The Graveyard Shift Blog

Since 2008, Lee Lofland has written over 2000 articles on his blog, The Graveyard Shift. Topics such as police procedure, forensics, criminal behavior, and what it’s like to be a cop has helped countless numbers of popular and aspiring writers.

His life’s mission – to remind writers that cordite is dead and gone. Just say no to cordite in your books!

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Sheriffs: Cops, or Not? – Understanding Sheriff’s Offices in America

Many of us had our first real look at a sheriff's office back in 1960 when Sheriff Andy Taylor and his fearless deputy, Barney Fife, patrolled the roads around Mayberry, North Carolina. Television took us inside the Mayberry jail, the…
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Christmas For Jimmy Lee Bailey: A Child in Need of Love

The call---a child in need of services. What I found was a child in need of love. His tired old house squatted at the end of a hard-packed red clay path like something that had crawled there to die. The long driveway was nothing more than…

The Twelve Nights Of Christmas Graveyard Shifts

The Twelve Nights Of Graveyard Shift On the first night of graveyard my sergeant gave to me, a car-tri-idge and a cuff key. On the second night of graveyard my sergeant gave to me, two prostitutes, and a car-tri-idge and a cuff key. On…

A Cop’s Thanksgiving: Save a Drumstick for Me

Morning parade. Smiling faces. Children playing. Marching bands.   Turkey. Pumpkin pie. Eggnog. Football.   Pistol. Badge. Vest. Kiss the kids, please. And save a drumstick for me. I'm almost…
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Dead Women Sometimes Cry in the Rain, And Baby Socks

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times---Never start a story with the weather. Even Elmore Leonard kicked off his "Don't-do-it" list with a rule about using atmospheric conditions to open a story. Never open a book with…

Writers, Name Your Poison

It was a new novel, the third in her latest series, and, as always, in the early stages of the process the seasoned author required a new notepad for jotting down ideas, thoughts, and research notes. So she flipped back the blue cardboard cover…

In the Midnight Hour: A Cup of Joe, Maggots, Memories, and Run-On Sentences

Working the first 240 minutes of the graveyard shift, when the crazies and criminals come out to play, and when many normal and sane folks allow alcohol and drugs to take over the part of the mind that controls mean and nasty, is a timeframe…

Thompson Sub-Machine Gun

  This is what it looks like to peer down-range from behind a Thompson fully-automatic submachine gun. You can actually see a spent cartridge ejecting at the lower right-hand side of the picture, just above the major's right elbow. The…