Owner: FALL URL:http://fallbook.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:31:47 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: "FALL: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town" is a true story of two girls, two men and an entire town -- all changed by one harrowing night. But this suspenseful, atmospheric and moving account is more than a typical true-crime yarn; it’s a cl Site statistics:Click here
Ann Rule praises 'FALL' 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Ann Rule is the reigning queen of true-crime and she has added her voice to a growing list of authors and journalists praising Ron Franscell's "FALL." Here's what she said this week: ~~~~~~"Few authors understand what makes a true crime book stand out like a beacon from the mass of prosaically gruesome re-telling of police reports. Ron Franscell does! 'FALL' explores the true story of this unholy sacrifice of youth and misplaced trust in a gripping, throat-tightening way. It is an almost-hypnotic read, hard to look away from. But it is also compassionate as we question the awful fate of the victims, sadly singled out by fate or luck or whatever shapes our destinies. This is a very, very, good book--a gem for readers who look for the whole story, written by a very, very, good writer. Every time I hear a neighbor or a local lawman in a traditionally low-crime town, say 'Something like murder doesn't happen here' -- when, of course, it does -- I shake my head. This time, it happene
Superlawyer Gerry Spence lauds 'FALL' 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Gerry Spence is one of America's most renowned defense lawyers, and he's also a Wyoming native who knows the impact this case had on crime and punishment. He weighed in this week on Ron Franscell's "FALL":"FALL is an intimate true crime story. Franscell tells his story from a truly unique perspective. What sets FALL apart in the genre is that he was there, not as a victim or a perpetrator, but as a child splashed by the unexpected evil of it all -- and he grew up with a gift to be able to tell the story in all its violent colors."GERRY SPENCEFamed trial lawyer, Wyoming nativeand author of "GUNNING FOR JUSTICE"(Want to see what others like authors Ann Rule, Vincent Bugliosi and Steve Jackson, and NBC's Justice Correspondent Pete Williams are saying? Check out the Index bar on the right side of this site!) Read more:Gerry
, lauds
FALL now at Amazon.com 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "Author and newspaperman Ron Franscell isone of the most versatile writers on the scene today..." STEVE JACKSONAuthor of "MONSTER" and "NO STONE UNTURNED" ~~~~You can now pre-order "FALL: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town" at Amazon
.com.The early-bird price is $15.72 -- a huge discount from the $24.95 cover price. Your book will be shipped after its December 28 publication date.(Money-saving tip: If you also order Ron's debut novel, "ANGEL FIRE," at $12.50, you'll qualify for Amazon's free shipping!)
Crime news as a cultural ink-blot test 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A happy ending to a frightening story: The sickly infant abducted in Lubbock, Texas, earlier this week has been found and reunited with her mother. A 33-year-old woman has been arrested.Much has been made -- in the blogosphere and mainstream media -- about the perceived tendency by news reporters to focus on missing or murdered white women and children while ignoring missing or murdered women and children of color. In this case, the baby was Hispanic, born to a single Hispanic mother, but is it possible the media are not color-blind in such cases? Can all the headlines be condensed to "Beautiful White Woman Murdered In Sex-Related Slaying"?Proponents of this position herald Natalee Holloway, Nicole Brown-Simpson, Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson and Jennifer Wilbanks as examples of the national-media bias. And it's hard to hold up examples of women of color in similar circumstances. But is it truly a matter of racial bias ... or possibly just the need of the national media to have a story
On the bridge 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I can't stand on the Fremont Canyon Bridge without being a little off-balance, without feeling some evil gravity tugging me toward the green water 12 stories below. I went there last weekend -- my first visit since I spent an extraordinarily cold and black night under the bridge
three years ago. And when I stepped onto its steel span, I felt its magnetic warp, as if true north were neither true nor north.It's not some natural phenomenon. The haunt is not there in the girders, rocks and the sage. It's inside me. I know what happened there, and I wince as I count the 2 or 3 seconds it takes a stone to fall where my two friends fell in 1973. I am haunted by memory, not tricks of paranormal geography.But there's something else, it seems to me: The bridge.Or at least its visceral symbolism.Bridges are part of our mythology, furniture in our folklore. They represent unnatural paths to new places, transitions in spirit as well as geography. On a bridge, we are suspended between what lie
BLOODY KANSASHolcomb, Capote and me 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "Until one morning in mid-November of 1959, few Americans - in fact, few Kansans - had ever heard of Holcomb. Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there"Truman Capote, "In Cold Blood"~~~~~Outlanders have almost no good reason to be on Kansas Highway 50 past Holcomb and Lakin, Kendall and Syracuse … In the circulatory system of American roads, it's a thin, black capillary, a minor vein barely pulsing with the rhythms of the Heartland.Yet there I was, an outlander. I had driven all day from Denver on a journey that was part research, part pilgrimage. I was about to begin writing an intimate book about a monstrous crime that had splashed me in 1973, when I was a child growing up in another isolated small town that almost nobody had heard of - an abduction, rape and murder involving two young friends who were, at the
DARK END OF THE SKYNew posts appear below this preface 1970-01-01 00:59:59 On a chilly autumn night in 1973, 11-year-old Amy Burridge eagerly rode with her 18-year-old sister, Becky, to a neighborhood grocery store in the small town of Casper, Wyoming. When they finished their shopping, they discovered a flat tire on Becky's car. Two men politely offered them a ride home. But they were not Good Samaritans.In the next few hours, the two girls would endure unimaginable horrors before they were pitched alive off a dizzingly high bridge into a dark canyon. One would live and one would die.Unfortunately, that wasn't the end. It was the beginning. Read more:appear
, posts
Q&A with Ron Franscell 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This year, journalist Ashley Franscell talked with her father, author Ron Franscell, about his new true crime/memoir, "FALL: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town" (New Horizon Press). Ashley, a third-generation newspaperwoman, is a 2005 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia's acclaimed School of Journalism.As a photojournalist, she and her father have already worked together on a few projects, including his 2001 exploration of the Little Bighorn River's deep and ancient cultural significance to the Crow tribe in Montana. ~~~~~QUESTION: In some past essays, you've described true crime as a genre that too-seldom has a soul. What did you mean by that?ANSWER: Only that most true-crime writing has become a formulaic exercise since Truman Capote gave birth to the genre in "In Cold Blood" back in 1966. Today, the typical true-crime writer parachutes into town, maybe attends the trial, takes some notes (extra points for a jailhouse interviews!), snatches som
Sneak peak at BookExpo America! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Booksellers, librarians, reviewers, educators, agents, editors, publishers and book-lovers: You can get a sneak preview of "FALL" at Book Expo America
May 19-21 at the Washington D.C. Convention Center!Stop by the New Horizon Press booth (#2652) and learn more about this intimate true crime/memoir, already hailed by Vincent Bugliosi, New York Times best-selling author of "Helter Skelter," as an "uncommon story" told in "an elegant and powerful voice normally seen only in fiction.""FALL" will hit shelves in January 2007, so pick up a catalog at BEA -- and get acquainted with New Horizon Press and its other excellent titles.
Sometimes We Forget to Fly 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Sometimes We Forget to Flyby Genie MaplesOil on canvas, 2005One late night, surfing through the back-channels of cyberspace, I stumbled upon traces of a future friend. I had recently finished a rewrite of the manuscript of FALL, so perhaps my mind was vulnerable to an image that was both colorful and somber. Or maybe it was the feeling of falling. Or that two figures ... one bigger and one smaller ... or one older and one younger ... or both angels alive but seemingly dead ... would fall into the counterglow of my night like false dawn. I don't know.But the painting captivated me, haunted me. In it, I saw the two girls, Amy Burridge and Becky Thomson, I had just written about. Not just their figures, but their entire life-stories. The falling/flying figures seemed to describe a desire by all of us to feel solid ground beneath our feet again, to dig our toes deep into it ... a desire that eluded my two friends who never knew that comfort the way I have.I wrote a note to the artist, Gen Read more:Sometimes
JonBenet's killer? Maybe 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The startling news that a former second-grade teacher/pedophile has confessed to the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey feels like a relief, but in these first 24 hours there are troublingly few details that convince me this fellow was actually inside the Ramseys' Boulder, Colo., home on the night after Christmas 10 years ago.John Mark Karr, 41, has made several chilling statements about being with her when she died, but has deflected questions about details. Authorities say he gave certain details that only JonBenet's killer would know, but we must wait until Karr returns to American soil and begins his long journey through the justice system to find out more. A DNA match between the scrapings under JonBenet's fingernails and Karr hasn't been established. Despite Karr's "confession," I need just a little more proof that he's an insane, child-raping killer, and not just an insane, child-raping sicko with delusions of criminal grandeur.Nobody has showed so far that Karr was even in Co Read more:Maybe
'FALL' Book Tour Day One:Being There 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I might have known this day would be long when my takeoff from Houston -- Houston, mind you -- was delayed by a frozen water line in a Boeing 737. Frozen. It only got more comical in Denver when the jetway's hydraulics were also frozen and our already-late plane was stranded on the apron just a few tantalizing feet from the air-bridge to the terminal, unable for more than 15 minutes to disgorge its passengers toward our next flights. And my flight to Casper in 60 mph headwinds and a storm's swirling swath on this Arctic-tinged day was, well, a rodeo at 24,000 feet.So it was good to set foot on the tundra of Wyoming a little past noon today, for many reasons. Home. Solid ground. People who know how to fix frozen water lines. And that's just the first few hours of an 10-day book tour that's been in the works for about a year. Just goes to show that the best campaign plan in the world goes out the window when the first water line freezes.By mid-afternoon, my coffee-soaked gut had sett Read more:Day One
My hometown paper comes through 1970-01-01 00:59:59 This morning, Barbara Nordby of the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune published a marvelous article about the new book -- especially the crime's enduring effects for a handful of local people. Nordby grasped the consequences of the crime, understood its impacts ... and actually read the book.My first-ever real newspaper
job was at the Star-Tribune. When I wasn't playing sports in high school, I worked as a clerk in the sports section under the locally legendary sports editor Chuck Harkins (who once told me, "Always come back with something, dammit," and I always have, mostly because he was a tough son-of-a-bitch whom I still think of as one of the great newspapermen I've ever met.)I worked at the Star-Tribune again as a young reporter after college, rising eventually to being the assistant city editor before moving off to become the Features Editor of the Santa Fe (N.M.) New Mexican at the tender age of 26.It's good to be home, but it's also nice to see my name -- if not my byline -- bac Read more:comes
, hometown
'FALL' Book Tour Day Two:The first readers 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The signing table at Roberts Commons Ballroom on SaturdayWhen lawyer Miles Jacoby saw a story about 'FALL' in his morning paper, he jumped in his car and drove two hours on dark, icy roads to attend the book-signing in Casper on Saturday night. Why? Because a long time ago, he knew one of the victims of this crime.Donna Strube, my high school journalism teacher, left her daughter's Christmas recital to race to the ballroom where I was signing books.A lot of the good guys were there, too. Slim Hollembaek (photo at left), a retired deputy and jailer who escorted the killers through many of their journeys, came to buy a book and share his memories of those sordid days. So did Dr. James Thorpen, the medical examiner who saw this a story from a perspective no one else shares. And Fred Klein, the rescue diver who found little Amy's body in the sluggish river and never dived again, embraced me. So did Dave Dovala, a key investigator who later became so close to one of the crime's surviv Read more:readers
'FALL' Book Tour Day Three:Your Name Here 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The cowboy boot must mean this is the Wyoming sectionToday, I signed more than 450 books to stock shelves of local bookstores through Christmas. I didn't set any land-speed records, mostly because I stopped to talk with readers who drifted through every few minutes, but I averaged better than 110 per hour, even with the delightful conversations!Because of the intensely intimate nature of this true crime, readers aren't chit-chatting about writerly habits and favorite verbs. These readers have stories to tell, and a few more provocative questions than, "Why does Chapter One always come before Chapter Two?" Most of them lived here at the time of the crime, and some knew the key players, even the killers. Like last night, it was my pleasure and privilege to hear their tales.But I know that in other circumstances, they'd have other questions, such as "Where do you get your ideas?" and "How much money do you make?"(Just in case you are suddenly provoked to ask such things when you meet Read more:Three
'FALL' Book Tour Day Five:Prairie, Home, Companion 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Yes, they buy books here, tooI grew up in the Great American Outback, where the landscape shapes people at least as much as we shape the landscape. Uncharitable folks might call it the "middle of nowhere," but they are wrong. It is most definitely somewhere, although not likely the middle of it. How do I know? Well, planes make regularly scheduled landings here and I gotta believe that Nowhere wouldn't exactly be a profitable route.And because planes come and go, I return here occasionally. This time, it is both the reason and the jumping-off place for my journey. 'FALL' is a story about this place, so I have launched it here a month before the rest of the USA can read it. Wyoming has seldom been the first to get anything worth getting (except maybe voting rights for women and the latest open-pit coal-mine technology) so it tickles me to say that some guy named Buck who lives in an Airstream trailer on Poison Spider Road will be able to read my book a full month before even the big Read more:Companion
Radio interview about 'FALL' 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Today, morning talk-show host Brian Scott of KTWO-Radio
in Casper, Wyo., conducted the first broadcast interview
for "FALL," my book about one of the most monstrous crimes to ever hit that city. Great questions, provocative observations ... Give it a listen here.
Booksignings, events, discussions, etc. 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Return often! We update this page regularly with new events
.SEPT. 23: Connecticut Coast Writers Retreat, Milford CTOCT. 4: 9 p.m. (Eastern) Golden Quill Lobby online chatNOV. 29: 8:15 a.m. (MST) Brian Scott Show Live, KTWO-Radio, Casper WYDEC. 2: 7-9 p.m.Debut Signing Event for FALL, Roberts Commons Ballroom at Casper College, Casper WY (Co-sponsored by Blue Heron Bookstore and Ralph's Books)DEC. 4: 7:30-11 a.m. Journalism classes at Kelly Walsh HS (Ron's alma mater), Casper WYDEC. 4: Noon, Casper Rotary Club, Parkway Plaza Hotel, Casper WYDEC. 5: 3-6 p.m., Whistlestop Books, Douglas WYDEC. 6: 6-7:30 p.m. City News, Cheyenne WYDEC. 7: 10-11:30 a.m. Cheyenne East HS Auditorium, Cheyenne WYDEC. 7: 4-6 p.m., Barnes&Noble, Cheyenne WYDEC. 7: 7-8:30 p.m., Discussion & Reading, Writers Voice/YMCA, Cheyenne WYDEC. 8: 5-7 p.m., Chickering Books, 203 S. Second St., Laramie WYDEC. 9: 2-4 p.m., Borders-Northglenn, 241 W. 104th Ave. (in the new Northglenn Marketplace), Northglenn COJAN. 13,
You may pre-order FALL today 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Want a signed first edition of "FALL" but won't be able to make any of the scheduled signing events? No problem!A small, independent bookstore in Casper, Wyo. -- where this crime happened in 1973 -- is now accepting orders for signed copies that will be mailed after Dec. 1, 2006. The only extra charge is $3 for shipping and handling.Interested? To learn how to get your signed copy, email, snail-mail or call Ralph's Books, 215 S. Montana, Casper WY 82609. The store's phone number is 307-234-0308.~~~And if you don't have a favorite bookstore near you, you can now place pre-orders at all online booksellers by following these links to Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, Buy.com and Books-a-Million.Or if you speak Japanese, at Kunokuniya.
The first review 1970-01-01 00:59:59 With about six weeks to go before its launch in Casper, Wyo. -- literally the scene of the crime -- FALL got its first review
on Moday. Oct. 16.Laura Thornton of ReadersRoom.com, a well-established site devoted to true crime and crime fiction, said this:Veteran newspaperman and novelist Ron Franscell kept this story stored in his heart ... Full of facts, this horror that stunned an entire community will leave you breathless at its end. This book is a must-read for the fans of the true-crime genre. Franscell's personal feelings make this a memorable account of the crime. That's the book-jacket summary of Laura's excellent review! If you'd like to read her complete assessment, click through to Laura's review here.
Touring with 'FALL' ... and blogging 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "FALL" actually hits American shelves on January 5, 2007, but because it's about arguably the most heinous crime in Wyoming's history, and because my home state almost never gets anything first, New Horizon Press has allowed me to launch it in early December in Wyoming and Colorado.So from December 2-9, I'll be on the road in the Rocky Mountain winter, talking about "FALL" to people who live at the epicenter of the story. And I plan to blog daily in words and pictures about the experience of sharing this story with friends -- old and new -- for whom "FALL" has a special echo, and about the life of an author on the road. You might be surprised at how unglamorous it can be!So stay tuned to this spot .... Read more:Touring
Denver Post review of 'FALL' 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The first major newspaper review
of "FALL" appeared in the Denver
Post's Books section on Sunday, Dec. 10. Under the headline "Crime's lasting legacy of evil," Staff Writer Janna Fischer writes (in part):"The book is as much Franscell's own story as it is Becky [Thomson's] or [Ron] Kennedy's, making "Fall" stand out from the legion of true-crime books. The author here was an affected bystander, not a neutral observer after the fact. ... The story in "Fall" is, in the end, too horrifying to try to explain."Fischer's piece is an excellent summary of the story. Read her whole review here.
A Wyoming view of 'FALL' 1970-01-01 00:59:59 By D. Reed EckhardtEditor, Cheyenne (Wyo.) Tribune-EagleDecember 6, 2006~~~~~~~~~~~~I'm not a big fan of true-crime stories.More often than not, they simply repeat the details of a crime, cover the ensuing trial of those arrested and provide the current status of everyone involved. That doesn't do it for me; I like a little more suspense in my reading.But let me recommend one of these books to you anyway: "Fall: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town.""Fall" is the story of crimes that occurred in Casper in 1973, when 12- and 18-year-old half-sisters were tossed from the Fremont Canyon Bridge by a couple of good-for-nothings.Amy Burridge, 12, died immediately. Becky Thomson, 18, who was raped by both men, survived and dragged her broken body 300 feet up the canyon wall. She eventually saw both men sentenced to death. Their punishment was changed to life, thanks to legal technicalities. One of the men, Ronald Kennedy, still resides in the state prison.Ms. Thomson never fully Read more:Wyoming
Why wait for the book to be published? Buy it on eBay today! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 What's faster than the speed of a reading light?eBay and Amazon sellers hustling "used" books that aren't even on the market yet!FALL's national release will be Jan. 5, 2007 (although as readers of this blog know, a very limited sneak-preview was allowed in early December) but with almost two weeks before FALL officially debuts, a copy is already on the block at eBay.Yep, bidding on this unread copy has started at $7.99 and (at the moment) almost five days remain. And any day now, expect to see "used" copies pop up at FALL's Amazon.com page, too.It's freakish how the cyber-flea market can sell books even before brick-and-mortar retailers can shelve them. And it makes one wonder about the economics of it all, since deeply discounted new copies are available from both Internet and land-based stores.Of course, the author doesn't make a penny in royalties from these sales. Plus, publishers often "dump" their slightly damaged books on eBay and other auction sites, so you should be esp Read more:published
Coming to a radio near you ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 As part of FALL's national launch, Ron will be interviewed by several radio stations all over the USA. More will be added as shows are scheduled. If you're within broadcasting range of any of these stations, tune in!(All times at Central Standard Time)Wednesday, Jan. 3: 8:25 a.m. on KFRU-AM in Columbia, MOWednesday, Jan. 3: 1:10 p.m. on WDOS in Oneonta, NYThursday, Jan. 4: 7:05 a.m. on KYW-AM in Philadelphia, PAThursday, Jan. 4: 7:40 a.m. on KYMO-AM/FM in East Prairie, MOSunday, Jan. 7: 6:30 a.m. on WIP-AM in Philadelphia, PATuesday, Jan. 9: 9:30 a.m. on KBUL-AM in Billings, MTWednesday, Jan. 17: 4:20 p.m. on WKCT-AM in Nashville, TNThursday, Jan. 25: 9:50 a.m. on KCMN-AM in Colorado Springs, CO
It's official today: 'FALL' debuts 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Launch Day is an anxious moment for most authors. The great bulk of reviews are still out, readers will be getting their first looks at the new book, which has its whole life lying ahead ... and the author who likely spent three years (or more) getting to this day will either continue forward on his creative path by the public's embrace or unceremoniously diverted by a lack of interest. Imagine dedicating three years of your life to one project, only to send it out into the world for people to judge in a matter of minutes. This one day embodies all that angst.But it's all part of the beauty of storytelling. It likely wasn't much different for Homer, certainly not for Hemingway, that first time you tell a story to a large group of people. Today, I feel a part of a very exclusive club of people who know this exact feeling, and it feels like belonging.And two new reviews today make it a little easier. One is from a leading book-review site on the Internet, the other from a leading news
New interview at Hot on the Trail 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A new Web interview
about "FALL" was just posted at Hot on the Trail
, one of the hottest true-crime sites on the Internet. Check it out!
Recommend Site To A Friend
