Monday, April 23, 2012

Need a Little Heat in Your Novel?

Adam Firestone, Firearms Expert
I'm not referring to the heat of passion, but the kind of heat you pack! Do you know the difference between casings and cartridges, or clips and magazines, or an Uzi vs. an AK-47?

If you're going to include firearms in your story, make sure you portray them, and all of their parts, accurately.  If you don't, to those out there who know gun speak, you'll have the equivalent of "He kissed her with his knee," while wrongly identifying your weapons and their inner workings.

I stole that knee quote from Adam Firestone. I recently attended his workshop Firearms and the Choreography of Direct Action.  It was amazing, and I learned quite a bit about "heat."

Adam provides technical consulting services to the literary and entertainment industries, specializing in action choreography and technical consulting on cyber and weapon technologies, their impacts, employment and tactics from both historical and modern perspectives.

Be sure to visit his blog if you have questions regarding firearms, because he addresses several issues pertaining to them in his posts. However, if you can't find an answer, drop him an email at adam.firestone@gmail.com.

.38 Special Cartridges
Not all of us are fortunate enough to know a cop or a shooting instructor to verify information about those shoot 'em up scenes we love to write, but Adam Firestone is just a click away!

Do you pack heat in what you write? Thanks for visiting!

12 comments:

Old Kitty said...

Oooh thanks for this info to Mr Firestone (what a brilliant surname!!) - I'll definitely keep him and his blog in mind - you never know when your character needs to pack some heat!!

Take care
x

Maria McKenzie said...

You're welcome! He does have a fitting name, doesn't he;)?

William Kendall said...

I'll check out his blog. I haven't handled firearms myself, but I've read more then enough thrillers to be familiar with the terminology. And I've consulted with police officers about them as well.

Maria McKenzie said...

Hi, William! I'll think you'll find Adam's information very useful:). But it sounds like you already know more than most!

Jennette Marie Powell said...

Adam's workshop was fantastic, wasn't it?? My husband's into guns and he answers most of my questions, but always gives me a weird look. He just doesn't get it. I loved how Adam discussed Gia's question about shooting a dragon on his blog - priceless!

Maria McKenzie said...

His workshop was awesome, but you're lucky to have an in-house reference:)! That was a very creative post on slaying a dragon!

Scarlett and James said...

If we should ever decide to kill off a certain Rat Bastard in a future novel, we'll have to keep this in mind!

Maria McKenzie said...

You bet;)!

Intangible Hearts said...

No, but you're right, I do have a character with a gun and I probably should elaborate more than just say he held the muzzle to her ribs or whatever I wrote. I will check it out. Thanks Maria!

Norma said...

I grew up in a family of marksmen, but one can never have enough knowledge of firearms! Thanks, Maria!

PS I miss your foodie posts....

Maria McKenzie said...

@Eve: You're welcome! Adam can help you add a little color to that gun scene;).

@Norma: You're one of those lucky ones with personal contacts:). Funny you should mention my food posts--I was just thinking about them. They used to get the most hits of anything I'd post!

Haddock said...

This is very true. I work in an automobile company and know the glaring mistakes when people write about cars and the internal parts.