretty freaking awesome, and yes the women too. Many of the guys that I work with directly and indirectly have read my book and they joke about the fact that I’m going to be rich and famous. When they ask about my sales, they always follow up the question with, “So when are you leaving us”. I laugh at them and tell them that if I left, I won’t have any material to write about!
I know that many of them respect me even more than they did because I started something and I finished it and then I started again and finished it again. They love to hear bits and pieces of what I am writing and always want to know if I modeled a character after them. Many of which I have; like “Mick”. Mick is my real life partner, with a different name. He is in both My Blood Runs Blue and Blue Blood for Life as Kristin’s partner. I had fun writing him and his wife absolutely loved seeing how I projected him in the book.
When I am working night shifts, we have a lot of down time. A lot of time to just drive the streets and patrol the neighborhoods and it is this time that I find myself plotting, planning and talking to myself in my car about my characters and what will happen next. I have worked through more conflicts in my car then I have recently out of my car! Lol….
I will continue to use the experiences that I have had to further engage my readers and help to educate them in some small way. Maybe next time they see a cop standing in the local donut shop they won’t think “Man look at them, all they do is drink coffee!”, but instead they will think “Good, glad they are safe and a have a moment to relax and get a drink.”
Great interview! Thank you, Stacy, for your awesome public service and for giving us such great books to read and enjoy.
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