‘Sword and Scale’ podcast, upcoming appearance

For as long as we’ve had the written word, writers have been interested in crime. For me, as a younger journalist, it was all about meaning. Beyond the depravity, what could we glean about ourselves or our world from looking at crime? That was the question that drew me toward the case of Kendall Francois and led to a deep examination of the community where he’d been raised (and where I had once covered the schools).

But doing so led toward an eventual interrogation of myself: why was I so engaged with this case? What did it show me about my own life and past and family?

Among purists – either in journalism or the true crime book genre – that’s a major transgression. The story is never supposed to be about the writer. But it seemed to me that all of our stories come filtered through the lens of the storyteller, whether we admit it or not. And so I did.

I explored some of these questions on the Sword and Scale podcast in May, which you can listen to here: http://swordandscale.com/sword-and-scale-episode-90/

And I’ll be talking about those themes at the Westwood Village Barnes & Noble, on Friday, June 2, at 5 p.m.

Hope to see you there!