The Radio Murders: The Collectors

The Wax Paper Protocol

I opened a new tube of waxed paper this morning and noticed something: there is a right way and a wrong way to open and dispense the wrap!

It’s true, for untold generations the people who brought us what is probably the only brand of waxed paper have built in a neat little origami way of channeling the paper off the tube, out of the box and ready to wrap my peanut butter sandwich. It is very considerate and more than a little baffling. 

If you take the time to notice, there is a slot to punch out which will guide the paper from the roll without opening the box. Once you have the amount you need, you can neatly rip the paper along the serrated edge. The container stays intact and it’s a wrap. The problem is almost no one uses the clever arrangement.

I’ll bet that if you use waxed paper at all you simply open the box and go. Point is someone a long time ago designed this box for the convenience of some careful homemaker who had no intentions of following the packaging rules. The amazing thing is that to this day, no one thinks about it, they still make the box the same way. Cut-Rite sold to Reynolds and the still made the box the same, the same impossible to work, largely ignored way.

The question is why? The simple answer is that it’s the way it’s always been. The more likely answer is no one has challenged the reason the box is made that way, or actually offered a better way that might be convenient and maybe even save money and waste. Why? After all, it’s just waxed paper.

I try not to be just waxed paper, not just anything. I try to challenge the way things are and find a better way. I usually fail. But the act of noticing the things that are being done for all the wrong reasons and trying to change them is a start, it is creative and it is progress.

Except for the little knife-edge, waxed paper doesn’t even need a box. Maybe a permanent pair of well-placed scissors will do in the drawer and let thew roll roam free. Maybe not, but it’s a start.

 

Inside The Radio Murders

 

The Radio Murders: The Collectors has plenty of victims. But this is just a story, drawn from the imagination of a writer, nothing more. Sadly, there are real victims in our society because there is real evil. With that in mind the author and publisher of The Radio Murders: The Collectors have agreed to donate a dollar of every hardback and half that for trade paperback sold.

So Who Wrote TRM?

Sitting down and writing a full-feature mystery novel, or anything for the public, takes certain assumptions.

We are all storytellers in one way or another. But what makes this storyteller think this tale is worth your time?

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The Book

A Simple Idea

The Radio Murders is a simple idea; a radio talk show about real-time murder, As It Happens with a deadly twist.  How could such a thing exist? More importantly, how could it become an entertainment vehicle?

The latter is not so difficult to conceive. We have a bloodlust evident from the beginning. It took four short chapters of The Bible before we had our first murder mystery. It was predicated only by sex and betrayal. Sex has been regulated almost out of radio except in the most nuanced terms. Betrayal is a side dish at best.

So what’s left?

The Radio Murders: The Collectors vividly illustrates how greed, revenge and vanity deconstructs a suburban Chicago family, and draws a relative, a Chicago talk show host, into their deadly pursuits. As a result a home invasion and murder is actually aired, live during Bill "Crash" Kradich’s broadcast. The event is a ratings winner and sends some staff at radio station KCI on a mission to create and "own" the concept.

As part of the Janich family’s near demise, another group of men become involved. Known only as The Collectors, these men take greed to epic heights and will not stop until they acquire some very special items. The Radio Murders: The Collectors tells both stories as they move along parallel runaway courses only to collide in a stunning climax.

Are You Ready?

The Radio Murders is not for everyone. There is plenty of action in this story and it is adult in nature.

The Collectors is not a Romance, not a Cozy Mystery or light reading. "This is not a two-dimensional story," said one reader. "There are layers, each more interesting than the last." The Radio Murders is at times a story about desperate people doing desperate things. And the people you find here do what people do. There is sex, harsh language and graphic scenes of crime and murder.

If you enjoy the work of James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Tami Hoag, Jeffery Deaver, Patricia Cornwell and others who are not affraid to tell a difficult story, then you are exactly the person I am writing for.  The Radio Murders: The Collectors is not a story for the easily offended.

Just thought you should know.

-Chuck Collins

Coming Soon to Amazon.com

The Radio Murders will debut at on-line stores everywhere in December.

 

Now Available at Barns&Noble.com

The Radio Murders: The Collectors is now available at one of the nations' leading booksellers.

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