Full Circle Moment: A Guest Post by Jumata Emil
Covering crime was probably my least favorite beat over my seventeen-year career as a journalist. I know, shocker! A mystery writer who didn’t like chasing stories about murder and the people who commit them. It’s blasphemous!
The thing is, the crime beat is often reserved for the cub reporters. It’s how most of us cut our teeth in the profession. As a crime reporter you’re pretty much on call, sent by editors at a moment’s notice to a crime scene, which often happened in the middle of the night so your hours sucked. You don’t get weekends off and you rarely get to do the big investigative pieces that win all the splashy newspaper awards because you’re bogged down writing daily crime briefs (ugh!) and trying to keep up with multiple arrests, court dates and police politics–if you’re working in a large metropolitan area.
Looking back, I think that might have been the universe preparing me for my childhood dream of becoming an author.
It was a few years before I landed the beat I really wanted, City Hall, and even then I still found myself being pulled back into crime coverage at times for various reasons. Always kicking and screaming any time I was. Looking back, I think that might have been the universe preparing me for my childhood dream of becoming an author. Before writing my debut novel, The Black Queen, my earlier attempts at writing fiction consisted of fantasy, horror, and contemporary stories. It’s weird because I always loved reading mysteries, watching thrillers, and listening to true crime podcasts. I know what you’re thinking: If that’s true, why again didn’t I enjoy being a crime reporter? It’s pretty simple. I didn’t like having such a front row seat to senseless deaths and shocking incidents that can haunt your dreams as a crime reporter. I’d rather be a voyeur from a safer distance. I truly think this is why readers love the genre so much too. But once the writing bug hit me again a few years ago and I looked around in the young adult section of the bookstore to see where there were gaps in storytelling, I landed on mysteries and thrillers. The stories I devoured as a young adult. All of a sudden, my past as a begrudging crime reporter became the thing that helped my writing standout.
But once the writing bug hit me again a few years ago and I looked around in the young adult section of the bookstore to see where there were gaps in storytelling, I landed on mysteries and thrillers.
With my debut book and now my second novel Wander in the Dark, I reflected on every conversation I’d had with cops and public relations officers for the police departments I used to cover. I even pulled out my old reporter notebooks to remind myself of the interesting behind-the-scenes nuisances that came with detective work. I used them to build believable investigative tactics for my amateur sleuths. I know readers have to suspend their disbelief to an extent to fully embrace the idea of teenagers solving crimes, so my goal is always to have the sleuthing my characters do feel as real and familiar as possible. Had it not been all the years I spent on the crime desk, the stories I’ve written so far wouldn’t be as compelling as readers have said they are. Talk about a full circle moment.
Hardcover
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Wander in the Dark
Wander in the Dark
By Jumata Emill
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Hardcover
$17.99
$19.99
A timely and necessary YA thriller that bandies with themes of systemic racism and racial bias in the modern South, Wander in the Dark also maintains all the hallmarks of a page-turning thriller. This is a tough one to put down.
A timely and necessary YA thriller that bandies with themes of systemic racism and racial bias in the modern South, Wander in the Dark also maintains all the hallmarks of a page-turning thriller. This is a tough one to put down.