Researching Teens for the Niki Alexander mysteries by Laura Elvebak
My protagonist, Niki Alexander, is an ex-cop who
quit after she had to shoot a teen before he shot her. Convinced that the only
way she might find redemption was to save as many street teens as she could. To
that end, she became a counselor for a teen shelter. But what did I know about troubled
teens?
I told myself I knew teenagers. After all, my three
children were teenagers once. They were five years apart in age. As soon as one
child passed through the teen phase, the next would present a whole new set of
problems. As a single parent, I learned through experience.
First lesson: Niki Alexander had to teach street
kids how to fight and protect themselves to survive the perils they faced.
My oldest daughter developed her strength from
martial arts. She won tournaments while going to school and working part time
to pay for lessons. At sixteen she worked at a Dairy Queen, a few blocks from
our apartment. She would walk to work and back. One afternoon on her way home,
she was approached by a young man with a knife. Instead of being scared, she
was so furious she karate-kicked the knife out of his hand. The young man
turned and ran.
Lesson Two: Communication and Understanding
My son had ADHD and when he was twelve, he ran away and
found Covenant House. With the help of a therapist, we learned to deal with his
problems.
My youngest daughter was headstrong, defied rules,
and ran away for two weeks to stay with a girlfriend. It took an intervention led
by the single mother of her girlfriend for my daughter and me to learn how to communicate
with each other. Once I learned to accept her feelings, she began to bring home
other friends whose family life was less than desirable. One fifteen-year-old
ran away from home and was abducted into a sex trafficking ring. She managed to
escape. Thereafter, when she felt the need to leave home, she would stay with
us. Twenty years later, she and my daughter are still close friends and have
children of their own.
It seemed a natural choice to pick Niki Alexander to
tell the stories of runaways and throwaways. To learn more about present day
runaways, I took a tour of Covenant House in the Montrose area of Houston. I
was so impressed with their dedication and care toward troubled teens they
became the model for Open Palms, the shelter where Niki works as a counselor.
Researching Less
Dead, the first in the series, I was fortunate to have a former resident of
Montrose in my critique group offer to give me a different kind of tour one
Saturday afternoon. She took me to restaurants, and teen hangouts like Numbers,
where they could buy non-alcoholic drinks and dance to live bands. We visited
the Mausoleum for poetry readings, and then the gay bars. When we arrived at
each place, my friend would approach the owner or manager and explain what I
would be writing about, and request permission to include their business in my
books. They all agreed. (I asked for a signing at these places after the book
was published, but never heard back.)
For Lost
Witness and A Matter of Revenge,
I did a second tour of Covenant House. Another friend of my daughter’s, an
older woman named Tara, who once lived on the street, agreed to be a character
in both books. She took me to the street church, held every Wednesday night in
a parking lot across from Covenant House and provides food and drink. Tara
introduced me to the preacher who, in turn, introduced me to the young crowd.
For the rest of the evening, kids came up to me to tell their story. They provided
the seeds that grew into new problems for Niki to solve.
Finally, Lesson Four: Never stop asking questions
and learning. It’s all research.
Bio:
Laura
studied writing at UCLA, USC, Rice University, and Beyond Baroque in Venice,
California. After taking a directing class in Houston, she co-wrote, directed
and acted in a one-act play. She optioned three screenplays to a local
production company, and co-wrote a script for the 48 Hour Film Project.
Laura is a member of Mystery
Writers of America, Sisters-In-Crime, The International Thriller Writers, and
The Final Twist Writers and has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Good
Reads, and Amazon Author Central.
Website URL: http://lauraelvebak@sbcglobal.net
Blog URL: www.lauraelvebak.blogspot.com
Facebook URL: http://www.facebook.com/lelvebak
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lauraelvebak
@lauraelvebak
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraelvebak
Skype: laura.elvebak53
A
Matter of Revenge buy links:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-matter-of-revenge-laura-elvebak/1125481431?ean=9781626946019
Covenant House:
Covenant House:
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