Dana Ridenour

Retired FBI undercover special agent Dana Ridenour and a retired FBI agent and profiler Eugene A. Rugala will lead two writing workshops at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center on Saturday mornings, March 1 and 8, from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Each class is limited to 20 participants, $60/person, with advance registration required at https://patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com.

 

Demythologizing the FBI: What Writers Get Wrong, March 1, 10:00 to noon

(Part of the Pat Conroy Literary Center’s Ninth Annual March Forth Weekend)

This workshop for writers (and interested readers) will dispel the myths and clichés perpetrated by television and movies regarding the FBI. Writers will learn how to avoid the common pitfalls of writing FBI characters. The discussion will give writers a peak into the daily life of an FBI agent focusing on the FBI undercover program, and the role of the FBI plays in terrorism and human trafficking investigations. The presentation will also explore the myths and realities of what the Behavioral Analysis Unit does and doesn’t do, what is and what is not behavioral “profiling,” what types of cases utilize this technique, and what members of the BAU do on a daily basis. Participants will gain a better understanding of how to accurately portray FBI characters and investigations.

Writing Believable Law Enforcement Characters, March 8, 10:00 to noon

Law enforcement personnel are an integral part of crime fiction.

Eugene Rugala

Their roles range from those enforcing the law at street level up to the upper echelons of command. In this workshop the instructors will discuss the psychological toll of being a law enforcement officer, how to write realistic law enforcement characters and crime scenes, writing about firearms, understanding jurisdiction, writing realistic fight scenes, and turning your real-life experiences into fiction. The instructors will also delve into opportunities for research and their own experiences with research—one as a novelist and the other as a consultant for books, film, and television.

About our instructors

Dana Ridenour is the award-winning author of the Lexie Montgomery FBI Series: Behind the Mask, Beyond the Cabin, and Below the Radar. She is a retired FBI special agent who spent most of her career as an undercover operative. Dana had the rare experience of working a long-term undercover investigation with her husband who was also an FBI agent. She now lives, writes, and teaches in the South Carolina lowcountry, where she also volunteers at the Pat Conroy Literary Center.

Eugene A. Rugala is principal of Eugene A. Rugala and Associates LLC, a behavioral science, consultation, training, and research firm based in Beaufort. One of the FBI’s “Profilers” in the unit made famous by the book and movie The Silence of the Lambs and the series Criminal Minds and Mindhunter, Gene specializes in the detailed behavioral analysis of violent crimes, including homicide, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking, and workplace and school violence. Gene has contributed to the content and participated in the video production of Shots Fired: Guidance for Surviving an Active Shooter Situation, Flashpoint: Recognizing and Preventing Violence in the Workplace, and Silent Storm: Intimate Partner Violence and Stalking and Its Impact on the Workplace. He is a coauthor of the book Workplace Violence: Issues in Threat Management.

 

Learn more about the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center at www.patconroyliterarycenter.org