Ellen Kirschman--Call Me Carmela

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It's been too long (as you will see) since we've had police psychologist Ellen Kirschman visit the blog! Her expert perspective is always welcome, and even more so when it's channeled through the viewpoint of her police psychologist protagonist, Dot Meyerhoff, who's back in her fifth outing, CALL ME CARMELA. 

Here's Ellen!

Hello Again Jungle Red readers: I can hardly believe it’s been nearly nine years since my last post. I had just published my second Dot Meyerhoff mystery and now I’m about to publish my fifth! We have a lot of catching up to do.  

You may remember that, in real life, I’m a police psychologist and my protagonist Dot is a younger, thinner, more daring version of myself. She’s embedded at the Kenilworth PD, a department that isn’t sure it wants her there. She still takes orders from no one, including her chief, and solves crimes when she should be counseling cops.

            Dot was fifty when I started the series. She’s aging slowly (slower than I am). Back in book one, Burying Ben, she had no love life. The few blind dates she had since her divorce felt like therapy sessions, an endless recitation of misery and loss. In her opinion, middle-aged people have too much emotional baggage. Dumping it takes an entire evening that would be better spent shoving sticks under each other’s fingernails.

When she met Frank (I plagarized my husband’s entire life for Frank’s character), her attitude changed, but at a snail’s pace. It took her three books and several contentious therapy sessions of her own to learn to trust him. (I do love her wacky shrink, Dr. Philipp Rogoff).

            Dot is uniquely persistent. She never gives up on anybody, not even the mastermind felon she worked with when he was a child (The Answer to His Prayers). Too dedicated for her own good, her determination to do the right thing for her clients and get to the bottom of a mystery, lands her in big trouble. I’m talking life-threatening, license-losing, job-ending, relationship-destroying trouble.

Using her brains and her training as a psychologist, Dot lands on her feet despite stepping on a few toes in the process. She’s the kind of woman I would want on my side. Which is why I’ve stuck with her through five books. (And why I write about her as if she was a living, breathing person). She’s tough, empathic, ethical, funny, and big-hearted. Who cares if she hates to cook, loves drinking red wine with popcorn, and has impossibly high standards for herself as a woman and as a therapist?

            In my newest book, Call Me Carmela, Dot gets herself in a new kind of trouble. Usually, her caseload is populated with cops. But when a dear friend, and KPD’s only police widow, asks for help with her petulant teenage god daughter, Dot can’t refuse. As she reluctantly helps this troubled adopted girl find her birth parents, she’s drawn into the emotionally turbulent world of illegal adoptions. And the choices a young pregnant woman might make as a last resort. Plagued by her own conflict-filled childhood and tormented by the memory of a young client she failed to help, she pushes on, despite multiple warnings that pursuing the truth could be dangerous. The only thing she knows for sure is that unraveling the tangle of long held secrets might heal one family, but will certainly destroy another.

            Now that you’re all caught up, I want to thank the readers that have kept asking for more of Dot and extend my gratitude to the Jungle Red Writers for the opportunity to tell you about her latest adventure. Call Me Carmela launches on November 26^th and is now up for pre-order.

DEBS: Most of us would love to be a younger, thinner, more adventurous version of ourselves (why didn't I think of that?) so kudos to you, Ellen, for inventing Dot! 

Here's more about Ellen!

Ellen Kirschman is the author of three non-fiction books and the Dot Meyerhoff mystery series. Ellen finds writing fiction to be therapeutic because she gets to take potshots at nasty cops, incompetent psychologists, and two ex-husbands. She lives in Redwood City, California with her husband, the photographer, S.Hollis Johnson. She adores Zumba, dogs, cats and ice cream. A member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and The Public Safety Writers Association. Sign up for her occasional newsletter at www.ellenkirschman.com. and receive a mini-memoir of her life as a dance hall hostess in Times Square. 

And more about Call Me Carmela:

Police psychologist Dot Meyerhoff's caseload is usually filled with cops—which is why she's hesitant to help an adopted teenager locate her birth parents. The teen's godmother is Dot's dear friend Fran and a police widow to boot. How could Dot possibly say no?' Once Dot starts digging into the case, she's drawn into a murky world of illegal adoptions and the choices a young pregnant woman might make as a last resort. Soon, there's only one thing Dot knows for sure: the painful truth of what happened all those years ago might heal one family—but it's certain to destroy another. 

And more about the series!

Police psychologist Dot Meyerhoff is embedded in a department that isn't sure it trusts her. Determined to help her police officer clients cope with a never-ending stream of traumatic stress and tragedy, she often steps out of her role only to come face to face with criminals, putting herself, her family, and her job at risk. Inspired by real-life events, the series exposes the pain behind the badge: suicide, sexism, tragic mistakes, dysfunctional families, and the challenges faced by a dedicated psychologist with a too-big heart.

DEBS: Readers, what changes would you make if you could reinvent yourself as a fictional character?

           

           

 

 

A Day in the LIfe of A Police Officer--The Real Story

"Highly satisfying....Kirschman...perceptively treats complex racial, feminist, person and political issues while providing intimate knowledge of cops' shop procedure...neatly balances Dot's psychological expertise with her warmhearted humanity...." 
                                        Publishers Weekly on THE RIGHT WRONG THING

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Did you see this cover of TIME? (Remember TIME? A blog for another day.) But so thought provoking, and such an important perspective.

One of our dear friends of Jungle Red, Ellen Kirschman, is a police psychologist. In her non-fiction life, she counsels police officers, especially after tragic circumstances. (In her fiction life, she writes terrific mysteries.)

Can you imagine? And since some of us write about police officers—it’s so important to understand all sides of the spectrum. Insight is the key to understanding and authenticity. And we are delighted to welcome and her unique and insightful perspective.

Hi JungleReds!

Thanks for having me back. I was a guest on your blog two years ago. Since then things have changed dramatically. These are hard times to be a cop. When I began writing the Right Wrong Thing I was simply trying to write a good story about what happens when a cop shoots an innocent person. 

            You may remember that I'm a police psychologist as well as a writer. I switched from non-fiction to writing mysteries in 2013 when I foolishly thought it would be easier to make things up. I use fiction to explore contemporary issues in law enforcement such as police suicide, post-traumatic stress and, in my current work-in-progress, the strain investigating internet crimes against children has on the investigator.

            My protagonist is psychologist, Dr. Dot Meyerhoff. Dot was my mother's name and Meyerhoff was my maternal grandmother's surname. Neither lived to read my mysteries. It makes me happy to honor them in this way.

            My books are inspired by clients, all of whom I've deeply disguised to protect their identities. I've lost count of how many officers I've counseled after a shooting. (For that matter, I've also lost track of how many officers' funerals I've attended.) Many are temporarily experiencing physical, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms. For them, time slows down or speeds up. Hands or weapons appear larger than life. Gunshots don't sound the way they do on the firing range. Memory degrades. So does patience.  Isolation increases. It's hard to sleep, to stop thinking about the shooting or to engage in normal family activities. These are all involuntary reactions generated by a storm of stress hormones and neuro-chemicals activated by the human response to threats against survival. Normal or not, post-traumatic stress can make an officer feel as though she's going crazy.

             The client who inspired this book struggled to come to terms with having killed a person even though the shooting was deemed lawful and justified. Like Randy Spelling, the fictional officer who mistakenly shoots and kills an unarmed pregnant teenager in The Right Wrong Thing, my client had nightmares and suffered from extreme guilt and remorse. Unlike Randy, she found a good therapist (apologies for tooting my own horn) to help her recover.

            I am very grateful to so many officers who have allowed me to fictionalize their stories and helped me get the details right. It is my hope that my books are not only good reads but are informative and shed some light on the too often unacknowledged emotional risks of being a cop or being married to one. 

HANK: What questions do you have about what police officers think? How they make decisions? How they do their jobs?  Ellen is a terrific resource! And she’s here today to give us the scoop.

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Ellen Kirschman, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in independent practice. She is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Society for the Study of Police and Criminal Psychology, the American Psychological Association, and the International Association of Women in Law Enforcement. She is the recipient of the California Psychological Association's 2014 award for distinguished contribution to psychology as well as the American Psychological Association's 2010 award for outstanding contribution to the practice of police and public safety psychology. Ellen is the author of the award-winning I Love a Cop: What Police Families Need to Know, I Love a Fire Fighter: What the Family Needs to Know, and lead author of Counseling Cops: What Clinicians Need to Know (2013). Her debut novel, Burying Ben: A Dot Meyerhoff Mystery (2013) is about police suicide told from the perspective of the psychologist. Ellen and her husband live in Redwood City, California.

Ellen Kirschman writes from experience, counseling cops and fire fighters

HALLIE EPHRON: I met Ellen Kirschman a few years at Book Passage's mystery writing conference. I was impressed with her writing, and especially impressed with the experience she'd had as a psychologist and the two (now three) books she'd written about counseling cops and fire fighters. Her thoughtful insights into the challenges of serving for public safety were unique and fascinating.

She was also working on a novel, she told me. Making it up this time. That book, "Burying Ben," is just out and it's my pleasure to welcome Ellen to Jungle Red.

Ellen, why did you move from non-fiction to fiction? Did you feel you had to tell "Ben Gomez's" and "Dot Meyerhoff's story"

ELLEN KIRSCHMAN: I was delusional. I thought it would be easier to make things up. It isn't. Creating a story that engages readers from start to finish is a lot harder than writing a book readers can pick up and put down when they want to without losing the thread.

As you know, Burying Ben is about police suicide - that's not a spoiler, it's on the first page. What many people don't know is that suicide is the leading cause of death for police. Cops are two to three times as likely to kill themselves as they are to be killed in the line of duty.

It's an important subject that's no longer being swept under the rug. I wanted to show some of the real wear and tear of policing, which is very different from what you see on TV.

Fortunately,  I've never lost a client to suicide, but it's something I've always feared, so this was a chance for me to put those fears on paper. Not only does my protagonist, Dot Meyerhoff, lose her client, he leaves a suicide note blaming her.

HALLIE: Wow, that is very powerful. Tough. Serious stuff. Wondering if you had any fun writing it? Will the reader have any fun reading it?

ELLEN: Hard to believe, but this is a humorous mystery. I had a wonderful time taking pot shots at cops, my fellow psychologists, my ex-husbands, and myself. It was very satisfying.

HALLIE: So I can ask: Ellen, does your nonfiction and your novel "Burying Ben" spring from the same well?

ELLEN: I'm not nearly so gutsy, young or thin as Dot Meyerhoff, and I certainly never did the wacky things she does, like breaking and entering or assault with a deadly weapon. But we do share some of the same challenges.

For example, like me, she works like the devil  to gain officers' trust. I spent 25 years consulting at one agency and the day I left, there were still some cops who believed I had a video camera in my office that went right up to the Chief's desk.

Like Dot I've felt like a  fish out of water, both as a woman and as a civilian. Dot has even bigger problems. She is the  daughter of a student activist at Berkeley in the 60's. The memory of her father's mistreatment by the police creates causes her a lot of grief.

If you're asking whether certain aspects of this book really happened, the answer is yes and no. Some scenes, like the old man's death in Chapter One, really happened and I never forgot it. 

I also keep a record of the funny, off-the-wall things cops say. They go from my folder to Officer Eddie Rimbauer's mouth. He's a composite of many people, but he sounds so real, there's an on-line pool of cops trying to guess his identity.

HALLIE: What got you started counseling public safety officers, and briefly what are its special challenges?

ELLEN: I was working in an outpatient psychiatric clinic. Several of my clients were married to cops. Some of their home situations were very difficult. I'm a curious, hands-on person with a bit of a law enforcement background - I was once a probation officer - so I wanted to explore this world of work and how it influenced an officer's private life.

I did most of my research in the back of a patrol car. It was a lot more exciting than doing therapy.  Cops are way funnier than psychologists, even when they're depressed. I learned to appreciate  how complex their jobs really are, and how under-appreciated by the public  they often feel.

HALLIE: You've written another book called "I Love a Cop." Are you married to one?

ELLEN: No. Never even had a date with a cop. I keep my personal and professional lives separate. My husband is a remodeling contractor and photographer. Unfortunately, no one wants to read a book about a remodeling contractor.

HALLIE Will there be another Dot Meyerhoff mystery?

ELLEN: I'm working on it as we speak. It's a bit darker and more complicated. This is what makes writing fun for me, I'm not sure I know how it's going to turn out.  Dot will figure it out.  I'm just trying to get out of her way.

HALLIE: Ellen will be hanging around today. I know we have lots of writers out there, so if you questions about how cops and fire fighters and their families deal with the realities of their jobs, now is your chance to ask.

Ellen is giving away a copy of Burying Ben to one lucky responder.