5 Questions about Deborah Riley
Here are 5 quick questions to get a better grip on Dag's Secretary/Assistant/Apprentice who you have all helped name Deborah "Deb" "D.H." "Don't call me Debbie" Riley. If you don't see an answer you like, make one up.

1. Why does Riley flirt with and tease Dag so much?
A) She thinks he's hot and wants to sleep with him
B) She thinks it's safe and she can just play
C) It's dangerous and exciting to play the edge
D) She thinks she can manipulate Dag and get anything she wants that way
E) It's the only way she knows how to deal with men
F) It's a conquest and will show how good she is

2. Is Riley a martial artist?
A) No, she just kicks and scratches
B) Black belt
C) Too smart to get into a physical fight; she scraps with words
D) Street-fighter; stiletto isn't just her shoe of choice

3. Riley is studying computer science and criminal justice.
A) She's a straight-A student
B) She's a geek in a mini-skirt
C) She gets by on her looks
D) She'd rather play Katamari Damashii (or another game?) than study
E) Classwork is fine but she's killer in the labs

4. Riley lives
A) In a dorm
B) In a little apt with three other students
C) In a posh condo paid for by her rich father
D) In a rented room on Capitol Hill (Seattle)
E) With Dag
F) With her boyfriend

5. Why doesn't Dag sleep with Riley (or at least call her bluff)?
A) He's a wuss
B) It's unethical
C) He can't get it up
D) He's 30 years older than she is. Ooo gross!
E) She reminds him of someone. (Who?)
F) He's gay

I just love this designing my characters by committee!



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jisatsu_crisis
1- I'm between A and E (just adding to E "... besides kicking their asses")
2- D and C
3- Between B and C
4- E
5- Either A, B or E (it may be an old ex-girlfriend who got him in lots of troubles). Or all three x)

wayzgoose
Thank you for the responses. This is going to be fun to tabulate but I haven't any idea how it will turn out.

adelynne
1. b, 2. d, 3. e, 4. b, 5. d.

wayzgoose
Succinct. Thnx.

quitereasonable
1B; 2C; 3 - I think she should be really good at computer science and struggling with criminal justice some - maybe struggling for the As she gets; 4B; 5 - How about something else like pride or a promise. If you try B, C, or F, you will ruin tension or part of the byplay in the readers mind that I think you are trying to create. A does not give the respect to Dag you'd want. D isn't gross, but if you think it is, you won't write it well. and E doesn't seem like much of a reason on its own, though Jisatsu crisis's suggestion above gives it substance.

wayzgoose
I like "struggling for the As she gets". I think I could control the tension for the reader, but you are right it would really be hard.

I've added you to my friends. I like your thoughts.

quitereasonable
Thanks. I've added you back. You can drop me and I'll try not to be too offended if you get bored with my bizarre dreams.

fae_witch
1 - Somewhere between B and E on this one. Teasing strikes me as a way of showing friendship...maybe she grew up around the kind of boys who pull your hair if they like you...
2 - D I just can't picture her in stilletoes somehow...they go with a "Debbie" not her.
3 - E Maybe she gets bored sitting around in class, the hands on approach helps her to understand things far better.
4 - Pass...I can see her spending most of her time either at college/Uni (sorry, never can get my head around the American higher education system) or with Dag. Not E though and probably not F.
5 - B, or possibly E. Or maybe there's a bit of a protective elder brotherly feeling there, not that Dag would ever admit it of course!

And you're right, this is fun!

wayzgoose
Thanks! I like the way you are thinking, especially 5. Although it might end up more fatherly than big brother. It's the 30 year difference speaking. I'm still not sure I've got a real handle on what motivates his response, though. I think it has to have something to do with the way he reads her.

I've added you to my friends. I'd like to follow the work you do for Nanowrimo.

fae_witch
*blushes* Thanks!

poetsworld
1 - E
2 - C ( i say she carries a dagger )
3 - A & E - It's something she's been into since high school (why?) so classes bore her, but she gets through them
4 - Why not have her stay at Dag's since you've already established he would be in the hospital most of the book. But otherwise she lives with her mom (someplace kinda rundown)?
5 - E (Her dad scares him?)

wayzgoose
Hey Ace! Good to hear from you. I'm definitely thinking that when she first meets Dag in Las Vegas and saves him after his first heart attack that she bunks in his hotel room while he's in the hospital so she won't have to pay for a room. But I don't know if it would work to have her so close to his personal life after they start working together. I'll have to see.

floralfallal21
1. E
2. C or D
3. D
4. A
5. E

This was FUN!

wayzgoose
I'm having fun with it too. Come on now: 5E? Who? (I put 5D in there just for you! *grins*)

Just wait till I post the Maizie quiz!

floralfallal21
OMG HAHAHAHA how did I miss that one?!

dreamweaver15
1. B
2. C
3. E
4. A
5. E

And now I'm off to write some things down. I think I've got a basic premise for my novel. At least I think it might work. I'll work it out in time for November I'm sure.

cloister27
1. G, for the fun, teasing play of it (which they both enjoy), and because it's the safe way to release any sexual tension between them. On the one hand, they have this father/daughter type relationship, but on the other hand, they both know darned well that she's not actually his daughter, so, in order not to mess up their relationship they need the flirty banter. It's the tacit way that each of them can say to the other "yes, you're hot, but no, we're not going to do anything about that."

2. C, A. Making her any sort of kick-ass fighter is, well, getting to be a bit cliche after Buffy, Alias, Dark Angel, etc. She doesn't have to be weak and powerless, though. If you must give her a martial art, make it Aikido. Self-defensive. I can't see Deb as someone who wants to hurt people, but I can see her as smart enough to get some self-defense training. Aikido fits the bill perfectly. I heard a quote a long time ago about one of the original aikido masters, who developed the discipline, along the lines of "fighting with him was like wrestling with an empty jacket." Which I think captures perfectly the notion of having the skill to simply not be where your attacker is striking. If Deb can do that, then she can dance around whoever's trying to do her ill, while jabbing them verbally in order to get them to slip up and tell her things they don't want to tell her, then she can flip them onto their backs or something and run away.

3. B. Geek is very chic, and getting more so by the day. After all, geeks rule the world.

4. D. Not only can I not see her living with her boyfriend, I don't really see her as having a boyfriend, either. If she did, that would kind of get in the way of the flirty banter.

5. G. Because deep down, he knows he feels paternally about her. She represents family he wasn't able to have, and that means more to him than the opportunity to bang her in the sack. Probably, something about her relationship with her own father is lacking, in a way that Dag can help make up for.

poetsworld
Just wanted to drop you a note. Watching KISS KISS BANG BANG

You should check it out for some more detective stuff.

Val Kilmer plays a "tough as nails gay detective"
Robert Downy Jr. plays a thief turned actor playing a detective. he has to take detecive lessons with Val.

Nothing gay happens, because robert is straight, and in love with a girl he used to know back home.

It's so well done.

Enjoy

wayzgoose
Thanks, Ace. I'll definitely check this out.

poetsworld
I've watched it twice. i love that the main characters, aren't actually detectives, but are the ones fueling the story.

It's her case, and RD Jr, just gets hunches that while are dead on, don't seem to fit to the actually detective.

I have decided to own a copy of this movie. I hope you enjoy it.

Dag likes ginger snaps

All the old school detectives smoked. Kojak tried to break the image with a lollipop. But those are both to blah. So Dag goes out for his break, he grabs a couple ginger snaps from the cookie jar on his desk and gets a cup of black coffee. He's not a Starbuck's kind of guy, though he likes an espresso in the morning (straight). What he really likes is a pot of percolated coffee that is kept hot all day long (and is about the thickness of tar by the end of the day, if there is any left). Lutefisk? No one actually likes lutefisk.

Dag is Colorblind!

Sure he can see some color information, but mostly he lives in a black&white world with a great sensitivity to shades of gray. This is why he has only gray suits and white shirts. His office is also calmly decorated in gray with only an occasional splash of color. The effect is often disconcerting to his clients who feel they have just walked into a film noir.

It shall be revealed that Dag labels all his clothes with a letter code so that he knows what will and will not mix and match.

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From: cloister27

Dag probably gripes a LOT about modern website and UI design.

Interesting (and amusing?) that Dag lives in a world where everything is shades of gray...

The ending scene

I'm having difficulty concentrating on anything. Allergies are affecting my sleep patterns so a solid 8 hours doesn't seem like I've slept at all. So while I'm eating Szechuan food that is opening my sinuses, I thought I'd jot down this little scene between Dag and Riley that will come at all but the end of the book.

Dag wakes up in the hospital "with tubes in his nose and a weight on his chest." He quickly realizes that the weight is Riley, curled up on top of the covers next to him with her head on his chest. He has a moment of deep affection for her. She is so soundly asleep that she doesn't stir as he opens his laptop. He taps in a new user account with full administrative privileges and gently presses her thumb to his biometric scanner.

As she wakes, he closes the computer. Tells her the case is closed, she should go home. She says she's not going to say goodbye. He tells her he needs legs again. He wonders about the tatoo that Riley spotted on Angel and tells her he saw a match on Simon. Thinks it could be another account that wants to be donated. She agrees. He gives her his laptop and bio-scanner and says to take care of it for him.

She leaves and he makes his last entry for the story from his cellphone.

And so Riley is set up to carry on and we'll find out what her adventures are in the next book.

More thoughts and questions

Here's my latest continued list from the spreadsheet on S&E questions and thoughts.

22. Does Dag give the business to his secretary at the end? I think that after they meet and she saves his life in Vegas that he does a lot of grooming her to take over the business. It could make for a lot of interesting possibilities if she is trying to help him on the case.


23. When Dag logs into his computer, there is nothing there. The basic applications appear, but no files at all. He opens a DOS prompt and types in a string to launch a program that connects him to his server. That's why there's no immediate connection to the server and why the connection is broken whenever he closes the laptop.


24. There is still a second log-in, however, after he connects. And files on the server are encrypted with his log-in key.


25. Dag and his secretary play a continuous good-natured game of teasing. At one point she sits on his desk and says, "Come on, Dag. Don't you want to get lucky?" He stands and says all right. You asked for it. Get your coat." They leave the office and go to the Pier to play arcade games.


26. This gives me the opportunity to have Dag leave Maizie in charge of the office. When they get back Maizie has pinned an intruder on the carpet and kept him subdued.


27. Maizie will also help Dag in some other ways. Like when Brenda comes into the office completely in charge, she'll collapse in a chair when Maizie sticks her cold nose in the back of her knee.


28. Maizie is a small bulldog (only 13" high and 40 pounds) because she is a mix of a pitbull and a dachshund. Don't ask which parent was which.


29. Angel will end up being a good guy. She has been working with Simon to transfer all the money to various charities. The partner and wife are both trying to bet their share out of Simon before he succeeds and they are willing to do anything to stop him. Ultimately, Angel will have the key to the encrypted files on Simon's laptop.


30. Speaking of encryption, Dag will be able to break everything except Simon's 512 bit encryption coded info about his Swiss bank accounts. It will be almost as if Simon is leading him to the result but is trying to make sure Dag will carry out the charitable donation first. Then when Brenda comes in, Dag will give her one of hte codes and she will think she has everything. Secretary will connect him to send out the rest of the codes.


31. Angel will come in to Dag because a) she has met his secretary and knows he will do the right thing, or b) Simon had told her to go to Dag.


32. I always suspected that Dag was Swedish. I think he's from Ballard and that his name may be Dag Håmmar instead of Dag Hamilton.


33. Dag and secretary are introduced by a college professor who was a colleague or instructor of Dag's and puts the secretary up to following him.


34. Dag is going to leave the business to his secretary.


35. Secretary may have a final personal contact with Dag.


36. Secretary is now down to one of two names: Deborah H. Riley or Kate Riley. DH Riley would be a good professional name, but Kate is strong and direct. In either case, Dag will simply call her Riley.


37. Just figured out how Riley breaks into Dag's computer when he's unconscious in the hospital. She uses his biometric thumbprint scnner and just touches his thumb to it while he is asleep.


38. What is the situation that Riley gets into that brings Dag out of the office and into danger to "rescue" her?

Dag's Secretary: The Name Winner

Dag's Secretary: The Name Game
Well, the results are in. It looks like Dag's secretary is henceforth Deborah "Deb" "D.H." "Don't call me Debbie" Riley. I posted the following request for input on LJ and here are the responses that I got.

I've decided that her last name will be Riley, (thanks to kirylin) and usually Dag will address her as that. -- Unless he's using some typically sexist but good-natured diminutive endearment like "Sweetcheeks." But that still leaves her first name open to some question. I like Deborah "Deb" "Don't call me Debbie" Riley. It has a long line of possibilities, including the chance of making her initials D.H. Riley. That would be a good name for a future detective, wouldn't it?

But then there is Kate, and once I decided on Riley, Kate Riley just has that authoritative ring that makes you figure there is a red-headed powerhouse with, as Dag expressed it, "A size 12 personality packed into a size 8 miniskirt."

Of course, I'm still open to other ideas if you'd care to riff on this theme. Comment and let me know what you think.

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lemoncakes
Leila Riley has a lyrical tone to it. I'm kind of desensitized to Kate - I must know a thousand 20-year-old Kates.

wayzgoose
Yeah. That's both an advantage and a disadvantage. I want the name to be appropriate to the generation, but not cliche. I like Leila Riley, but I'm not sure it's appropriate to the character.

cloverdew
I still like Deb, "Don't call me Debbie or I'll kick your butt", Riley.

wayzgoose
I like it too. This snippet of conversation upon her introduction to Dag came to mind:

"Dag, I'd like to introduce you to Deborah Riley, one of my top students."

"Glad to meet you D...."

"If you say Debbie, it will be the last thing you ever say."

"All right, Riley. Why don't you say what you mean?"

I'm tending that direction.

cloverdew
awesome

floralfallal21
I love Deb, "don't call me Debbie" Riley!

worthycomics
I was leaning toward Deb Riley anyway, but this introduction really cinched it - that should REALLY be her name.

kirylin
I like Deborah Riley. It's a name that commands respect.

wayzgoose
It turns out she's taking an even more major role than I anticipated. She's my avenue to a sequel. "D.H. Riley Investigations." Poor Dag was just a (well-loved) stepping-stone.

cloister27
Yeah, I have to go with the consensus on this one: Deb.

And I have to admit I was wondering this weekend whether you'd look to her for sequel fodder. After all, most of the successful detective novelists these days work on the basis of a signature character around whom they write many novels, and with what looks to be in Dag's not-too-distant future, that clearly wasn't going to work in this case.

That being the situation, if you want to leave that door open for Deb, I'd suggest making sure that Deb has some significant experience during the course of "Security & Exchange," of the life-altering sort that causes her to take up in Dag's shoes. Maybe it's some singularly important contribution she makes to this book's plot, maybe it's something that happens to her, but there should be something that she, in later books, can point to as why she got into the gumshoe business.

wayzgoose
As usual, you've clearly hit the major pieces right on the head. First, this is Dag's only book, unless I go back and pick up earlier adventures. But I'm making it pretty clear that this is the only adventure of this caliber that he's had. He is one of the best when it comes to computer forensics and is an expert witness, but being out tailing the bad guy and getting into fist-fights isn't exactly what he's cut out to do. Not too many novels that can take place around his workbench with an open computer.

Second, Riley is taking on a much more prominent role in my thinking overall, starting with her saving Dag's life during his first heart attack. I don't know yet what the element is, yet, but somehow she will play a part in the keystone event of this book (without taking the emphasis off Dag). After all, Dag is going to spend about a quarter of the book in the hospital the way I've got it estimated at the moment (maybe only 20%). The action has to occur someplace.

Dag (from his bed): Riley, I need a pair of legs.
Riley (glancing down at her miniskirt): You know you've got mine anytime, Dag.
Dag: Well get them down to Stocks & Blondes and bring me back everything you can find out about Angel Woodward. What's her relationship to Simon Barnette?

kleine_liebchen
I LOVE that conversation! And I have to go with the majority here on Deb, it just seems to fit too well to be cast aside.

ariesrising
I like Kate Riley.

Naming Dag's Secretary

I need a name
Okay friends. I'm soliciting a name for Dag's secretary. She is a twenty-something wanna be detective who is hooked on old movies. She's likely to get called "Sweetcheeks" by Dag--and like it. But this gal is also the kind of brainy, almost geek sidekick that perfectly complements Dag's Crusty-outside-marshmallowy-inside character. She teases Dag a lot, knowing that if she were writing the story she'd be the Sam Spade's sexy secretary, or Mike Hammer's who can quickly go under cover as a nightclub singer if she needs to.

I'm not above using the name of one of my friends if you fancy yourself in the role, but I've been tossing around these: Linda, Dolores, Kate, Donna, and Rachel. Then, of course, there is CiNdY. None seem to quite make it. So, what do you think? (BTW the story, for all its period overtones is contemporary.)

In return for your help here are a few more Daggisms:

I picked up a tail in the third aisle and she was sticking to me like cat hair on a blue suit.

I wasn't complaining. I hadn't seen anything in a skirt in three days.

Dag walks into office and sees secretary in sweater, miniskirt and ratty tennis shoes. "New shoes?" I asked. "Oh, Dag, you noticed!" she purred. "They were only eighty bucks on sale. Don't you think they make my legs look sexy?" "Yeah, by comparison," I growled. Of course, by comparison Maizie looked sexy.

Well, do tell. Who is she?


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kirylin
Marilyn! (I think that's the name of the secretary for Picard's holodeck detective character on ST:TNG. Sorry for the geek reference.)

There's always Lana, too.

wayzgoose
I like Lana. When you responded, I suddenly thought "Riley!" What if she just goes by her last name?

kirylin
Ooh! That could be cute! (And Riley is such a great name!)

kleine_liebchen
I like Kate but I think it's a bit much. I keep coming back to the name Lonnie (Or however you would want to spell it), I'm not sure why but it just rings with me.

Good luck!

wayzgoose
Lonnie is good. It's like Lana but a little more androgynous. Fits in with the kind of tough character that she sees herself as. BTW, she is in college studying computer science and criminal justice. She is a major geek.

cloverdew
How about Deborah, but she goes by Deb?

Let us know if you've decided on anything! Hehe.

wayzgoose
Deborah and Deb I like, but she could never be Debbie. Of course, that could be a signal for her to claw someone's eyes out. "Don't call me Debbie!"

cloverdew
exactly!!! and she wears candy apple red pumps to work

wayzgoose
Sitting here in the ice rink, my friend Kate suggested Kaitlyn or Noreen. I like Noreen. It has some possibilities.

cloister27
Kate: good! I was going to vote for that one of your original suggestions

Kaitlyn: Ahh! No, no, please, no!

Deb but never Debbie: Good! The nickname thing is nice. "Deb" has a very comfortable feel to it, in that if he's calling her that they must have a good relationship. The never Debbie thing establishes right away that she's not to be considered purely as a sex object (in the Debbie from Debbie-does-Dallas way).

Noreen: my first dance teacher was named Noreen. A fine, fine, terribly proportionate woman she was... That works for me.

kleine_liebchen
I like your point about "Deb." It would say a lot about their relationship, and if she counters Dag as well as she's planned to, then it really would fit well!

cloverdew
So far, I like Deb(orah), Noreen (like the woman in the Weatherman), and Delores (as in Claiborne) a lot.

Quesitons on my mind

1. Maybe the entire action takes place in November. It turns out she walks into his office on the first of November and everything else unfolds on the subsequent days of November with Dag signing off at the end of the month. Downside is no Mariners Tickets, but it does match each day's writing with the action that is taking place that day. That could be pretty cool.


2. Simon embezzles a lot of money and has it in the form of securities? Bonds? Cash? Swiss Accounts? Offshore investments? How liquid is the money? Where is it? What is the form of its currency?


3. Brenda knows Simon has been doing this and has even been covering for him, but he leaves her and she is pissed. She sends Dag to find Simon, but she really wants the money.


4. Does Dag tell Brenda where he thinks Dag is hiding out and that he's on his way to get him? Does he see Brenda and become suspicious of her?


5. When Dag finds Simon, he succeeds in finding the money, but how? Is it in a bank account? Back to where is the money. More key is how does Dag get possession of it without Brenda knowing?


6. Presumably, Dag is able to get the money by using Simon's laptop computer. Why would Simon leave a computer behind without a) erasing the disk, or b) not having anything on it that Dag could use? Was he kidnapped? Did he go willingly?


7. Who is Angel? Is she the stripper that could suck the chrome off a '57 Cadilac? Does Dag really look for banking information at the strip club called Stocks & Blondes?


8. What is Dag's relationship with his secretary? She's just someone to watch the office and run errands? How about if she is a college student that Dag hires to give her a place to do her homework? "I don't pay you to play video games. Do your homework."


9. Gabriella Priest or Prior is completely incidental to the story. She just adds an extra dimension to Dag and Maizie.


10. Does Angel have a boyfriend who is implicated in the scheme? Is there a partner of Simon's who wants in on the deal or wants revenge? Who are the other bad guys/obstacles in Dag's way. If Angel were jilted by Simon, that would give her motive as well.


11. Who else wants Simon dead? We have four possibilities at the moment: Brenda, Angel, business partner, Angel's boyfriend. Is there a gambling debt or blackmail going on as well? What kind of tricky business could he be involved in?


12. Should Dag know his condition before the story starts? This would help compress the action timeline a bit. Detective mysteries typically take place over a couple days or weeks at the most. It would mean that he is already on the waiting list and push more stuff over to the reflections and remembering. Helps if Dag isn't always getting knocked out by the same person.


13. If we follow that, there is the a new mission for the secretary. She's constantly trying to get Dag to take a pill, exercise, calm down, go to the doctor, etc. Dag on the other hand is calmly waiting for a new heart and going in every week for a checkup.


14. Who are the potential villains? So far, Brenda, Angel, Partner, Boyfriend. Maybe there should also be a criminal element that is attempting to Phish the info out of the same org.


15. 170 US orgs have lost over 83.5 million records in past year. 60% were stolen laptops. Dag can recite this as part of his spiel when Brenda brings him Simon's computer.


16. Rules for privacy and security: 1) Don't store passwords electronically on any device. Keep them in your head. 2) Change passwords every 30 days. 3) Do not use "remember me" options on any sign-in for any purpose. That includes autofill in Windows. 4) Encrypt files with 128 bit encryption or higher. 5) Don't use the same password for all accounts. 6) Use biometric scanner for computer access. 7) No auto-sign-in to internet access.


17. What is Dag's responsibility to report his discovery of embezzled funds to the FBI?


18. What if Simon's "Partner" had actually helped him rip off a much larger organization that didn't even know it had been embezzled from? The partner then would want to find Simon, be angry enough to kill him, and want the money, without tipping off the corporation. Brenda might be playing both ends against the middle to try to get the money without letting the partner in on it.


19. Did Simon and his partner work for the same accounting firm that Dag was formerly with? Then it is one of their clients that they ripped off, or even helped an exec rip off.


20. "About file encryption and how to protect files: Protecting EFS Encryption Keys and EFS Guide


21. The Vault in Dag's office looks like the wall behind his desk, but his security remote control (ADT wireless security system) has been modified to broadcast a signal to the latching system on the vault. So there is no keypad or visible latching system for the vault. It is entirely from a remote that looks like it controls something else entirely.

A thought about Brenda

This will develop into a character sketch eventually, but when Brenda pays her last visit to Dag in the hospital, there's going to be a conversation something like this:

"Tell me Sweetcheeks," I said as she leaned over to kiss me. "I've got to know before you go: Did you kill Simon?"

"Dag, honey," she said brushing my ear with her lips. "We were married for 28 years. I loved him to death." She smiled a crimson smile at me that was equal parts passion and poison. That was the last time I saw her.

I think this will be an interesting lingering question.

Three Great Detectives

I rented a few DVDs and planted myself in front of the TV to watch. I was hunting for something with the first person perspective that I am anticipating for S&E. So I went with the greats.

The Maltese Falcon. Humphrey Bogart as the ace Sam Spade (Dashiel Hammet). This is definitely one of the classiest pieces ever. First off, Bogart is debonaire, even if all his characters are the same. His suits are impeccable. He's the opposite of Peter Falk's Columbo, a bumbling rumpled pug of a detective. Bogart's suits are always neatly pressed, jackets buttoned and a sharp hat on his head. The movie (unlike my recollection) did not have a first person narrative over the top, so now I'm going to have to go find a couple Dashiel Hammet mysteries and read them!

The Big Sleep. Bogart again, this time as Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe. Added bonus, Lauren Bacall as the love interest. Wow! Marlowe has guns and isn't afraid to use them, unlike Spade who says he doesn't like guns and doesn't carry one. But he is good at taking them away from people. In shocking violence on the screen, there are five murders, one committed (in self-defense) by Marlowe, and one set up by him. Marlowe is sharp, not quite as debonnaire as Spade even if ostensibly higher class. He has a better relationship with the police than Spade has. Both smoke like a chimney.

Song Bird. This time it is Stacey Keach as Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. Hammer comes out shooting and drops more people in this picture than the other two combined. His guns never seem to run out of amunition. This film, actually two episodes of Mike Hammer TV series spliced together, does have the kind of voice-over narrative that I'm looking for, but frankly it was dull. Keach's delivery can't even be considered dry. More like brittle. Nothing he says comes off. If it were Bogey saying the same lines, I'm pretty sure that it would have sounded brilliant. Hammer always looked as if he'd slept in his clothes, and didn't change suits or shirts throughout the whole several days depicted in the film. It wasn't bad as far as the mystery goes, but in the summary as they were tying together the pieces, even Mike Hammer got some of the names twisted around as to who killed who. I noticed that in the Phillip Marlowe myster as well. Man, if you are going to toss in a bunch of characters and then sort it all out in the end, you've got to keep them straight and know who killed whom.

So, there was some good fodder for my story here. A couple conventions that I need to spoof. Mike Hammer has a knock-out secretary who is sharp and keeps him taken care of, as does Sam Spade. Pillip Marlowe is a loner. He doesn't even seem to have a secretary. Spade starts out with a partner who gets killed in the first ten minutes. Marlowe acts completely alone. Hammer has a staff including a younger apprentice detective. In that, I think that Dag Hamilton is more like Marlowe in that he acts alone, but I like the fact that he's got a secretary. I may make her more than a couple days a week parttimer.

I think I'll try to keep Dag clear of the police entirely, as well, although he may have a run-in with the FBI since he is chasing down securities across state lines. We'll see. Another thing that I liked about Hammer is that he's a musician and could sit in with the band on the keyboard when he needed to. It's an interesting thought.

What I know about Dag

I first met Dagget Hamilton in May of 2006. He emerged as a parody of a detective, operating in a world that he only partially understood. He is the type of guy who narrates his own life, often embellishing the actual events with what he "shoulda said."

Dag's life unfolded before me in a series flashes, laced with his own insights, sometimes accidentally revealed. Dag is a child of the sixties. He served in Viet Nam near the end of the war. When he got out, he used his GI benefits to go to school and get a degree in accounting. Somewhere in his mid twenties, a tragedy hit him and he lost the one love of his life and his first home. He says it was a fire, but I suspect that his relationship died of boredom and the house went with it.

Image means a lot Dag. He tries to portray an aura of sophisticated toughness. He models himself simultaneously after James Bond and Sam Spade. But when he's in a tight spot, it is his naturally sweet disposition that always surfaces first. He is especially attracted to technology (the James Bond side). His vault is filled with gadgets that he doesn't use. And he's not ignorant of it. He knows his way around a computer and attends all the detective and surveilance conventions, even though he seldom has a use for his gadgets. But as a result of his fascination with computers, one aspect of his business (and the most lucrative) is recovering data from damaged or sabotaged computers.

Dag lives in a one-bedroom upstairs duplex on Queen Anne (a nice old neighborhood in Seattle). His landlady, who lives downstairs, is a character in and of herself. She is a pet psychic and loves Dag's dog, Maizie, who has been with him for seven years. His house is simply furnished had is in stark contrast to his landlady's in that it is immaculately kept, even Maizie's shed fur is absent from his living space. The house isn't sterile, but you'd notice that the artwork is good quality prints from artists who created much more expensive artwork. He has a good stereo system with a collection of LPs from the sixties and seventies. He doesn't really have anything newer. He does have a CD player, but the CDs that he has are all re-cuts of his LPs. His DVD collection is centered around re-releases of Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man along with the entire collection of James Bond movies.

Dag's office is located on the converted warehouse Pier 71 in Seattle. Once a dock for exotic shipments, this pier was saved from the wrecking ball by an enterprising developer who turned the old warehouse into offices back in the seventies. When local business failed to follow his lead to the far end of the waterfront, rents began to fall. The businesses on the pier are mostly wholesalers with a tier of offices still let out on the third floor. Dag took one of these when he first opened his business fifteen years ago because the rent was right and no one came around to bother him unless they had business.

Most mornings, Dag walks to work (just a mile) with Maizie at his heel. He got Maizie, a pitbull, for the image of having a tough dog as his companion. She's extremely well-trained for a number of tasks, but none of them are particularly guard-dog-like. She seems to like everyone, especially those with cookies.

Dag was able to build out his office space as he wanted and as a result he had it wired completely for a computer network long before he could afford to have one. He built a fireproof vault in his office in which he intended to keep all the valuable records of his cases, but when he went to a detective convention a number of years ago he discovered that many detectives were having records subpoenaed and the movement was to keep as little as possible in the way of a paper trail. Dag took that to heart and over the course of several years, succeeded in getting rid of all his paper and getting everything backed up on his computer. Well, you can imagine some of the implications of that and continued subpoenas of computer data, etc. Let's just say that he thinks he's dealt with the problem.

The office has a small reception area, though his secretary is a part-timer who only works on Mondays and Wednesdays. Mostly she answers e-mail and phone messages and tidies the place up. She waters the plants and sometimes walks the dog if Dag is busy. She doesn't do much and Dag doesn't pay much, but it's part of the image.

One wall of Dag's large and spacious office is a window looking south over Puget Sound. In front of it sit two sofas across a small table from each other. Dag's desk is to the right of the door, with a view toward both the window and the door. He's been very into Feng Shui since the mid-90s and won't have his back to either the door or the window. There is a large rug on the soft-wood floor, and Maizie's bed is under the window. There are your typical almost-valuable pieces of art on the walls. Dag tends toward striking scenes of Greek Islands. One incongruous item is a bronze sculpture of a lady's head that has its own pedestal and a place in the corner that is almost shrine-like with a single spotlight focused on the bronze. He says that's the only woman he's ever placed on a pedestal who didn't get off.

There are a few plants in the office and if there is a computer on the desk, it is only his laptop. He had his phone service removed a couple years ago and had the phone numbers transferred to cellular service. His desk is clear but for a lamp and writing set. In the drawers, however, he keeps a range of tools and cables for working on computers in his desk drawers.

When Dag got out of school, he entered one of the big accounting firms where he filed taxes and did audits for fifteen years. That was when he turned forty and everything changed. He'd always wanted to do something more fun and exciting, so he cashed in his retirement fund and opened the business out on Pier 71. It started as a simple independent CPA, but he got his Private Investigator's License, then proceeded to bill himself as a Detective. However, the work he did stayed mostly the same. He did tax audits, and achieved a bit of a reputation in the area for being able to recover data from computers. Companies often call him to unlock a former employee's computer, to repair sabotaged computers, and to retrieve forgotten passwords.

I'll tell you more about Dagget Hamilton later. After all, I'm still getting to know him.

Dag's Office

I've toyed with several settings for where Dag works, both regarding the city and what his office is like. I thought about maybe making his office in an old church that had been converted. I saw one like that in Minneapolis. There is also an old warehouse in Minneapolis that was converted to offices years ago that turned out pretty cool. Then I got to thinking about the businesses that are on the piers along the Seattle Waterfront. I'm thinking that I might combine the warehouse idea with the piers and make it in Seattle. It will let me create a little of my own world in an interesting location. There's so much going on down there with ferries, shipping, Pike's Place Market, the viaduct, and all. I also like the feel of the old, heavy-beamed wood construction of the piers. It reminds me of the warehouses in Minneapolis.

So, I picture Dag's office as being very open, with a huge window overlooking the water. There is a bed for Maizie in front of the window and his desk is on one side. He has a thing for Feng Shui, so would not have his back to either the window or the door. In addition to his desk, there is a conversation area near Maizie's bed with a sofa and chair. He has a laptop computer on his desk, and basically nothing else. There is no paper in his office.

There is a reception room outside his office door with a desk, chair, and two guest chairs. It is tastefully decorated, but once again, completely void of paper. There is no computer on the desk (we find out later that his secretary also uses a laptop). There is, however, a second--locked--door in the waiting area. This leads to "The Vault" where Dag's computer server is. We discover that he keeps no files on his laptops. Everything is stored on the computer and he accesses it wirelessly through the internet from wherever he is. There's a little techno-mumble-jumble here, but Dag considers it safer to have all his files locked in The Vault instead of carrying them around. Basically, we find out that if his laptop is stolen, the theif gets absolutely nothing. It assumes a higher grade of wireless performance than what is common today, but let's paint the picture as we dream it, not as we live it. After all, I'm sitting in an ice arena with the featherweight laptop on my knees posting to LJ via a SIM card and EDGE connection to Cingular. It's not that hard to imagine Dag having something better and cooler than what I have.