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“It won’t happen to me….”

by | Dec 16, 2011 | Writing

“It won’t happen to me….”

“It won’t happen to me….”

by Glenn Starkey

 

I’ve spent the majority of my adult life protecting people in some manner whether alone or with a team, unarmed or carrying concealed weapons. Shadowing people of all levels on executive protection details may sound exciting, but they encompass tiring, long hours of extreme alertness.

We wish the world was only filled with good people. Unfortunately, that is not the case. With a holiday season, the flow of money and opportunities for crime are higher than normal. Protecting yourself and loved ones daily doesn’t require a bodyguard or the carrying of automatic weapons, but it does demand your personal awareness of immediate surroundings and common-sense.

The subject of this writing could be a semester long course or months of intensive hands-on training. I do not have the luxury of time and space here so I will touch upon a few basic elements to consider. By the end you will be shaking your head and saying, “I knew that!” yet these very points have been the most overlooked by crime victims because they believed “It won’t happen to me.”

We’re going to look at personal security actions from the level of an everyday citizen, not a CEO or major public figure. For now let’s break your life into four components: (1) Personal Communications, (2) At Home, (3) Travel and, (4) Public Venues. There are more we could use but we are keeping this simple due to brevity.

PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS: Think about computer fraud, those phishing and scam emails, and computer viruses. Some of the banking phishing/scam emails appear quite authentic and it’s easy to be duped into submitting your personal data. And don’t fall for the “Millions of dollars are waiting for you to claim in Nigeria” scams.  Primarily, bad guys are trying to hook the greed in weak people with these emails. Another scam is to receive an email from a friend which states he/she is overseas, lost their wallet and need you to wire them money. Of course they will repay you upon their return. The email address looks authentic, you want to assist your dear friend, you send money and later discover they were simply in the next state visiting relatives.  It’s amazing what all scams are out there. Changing passwords on your computer and the various programs you use also helps. One last item; be careful what personal information you give out over the telephone.  Be sure who you are talking to before providing information to callers, even if it means you must call the main number of a company and request to speak to the caller again.

AT HOME:  If you park your vehicle in your residence driveway, lock it when unattended. Don’t leave valuables lying in the seats. These attract the attention of car burglars prowling neighborhoods at night.  Keep a cell phone in your bedroom at night to use to call the police if needed.  Remember to lock your residence’s doors after you have entered the house. Check your windows to insure they are locked. People often open windows to air their homes and forget to lock the windows later after closing them. Don’t open the door to strangers or allow them to enter unless you know them. If someone displays an ID of some official nature, don’t be afraid to call their agency or the police to properly identify them. When ID’s are flashed at you then quickly closed and put away by the unknown person, simply tell them to display it again so you can better read it. Don’t be intimidated by shiny badges and fancy ID’s in leather wallets. Fake badges and homemade ID’s are easy to acquire.  Insure your residential alarm works properly. Call your alarm monitoring company at least once a month and advise them you are going to test it – or set off the alarm to see if the alarm company is actually monitoring.  During Christmas, don’t display wrapped gifts where they can be seen through the windows. Everyone wants to stand their Christmas tree in the front main window of their homes, but it also serves as a beacon for burglars wanting quick hit and runs.

TRAVEL: When you are out and about, keep your vehicle doors locked. Be aware of vehicles that seem to be following you on roadways or from store to store. Be alert to your driving; no texting or long unnecessary mobile phone conversations.  At a red light, leave space between your front bumper and the vehicle in front of you. You want enough room to pull out and go around them if needed. Car jackers will attempt to box you in between their vehicle behind you and their partner in front of you. Always park your vehicle at businesses in well-lit areas if possible. Try not to park in desolate areas.  Does your car alarm work? Remember, you can use the alarm function to attract attention along with sounding your car horn (and headlights on bright during daylight hours also grabs attention.)

PUBLIC VENUES: Be aware of people around you, especially those people that seem to be too close when there is no need to be. When out in public, don’t flash your money where everyone can see. You would be surprised how often people do this without realizing their actions. Ladies, keep your purses zipped, snapped, and closed under your arm in front of you, not swinging open behind you. Men and women – if you carry briefcases or laptop bags keep them with you and beware when setting them down. It takes less than a second to calmly walk by and grab one.  When walking through a parking lot, keep your head up and scan the area around you as you walk. Bad guys don’t generally want eye contact with their victims before they strike. Don’t walk like a victim with head down and shoulders slumped as if you were a meek lamb. When walking to your car, have your keys out, finger on the panic button, and look about your vehicle as you approach. If you see someone lingering around your vehicle or cutting through a parking lot walking toward you, slow down to see where they are truly heading or even return inside the business where you just came from. When you enter your vehicle, the first thing to do is lock all doors, then do the thousand little things you would normally do which distracts your attention from noticing someone is walking up to your vehicle.  Also, let your family, or someone, know your basic travel schedule in the event something occurs and you are not home by an appropriate time.

These are all basic, common-sense actions you should think about year round. There are far more, and every geographical location has its own specific issues, but the ones I’ve listed will be of general everyday assistance to you.

To start training yourself, play a game.  The next time you are at a busy store or the mall, watch the people as they pass by.  Look at the number of women’s purses that are open and hanging behind them.  Watch how people carelessly set laptop bags, briefcases, and electronics down and pay little regard to them. Watch how people flash wads of money and which pocket they return the money too. Look at how people walk and their overall demeanor: are they acting like a victim or someone you wouldn’t want to confront?  Next time you walk by a car parked next to you, were there valuables laying in plain view, inviting a car burglar to smash the window, grab and run? And pay attention to people’s hands, where they are and what’s in them.  Any police officer or Secret Service agent that has worked the streets will tell you no one has ever been shot by someone with a pair of empty hands.  If you are confronted by a robber, stay as calm as possible and don’t try to be a hero. There’s nothing in your wallet or purse that cannot be replaced.  In this day and age, robbers shoot people for little to no reason in order to see them die, so don’t take chances.

As a writer, you can easily incorporate people’s antics into your novels and have a sense of realism.  But most of all learn to pay attention to your “gut-feeling” that something may be wrong.  Women’s intuition is real. Men have it too. Listen to your senses. Animals survive in the jungle because of their senses. We live in concrete jungles. And if you believe nothing will ever happen to you then I have some swamp land to sell you that will make a great parking lot.

Be Safe.

 

@GStarkeyBooks 

 

My Day to Howl… Two Books Released!

by | Nov 2, 2011 | Writing

This is a rare opportunity for me, one that will probably never happen again soon. But I am happy to announce that two of my novels, THE COBRA AND SCARAB: A NOVEL OF ANCIENT EGYPT and YEAR OF THE RAM have been published— and released almost on the same day!

Not only were they released in print as softcover and hardbound, but THE COBRA AND SCARAB was also released as an e-book for Kindle, Nook, Sony, iTunes and others.

Normally, I do not write about my novels with any depth in my blog because each novel has its own page here on the website, but today is different and it is a great feeling.  I know my fellow authors fully understand the raging river of emotions you undergo when you see your book hit the market – but for two books to do so at the same time is a pure adrenaline rush.

Authors know the volume of work and effort that goes into the making of a novel—research, the writing, more research, the editing, the worry, the mental fatigue, finding a publisher, the marketing, and more marketing….

So, excuse me, because for today (and maybe tomorrow) I’m going to howl about how happy I am to have two more of my novels released.  You can find them on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and other book sellers. And I also learned that another will be coming out soon in e-book, but I have to wait a few more weeks.

My sincere gratitude to fellow authors and friends that have been so supportive— especially to the readers that have contacted me asking, “How much longer before we can read another book?”

Well, I can now answer, “They are released and ready for you!”

Sincerely,

Glenn

Twitter: @GStarkeyBooks

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/GlennStarkeyAuthor

Goodreads: Glenn Starkey

My books on Amazon.com.

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

by | Sep 20, 2011 | Writing

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

by Glenn Starkey  @GStarkeyBooks

One of my aunts telephoned to remind me of another aunt’s birthday. Horrible as I am at remembering such important dates, I gladly accepted the information.

“Glenn, you know how much she loves to receive one of your letters….”

The telephone call came from the same aunt that had saved letters I wrote to her long ago from Vietnam as a young Marine. While one aunt cherished letters she often referred to as ‘mini-novels,’ another aunt eagerly awaited her annual ‘birthday’ letter from me. I knew a nice Hallmark birthday card with flowery phrases and artwork would be acceptable to send, but it would never be as highly valued as a personal letter.  I realized how amazing it was that a personal letter, well-written and comprised of family events and incidents, could bring happiness to someone. The thought kept churning within me for hours.

As a society, we are possessed by the insatiable hunger for advancements that allow us to communicate faster and with greater ease. We are in a technological race we will win in the long run, yet in the end, will have lost the value of one-to-one personal contact, and the importance of our written word. Take a moment to consider the evolution of our communications with loved ones.  For this writing I am solely referring to letters to family members or dear friends, not business activities.

We began by calling a letter “snail mail” when sent through the postal service. Delivery took too long, so we introduced email into the equation.

Email was found to be fast, arrived within seconds of clicking a ‘send’ button, and you could address it to as many family members as you chose – and they in turn could ‘forward’ your email on to as many people as they wished. Often you received an email with multiple headers consisting of dozens of addressees, all before you ever received it.  That really had a ‘personal’ touch for you, didn’t it?

We were not satisfied though and developed ‘texting’ to one another via cell-phone (which should not be performed while driving.) Next in the mix came Facebook whereby families and friends used it to keep in touch, ‘post’ notes of their activities, to say ‘Hello’ and inquire about each other’s lives or tell of special, personal situations. And of course, all your ‘friends’ were able to read what you posted. Twitter had a similar usage, and Google has joined the technological race as well.

With letters, we typed or handwrote each using full words and sentences to express ourselves, our emotions on a subject. The letters were sent from one person to another, not copied to you on a string of addressees.

When cell-phone texting came about, entering full words became too slow so abbreviations were given birth which spread and became a norm. Facebook allows for full words and sentences, but as we know, Twitter restricts users to 140 characters, forcing U 2 chop ltrs 2 simply say, “OMG, TY” or “O I C U 8 1 2.”  I hate being forced to use such abbreviated codes to express myself. It feels like the ‘dumbing’ of America which I also compare to a long list of ‘reality’ shows on television.

I read an article which discussed how high school and college students had difficulty writing required papers because they were so accustomed to daily usage of texting abbreviations. Another article stated a school district in Indiana was considering not teaching cursive writing to students anymore because of the reliance upon computers. I recently learned the school district in my hometown is discussing the same action. If our youth cannot properly write a school paper or do not know how to write in cursive, where are we being led in terms of private, personal communications as a letter is from one person to one another?

While a mailed letter may be considered old-fashioned to some in this day and age, it still holds an important place in our society. The same as a reader may prefer to physically hold a book in their hand rather than a Kindle or Nook, a well-written letter held in some people’s hands is equally valuable. Throughout my life I have grown with the various trends and electronics as they came along.  I experienced the evolution of technologies and used them to the fullest in both personal and corporate life. But there is an older generation of people who did not, and they still find happiness in the arrival of a well-written letter addressed to them. I do.

Have you ever witnessed a loved one or elderly friend open a special box and retrieve a bundle of letters, all tightly bound with a ribbon or string? Did you ever watch as their eyes grew wet and their fingertips gently brushed across the envelopes with reverence?  Somehow the moment would be lost if they were to open a folder and pull out printed emails to show you.

We are writers. We compose novels and short stories with a variety of events and spectrum of emotions. Our books often overflow with characters and their quirky actions.  Writing a letter to a loved one should be nothing more than a simple creative exercise in which you fill it with personal news they should know or would find humorous. Write about the stupid things you did such as locking yourself out of the house or the car. Grandparents love to hear about the antics of their grandchildren. They miss them and want as much news about their grandchildren as possible. I have an aunt who dearly loves animals. She enjoys my tales about our dog chewing and destroying everything in the backyard (and a ninety-three pounds Labradoodle can do a lot of damage!)

Consider your letters to be ‘mini-novels’ for the greatest readers of all, your loved ones.

Granted, not every communication should be a handwritten or typed letter. There is an appropriate time for those special writings, but we need to pause and consider when a personalized letter might bring joy or create a fond memory for those we love.

Don’t let the art of letter writing become lost to society.

Glenn

 

Photo credit: Boy writes with pencil, The University of Iowa, ca. 1920-Fredrick Wallace, 1894-1984