Thursday, February 21, 2013

IMPORTANT CHANGE

As of today, all of my blogs including the Stacey Burns murder case, updates on re-release of my novels, work on current projects, writing tips, and any other information will be available on my updated website whichis still www.dukesouthard.com.
Please visit that site to see a fully interactive website.
You will be able to comment on any post I place on that website.
Thanks for following this blog but you'll enjoy the new one much more!
duker

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Still for sale?

I've been told that people back in New Hampshire are reading this blog. For that reason, I've waited for ten days for a response to my "Manuscript for Sale" blog, hoping that someone, other than Jim Vittum, would answer the call. (See previous blog for my request) No one has.
For over two and a half years, my writing energies have gone toward Murder in a Small Town: The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns. This is just a guess but maybe I've spent more time working on this project in recent months than the authorities have spent trying to solve the murder. Of course, I hope with all my heart that this guess is completely wrong but I'd be willing to match hours out of curiosity. I know, I know, they have other cases to work on too!
The sad truth is that without anyone else stepping up to either supply new information to me or to simply tell me that it is all right to use the information they've already supplied, I am stymied.
Within the next three or four months, my first novel (A Favor Returned)  will be re-released in paperback and as an e-book so my writing efforts are going to be focused on the revision of that book. (which, by the way, is undergoing a complete rewrite)
I still make the offer to anyone reading this: If you have any new information about the Stacey Burns murder, I would love to include it and I'd be happy to return to work on that book if anyone supplies me with the incentive of fresh ideas.
Watch for an announcement coming soon about my new website where you will be able to go for all kinds of information, from the Stacey Burns book to writing tips and anecdotes to news about programs and presentations.
Just wondering about one other thing regarding the Stacey Burns case- have any reporters been able to obtain any informative police reports concerning that day? Has an autopsy report been released? Is all of that type of information still hidden behind the "ongoing investigation" curtain?
duker
 

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Manuscript for sale (Murder in a Small Town . . .)

The title of this blog is misleading, I admit. Please follow the logic below and perhaps it will make sense.
Murder in a Small Town: The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns is going nowhere unless I self-publish it (which is not a moral nor financial option for me) or there is an arrest of the killer of Stacey. Right now, it is a manuscript that could be subtitled The Jim Vittum Story because the most extensive interviews I've conducted have been with him.
I know his story well and unless I hear from someone who can contradict what he has told me, it makes sense. I know there are people out there who have said "Don't believe anything Jim Vittum has told you" which is fine if I have other people revealing specific information on the other side. Ample opportunities have been given to others to respond to my requests to tell their side of the story. Here is where the sale comes in.
Currently, the manuscript is approximately 140 pages in length and is as well-balanced as I can make it without the "others" mentioned above giving me something to write about. I estimate that a final version should be well over 250 pages if the "others" choose to tell me their side.
So, yes, the manuscript is for sale, not literally but figuratively. I will sell as much space in this manuscripts as it takes to tell the many sides of the story. I can't do that without information from the Burns family, the Keane family, the local and state authorities, or the many "others" who know details of what happened during the last few months of Stacey's life.
Any takers for the offer to buy the remaining part of the manuscript? Just get in touch with me with your new information!
In the meantime, I am working on a re-release of a completely revised edition of my first novel, A Favor Returned which should be released sometime this spring as a paperback and an e-book. Watch for it!
duker

Friday, February 1, 2013

Cash for info (2)

In the two days since the blog which contained the word "cash" in the title, there has been a significant spike in the page views for duker's blog.
Perhaps the title of that blog (and this one) piqued some interest or, at the least, some curiosity. Just so there is no misunderstanding, I do not know of any cache of funds earmarked for the search of information in the Stacey Burns murder. However, the whole concept of rewards in solving crimes is not a new one, by any stretch, so why not just speculate on what might happen if someone does have some solid (and new) information which they are only willing to share for a price?  
Since October, 2010 when I began work on Murder in a Small Town: The Tragic Death of Stacey Burns in earnest, I've had the sense that there is more to this story than appears on the surface. That sense remains and is stronger today than it was two and half years ago. If "cash for info" is what it would take to remove a killer from the streets, then probably someone should make that happen. For my part, I naively believe that "justice for info" should be enough to move anyone who knows something to bring it forward and, of course, we know that at least one person knows something- the murderer of Stacey Burns.
duker