Here's a fun little slice of history. In early 1781, General
Nathanael Greene and his army retreated across the Dan River into Virginia
ahead of the pursuing Crown forces in North Carolina commanded by Charles, Lord
Cornwallis. The famous "Race to the Dan" was arduous for both British
and Continentals, with both sides making great concessions to achieve their
goals. For example, in effort to lighten his load and move more quickly so he
could overtake his opponent, Cornwallis ordered his baggage burned. (Ack! The
baggage contained supplies that made army life bearable, like booze!) All to no
avail. The swollen Dan River came between the exhausted Brits and their quarry.

The Earl Cornwallis, knowing that the soldiers and civilians
of his army needed R&R, found a little town to occupy: Hillsborough, North
Carolina. But his army only stayed in Hillsborough from February 20 – 26, 1781.
The British weren't greeted with great enthusiasm. Many residents of the area
were peace-loving Quakers or Moravians. And every time the redcoats left town
limits to forage for food, patriot snipers with excellent aim picked them off.

Fast-forward more than two hundred years ahead.
Visit Hillsborough, where Cornwallis is now a celeb, and count how many places
in and around town are named after him. Every year, usually the third Saturday
of February, the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough celebrates the
British occupation with an all-day encampment on the grounds of the Orange
County Visitors Center, a.k.a. the Alexander Dickson House. Reenactors portray
soldiers of the 33rd Light Company, militiamen, and civilian camp followers.
It's a colorful, inexpensive, fun-for-the- family event where you can watch a
military drill or a demonstration of a colonial skill such as spinning, listen
to storytellers, taste the kind of food soldiers would have eaten, and tour the
colonial city. This year, 21 February, the event drew a big crowd of
spectators. I know, because I sold my books on the porch of the Visitors Center
all day. A big thank-you to Elizabeth Read, Virginia Smith, and the folks at
Historic Hillsborough for organizing such a fun day. And hey, don't those
redcoats look sharp?

Kris Neri's class on mystery and thriller structure ended in
February, and it was excellent. For me, the most useful piece of the course was
the exercise of writing out the villain's story. A number of students in the
class balked at this exercise. Think about it: you write the mystery/thriller
from the point of view of the detective/protagonist. Villains often possess
undesirable personality characteristics, so many writers don't want to spend
time inside the villain's head.

While I don't shirk the task of crawling inside the heads of
my villains, what I'd never done before this class was write out the whole
villain's story. This exercise does show you how much goes on in the
background. But telling the villain's story made me focus the villain's
energy in advance of writing most of the novel. I felt the full weight of the
villain's negative energy up-front, and it made me realize how hard my
protagonist, Lt. Michael Stoddard, would have to struggle to overcome that. I
will definitely apply this technique in future novels.

And I suspect that one reason why justice doesn't get served
often enough in real life is because the villain is good at keeping the full
impact of his/her negative energy unfocused, or maybe the good guys aren't able
to show the villain's negativity consolidated. Many thanks to Kris Neri for her
excellent teaching.