Welcome to #SHAKEDOWN

If you’re one of our loyal readers then you know that #SHAKEDOWN is made up of me, Lisa Wilson a.k.a Juror13, and my partner in true crime writing, Nick van der Leek.

Nick and I are storytellers.  We’re not mainstream media, we don’t work for a publication, and we’re not lawyers (although we’ve been accused of that in the past.)  We are prolific researchers with a mutual passion for psychology and criminology.  Crime is about victims, and justice for victims.  But we’re also inspired by the other side of tragedy – the healing, the growing, the restoration – that comes from the deep interrogation and introspection of individuals. The deeply interactive nature of our narratives is what sets our true crime books apart from the others.

Did you know that according to Time Magazine’s 50 most influential gadgets of all-time list, the Amazon Kindle is #28?  Our stories are specifically crafted to take advantage of the capabilities of the Kindle App.  But you don’t need a Kindle to read, any digital device will do – smartphone, laptop, PC, tablet.

Speaking of technology and interconnectivity, Nick and I live 10,000 miles apart.  In the two years I’ve known him, we’ve only spent three weeks together in the same place.  Yet, we share a tremendous camaraderie and have built this successful writing partnership because we have technology to support us.  That same technology can keep us connected to you.  That’s what this new space is about.  Having a place for all of us to connect with other creative and intelligent people; to discuss, debate and grow together.  We also want to have some fun, we want to laugh and yes we do swear.  I counted 52 instances of profanity in JUICE III [since edited down]. You’ve been warned.

Seeing this website come to life is particularly exciting for me because it marks a turning point in my career.   For the past two years while I’ve been collaborating with Nick I’ve also held a full time job during the day.  If you’ve listened to our podcasts which we often record in the middle of the night, you’ve probably had the joy of hearing me bitch about sleep deprivation.  Hopefully (most) of those days will soon be in the past as I’m officially making this labor of love my career.  I’ll still be doing other work, but #SHAKEDOWN will now be my primary focus.  

The good news for our followers is that with both Nick and I at the helm, we can bring you more new content on a regular basis.  In addition to the many book series that we have planned,  like SICKOS [the Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo story], Robert Durst, and JonBenet Ramsey, to name a few, we’ll also be blogging about various cases and other topics every week.  That content can be found on our Coming Soon, True Crime Blog and Forum pages.

We’ll also be hitting the road on occasion to bring you stories and photography from around the world.  Nick and I will be making videos and podcasts so be sure to check out #SHAKEtube and Soundcloud.   Our ultimate goal is to connect with producers, so #SHAKEDOWN can be the source code for exciting new True Crime documentaries.  If we’re lucky, we’ll also get more fiction writing out of Nick.  To find out about his epic Bloodline series, click on the Fiction tab above.

On my end, I’ll be working on bringing you audio [ACX] and print versions of all our current and future narratives.  We’ll continue to sell from Amazon, but plan to branch out to other retailers, including Apple iBooks, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Nook and eventually Google Books.  We’re also gearing up to sell directly from our site which means we can pass down cost savings to you, our loyal readers.

If you want to learn how you can do all of this too, Nick and I will be teaching a variety of How-to-write and How-to-write-for-Kindle Workshops.  Sign up for email alerts from our Home page so you can be informed of all the latest and greatest happenings on the site.  Another way to connect with us, beyond this site and social media, is via our Whatsapp group.   If you’d like to join those discussions, please private message your name and phone number to me @LisawJ13 and I’ll get you added to our list.

I now send you off to go explore and have fun.  Please sniff around our site.  We’ll be making frequent additions and updates, and we welcome your commentary and opinions. If you see anything you like, please also hook us up with your social media. Justice isn’t an individual thing, it’s a group thing, so we hope you’ll join us in our journey to find justice in the court of public opinion.