Being LOST Is a Science. How to write it right: Information for Writers and Other Curious Folks.

Christmas morning, Hubby and I got a search and rescue call out. A family put their mom in bed at ten o'clock. When they went to wake her at six, she was gone. This is exactly what happened in my novel Relic.

“Good morning!”

Brian turned his head to see Joe heading across the side yard with his arm raised in a wave. Joe stopped when he was standing on the driveway. Brian turned back to see SWAT stacking up at Kay’s front door with a breacher in front. Second one in was a guy looking through the window of his ballistics shield with a can in his hand. Brian was assuming it was smoke and not flashbang, since there were kids in the house. 

Brian made his way calmly toward Joe and put his hand on his shoulder. “Go home.”

“I’m so sorry to bother you. Have you seen my dad?”

“Go home.” Brian turned Joe and gave him a push in the right direction.

Joe turned back, his brow scrunched together in confusion. “I know we’ve been a pain. But I can’t find my dad. I put him to bed last night after you guys brought him back. I went to find out why he was sleeping so late and—”

There was a bang as the breacher crashed his tactical ram into the door, breaking the lock’s hold, splintering the wood.

Yelling filled the air as the SWAT team shouted their orders. It was always hard to listen to terrified children shrieking “Mommy!” Brian hated the fear in the kids’ voices, no matter what language they were screaming. Brian twisted Joe’s wrist, locking his elbow out, forcing him to the ground behind Sophia’s van. He flopped on the ground beside Joe, hoping Sophia had followed his instructions and was keeping her head down. “FBI SWAT are across the street. We’re going to stay down in case anyone feels like being stupid and starts firing a weapon.”

This fictitious scene (Okay, minus the SWAT mission) happens around the globe as those with dementia and other cognitive and processing disorders leave the safety of their homes.

For those who are known to wander, there are devices that the family can use to help track them. Those devices will be the subject of another article. But devices are not failsafe. The subject who was missing on Christmas morning had an ankle tracker, but the batteries were uncharged. It didn't work.

Searchers from all over the state, trackers, K-9, and ground teams (the people who walk the area) were all on hand. All of the search is scientific. 

In this article, I want to talk to you about the statistics of being lost. Your character will act in a statistically predictable way. And if you're trying to figure out where your character would go and if they were in a survivable situation, I have a short cut for you. 

I'm going to pause here and remind you that if this information is available to us, it's also available to any villains you're writing into the scene.

There's an app at the app store that costs around ten dollars called LOST PERSON BEHAVIOR. It's based on Search and Rescue statistics and is geared for use by the first responder community. 

• It's easy to use
• It functions no matter where your character is as it's not dependent on a wifi connection. 
• You can assign this to your character's phone -- perhaps they find it in the appstore in an emergency, or you can just use it for your research to tell you what the scientifically predictable behavior will be. 
• Where will they be found
• How long can they statistically survive
• Once you know the statistics and trajectories you can write your characters movements right. This includes giving them a background, known to others or known just to your character and the reader that can help move the plot along or twist your plot viciously. Maybe everyone thought the character had X skills and predicted that they would go in A direction. In reality, your character lied about their skills and thus did B.

When you use the app:

You will find three categories:

1. Subject Category Wizard
1. aircraft
2. abduction
3. water
4. wheel/motorized
5. mental state
1. autism
2. dementia
3. despondent
4. intellectual disability
5. mental illness
6. substance intoxication
6. child (broken down into age ranges)
7. outdoor activity - 13 activities from worker to caver to abandoned vehicle
8. snow activity
2. Browse Subject category
1. external forces
2. water
3. wheel/motorized
4. mental state
5. child 
6. outdoor activity
7. snow activity
3. Bike Wheel Model - which describes what a search and rescue persons will do to start the search. From there, you can decide whether the professionals' plans will be effective or if you're going to stick your character someplace else.

Once you are at the profile There will be a TACTICAL BRIEF -  basically where the subject is most likely to be found. For example in "current water" there are suggestions like

•  looking in the bends of the waterway. 
• Floating bodies are affected by wind, consider leeway. 
• Strainers and undercut rock are a high probability. 

These might tell you how which direction your plot will head.

Then there will be a DESCRIPTION giving more information about the subjects possible choices, and resulting location.

I find this absolutely fascinating. When I'm called out for a search, there are several things I do before I leave home. For example: I check the weather (the weather before the incident makes a difference in tracking. Also, I need to know how to dress during the possible search time, and also so I have the right equipment, including first aid if I was on the find team.) I also check my LOST PERSON BEHAVIOR app for the circumstances that I will be searching so that while I search for any clues in general, I am also cognisant of specific probable places that I might make a find.

In the example that we started with - the Christmas day search for a subject with dementia, some things that the app tells me:

• They go until they get "stuck" that means I crawl through brambles and tangles of debris in case someone made their way into the center and got stuck in there. My focus in the woods will be brush, thick areas, and drainage ditches (where they might have gotten into a drainage, but it became too steep to get back out.
• I also know from the app that because subjects with dementia have a narrow field of vision, they usually go in a straight line. So if I can get a track, I will search forward of it, looking for a place where they might get caught and not be able to continue forward. "They go until they get 'stuck.' Appear to lack the ability to turn around and may ping-pong  off some barrier."

Yup, tons of plotting fun to be had with this app if you're writing a missing person into your plot and want to write it right.

Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting ThrillWriting. I hope you're finding my leg-work in writing research to be helpful. You can see this research in action AND support this blog by buying my books. Much appreciated.

Fiona

Cotton Kills or How Cold Did You Let Your Heroine Get? Info for Writers

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Recently, I was at a four day/night - round the clock (boy, was it tiring!) Search and Rescue training session to test for my credentials. Day one: "If anyone is wearing anything made of cotton, even your underwear, go take it off now. Cotton kills."

Now, I love to wear cotton clothes, I'm not trying to upset the cotton industry with this article, but the idea is that cotton absorbs water and holds moisture, losing any insulating properties and lowering the core temperature. This is a lesson I've learned the hard way. You can read about that in my articles about Writers' Police Academy and playing the victim in an airplane crash.

If you want to make your victim cold fast, dress her in cotton and then have her run for her life, sweating, getting her clothes nice and humid despite the chilly night. There! You've written a crisis. Dress her in synthetics (especially fleece) or wool, and she has a better chance.

There are three basic stages of hypothermia:

Mild 

• Increased urine production
• Sympathetic nervous system activated: 
• shivering 
• increased heart rate and blood pressure (You have a character with a heart condition? This could be bad.) 
• blood glucose goes up (Does your character have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes? When their blood runs out of glucose, they will drop into hypoglycemia)

Moderate 

• Shivering becomes more violent
• Coordination becomes a problem - movements are slow and difficult to execute. Stumbling will probably occur
• Mild confusion
• Character becomes pale
• Lips, ears, fingers and toes become blue (Blood stays in the core)

Severe

• Now the heart rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure all drop.
• Difficulty speaking
• Difficulty getting thoughts together
• Unable to use hands
• Poor muscle coordination/walking is nearly impossible
• Skin is blue and puffy
• Irrational behavior including terminal burrowing and paradoxical undressing (I'll explain these below)
• Major organs fail

Death

***

       Please understand that cold is a relative term. I mentioned above some of the medical conditions that might make things harder for your character. Also consider their age, frailty, and inebriation levels. (How drunk did you get your character? article LINK) 

      Also, imagine how much they know about being in the elements and what they need to do to save themselves. For example: Sitting on a rock or lying directly on the ground are things that should be avoided as they, like wet cotton, wicks the heat away from a body. Are your characters up and doing calisthenics? Are they working madly to build a fire to dry their clothes? Are they staying really well hydrated? Did your character have a nip of brandy to take the chill off? (some research suggests that about 70% of hypothermia includes an element of alcohol.) Your character's choices and background are the difference between life and death. (Article on snowbound survival in a car)

Search and Rescue are trained to look for two signs that there is a hypothermic patient even before we've found someone: clothing and burrowing.

Crazily enough, in our trek from caveman to modern man, we have developed a tendency--between moderate to severe levels of hypothermia--to become disoriented and even combative (though that energy might just raise the body temps) in this state people tend to take off their clothes. I know! Crazy, right? But 20-50% of hypothermic deaths includes this paradoxical undressing. Researchers believe that the human system miscues and the body actually thinks it's overheating instead of freezing to death.

Sometimes it's hard to find folks who are freezing to death because in the first stages of hypothermia a person will get into small spaces. In a house, (such a homeless character who is squatting in an abandoned building) this might mean in a closet or behind a piece of furniture. Out in nature, however, this might mean getting under piles of leaves - which makes sense in that leaves are insulating; only we can't find them to rescue them.

Water is a problem - as in water lowers the body temperature much quicker than the air could. In 50 F water, your character would have about an hour. If it was a 50 F day, and they were dry, they'd have a much longer rescue window.

In freezing water (think Titanic), people will die in around fifteen minutes. Though here's a truism cold and dead is not the same as warm and dead. We actually use hypothermia in some operating procedures and then the patient's body temperature is slowly raised. There was a incident in Sweden where a girl was given CPR for hours and she was brought back. So if your character is without vitals signs, have rescue do their thing. It might just work. Or not. You know your plot line.

Usually, unless there are signs of unsurvivable trauma, death is not called until the body is warmed to near normal temps. A body under an avalanche for more than a half hour with snow in their mouth is dead even if cold. But other than that you can effect heroic efforts for your characters and they have a chance, albeit a small chance, but a chance of surviving.

Temperature classification

Core (rectal, esophageal, etc.) Hypothermia <35.0 °C (95.0 °F)[38] Normal 36.5–37.5 °C (97.7–99.5 °F)[39] Fever >37.5 or 38.3 °C (99.5 or 100.9 °F)[6][7] Hyperthermia >37.5 or 38.3 °C (99.5 or 100.9 °F)[6][7] Hyperpyrexia >40.0 or 41.0 °C (104.0 or 105.8 °F)[40][41]

Note: The difference between fever and hyperthermia is the underlying mechanism. Different sources have different cut-offs for fever, hyperthermia and hyperpyrexia.

v t e

Here's a handy temperature chart:

We've talked a little about prevention here are some more subtle points to put into your book:

• Synthetic and wool work as insulation even wet (fleece is great)
• Clothing should be loose fitting and in layers, tight clothes limit circulation. So your heroines jeggings are gonna be a problem.
• Plan for coldest possible day at that time of year and take off/put on layers as needed.
• Building shelters is a good idea. 
• Rocks and earth as well as metal pulls heat away so mrph - don't use those unless you want your character in big trouble, then by all means - go for it!
• Shelters should be small so they retain the body heat. (But mark them so they can be found by rescue otherwise your character risks a burrowing death)
• A reflective blanket and an emergency candle are a good light-weight/easy-to-carry survival tool. (More about this in Hug a Tree article)

They've found your heroine! Whoop! Now what? 

If the rescuers do this wrong, it could injure or kill her.

• If unresponsive. Start ABCs airways, breath, circulation this may means CPR and artificial breathing AS you rewarm/get them out of the cold conditions.
• Move the characters as little and as gently as possible.
• Don't put them in a warm bath, massage the legs and arms, or give a heating pad. These might get the blood to the skin and drop the blood pressure and could kill them. Eep! This is called Rewarming shock.
• Get the wet clothes off. Give them insulating dry clothes/blankets. Move them to a warm environment. Heat reflective emergency blankets are great. You can put warmth under the armpits or at the groin - maybe one of those chemical pocket warmers, for example.
• A nice warm sweet drink - tea, for example. No, not a nip from the ... too late, no brandy won't do the job. Opposite. Alcohol is a no no. And of course they should be alert and able to swallow the arm beverage.

Here's hoping your heroine warms up and lives to finish the plot and maybe even get her happily ever after.

Happy writing!

Fiona

Brought Down by Her Heaving Bosom - Helping Writers Write it Right

(Photo credit: Wikipedia) 

When I joined the Search and Rescue team, I was given a mentor, Brian, to help me get off to a good start. Having been a Girl Scout leader for over a decade, I already had some expertise in the woods and most of the necessary equipment on hand. One day, Brian came over to my house to inspect the survival pack I’d put together. As we walked to the side door, he stopped to look at my rhododendron in its full display of beautiful violet blooms. Hands on hips, shaking his head, he asked why I had planted it. The truth was that I’d received the bush as a gift when my third child was born. It had been a barely-alive bush in a gallon bucket and now, twenty years later, I loved that the plant had grown to the same height as Kid #3. That bush was a source of pride. I didn’t understand the sour look on Brian’s face as we moved into the house.


Fast forward a few months. I totally understand that look on Brian’s face. I haterhododendrons. Rhododendrons are the bane of Virginia searches. In order to fully clear an area, a searcher has to climb through these long obstacle course bushes that seem to be created by the devil himself so he can laugh at us.


Worse than those darned rhododendrons? Briars. Sheets of briars. Curtains of briars. Briars that snag at our clothes, wrap into our packs, swipe hats from our heads and glasses from our faces. There’s no going around the briars. When you’re walking a grid, searching for clues, it’s straight through.


The last time I was out on a search, Brian happened to be searching next to me in a swamp. He put his hand on a tree trunk to help him balance as he scooted under the briars and past the rhododendron when BOOM! The entire tree–and I’m talking about a tree with a three-foot trunk circumference–went crashing down. That’s why I now call him Paul Bunyan. Paul and I stood looking at the tree for about a nanosecond before we were off searching again. On that particular day, with the temperatures in the nineties and the humidity at eighty percent, the mosquitos found our sweaty faces particularly delicious. If we stopped, they swarmed.


Despite what I’ve just written, I truly enjoy being on the Search and Rescue team. It’s not easy, but it is important. I’m honored to be part of a such a dedicated group of people. Also, I have to admit, I like it for the misery factor. Yes, you read that right. Believe me, there’s not a masochistic cell in my body. But professionally, it’s necessary for me to understand just how miserable a mission can be. It’s important for me to know how the brambles wrap my ankles to trip me. To struggle to stay positive, smiling, and kind to those around me as the heat beats down on my head. To feel the weight of my pack after five hours traipsing up and down the mountain side. I need to find where the blisters form (and it’s not where you’d think). I believe that first-hand knowledge, even if it’s only the tiniest glimmer of reality, helps my writing be more vivid and correct.


Imagine reading a book in which the heroine was saved by a retired SEAL. He swept her romantically into his arms. She clung to his neck as he cradled her against his chest. Then, he ran five miles through the jungle to safety. I’d be laughing so hard, I’d be crying. Though I’m certain that wouldn’t be the emotion the author was going for.

Sure, if I was in the backcountry and someone was strafing the area with their AK on full auto, I’d try my darndest to get myself out of Dodge. Running though? Hmm. Consider the obstacles of wayward vegetation: falling trees, vines, stumps and roots… Consider that the ground is almost never flat under foot. Consider that the debris that falls to the ground is not only slippery, but it hides holes. Deep holes. Now imagine the hero stagger-running forward — a sixty-pound pack on his back, a damsel draped (beautifully) in his arms. He can’t see where he’s putting his feet past her heaving bosom. She must weigh a good hundred and twenty pounds. Readers, have you been to the gym? Have you seen the guys with their Rambo-muscles lifting a hundred and twenty pounds? Does that look easy? (I swear, Hubby, I’m just looking at the men’s muscles for research purposes.)

Notwithstanding that hundred and eighty pounds of extra weight, our hero is running full tilt. Dodging bullets. Scrambling through the foliage — Please note, there are one thousand seven hundred and sixty yards in a mile. In five miles, this guy has to sprint a football field eighty-eight times. With that in mind, that five-mile run might seem unreasonable. In this scenario, the more likely outcome is that after a hundred yards of super-human effort, our hero’s foot goes down into one of the holes. Crack! The hero not only dumps the lady-in-distress onto the (snake and poison ivy covered) ground, but now he’s writhing in agony with a broken leg. His bellows call the bad guys to their location like the sweat on a search and rescue team member’s face calls in the mosquitos.

There’s a reason why SEALs say, “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” There’s a reason why a SEAL probably wouldn’t be tearing through the jungle. There’s also a reason that writers are told “write what you know.”

And what I know is, it ain’t easy to hack your way through a curtain of briars.




Fiona Quinn's newest series:
STRIKE FORCE

The prayer on her lips is JACK Be Quick.

It’s been months since ex-Navy SEAL Jack McCullen last saw his fiancée, Suz Molloy. He was on the other side of the world involved in a grueling black ops mission for Iniquus Corporation at the behest of the US government. Mission fail meant a special flight home, and an ambulance ride to the hospital where Suz should have been waiting for him.

Devastated by Jack’s last death-defying act of heroism, life quickly takes a turn for the worse for Suz. Terrorists attack the school where Suz teaches first-grade. Suz saves her students’ lives, but her own moment of heroism leads the terrorists to believe she is a CIA operative. Suz is taken hostage.

When Jack rouses from his surgery to find Suz missing, he knows something is very wrong. Led by the psychic “knowings” of his Iniquus colleague, Lynx, Jack risks everything as he desperately tries to reach Suz in time to thwart the terrorists’ plot and save her.

This time, his mission is for more than love of country; it’s for the love of his life - his heart and soul.

You can READ IT NOW!

Gut Checks and Heuristic Traps: Thinking, Feeling, and Your Character

Ah, humanity.

Which of these two characters would you follow to stay alive?

I was looking through some of my reviews. I know, I know writers aren't really supposed to do that. But I do. I like to get a feel for what my readers are thinking about my work. 

Some of my reviewers have mentioned that I have my characters think and feel. And some of my readers would prefer they only think, others would prefer that they only feel.

And it's true. My characters do think and feel... That's how brains work. People both think and feel. 

And that's what this article is about, how little of the brain is actually thinking and how much it is actually feeling.

Human Decision making includes such components as:

• Emotions
• Memories
• Weighing risk
• Images
• Social cues
• Learned patterns

We are not purely rational beings thanks to our limbic system. 

The limbic system (survival) is connected to the neocortex (logical part that regulates executive function).

The neocortex, according to research, can’t balance more than five factors in any given situation. Therefore, the brain relies on the input of the limbic system to help make decisions that are complex.

The limbic system looks back at learned patterns and guides the character’s gut instincts. The problem then is that the limbic system tells the character what to do based on past experience and what would feel good e.g. stay alive.

Unfortunately for our characters, we authors usually are pulling them out of their everyday experiences, thrusting them into the unknown where their limbic systems might very well encourage our characters to do the wrong thing.

What was your character thinking to get themselves into this mess?

The reality is (whether the author is using "feeling language" or not) that the author isn’t writing the character from the neocortex; they’re writing the character from the limbic – feeling part of the brain. 

Humans (characters in this instance) do not usually come at a situation in logical rational manner that would come from the neocortex. The neocortex "is involved in higher functions such as sensory perception, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought, and in humans, language." Science Daily.

Characters don’t think as much as they feel. 

Military and other training tries to develop new patterns of dealing with situations so when the people are thrust into bad situations their limbic system and neocortex can pick good behaviors and eveyone gets home alive. 

• When there is a repetition of training, the limbic system develops experiences. 
• When you are writing your character, it’s important that the character tried and succeeded a repetition of the behavior you want them to perform. Or not. You can twist your plot whatever way you want. 
• You might even write it in there, Character Blue had read about this in an article once. That article told him how to get out alive. But that didn’t feel right to Blue. Blue decided to go with his gut on this one and wow did that go sideways fast!

Now, characters can learn from the stories of others. It’s actually a really important way that the human brain learns. BUT and this is a great big but, in order to learn, the story must trigger a strong emotional response in the character. So you can teach you character by hearing a story, then show them having a visceral reaction to it, clutching at their shirt, tearing up, having nightmares, telling others the story with an emotive voice. “Can you imagine? Isn’t that horrible?”

The neocortex can also learn. 

By reading about and watching documentaries about true life experiences, the neocortex learns how the limbic system impacts our decision making. This trains the brain to know when the instinctive decisions made by the limbic system might not go well.

If you, as an author, only writes the action without explaining the reason that the characters took those actions -- why they thought they'd have less risk and more reward by doing X instead of Z-- it can be problematic for your reader.

Most of your character’s decision making will rely on heuristics. And this is fine for the banal part of your plot line. Not so much when you’re shoving your character out into a shit storm. In a new and unique circumstance, old patterns, old learning, old ways of assessing can get your character into the world of hurt by ensnaring them by a heuristic trap. Heh, heh, heh.

We all know that coincidence is acceptable if it helps the bad guy in our story; it's unacceptable if it helps the good guy. But be careful about this. If the good guy is making stupid mistakes and it makes things worse (and worse, and worse) for your character, then the shine comes off your hero. Readers develop hindsight bias and that really sucks for your white hat.

One way that you can avoid your reader scoffing at your plot line is to prevent hindsight bias – knowing the outcome and therefore rolling their eyes at your characters bad choices (think 1980s horror films when the pantie-clad young woman goes to check on that noise in the basement), is to take your reader through the feeling-driven thought processes of your character. In this way, your reader can see that the series of events was logical to this character, even if their behavior makes thing worse.

How do we take the reader along as our character digs himself a nice deep hole to fall in? The author shows the inner workings of his characters' decision making.

And we can show the neocortex being swamped by the limbic system which reigns supreme in most decision making. Yup, we're a touchy-feely driven species, whether we like it or not.

Heuristic Traps

Heuristics are short cuts that characters use to weigh risk v. reward. 

Heuristic traps can get authors into trouble. 

Applying the teachings of Dr. Elizabeth Andre in her lecture about emotions in back country decision making, your character should remember the acronym FACETS to identify the most likely heuristic traps.

The FACETS acronym was coined by researchers who studied avalanche accidents and research in social psychology. 

While this was developed for awareness in back country conditions, an author can extrapolate them to manipulate their scenes.  For example:

• Do you want your character to feel safe and depend on heuristics? Put them in a familiar setting. 
• Do you want your character to be uncomfortable and more aware? Put them in an unfamiliar setting, a foreign country with language barriers, and lack of readily found support of family and friends would be a good example.

Watch how FACETS are applied to show how risk/reward is assessed by the brain and when risk-taking behavior will increase or decrease:

F – familiarity – your character will feel more comfortable in places s/he knows. For example, back country skiers will take more risks in familiar terrain. Your character will take more risks walking at night in her neighborhood v. a strange neighborhood in a foreign city.

A – acceptance – desire to be accepted by others. "Socially acceptable" can backfire in bad situations, like following someone into a situation that your character isn't fully untrained for, pushing past their comfort. 

They want to impress someone. 

They want to prove something. 

This is particularly true if the person that they want to impress is a potential mate. 

This is one of the reasons I like to write my brand of romantic suspense. In most of my books, the impetus for the decision making is based on the desire to keep the mate or loved one safe, this then leads the character into events that they might not have the skill to deal with. 

For example in JACK BE QUICK Suz Molloy the teacher tries to save two of her students. She tells us that one of her great fears is that, if push came to shove, she would not do what the teachers at Sandy Hook did, and throw herself between the bullets and her children. She is afraid that her level of courage would not meet this societal standard set by those brave real-world heroines. In weighing her actions, Suz's brain thinks she can be succesful even though she has no skills. Her brain arrives at that conclusion because failing to try feels like the more dangerous track.

C – consistency. Once your character has made a decision it is hard for them to vere off that path. 

Time and time again when I’ve studied search and rescue outcomes, I’ve seen that had the victim continued with the original decision that they’d made, they would likely have succeeded much better than second guessing (this might be MY personal heuristic trap, and I need to be aware of it when I’m in the back country). 
It's not a bad heuristic. Awareness of this heuristic, though, can be life saving as the neocortex could argue with the limbic system about what to do next.

Our characters’ brains often want them to continue on the same way even when they’re presented with new information or conditions change. The heroine continues with her plans to go to the art show and meet their friends even though she'd heard her ex with a big gun and a bigger chip on his shoulder was looking for her. If you don't want to get a great big eye-roll from your reader, you'd better explain that thought process.

E – Expert. Defacto leaders often emerge in situations whether or not they have the skill sets necessary. 

Our expert heuristic tells us to trust that expert (again, whether or not they actually have expertise). For example, the character’s boss is in the building when the terrorists burst in. What would be best is that the gal with the three tours in the war tell folks what to do. But no, everyone is looking at the boss for leadership. The boss doesn’t no anything about this situation and will probably make some really bad decisions that everyone will follow like lemmings thanks to the expert heuristic. The vet might wrestle the "expert" name tag away from her boss so that the coworkers have a better chance, but when this is all said and done, she might be out of a job for shaming him. Something else to weigh in to that plot you're twisting...

Social status or charisma might afford someone with the expert status. 

Will your character fall for this? Some people will also believe they’re the expert. I’ll give you an example: I was on a search and rescue mission.  The person with the most medical training will be the designated medic for a mission. On this mission, this guy and I both had wilderness first aid. He said, “I’ll do it.” His other background was that he was in sales. 

I’m wilderness first aid/k-9 tactical first aid trained. I also have medical background from going to a medical college for a masters in rehabilitation counseling. I also put myself through college as a massage therapist and had a massage therapy license that included, as one would assume, lots of anatomy training. I also dealt with 4 kids and their emergency runs to the hospital for kid stuff; one of these kids had a series of life and death crises (where I applied medical information under extreme stress). The guy who became our expert had none of this. What he had going for him: he was an extrovert, a big wig at his business, and bigger physically than I am. On the surface, he looked like a good fit for expert. 

In my mind, I knew this guy well enough to know that in a situation, he'd turn to me for help. It wasn't like my wrestling for that "expert" label was going to hurt anyone. However, it might be intersting to make your beta character exert as the expert and see your alpha squirm. 

Using the above example, recognize that this is another way to twist your plot with the expert heuristic: folks might feel better trusting a certain kind of physical or mental picture, to their detriment. 

When lacking a true expert, it’s best for your characters to rule by consensus, that way there’s a pool of knowledge and information.

Here’s an example from search and rescue where the expert heuristic was properly overcome: On a training search in freezing cold weather, the rain was just beating down on us, I was part of a group that was packing a search team leader out of the woods. Why? He had become cold and dehydrated and his brain got fuzzy. 

He was the “expert” but one of the team members noticed him slurring his words and acting oddly. When confronted, the expert agreed something was off for him. The second in command took command, called in a “real world emergency” and all of the teams out in the field swarmed to help. Once the expert saw what was going to happen, he tried to wrest the authority back to himself so he could avoid the embarrassment. Luckily, the new leader (expert) would have none of it. Thus, a more serious outcome was avoided. Having your non-expert character ask questions and point things out can be done in an annoying way, a way that sows doubt and discomfort. This can add to the bad of the situation OR it could add to the better outcome. It’s your plot, twist it how you’d like. But applying this expert heuristic can help you move things along your trajectory.  

(See? Sometimes you can play nice with your characters)

T -tracks – short hand for scarcity. 

Low supply high demand means that the sought after thing must be a good thing. 

The pressure of characters who are going after the same thing might force your heroine through the T heuristic to make decisions that aren’t good for her. She might want to date Mr. X just because all the women want to. And he turns out to be dangerous to her health and well being. That job offer your character wants so much, might not be the best for her, but everyone wants that job Her brain makes her think accepting that job is the best outcome, when I fact, she would be better off staying in the small town and starting her own business...

Social facilitation – the more people the more risk taking. Sad but true.

Now how can you help your character make good decision?

First, they should understand that FACETS are in play and include that information in their decision making. 

Humans have an optimism bias – so have your characters practice thinking negatively. Other things that will help (or you could conversely deny your character so that things go badly) include:

Well rested

Well fed

Well hydrated

Comfortably warm

Go back to my search and rescue example when they took over from the expert. When he was at the hospital it was discovered through his effort on that training mission, he’d become hypoglycemic (low blood sugar from not having sufficient food), dehydrated, cold, and he’d exerted himself more than he was capable of handling that day. His decision making was thus affected to the point of putting him (and his team) in danger.

Your character's brain is a fabulous tool of survival but can also work against them. I hope this article gave you some interesting ways to think about the plight you’re advancing for your characters and your plot.

Happy writing,

Fiona

InstiGATOR and the Collective Unconscious

Pier 39 in San Francisco (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Readers have been asking for Gator's story and here it is!

InstiGator is a military romantic suspense with a psychic twist that takes place across the globe. And being Gator, this is also a book with some magical realism - though that magical experience that Gator has is based in research.

Many of my books talk about  the sixth sense that we all have. Some people through their life's experience exercise their abilities more than others. Often this comes from being in threatening experiences that makes one stretch for any information possible to stay safe. 

If you pay attention, you'll see it happening in your own life.

Let me give you an example of the last time I had an "affirmation" that I was connected, as Jung hypothesized, to the larger whole: 

I was getting ready to go to San Francisco. It's a large city with lots of tourists. I started thinking about Las Vegas and the 500+ people shot when they went to a concert. I thought about what I would do and how I could prepare. I took out my Search and Rescue First Aid bag and pared down my kit to the essentials of what I could carry in my pocket and would be the most help in that scenario. I packed both of my tourniquets. 

Hubby was getting ready for our trip. He came in and said that he was thinking about San Francisco and terror attacks especially along Pier 39, where we had planned to be on Christmas day. He said it would be full of people and that that would be a likely targeted location. Then he suggested I pack a tourniquet in my pocket along with some clotting bandages like he had. 

Weird huh? We'd never travelled with tourniquets in our pockets before.

Spin the clock forward a few hours, and there on the news is a report that the FBI thwarted a terrorist attack that was planned for Pier 39 in San Francisco for Christmas Day. (news article)

Thank goodness we didn't need our supplies, though we carried them with us anyway. Now, imagine the difference in awareness. 

• First, I had a husband who was picking up the whole "be prepared for a terror attack" vibe. If it was me alone, I might have thought I had an anxiety issue or that I was a suspense author who always conjured worse-case scenarios ;) 
• Second, if the FBI didn't release the information to the news stations, we'd never know that we both weren't acting on our Search and Rescue training to be prepared for the unforeseen, and it was happenstance that we both thought of the tourniquets. 

Had the FBI not caught the guy, we would indeed have been on the Pier during a terror attack and put our tourniquets to use. How scary is that?

Getting affirmations that the collective unconscious is at work helps build our trust in that part of our instincts. 

In InstiGATOR  Gator Aid Rochambeau depends on Lynx to keep him sane as they both experience their connections in the ether and how it complicates an already complicated mission. ENJOY!

Click the arrow to watch the trailer.

____________

CLICK HERE to download your copy!

In a life or death game, all bets are off!

Christen Davidson, a helicopter pilot for the Army, just had her day go from horrific to something far worse. Fellow operatives are in danger. Christen is desperate to fly a rescue mission. Instead, she’s ordered to act as an asset in a high-stakes, international game. She didn’t join the military to play dress-up, but she can’t disobey, even though this assignment is far outside of her comfort zone.

Gator Aid Rochambeau, a retired Marine Raider, is an Iniquus elite operative who volunteers to act as security on the Davidson mission. Yet, as the job gets underway, he is unprepared for the psychic confusion that swirls through his system. New to his psychic experiences, he reaches out to fellow Strike Force member, Lynx, for understanding, only to discover she too is battling a strange vortex of information and sensation. The one thing they both understand is that lives are on the line.

For this mission, there is no place to run and nowhere to hide from the men who have their eye on a billion-dollar deal, and the only ones standing in their way is this improbable team. The gamble they’re making could mean life or death, but the reward could be so much more!

Once again, USA Today Bestselling romantic suspense author Fiona Quinn brings you the unexpected story of spies, murder, and mystery playing out on a world stage. INSTIGATOR is the third book of the Strike Force Series. It can be read as a stand-alone novel.

Sea Rescue: Information for Writers with Nickey Myburgh

Fiona- Hello friends. 

     Have I got a treat for

     you today. I want 

     you to meet a woman

     who is a true hero.

     She lives the life 

     that our best heroines

     live - as a matter of

     fact, if I were

     funded, I would jump

     on a plane and fly to

     the Wild Coast

     where Nickey 

     lives and write her story.

     Nickey, will you start by 

     telling us a little bit about where you live and about you?

Nickey - I am known as either Nickey or

      Monique. I am originally from

      Johannesburg, South Africa where I worked

      as a nurse and then joined as emergency

      service technician (ALS).  My hubby is the

      Traffic Police Chief here. We both

      worked in Johannesburg and Soweto for

      many years. Due to security reasons, I keep

      my writing separate from my work and

      therefore use a pseudonym. 

     I am presently working and living in the Transkei, Wild Coast.

     The Wild Coast used to be the former Transkei. The homeland

     was previously governed separate from South Africa. It is a

     unique and often volatile area. Here I have my own company. 

     I train students and also work as EMT and NSRI (National Sea

     Rescue Institute) sea and shore crew member.

Fiona - Today, we are going to be talking about sea rescue, and you

      are going to be taking us through some of the ways that this 

      differs from land rescue. Can you start at the beginning? Where 

      are you when the call for help goes out?

Nickey - We are all volunteers. This is the largest stretch of coast

      line, app 200km. Usually, when we get a call it is at the most

      inappropriate time - that is always the case. People either

      contact the base station using radio or a mobile often from the

      beach area. I am sure by now you know we are infamous for

      our shark attacks.

Fiona - Yipes! Have you responded to a shark attack?

Nickey - Yes, twice. On Saturday, it was pretty vicious and again

      fatal. Even if we were at scene at that very moment we could

      not have done anything. He was in waist-deep water when the

      shark grabbed him in front of his wife and friends. A tourist

      from Austria. Apparently, the shark actually lifted him out of

      the water. He kept fighting as it dragged him into deeper waters.

Fiona - And the victims die from blood loss? From an artery being

      severed? Or shock?

Nickey - Blood loss. In this case he was amputated from waist

      down. Usually the shark returns. It was not a single bite wound.

Fiona - ARGH! In my mind, they tasted you and let go because

      humans aren't their regular food. If it were to happen to one of

      our characters, what could someone who saw it happen do to

      prevent the death?

Nickey - If at all possible, stop the bleeding and treat for shock.

      Over here, the sharks return and finish the job. I swam here

      often until the first call. The reality of it is very brutal, and it

      changed my perception completely.

Fiona - Amputation 

     from the waist down

     can't be saved. That

     is gruesome. How do

     you handle things

     like that? Some 

     people are

     always okay with it, 

     some just shove it

     down, others grow 

     thick skin - what is the case for you?

Nickey - I manage it very well. My husband and I worked together

      in Johannesburg and Soweto for a long time so the violence is

      nothing new.We are a classic case of a cop married to a medic,

      so we both discuss things. I tend to go over

      events in my mind, now that I am older, and question my

      judgement. I also talk with the lifesavers and other medics

      because they are often very alone in what they feel.

     We do not receive support in that area, so we discuss things

     informally. My hubby and I meet with the crews and just talk

     (debrief). It is getting harder. I find that child victims are the

     toughest.

Fiona - Are children a large part of those you rescue? What types

      of accidents befall them?

Nickey - Yes. Rogue waves are a big problem and motor vehicle

      collisions. We do not have barriers next to our roads, and it is a

      regular thing for a vehicle to roll down the embankment and end

      up in the river (Umzimvubu).

Fiona - So what do you do when you get that call - is the water

     deep enough that these are usually recovery rather than rescue

     calls?

Nickey - We have wet-suits and gear. Part of the ritual is getting

      dressed in motion.

     We treat everything predominantly as a rescue until we are sure

      of the actual situation. It is very difficult when the community

      contact us for help because they do not provide adequate

      information. Even on scene, they are sometimes so confused

      that they will refuse to say how many people were in the

      vehicle or on the boat.

Fiona - So you don't know if you've accounted for everyone? That's

      difficult.

Nickey - Yes, you have to look for clues. Sometimes there are

      childrens' clothing but no child. We are also dealing with people

      who are not very trusting of authority, so you have to keep a

      kind and authoritative posture, not show your urgency and

      continue to search.The most important thing is to

      compartmentalize what you feel. Put it away and focus on your

      team and the information you have. Situational awareness is

      everything. 

    

Launching site

 
Nickey -  If possible, the vessel will stop right in front of our place,

    and I  get in from where we do a launch from the Umzimvubu 

    into the sea. That is a very tricky skill; only a handful of skippers

   can master.

Fiona - Is the water treacherous there. What requires the skill?

Nickey - When you are in the vessel you keep an eye open for the

     waves to assist the skipper. Also, you look out for any

     debris. Unfortunately, people usually do not wear clothing that

     are very visible, so it is amazingly difficult to actually find a 

     person or even a yacht.

     One of the many reasons for the stormy seas are the sudden

     drop of the continental shelf which not only powers the waves

     but can cause the opposite, a sudden drop or hole in the ocean.

     When you are out there it is an exquisite experience. When

     steering the vessel the skipper often faces into the wave with

     just the right amount of power otherwise it becomes airborne,

     and you end up flying off the crest with a tremendous force.

     In the boat, you feel every movement in your back and bones.

     It is exhilarating. You smell and taste salt in your bone marrow. 

     The rougher the ocean, the scarier and stronger the adrenaline 

     rush. When in rough seas, it is surprisingly difficult to see a

     person in the ocean or even a capsized boat. This is even more

     true if they are not wearing reflective life jackets, or if the hull

     of the boat is white or blue.  

     Our calls are very diverse. It could be anything really; our unit

     was involved in the rescue of the passengers of the Oceanos in

     1991. Part of our training includes being airlifted from a boat by

     a helicopter, or placing a patient in the rescue basket or harness

     for airlift, retrieving a patient from the water, providing

     emergency medical treatment and collecting a patient from

     another vessel if the conditions are not favorable for a helicopter

     rescue. We regularly have to tow a defective vessel to safety.

     The helicopter we use as training is a BK 117 Army 'copter'. We

     don't jump from it anymore unless we really have to and then

     only if it is lower than 8 meters

Fiona - Why have you stopped 

    jumping? What injuries were

    the rescuers sustaining?

Nickey - The jumping causes an

    immense amount of sudden

    stress on your spine if you're

    posture is incorrect. It can be

    very dangerous and is

    unpredictable. Think of the

    same concept that happens

    during concussion, the last

    thing you need is a team

    member with a serious head or

    neck injury, disorientation,

    paralysis and so forth.

Fiona - Yes - that's what I would suppose. So once you're in the

    water, would you ascend by harness?

Nickey - Yes, the harness is the same type of material as a seat-

     belt and fits around your shoulders and between your legs. 

     You cross your arms in front of you. The cable of the helicopter

     must touch the vessel or even the water first so that there is a

     static release. Otherwise it can give you a nasty jolt.

Fiona - A very cool detail! How does the turbulence of the ocean

     water impact your patient care on the way to an emergency

     room?

Nickey - It is an experience because it is wet and noisy, and oh yes

      very slippery. It is very difficult to put up a line (IV) and even

      listening to the lungs and heart (taking vitals) is challenging.

Fiona - I hadn't thought of that - yes!

Nickey - We take our vitals manually, with a BP cuff and stet. 

     I use other senses, for example feeling the patients skin,

     pulse, that tells me a lot about the rhythm of the heart and its

     strength. I look at the pupil size, and count the respirations.

Fiona - Are there other issues that we might not have thought to

     include in our plot lines?

Nickey - When you move into a wave crest, the vessel becomes

      airborne so do you and the patient. It takes balance,

      coordination, and a sense of humor to do this. One of the

      biggest problems is hypothermia. 

      In June and July, we have the

      sardine run. It is winter and the water temp is about 15 degrees

      C. (59F) We have schools of sardines with dolphin pods of up

      to 20,000 dolphins hunting, also whales and sharks.

Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     This is the time

     when divers come

     down as well as film

     crew. Free diving -

     no cages. You have

     to watch out for the

     sea life. 

      It is incredible to

      actually see a 

      whale up close, but

      you should never be closer than 100 m. 

     They are wild. 

Fiona - Holy moly! How hard would it be to get, say a shark victim

      with and leg amputation to a hospital?

Nickey - It all depends on resource availability. If we can get a

      helicopter, then it might be anything up to an hour. We stabilise

      as best as possible on sea, before coming in through the ways.

      Then if there is an ambulance, which is rare, we will stay with

      the patient for the 15 minute drive to the clinic. Our clinic is not

      an ER or hospital, so I will get out and carry on working with

      the sisters over there.

Fiona - No kidding - kuddos! for even trying. How long is the 

     average trip to land/hospital? What is the survival rate if rescued

     at sea?

Nickey - You must take into account that this is a very rural area.

     So even with a shark attack victim, it can still take up to 15

     minutes, and that is only after we have reached land.

Fiona - Before I forget - and I am cringing as I type this - can you

     tell me about your favorite scar?

Nickey - Oh, no sharks A small stab wound on my left shin.

Fiona - And with all of that going on, you write prolifically across

     genre. Tell me about your writing, is it an escape from your

     everyday heroism or do you use your work to inform your

     writing?

Nickey - My writing used to be my outlet, but as I became more

      involved, I started to write academically. That is actually a

      coping mechanism. I have recently started to write from my

      own experiences and feelings. It is very honest and

      vulnerable...it is a new experience.

     Of everything I had written, the teaching manual to Sangomas 

     on how to recognize emergencies and refer them for appropriate

     assistance means the most. I think that it is possible to prevent a

     lot of the pain and hurt if we start at the source. So I teach

     Sangomas how to interpret actual signs and symptoms. It is a

      very interesting journey.

Fiona - I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with Sangomas - can you tell

      me a little and what their situation is?

Sangoma in fur and leather (Photo credit: K. Kendall)

Nickey - They are Traditional

     Healers, they visit the Transkei to

     perform rituals and help the sick

     in the community using herbs and

     muti.

Fiona - (information about muti)

Nickey - The sea is of great

       significance to them because it is

       the place of their ancestors.

       Sometimes muti is herbs, but it

       can be a concoction of anything.

       You will get a better idea if you

       surf muti killings.

Fiona - I just Googled muti-killings and am horrified. 

     I had no idea. We'll have to leave that discussion
     for another article.

Thank you so much Nickey for visiting with us today. I am so looking forward to your coming back to tell us more about your efforts to teach medicine to the healers in your area. You are, as I said at the beginning of this article, an incredible heroine. 

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