Guest Blog by Author DANIEL PALMER

[becke_davis]

About a year ago, Daniel Palmer joined us to celebrate the release of his debut book, DELIRIOUS. Now he's back just in time to mark the release of his second book, HELPLESS.

Enjoy!

Daniel says:

I'm an author (thrillers), musician (songs and such), father of two (boy and girl), husband of one, baseball fan (Red Sox), pro football fan (NE Patriots), and aspiring pet owner.

You can find Daniel's website here: http://www.danielpalmerbooks.com/

He's on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/danieljamespalmer

His blog is here: http://www.danielpalmerbooks.com/blog/

And he's on Twitter here:

Daniel Palmer: https://twitter.com/#!/danielpalmer

He's also on Google+.

[becke_davis]

Delirious  

Overview

"A roiling plot, insightful characters, clear, intelligent writing. What more could you ask for in a novel?" —Steve Berry

Charlie Giles is at the top of his game. An electronics superstar, he's sold his startup to a giant Boston firm, where he's now senior director. He's treated like a VIP everywhere he goes. . .. Until everything in Charlie's neatly ordered world starts to go terrifyingly wrong.

"Hits all the right notes. Terrific stuff." —John T. Lescroart

Charlie's prestigious job and his inventions are wrenched away from him. His family is targeted, and his former employers are dying gruesomely, picked off one by one. Every shred of evidence points to Charlie as a cold-blooded killer. And soon he is unable to tell whether he's succumbed to the pressures of work and become the architect of his own destruction. . .or whether he's the victim of a relentless, diabolical attack. Now he must save his own life—all the while realizing that nothing can be trusted, least of all his own fractured mind. . .

"A high-speed thrill ride, filled with shocks and mind-bending twists." —Tess Gerritsen

"Not just a great thriller debut, but a great thriller, period." —Lee Child

[becke_davis]

BRIEF BIO: Daniel Palmer is the author of a novel, Delirious (coming from Kensington Books, in January 2011). He is also an occasional short story writer, with The Dead Club in the ITW anthology, First Thrills, andDisfigured, found in Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up At Night.

Daniel, whose father is New York Times best-selling novelist Michael Palmer, is the first to admit he never planned a career in publishing. Daniel’s earliest passion was music, and songwriting in particular. He spent several years performing in the Boston club scene and has recorded two CDs. Retail clothing giant J.Crew licensed Daniel’s songs for commercial use. Technology became another passion for Daniel, beginning with the first dot.com boom. He spent a decade as an e-commerce pioneer, helping to build first-generation Web sites for many popular brands.

With much of the world going “digital,” Daniel saw an opportunity to use his Internet and Social Media work experience to craft a techo-thriller that would not lose the reader in complicated techo-jargon. The result of that effort is Delirious, which follows Charlie Giles, a once high-flying electronics superstar, who may be a cold-blooded killer … or the victim of a relentless, diabolical attack.

The second novel of Daniel’s three-book contract with Kensington explores the teen phenomenon of sexting and its devastating consequences. In the novel, a match is lit when technology is used to destroy a man’s good name. Daniel’s novels focus on everyday people overcoming incredible obstacles and feature the hidden dangers of commonly used technologies.

Daniel is actively involved with the Red Sox Home Base program, helping to raise money for veterans suffering from PTSD. Additionally, once each year at ThrillerFest in New York City in July, Daniel and his father can be seen performing humorous songs about writing. Daniel holds a Master’s Degree from Boston University. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two children.

Here's a photo of Daniel with my friend Barbara Vey of Publisher's Weekly, and with his dad, the best selling author Michael Palmer*:

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/beyondherbook/?p=526

*Links to some of his dad's books:

Oath of Office 

A Heartbeat Away 

The Last Surgeon 

The Second Opinion 

First Patient 

Miracle Cure       

[becke_davis]

Helpless  

Overview

In Daniel Palmer's electrifying, emotionally charged thriller, a high school soccer coach finds his world upended by shocking accusations and long buried secrets. . .

Nine years after he left Shilo, New Hampshire, former Navy Seal Tom Hawkins has moved back. It's not an auspicious homecoming. Tom has returned to raise his teenage daughter, Jill, following the murder of his ex-wife, Kelly. Despite Tom's efforts to stay close to Jill by coaching her high school soccer team, Kelly's bitterness fractured their relationship. But together, they are on the mend, and life in Shilo is starting to shape up into something approaching normal.

Normal doesn't last long. Shilo's police sergeant makes it clear that Tom is his chief suspect in Kelly's death. In the days that follow, an anonymous blog post alleges that Coach Hawkins is sleeping with one of his players, Internet rumors escalate, and incriminating evidence surfaces on Tom's own computer and cell phone. Soon the FBI and police are investigating Tom for what appears to be a very disturbing and unprecedented series of crimes.

Someone is out to frame Tom—someone capable of destroying everything he loves without laying a finger on him. As he races to prove his innocence, he must unravel a tangle of lies about his family, the friends and colleagues he thought he knew, and about his past. For deep amid the secrets he's been keeping—from a troubled tour of duty to the reason for his ex-wife's death—is the truth that someone will gladly kill to protect. . .

Publishers Weekly

If Palmer’s second thriller, after 2011’s Delirious, doesn’t generate tingling spinal columns, then nothing will. From the moment 15-year-old Lindsey Wells texts a nude photo of herself to a boy she hopes will take her to the prom, all holy hell breaks loose. The photo becomes a metaphorical chicken whose Internet spawn come home to roost not just in Lindsey’s backyard but in the backyards of her soccer coach, divorced dad Tom Hawkins; Hawkins’s daughter and her best friend, Jill; and even strangers from her hometown of fictional Shilo, N.H., all the way to Boston and beyond.

While Lindsey and a few other girls are the catalyst, it’s the life of coach Hawkins—a man with a past—that’s thrown into turmoil when that past re-emerges with a vengeance. Superbly crafted characters and catchy prose will keep readers turning the pages, though some parents may feel like reaching for the Prozac.

[becke_davis]

I Give A Damn About My Bad Reputation

by Daniel Palmer

A vendetta is often associated with a blood feud, but really it applies to any prolonged series of retaliatory, vengeful, or hostile acts. The Internet provides a new battleground for waging vendettas. Cyber bullies inflict such emotional distress that their victims sometimes resort to suicide.  Hidden web cams record indiscretions or private moments that are subsequently broadcast on YouTube for the whole world to witness. Rumors and gossip spread on Facebook and Twitter quicker than you can say, “Usain Bolt is really fast.”

Anybody who uses the Internet—and that number increases daily—risks becoming the target of a vendetta.  According to a recent study, Facebook has shrunk the claim that every living person is connected to any other through only six friends down to four. Just as the virtual world shrinks our physical one, our exposure to online dangers grows.

The examples of these dangers are many. Back in July a Minnesota man was sentenced to 18-years in prison because he hacked, “into his neighbor’s computer and, using his identity, planted child pornography, sent lewd messages to work colleagues, and emailed death threats to U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden.”

There’s also the son of a man hospitalized with hemorrhagic stroke who became so angry at his father’s treatment that he wrote, “more than 100 web postings criticizing the neurologist's bedside manner and describing the hospital room encounter.” The doctor later filed a defamation lawsuit seeking more than $50,000 in damages, but a judge dismissed the lawsuit before it reached trial, finding none of the accusations could be considered defamation. 

Our reputations are no longer secure and the skills needed to destroy them are easier than ever to employ. Even corporations, armed with PR flaks and deep pockets, can’t compete against the power of the Internet.  When United Airlines refused to pay restitution for a guitar damaged on a flight from Halifax to Chicago, singer/songwriter Dave Carroll took his gripe to the Internet. Dave wrote a song titled “United Breaks Guitars,” recorded it, and posted a video to YouTube. The video has been viewed more than 11 million times, and as a result, Dave got money from United to buy a new guitar, while United got a bad reputation for their jerky customer service.

We are what the Internet says about us. It’s hard to get a job when a Facebook profile shows the job applicant’s drunken or lewd behavior. A teacher cannot hide her past topless photographs. A teenager cannot deny being a bully when a YouTube video shows him pummeling a weaker and defenseless classmate. Those watching the fight, but doing nothing to intervene, will be branded as uncompassionate souls. Safeguarding our online reputations is a fast growing need. Services are springing up with claims that they can defend your business from bogus one star reviews or prevent scammers from misusing private data. People who need to clean up negative publicity are swarming to these reputation defenders for help.

Manipulating reputations appears to be a lucrative business as well. Ben Zhao, an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has uncovered a new black market for distorting the social media landscape. According to a recent Sunday Boston Globe article on Zhao’s research, “China appears to be the epicenter of this new black market, which is running into the millions there annually, but it has also arrived on our shores.” Zhao’s study is a fascinating look into a very dark side of the Internet’s potential to influence our thoughts and opinions. Websites, like Zhubajie in China, pay people thousands of dollars to create bogus profiles and then write rave reviews for various products.

Zhao dubbed the practice, “crowdturfing”—a blend of “astroturfing,” a term that refers to bogus grassroots efforts and “crowdsourcing,” which is using the power of the crowd in some form of mass collaboration. This type of misleading business practice will continue to proliferate and evolve as digerati-ne'er do wells expose new and ingenious ways of using the Internet’s power to influence public opinion. It’s troubling to think that the Internet friend whose tastes we admire is really a teenager from another continent, goading us into making a false “like” on a web page. 

My second novel, HELPLESS—like my first novel, DELIRIOUS—explores the hidden perils of everyday technology. HELPLESS tells the story of Tom Hawkins, a former Navy SEAL turned high school soccer coach, who becomes the victim of a ruthless online reputation attack. What makes HELPLESS a cautionary tale is its plausibility. A life can be ruined by the mere allegation of sexual impropriety. It is not fiction that innocent people have been branded pedophiles after a computer virus deposited a cache of illegal images on their machine. This creates a sticky situation for law enforcement because actual pedophiles often blame viruses for infecting their computer with illegal images. As a result, it is difficult for victims of computer tampering to prove their innocence. It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to mount a defense. The stress on the victim from the negative publicity and community backlash extracts its own heavy toll. 

While HELPLESS is a work of fiction, I grounded much of the story in fact. I worked closely with the FBI’s Innocent Image National Initiative  (IINI) to make the scenarios plausible and the described procedures factual. The IINI combats the proliferation of child pornography facilitated by an online computer. HELPLESS explores what happens when a determined IINI Special Agent suspects the novel’s protagonist, Tom Hawkins, of possessing and distributing child pornography. I wrote the book hoping that readers will be able to empathize with Tom’s plight, while imagining that this could happen them. Our vast interconnectedness makes the Internet the ultimate purveyor of disinformation. Thanks to this digital revolution, all it takes for someone to distort the truth, change an opinion, ruin a reputation, or even destroy a life, is a single click.

[becke_davis]

Good morning, Daniel! Thanks so much for a provocative - and scary! - blog. It made me nervous just reading it. I can't imagine how stressful it must have been to research this material. I've got a couple questions, if you check in later:

Did writing HELPLESS change the way you interact with social media?

Are your kids old enough to go on Facebook, etc.? If so, how do you deal with that?

Along those lines, what are your thoughts on the new privacy policy at Google?

[becke_davis]

Here's a review of HELPLESS from Library Journal:

Former Navy SEAL Tom Hawkins has moved back to New Hampshire to raise his teenage daughter after his ex-wife dies under mysterious circumstances. His spotless reputation as high school guidance counselor and girls’ soccer coach begins to unravel when he is accused of sleeping with one of his players. And Tom is forced to confront a decades-old secret that may endanger not only him but his daughter as well.

Palmer’s sophomore effort, following Delirious, is every bit as gripping as the first, maybe more so. His background as an e-commerce pioneer is evident in his skillful incorporation of technology into an already enthralling plot. He is so successful that readers hardly realize they’re being educated about one of the dangers of a commonly used technology—in this case, sexting among teenagers. VERDICT Palmer scores again with a terrific thriller that has it all—murder, drugs, kidnapping, techno-mayhem, romance, manly ex–Navy SEAL exploits, and a burgeoning father-daughter relationship. This reviewer enjoyed it so much she is going to suggest her husband read it next—its wide appeal is another plus!—Julie Pierce, Fort Meyers–Lee Cty. P.L., FL

[becke_davis]

Congratulations on your release day, Daniel!

[eadieburke]

Welcome back, Daniel: I enjoyed your book, DELIRIOUS, can't wait to read HELPLESS! The Internet is definitely a scary place for kids! Some adults have also found themselves victims from thinking people are trustworthy. Shows that everyone needs to be cautious when dealing with people online!

[Daniel_Palmer]

Hi Becke! 

Thanks for hosting me again on the BN Mystery forum! I can't believe a year has gone by since I last made an appearance here. I feel very fortunate to be back here, so thank you again. Here are my thoughts on your questions.

Did writing HELPLESS change the way you interact with social media?

It definitely made me think more about our vulnerabilities to online attacks. I've always been conscientious about what I share online. In fact, I would like to change my Facebook settings to make it easier to share things with family that I wouldn't want to share with the rest of the world. But it's very time consuming to set that up. I think configuration complexity is one of the shortcomings of the current social media explosion.

Are your kids old enough to go on Facebook, etc.? If so, how do you deal with that?

Thankfully, no! But when they are, I would not give them a cell phone with picture messaging capability until I was sure they were old enough to understand the repercussions.  Also, I'm not sure I would let them have a computer in their room. It’s something to think about anyway.  
 

Along those lines, what are your thoughts on the new privacy policy at Google?

I think the companies should make data sharing an opt-in feature. In other words, the default settings should be absolute privacy and you would have to select to make your data more available for advertisers and such. That said money will push these policies and practices in the opposite direction.  

[becke_davis]

Thanks for responding to my nosy questions, Daniel. I think the timing of your book's release is brilliant, with all the brouhaha about Google's privacy changes in the news.

I'm on Facebook a lot, but I've blocked all apps. I doubt if it helps much, but I update my privacy settings there constantly.

It's a good idea to search your email address on Google periodically. I did that once and was shocked to find albums of photos I'd uploaded for my family YEARS ago, before I was conscious of things like privacy settings. I went in right away and changed it to "family only."

[maxcat]

Hi, Daniel, thanks for coming back to the mystery forum. Your blog is ever so true to the daily world and what technology can do. What did people do without all those gadgets? Sometimes, it makes me wonder if our lives would be of a better quality without these gadgets. It's scary to get on the web and see who is seeing your every move. Thanks for the wonderful blog!

[becke_davis]

---

maxcat wrote:

Hi, Daniel, thanks for coming back to the mystery forum. Your blog is ever so true to the daily world and what technology can do. What did people do without all those gadgets? Sometimes, it makes me wonder if our lives would be of a better quality without these gadgets. It's scary to get on the web and see who is seeing your every move. Thanks for the wonderful blog!

---

I saw this joke image online, but it's really too close to the truth to be funny!

[Daniel_Palmer]

Here are some tips for folks intrested in knowing best practices for safeguarding your reputation from online attacks.

1. Type your first and last name into several search engines. Don't just Google it. The various engines index the web in different ways. 
2. Check blogs and social networks that you frequent. See what others are saying about you.
3. Check sites you frequent--checking online directories and sites with public records and organzations you belong to may dig up some interesting information.
4. Evaluate your reputation online--do the sites you use, comments you see posted about you, search results reflect what you want reflected?
5. Decide if you want to make information more private and take the time to configure the privacy settings of the sites you use to better safeguard your personal data.

I have more tips I'll share later!

[Daniel_Palmer]

Thanks for the warm welcome! I agree. It is scary. There is no expiration date for our online behavior. There are, however, ways to better safeguard your reputation.  Here are a few suggestions:

1. Think before you share! Lots of times we post things in a ready, fire, aim, sort of way.  It's better to share and post with a cool head and clear thinking.

2. Think about who is going to see the videos and photos you're sharing online. It's not just your friends anymore. The network is much larger and it extends far beyond your inner circle of family and friends.

3. Ask friends to remove content you don't want to share. Good friends will always oblige. 

4. And of course do unto others . . . so if you're asked to remove content, you should oblige them as well.

[Daniel_Palmer]

haha! I saw that as well. That's a great card and sadly, very true. Science has proven that checking email and social networks actually creates a dopamine reaction in our brains. Our brains are highly developed to be social. Below is a link to an interesting article that details some of the reasons why social media--email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. may become, for some people, highly addictive. 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work/200909/why-millions-brains-love-and-hate-twitter

[becke_davis]

---

Daniel_Palmer wrote:

haha! I saw that as well. That's a great card and sadly, very true. Science has proven that checking email and social networks actually creates a dopamine reaction in our brains. Our brains are highly developed to be social. Below is a link to an interesting article that details some of the reasons why social media--email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. may become, for some people, highly addictive. 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work/200909/why-millions-brains-love-and-hate-twitter

---

Thanks for your suggestions in the previous posts, Daniel - I'll get to work on that right away.

I don't find Twitter all that addictive, and even though I post a lot on Facebook it doesn't take long and I rarely spend more than a few minutes at a time there.

On the other hand, Pinterest is TOTALLY addicting. I think mainly women are interested in that site so far.

[becke_davis]

Another glowing review!

The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

Review: Daniel Palmer's 'Helpless' is compelling - and deeply puzzling - thriller

"Helpless" (Kensington), by Daniel Palmer: A divorced father with a teenage daughter finds himself plunged into a suburban nightmare in Daniel Palmer's "Helpless."

Tom Hawkins is a former Navy SEAL who is battling his ex-wife, Kelly, for visitation rights with his daughter, Jill, who wants nothing to do with him. He coaches soccer at the local high school, and Jill becomes one of the star players — though she would rather have someone else calling the shots. During a practice session, the police arrive and tell Tom that his ex-wife has been murdered. He immediately realizes that he's the No. 1 suspect.

Tom's nightmare has only begun: The police discover a blog detailing his secret love affair with one of the players on the soccer team. A search warrant uncovers tons of teen pictures, with several team members in provocative poses. Tom is arrested for distributing child pornography, and he has to find out how someone could frame him so completely — and why. Even the FBI's forensic computer analysis team believes he's guilty.

A man trying to be the best father he can be to his reluctant daughter now also has to prove his innocence. Trust plays a key role in the narrative of this compelling and deeply puzzling thriller. The end game is a bit complex, but the journey is worth the ride. Palmer has a gift with realistic characters — and a writing style that guarantees a sleepless night.

[Daniel_Palmer]

I just joined pinterest. Haven't quite got the hang of it yet!  Thanks again for hosting me on the forum. I had a great time participating.  I hope folks will give HELPLESS a read. It's a cautionary tale, but an important one given our growing use and dependence on technology. Thanks again!

[becke_davis]

---

Daniel_Palmer wrote:

I just joined pinterest. Haven't quite got the hang of it yet!  Thanks again for hosting me on the forum. I had a great time participating.  I hope folks will give HELPLESS a read. It's a cautionary tale, but an important one given our growing use and dependence on technology. Thanks again!

---

Daniel - I'll keep your blog "featured" for another week so you get maximum exposure. It was kind of quiet here today, so you might want to check back later to see if there are additional comments.

I hope you had a big celebration tonight!

Thanks again for a thought-provoking blog.

Becke