Most men spend the majority of their online time doing things like playing fantasy football and looking at porn. I spend the majority of mine researching how to quickly and discreetly murder people.
If you were to skim my recent Google search history, you’d find such entries as:
While I quite enjoy conducting such research as a fiction writer, I’m also a little concerned that I’m afforded so much freedom to do so. I can’t help but think someone in the national security field isn’t doing their job. I mean, I’m not so well known a writer as to be given a free pass, carte blanche for gathering info on dark and deadly criminal pursuits. Stephen King, James Patterson, Stieg Larsson (if he were still alive), Patricia Cornwell, Michael Connelly – those writers should be allowed to bypass any and all red flags when conducting online research, but not little ol’ me.
It’s less likely I’m being given a pass and more likely my Google activity hasn’t even registered on any security agency's or investigative bureau's radar. But that’s even more concerning, as it leads me to assume there are plenty of other people getting away with similar disturbing Google searches for non-fictional purposes. I’m talking about people who intend on actually carrying out the same sort of sick and twisted stuff I merely intend on incorporating into a novel. There are a lot of really messed up people in this world, and the authorities need to realize some of those people aren’t even writers.
Just one call or letter or email to me from the FBI or the NSA (or even my local police department) voicing their concern over my recent Google searches would do a lot to put my mind at ease. Just one knock on my door from a special agent would make me feel safer and more secure. It would keep me from worrying about all the aspiring sadists and assassins and terrorists roaming free in our society with little or no intention of writing a book.
So come on, FBI and NSA, get with the program. Pay more attention to what I’m up to online – at least until I win a Pulitzer Prize or the PEN/Faulkner Award. Then perhaps you can let down your guard.
If you were to skim my recent Google search history, you’d find such entries as:
- “cyanide poisoning”
- “ricin poisoning”
- “arsenic poising”
- “easiest ways to kill”
- “best murder methods”
- “unconventional weapons”
- “the CIA ‘heart attack’ gun”
While I quite enjoy conducting such research as a fiction writer, I’m also a little concerned that I’m afforded so much freedom to do so. I can’t help but think someone in the national security field isn’t doing their job. I mean, I’m not so well known a writer as to be given a free pass, carte blanche for gathering info on dark and deadly criminal pursuits. Stephen King, James Patterson, Stieg Larsson (if he were still alive), Patricia Cornwell, Michael Connelly – those writers should be allowed to bypass any and all red flags when conducting online research, but not little ol’ me.
It’s less likely I’m being given a pass and more likely my Google activity hasn’t even registered on any security agency's or investigative bureau's radar. But that’s even more concerning, as it leads me to assume there are plenty of other people getting away with similar disturbing Google searches for non-fictional purposes. I’m talking about people who intend on actually carrying out the same sort of sick and twisted stuff I merely intend on incorporating into a novel. There are a lot of really messed up people in this world, and the authorities need to realize some of those people aren’t even writers.
Just one call or letter or email to me from the FBI or the NSA (or even my local police department) voicing their concern over my recent Google searches would do a lot to put my mind at ease. Just one knock on my door from a special agent would make me feel safer and more secure. It would keep me from worrying about all the aspiring sadists and assassins and terrorists roaming free in our society with little or no intention of writing a book.
So come on, FBI and NSA, get with the program. Pay more attention to what I’m up to online – at least until I win a Pulitzer Prize or the PEN/Faulkner Award. Then perhaps you can let down your guard.
