WEBVTT
00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.000
Welcome back to the Behavioral Detective.
00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:15.279
Today we are opening the vault and pulling back the curtain on the creative process.
00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:29.199
If you've been following along, you know that my debut crime fiction novella, Notice of Assignment, is officially wrapped and in the hands of my editor, heading toward an October release.
00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:34.960
But today I want to take you inside the engine room.
00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:45.119
I'm going to let you hear the first two-thirds of chapter one, exactly how it was written in the manuscript, before the editor changes something.
00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:48.399
But we aren't just doing a table read.
00:00:49.280 --> 00:01:01.200
As a writer, everything you experience in the real world, every drop of financial stress, every mile-driven, and every dynamic of a long marriage, it all bleeds into the page.
00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:09.200
So today I'm giving you the fiction and then I'm breaking down the how I wrote this notes line by line.
00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:22.319
You'll hear where my protagonist Cal Brink stops and where my own life, my upbringing in Manicured, Kansas suburbia, and my 40-year marriage to my wife Marie actually begins.
00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:25.599
Let's pull up a chair at the closing desk.
00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:32.879
Here is chapter one of Notice of Assignment, followed by the truth behind the writing.
00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:40.079
You can find today's reading at calbrinkfiles.com.
00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:45.840
Friday, august thirteenth, 2010.
00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:48.560
Are you sure we're doing the right thing?
00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:51.439
We're just about to sign on a house as an investment.
00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:53.280
That's a big deal.
00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:54.640
That was Shauna.
00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:00.319
Not loud, not dramatic, just steady, which was usually worse.
00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:03.359
She had every right to ask.
00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:09.439
For the first time in a long time, life had quit leaning on us with its full weight.
00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:11.680
The collection calls had stopped.
00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:20.080
She wasn't standing in the kitchen doing math out loud, trying to figure out whether we had enough for groceries and gas in the same week.
00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:30.159
We had a little cushion, not real wealth, not security that could survive stupidity, but enough to exhale a little.
00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:33.680
And there I was about to put some of it at risk.
00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:38.319
Shauna had always been drawn to the part of me that liked motion.
00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:42.800
Adventure if you were being generous, recklessness if you weren't.
00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:47.360
She married a man who believed the next deal might fix everything.
00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:54.319
After a few rounds of real life, that quality probably looked less romantic than it had at the beginning.
00:02:54.560 --> 00:03:03.039
I glanced over at her and thought, not for the first time, how strange it is that lust can turn into loyalty if you give it enough years.
00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.360
Her auburn hair got me.
00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:14.319
Then her laugh, then the smile, then the way she looked at me like I might actually become the guy I kept saying I was going to be.
00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:17.919
She came from southern Missouri, Ozark Fringe.
00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:20.080
I came from suburbia.
00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:27.199
Planned, scrubbed, tiny suburbia, the kind of place Walt Disney later built as a theme park.
00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:30.879
I started mowing yards when I was ten years old.
00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:34.560
Those yards were my first lesson in capitalism.
00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:41.840
Push a mower for an hour in Kansas heat, get paid, bike down to Bears Records, and turn sweat into vinyl.
00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:44.479
That seemed like a fair system to me.
00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:46.400
Still does mostly.
00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:52.000
The title company office had all the usual local pride decor on the walls.
00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:55.599
Kansas City history and safe frames for safe people.
00:03:55.919 --> 00:04:00.159
Pendergast, Bush Creek, the Radio Tower.
00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:06.080
George Bred and Yankee Stadium, frozen forever in that clean swing of his.
00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:13.039
Even Walt was there, done up in black and white like he'd personally invented Midwestern respectability.
00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:18.720
I studied the photos while the minute hand on the oversized clock inched forward.
00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:27.199
They were good pictures, crafted, intentional, the kind made by people who cared about light and composition.
00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:29.920
Not like the pictures I used to take.
00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:35.040
Mine had usually been quick and grainy and taken for a reason nobody enjoyed.
00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:37.839
My photos accused people.
00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:42.000
Brett hit 305 for his career, I said.
00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:44.959
Failed plenty and still made the Hall of Fame.
00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:48.079
Shauna didn't even look at the wall.
00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:50.160
You're not playing baseball.
00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:51.600
This is our money.
00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:53.519
The little money we have.
00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:56.800
That was Shauna, in one sentence.
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No wasted motion.
00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:02.800
She could also see possible consequences that I would never consider.
00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:06.240
I guess it had something to do with a harder upbringing.
00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:11.920
Being out there in the middle of nowhere, a 50-minute bus ride to a school in another county.
00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:13.600
She wasn't wrong.
00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:20.959
We'd been married for 24 years and only recently gotten to where a bad month didn't automatically become a crisis.
00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:23.120
I saw leverage.
00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:25.199
She saw exposure.
00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:27.519
I saw a chance to move up.
00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:30.240
She saw a chance to slide backward.
00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:32.319
And that's marriage.
00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:33.759
Same facts.
00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:35.759
Different blood pressure.
00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.639
Now let's go behind the writing.
00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.839
When I wrote, Are you sure you're doing the right thing?
00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:48.800
We're just about to sign on a house as an investment.
00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:50.399
That's a big deal.
00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:52.160
That was Shauna.
00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:57.279
Not loud, not dramatic, just steady, which was usually worse.
00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:03.839
I made a conscious decision to not start with a protagonist, Cal Brink.
00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:09.759
I started with his conscious, his compass, his wife, Shauna Brink.
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Throughout the novella, we will learn how Cal thinks.
00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:16.319
But Shauna is his compass.
00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:19.680
She will have great influence and insight.
00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:23.759
Now let's discuss these four short paragraphs.
00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:26.240
She had every right to ask.
00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:32.160
For the first time in a long time, life had quit leaning on us with its full weight.
00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:34.480
The collection calls had stopped.
00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:42.639
She wasn't standing in the kitchen doing math out loud, trying to figure out whether we had enough for groceries and gas in the same week.
00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:51.439
We had a little cushion, not real wealth, not security that could survive stupidity, but enough to exhale a little.
00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:54.480
And there I was about to put some of it at risk.
00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:58.399
Shauna had always been drawn to the part of me that liked motion.
00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:02.800
Adventure if you were being generous, recklessness if you weren't.
00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:07.439
She married a man who believed the next deal might fix everything.
00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:14.639
And after a few rounds of real life, that quality probably looked a little less romantic than it had in the beginning.
00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:23.680
My comments about those four paragraphs are throughout this debut novella you will find a gray area where truth meets fiction.
00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:28.879
I'm not shy about saying that our story, my wife and me, is written throughout this book.
00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:33.439
The Great Recession caused a lot of financial stress across our nation.
00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:35.199
Couples broke up.
00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:36.879
We got closer.
00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:46.639
Maybe it's because for the type of real estate I was specializing in, real estate investing and property management, the Great Recession turned into a boon.
00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:54.720
Well, at least after an initial painful drop of real estate sales income to the tune of thirty percent or more.
00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:07.120
Continuing with our story, I glanced over at her and thought, not for the first time, how strange it is that lust can turn into loyalty if you give it enough years.
00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:18.240
Her auburn hair got me first, then her laugh, then her smile, then the way she looked at me like I might actually become the guy I kept saying I was going to be.
00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:21.680
She came from southern Missouri, Ozark Fringe.
00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:30.959
I came from suburbia, planned, scrubbed, tiny suburbia, the kind of place Walt Disney later built as a theme park.
00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:32.399
My comments?
00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:35.200
That's the origin story for my wife and me.
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I met her in my house.
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I came home and there was a party going on.
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It was college.
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This wasn't unusual.
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She was dancing with some guy and I was smitten.
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When I met her, she was attending a university about 15 miles from where I was attending the University of Kansas.
00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:54.879
Or at least I was enrolled there.
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Her home was down in the Ozarks area about an hour's drive east of Springfield, Missouri.
00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:04.879
I grew up in Ovalon Park, Kansas, curated and manicured.
00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:11.200
And that line where I say, how strange it is that lust can turn into loyalty if you give it enough years?
00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:14.320
I want to be clear that this is our marriage.
00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:18.159
The physicality of love is real and a very good thing.
00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:24.320
It's also true that the chemical attraction needs something more, a glue, if you will.
00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:32.080
Respect, common interest, and two people feeling a personal responsibility are the ingredients that form that glue.
00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:44.320
Continuing, my first lesson in capitalism, push a mower for an hour in Kansas heat, get paid, bike down to Bears Records, and turn sweat into vinyl.
00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:46.639
That seemed like a fair system to me.
00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:48.639
Still does, mostly.
00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:50.320
I started young.
00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.879
My first income came from delivering the Ovaland Park Sun newspaper.
00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:59.840
The system went that I delivered the paper on the doorsteps of my neighborhood for free.
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Then I'd go door to door once a month and try to collect.
00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:06.480
I got to keep a portion of what I collected.
00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:16.000
Then, at about 10, I'd use our family's lawnmower and my dad's gas and went door to door asking if I could mow their lawn for whatever they'd pay.
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Turns out five dollars was the usual amount.
00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:24.799
Then I'd make my way down to a record store at 95th in Antioch using my bicycle.
00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:31.600
When I returned, I'd have a new record album for five dollars by whatever band caught my attention.
00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:36.080
The Beach Boys, Ario Speedwagon, Rolling Stones.
00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:41.759
The record shop also had all these really pretty glass pipes and cylindrical gadgets.
00:10:41.919 --> 00:10:45.360
At ten to twelve years old, I didn't really understand.
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I was there for the records that were sold below value.
00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:52.399
I'd learn a lot more about this later.
00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:55.039
Our story continues.
00:10:55.519 --> 00:11:04.080
The title company office had all the usual local pride decor on the walls, Kansas City history and safe frames for safe people.
00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:13.519
Pendergast, Bush Creek, the Radio Tower, George Bread in Yankee Stadium, frozen forever in that clean swing of his.
00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:20.320
Even Walt was there, done up in black and white like he'd personally invented Midwestern respectability.
00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:25.759
I studied the photos while the minute hand on the oversized clock inched forward.
00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:33.919
They were good pictures, crafted, intentional, the kind made by people who cared about light and composition.
00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:36.480
Not like the pictures I used to take.
00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:41.440
Mine had usually been quick and grainy and taken for a reason nobody enjoyed.
00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:43.759
My photos accused people.
00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:50.720
My comments are that title companies have closing offices that celebrate the local community.
00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:52.159
That's their deal.
00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:56.720
They are facilitating the people getting their slice of the American dream.
00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:02.639
The pictures are less personal and more like marketing for the city you are about to spend your life in.
00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:13.519
In truth, my life as an investigator included learning how to take pictures of people doing things they maybe shouldn't be doing from long distances and often in low light.
00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:15.200
I got pretty good at it.
00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:18.399
Even made a photography business out of it for a while.
00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:28.879
Selling pictures of athletic accomplishments or families with smiles was more emotionally rewarding than photographing cheaters, either insurance or marriage infidelity.
00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.919
This line I purposely placed in my novella.
00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:40.240
Brett hit 305 for his career, I said, failed plenty and still made the Hall of Fame.
00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:42.240
Here's why I included that.
00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:49.679
I still think what George Brett did in Kansas City is vastly underappreciated in the baseball world.
00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:52.320
And he stayed one of us.
00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:55.120
Try that in the modern game of baseball.
00:12:55.440 --> 00:13:02.399
Money, sex, and power are the vices that destroy businesses, marriages, and now our enjoyment of sports.
00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:08.720
The modern day story of sports is its own crime fiction novella waiting for the right author.
00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:11.360
We continue with our story.
00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:14.159
Shauna didn't even look at the wall.
00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:16.080
You're not playing baseball.
00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:19.200
This is our money, the little money we have.
00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:24.399
Again, that was Shauna in one sentence, no wasted motion.
00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:28.320
She could also see possible consequences that I would never consider.
00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:32.159
I guess it had something to do with a harder upbringing.
00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:38.080
Being out there in the middle of nowhere, a fifty minute bus ride to a school in another county.
00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:39.679
She wasn't wrong.
00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:47.039
We'd been married for twenty four years and only recently gotten to where a bad month didn't automatically become a crisis.
00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:49.200
I saw leverage.
00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:51.200
She saw exposure.
00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:53.600
I saw a chance to move up.
00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:56.320
She saw a chance to slide backward.
00:13:57.039 --> 00:14:00.080
And in real life, they say opposites attract.
00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:03.679
In my real life, my wife is more safety oriented.
00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:05.600
She likes security.
00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:10.480
I have mostly been more adventurous, more reckless, you decide.
00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:15.279
If something caught my fancy, professionally speaking, I would chase it down.
00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:17.200
Especially in my younger days.
00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.159
My wife said it was because I couldn't hold a job.
00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:24.159
I framed it as I was too young to sit in a cube my whole life.
00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:26.639
That wasn't going to work for me.
00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:28.639
I would always count on me.
00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:30.399
Sometimes that didn't work.
00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:33.440
Mostly in the first half of our marriage it didn't work.
00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:35.360
She stood by me.
00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:37.440
That's a special lady.
00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:42.480
And the last line of today's discussion, that's marriage.
00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:45.600
Same facts, different blood pressure.
00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:51.679
If you've been married for more than a day, I don't need to explain this sentence.
00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:03.600
If you've been married for more than a day, that sentence doesn't need an explanation.
00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:17.519
Writing this book has been an exercise in running wild with a fictional character like Cal Brink while anchoring his soul in the real, hard-earned lessons I picked up in the trenches of real estate, investigation, and life.
00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:24.320
It's a gray area where truth meets the page, and I'm having a heck of a time sharing it with you.
00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:34.080
Next Wednesday, we're going right back into the manuscript with another micro story and another deep dive into the behind-the-scenes reality that inspired it.
00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:37.360
I want to know what landed for you today.
00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:44.159
Head over to calbrinkfiles.com and leave a comment with your thoughts on chapter one.
00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:56.799
And if you want to read ahead and get the first four chapters of Notice Assignment delivered right to your inbox today, go to calbrink.com and sign up to become an early reader.
00:15:57.039 --> 00:16:04.639
Until Sundays drop, keep your eyes open, value the loyalty in your corner, and stay sharp.
00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:08.720
You've been listening to the Behavioral Detective.
00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.000
Welcome back to the Behavioral Detective.
00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:15.279
Today we are opening the vault and pulling back the curtain on the creative process.
00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:29.199
If you've been following along, you know that my debut crime fiction novella, Notice of Assignment, is officially wrapped and in the hands of my editor, heading toward an October release.
00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:34.960
But today I want to take you inside the engine room.
00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:45.119
I'm going to let you hear the first two-thirds of chapter one, exactly how it was written in the manuscript, before the editor changes something.
00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:48.399
But we aren't just doing a table read.
00:00:49.280 --> 00:01:01.200
As a writer, everything you experience in the real world, every drop of financial stress, every mile-driven, and every dynamic of a long marriage, it all bleeds into the page.
00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:09.200
So today I'm giving you the fiction and then I'm breaking down the how I wrote this notes line by line.
00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:22.319
You'll hear where my protagonist Cal Brink stops and where my own life, my upbringing in Manicured, Kansas suburbia, and my 40-year marriage to my wife Marie actually begins.
00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:25.599
Let's pull up a chair at the closing desk.
00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:32.879
Here is chapter one of Notice of Assignment, followed by the truth behind the writing.
00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:40.079
You can find today's reading at calbrinkfiles.com.
00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:45.840
Friday, august thirteenth, 2010.
00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:48.560
Are you sure we're doing the right thing?
00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:51.439
We're just about to sign on a house as an investment.
00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:53.280
That's a big deal.
00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:54.640
That was Shauna.
00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:00.319
Not loud, not dramatic, just steady, which was usually worse.
00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:03.359
She had every right to ask.
00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:09.439
For the first time in a long time, life had quit leaning on us with its full weight.
00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:11.680
The collection calls had stopped.
00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:20.080
She wasn't standing in the kitchen doing math out loud, trying to figure out whether we had enough for groceries and gas in the same week.
00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:30.159
We had a little cushion, not real wealth, not security that could survive stupidity, but enough to exhale a little.
00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:33.680
And there I was about to put some of it at risk.
00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:38.319
Shauna had always been drawn to the part of me that liked motion.
00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:42.800
Adventure if you were being generous, recklessness if you weren't.
00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:47.360
She married a man who believed the next deal might fix everything.
00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:54.319
After a few rounds of real life, that quality probably looked less romantic than it had at the beginning.
00:02:54.560 --> 00:03:03.039
I glanced over at her and thought, not for the first time, how strange it is that lust can turn into loyalty if you give it enough years.
00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.360
Her auburn hair got me.
00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:14.319
Then her laugh, then the smile, then the way she looked at me like I might actually become the guy I kept saying I was going to be.
00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:17.919
She came from southern Missouri, Ozark Fringe.
00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:20.080
I came from suburbia.
00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:27.199
Planned, scrubbed, tiny suburbia, the kind of place Walt Disney later built as a theme park.
00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:30.879
I started mowing yards when I was ten years old.
00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:34.560
Those yards were my first lesson in capitalism.
00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:41.840
Push a mower for an hour in Kansas heat, get paid, bike down to Bears Records, and turn sweat into vinyl.
00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:44.479
That seemed like a fair system to me.
00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:46.400
Still does mostly.
00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:52.000
The title company office had all the usual local pride decor on the walls.
00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:55.599
Kansas City history and safe frames for safe people.
00:03:55.919 --> 00:04:00.159
Pendergast, Bush Creek, the Radio Tower.
00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:06.080
George Bred and Yankee Stadium, frozen forever in that clean swing of his.
00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:13.039
Even Walt was there, done up in black and white like he'd personally invented Midwestern respectability.
00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:18.720
I studied the photos while the minute hand on the oversized clock inched forward.
00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:27.199
They were good pictures, crafted, intentional, the kind made by people who cared about light and composition.
00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:29.920
Not like the pictures I used to take.
00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:35.040
Mine had usually been quick and grainy and taken for a reason nobody enjoyed.
00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:37.839
My photos accused people.
00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:42.000
Brett hit 305 for his career, I said.
00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:44.959
Failed plenty and still made the Hall of Fame.
00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:48.079
Shauna didn't even look at the wall.
00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:50.160
You're not playing baseball.
00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:51.600
This is our money.
00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:53.519
The little money we have.
00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:56.800
That was Shauna, in one sentence.
00:04:57.120 --> 00:04:58.639
No wasted motion.
00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:02.800
She could also see possible consequences that I would never consider.
00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:06.240
I guess it had something to do with a harder upbringing.
00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:11.920
Being out there in the middle of nowhere, a 50-minute bus ride to a school in another county.
00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:13.600
She wasn't wrong.
00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:20.959
We'd been married for 24 years and only recently gotten to where a bad month didn't automatically become a crisis.
00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:23.120
I saw leverage.
00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:25.199
She saw exposure.
00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:27.519
I saw a chance to move up.
00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:30.240
She saw a chance to slide backward.
00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:32.319
And that's marriage.
00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:33.759
Same facts.
00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:35.759
Different blood pressure.
00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.639
Now let's go behind the writing.
00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.839
When I wrote, Are you sure you're doing the right thing?
00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:48.800
We're just about to sign on a house as an investment.
00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:50.399
That's a big deal.
00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:52.160
That was Shauna.
00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:57.279
Not loud, not dramatic, just steady, which was usually worse.
00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:03.839
I made a conscious decision to not start with a protagonist, Cal Brink.
00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:09.759
I started with his conscious, his compass, his wife, Shauna Brink.
00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:14.000
Throughout the novella, we will learn how Cal thinks.
00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:16.319
But Shauna is his compass.
00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:19.680
She will have great influence and insight.
00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:23.759
Now let's discuss these four short paragraphs.
00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:26.240
She had every right to ask.
00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:32.160
For the first time in a long time, life had quit leaning on us with its full weight.
00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:34.480
The collection calls had stopped.
00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:42.639
She wasn't standing in the kitchen doing math out loud, trying to figure out whether we had enough for groceries and gas in the same week.
00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:51.439
We had a little cushion, not real wealth, not security that could survive stupidity, but enough to exhale a little.
00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:54.480
And there I was about to put some of it at risk.
00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:58.399
Shauna had always been drawn to the part of me that liked motion.
00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:02.800
Adventure if you were being generous, recklessness if you weren't.
00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:07.439
She married a man who believed the next deal might fix everything.
00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:14.639
And after a few rounds of real life, that quality probably looked a little less romantic than it had in the beginning.
00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:23.680
My comments about those four paragraphs are throughout this debut novella you will find a gray area where truth meets fiction.
00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:28.879
I'm not shy about saying that our story, my wife and me, is written throughout this book.
00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:33.439
The Great Recession caused a lot of financial stress across our nation.
00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:35.199
Couples broke up.
00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:36.879
We got closer.
00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:46.639
Maybe it's because for the type of real estate I was specializing in, real estate investing and property management, the Great Recession turned into a boon.
00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:54.720
Well, at least after an initial painful drop of real estate sales income to the tune of thirty percent or more.
00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:07.120
Continuing with our story, I glanced over at her and thought, not for the first time, how strange it is that lust can turn into loyalty if you give it enough years.
00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:18.240
Her auburn hair got me first, then her laugh, then her smile, then the way she looked at me like I might actually become the guy I kept saying I was going to be.
00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:21.680
She came from southern Missouri, Ozark Fringe.
00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:30.959
I came from suburbia, planned, scrubbed, tiny suburbia, the kind of place Walt Disney later built as a theme park.
00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:32.399
My comments?
00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:35.200
That's the origin story for my wife and me.
00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:36.879
I met her in my house.
00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:39.600
I came home and there was a party going on.
00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:40.799
It was college.
00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:42.480
This wasn't unusual.
00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:45.679
She was dancing with some guy and I was smitten.
00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:52.240
When I met her, she was attending a university about 15 miles from where I was attending the University of Kansas.
00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:54.879
Or at least I was enrolled there.
00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:00.159
Her home was down in the Ozarks area about an hour's drive east of Springfield, Missouri.
00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:04.879
I grew up in Ovalon Park, Kansas, curated and manicured.
00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:11.200
And that line where I say, how strange it is that lust can turn into loyalty if you give it enough years?
00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:14.320
I want to be clear that this is our marriage.
00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:18.159
The physicality of love is real and a very good thing.
00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:24.320
It's also true that the chemical attraction needs something more, a glue, if you will.
00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:32.080
Respect, common interest, and two people feeling a personal responsibility are the ingredients that form that glue.
00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:44.320
Continuing, my first lesson in capitalism, push a mower for an hour in Kansas heat, get paid, bike down to Bears Records, and turn sweat into vinyl.
00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:46.639
That seemed like a fair system to me.
00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:48.639
Still does, mostly.
00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:50.320
I started young.
00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.879
My first income came from delivering the Ovaland Park Sun newspaper.
00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:59.840
The system went that I delivered the paper on the doorsteps of my neighborhood for free.
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:03.200
Then I'd go door to door once a month and try to collect.
00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:06.480
I got to keep a portion of what I collected.
00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:16.000
Then, at about 10, I'd use our family's lawnmower and my dad's gas and went door to door asking if I could mow their lawn for whatever they'd pay.
00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:19.440
Turns out five dollars was the usual amount.
00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:24.799
Then I'd make my way down to a record store at 95th in Antioch using my bicycle.
00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:31.600
When I returned, I'd have a new record album for five dollars by whatever band caught my attention.
00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:36.080
The Beach Boys, Ario Speedwagon, Rolling Stones.
00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:41.759
The record shop also had all these really pretty glass pipes and cylindrical gadgets.
00:10:41.919 --> 00:10:45.360
At ten to twelve years old, I didn't really understand.
00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:48.960
I was there for the records that were sold below value.
00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:52.399
I'd learn a lot more about this later.
00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:55.039
Our story continues.
00:10:55.519 --> 00:11:04.080
The title company office had all the usual local pride decor on the walls, Kansas City history and safe frames for safe people.
00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:13.519
Pendergast, Bush Creek, the Radio Tower, George Bread in Yankee Stadium, frozen forever in that clean swing of his.
00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:20.320
Even Walt was there, done up in black and white like he'd personally invented Midwestern respectability.
00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:25.759
I studied the photos while the minute hand on the oversized clock inched forward.
00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:33.919
They were good pictures, crafted, intentional, the kind made by people who cared about light and composition.
00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:36.480
Not like the pictures I used to take.
00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:41.440
Mine had usually been quick and grainy and taken for a reason nobody enjoyed.
00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:43.759
My photos accused people.
00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:50.720
My comments are that title companies have closing offices that celebrate the local community.
00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:52.159
That's their deal.
00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:56.720
They are facilitating the people getting their slice of the American dream.
00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:02.639
The pictures are less personal and more like marketing for the city you are about to spend your life in.
00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:13.519
In truth, my life as an investigator included learning how to take pictures of people doing things they maybe shouldn't be doing from long distances and often in low light.
00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:15.200
I got pretty good at it.
00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:18.399
Even made a photography business out of it for a while.
00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:28.879
Selling pictures of athletic accomplishments or families with smiles was more emotionally rewarding than photographing cheaters, either insurance or marriage infidelity.
00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.919
This line I purposely placed in my novella.
00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:40.240
Brett hit 305 for his career, I said, failed plenty and still made the Hall of Fame.
00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:42.240
Here's why I included that.
00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:49.679
I still think what George Brett did in Kansas City is vastly underappreciated in the baseball world.
00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:52.320
And he stayed one of us.
00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:55.120
Try that in the modern game of baseball.
00:12:55.440 --> 00:13:02.399
Money, sex, and power are the vices that destroy businesses, marriages, and now our enjoyment of sports.
00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:08.720
The modern day story of sports is its own crime fiction novella waiting for the right author.
00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:11.360
We continue with our story.
00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:14.159
Shauna didn't even look at the wall.
00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:16.080
You're not playing baseball.
00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:19.200
This is our money, the little money we have.
00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:24.399
Again, that was Shauna in one sentence, no wasted motion.
00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:28.320
She could also see possible consequences that I would never consider.
00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:32.159
I guess it had something to do with a harder upbringing.
00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:38.080
Being out there in the middle of nowhere, a fifty minute bus ride to a school in another county.
00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:39.679
She wasn't wrong.
00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:47.039
We'd been married for twenty four years and only recently gotten to where a bad month didn't automatically become a crisis.
00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:49.200
I saw leverage.
00:13:49.519 --> 00:13:51.200
She saw exposure.
00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:53.600
I saw a chance to move up.
00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:56.320
She saw a chance to slide backward.
00:13:57.039 --> 00:14:00.080
And in real life, they say opposites attract.
00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:03.679
In my real life, my wife is more safety oriented.
00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:05.600
She likes security.
00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:10.480
I have mostly been more adventurous, more reckless, you decide.
00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:15.279
If something caught my fancy, professionally speaking, I would chase it down.
00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:17.200
Especially in my younger days.
00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.159
My wife said it was because I couldn't hold a job.
00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:24.159
I framed it as I was too young to sit in a cube my whole life.
00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:26.639
That wasn't going to work for me.
00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:28.639
I would always count on me.
00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:30.399
Sometimes that didn't work.
00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:33.440
Mostly in the first half of our marriage it didn't work.
00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:35.360
She stood by me.
00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:37.440
That's a special lady.
00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:42.480
And the last line of today's discussion, that's marriage.
00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:45.600
Same facts, different blood pressure.
00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:51.679
If you've been married for more than a day, I don't need to explain this sentence.
00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:03.600
If you've been married for more than a day, that sentence doesn't need an explanation.
00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:17.519
Writing this book has been an exercise in running wild with a fictional character like Cal Brink while anchoring his soul in the real, hard-earned lessons I picked up in the trenches of real estate, investigation, and life.
00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:24.320
It's a gray area where truth meets the page, and I'm having a heck of a time sharing it with you.
00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:34.080
Next Wednesday, we're going right back into the manuscript with another micro story and another deep dive into the behind-the-scenes reality that inspired it.
00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:37.360
I want to know what landed for you today.
00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:44.159
Head over to calbrinkfiles.com and leave a comment with your thoughts on chapter one.
00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:56.799
And if you want to read ahead and get the first four chapters of Notice Assignment delivered right to your inbox today, go to calbrink.com and sign up to become an early reader.
00:15:57.039 --> 00:16:04.639
Until Sundays drop, keep your eyes open, value the loyalty in your corner, and stay sharp.
00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:08.720
You've been listening to the Behavioral Detective.
