Little Green Houses Q and A!

Intermission: A q and A session during the proposal presentation. These are some of your questions, these are my answers about Little Green Houses.

Little Green Houses: Florida Grow Houses and Rise of Home-Grown Organized Crime
Non-fiction current events
circa 300 pages with photos

Copyright David Anthony Kearns

Kearnspalmbay@Netzero.net


1. "Might a book about grow houses be out of date when it comes out? Maybe something massive will break like World War III?"

Yes WWIII could happen, and I have no control over that. For my own part, I can't see how grow houses WON'T be a part of the urban landscape in 1 year, even with something massive breaking.

2. "Maybe the economy will improve enough that people won't be interested in grow houses anymore? So why bother?"

About the economy; this stagnation is going nowhere fast (That's mine by accident channeling Yogi Beara). It took us a year and then some to get here. This is THE perfect book for the times. It's timely in that it looks at legalization from all sides. Uhm, gangs, guns, grow houses, police raids? Not being interesting a year from now? Hell, I'm also starting a movie script because I am convinced these elements remain interesting no matter what's happening.

3. "What qualifies YOU SPECIFICALLY TO WRITE THIS?"

This was actually a REALLY GOOD QUESTION! One that editors in committees will surely ask. Here's what I sent back to her!
What qualifies? (No I don't smoke it or grow it or deal it! LOL) What qualifies me to write this is more than seven years working as newspaper reporter covering crime and more drug photo ops for cops literally than I can count, in both Brevard and Indian River Counties. Papers were Florida Today/Gannett and Sebastian Sun a division of Indian River County Press Journal/Scripps Howard. With that comes a career speaking to cops AND criminals! In researching an early novel while living in Miami, I sat in on a good portion of the Manuel Noriega trial while writing my first book, Walker's Grave, about Honduras and the drug trade during the 1980s. So far, no takers on that one.
I am now living in Palm Bay Florida, which is Central Florida; the new epicenter of the grow houses. As I point out in the proposal I have one or possibly three within walking distance.
I am familiar with marijuana from college. I didn't deal it but I had roommates who did. I was surrounded by pot, literally. As an athlete I rarely ever used it, but when I did, I did inhale! I was never arrested for it. FIT My alma mater, took a blithe, almost look the other way stance on pot in the 1980s. As a former Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, we were witness to the corrupting aspect of the drug trade. How many cabbage trucks did I ride on that had either pot or coke in burlap bags beneath all that cabbage? Must have been ten or more.
But, for the record, I usually talk about my agriculture experience in connection with Peace Corps, working with small-scale farmers. I worked with fish farmers mostly, yet you couldn't help becoming familiar with all aspects of farming from animal husbandry to soil conservation. In writing about budding and hybrids, and so forth, I speak not only as someone who has planted crops but, someone with an FIT education in the life and earth sciences. This was an excellent school and remains such. Today they have a zero tolerance for druggies on campus, in fact. Back then, well, it was a different time and place.

4. "Who do you imagine would purchase this book? What is your market?" Also a good question!

Anyone interested in marijuana. Let me say that again. Anyone interested in marijuana, or eradicating it. Double the first total. Anyone with a teenager. Anyone interested in politics. Those curious about the inner workings of law enforcement. Those merely curious about crime and how easy it is to make a grow house. As I say later in this proposal, having a senator or a congressman hold up your book to either lambaste it, or praise it on C-SPAN is pretty much a great marketing plan in itself. The tone and style is easy enough for an eighth grader, yet readable for everyone in the young adult to adult market. Profanity is nill; I even have an dictionary of slang, and strains of marijuana.

5."You shouldn't really go into this deal without an agent, should you?"

Of course not, but, as with my first book Where Hell Freezes Over, I must be prepared to do exactly that. This time I will hire a lawyer to read the contract on the fine points, of course. Not having an agency absolutely is not the way to go. But, in this market, one must keep moving. An agent can run interference for a writer, get into those finer contractual points that can leave one pantless, for sure, and they have the skill to badger the publisher for money. I certainly don't. But agents are so incredibly gun shy anymore. All I am saying is; here is this slam-dunk waiting to happen. If at the end of the day, I have only shoppers and no takers, I will go directly to publishers with this. Because now is the time.

Kearnspalmbay@Netzero.net

Little Green Houses 3

Third part of the overview here.

Copyright David Anthony Kearns

Little Green Houses: Florida Grown Houses and the Rise of Home-Grown Organized Crime
Non-fiction, current events
circa 300 pages with pictures.
Agent: To be decided
Publisher: To be decided

Kearnspalmbay@Netzero.net

3. Pot: A drug of sometime innocence.The effective ingredient is delta-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol. (THC) known for the euphoric feeling of relaxed bliss, enhanced musical and artistic appreciation, temporal distortion, and the munchies. However, prolonged over-use can also produce depressive withdrawal, lack of interest in grooming, inability to summon short-term memory responses, moodiness, and disruptive emotional outbursts affecting interpersonal relationships.As it is cultivated in high intensity “grows’ across the state, the concentration of the active ingredient is bumped from about 7 percent - your grandfather’s weed smoked at Woodstock - to more than 20 percent.

Much like Bacardi distillers discovered the methods of perfecting their 151, growers have used the four horsemen of the modern-day apotalypse - fertilization, light, water, and air - in order to stoke the organic chemistry fires of the cannabis sativa plants bringing out those tiny, glistening strands of THC resin sap, into those densely compacted green buds, like dew-drops on excellent concord grapes.

In many ways this is all very similar to boot-legged booze during prohibition. Is booze bad for you? Of course, but the substance is considered to be somewhat harmless in moderation, or even medicinal. Not to be overindulged in, but certainly not to be criminalized, either.

Did the legal prohibition of liquor, beer and wine sales reduce crime or increase it during the late 1920s and early 30s? Any eighth grade history student will tell you it accomplished the latter, since the practicality of gaining complete alcohol abstinence was laughable leading up to, and after the Great Depression, especially with the mix of so many diverse cultures and attitudes in this country about it. Does this sound familiar?Replace the word booze with a the word pot, and history repeats with the caveat that, instead of a thing being legal and the state coming along afterwards and attempting to completely eradicate it; here the common practice and proliferation of marijuana, still held in legal contempt, has created a black market of epic proportions. Combine this with a perfect storm of a bad economy and you have a recipe for increased organized crime. Great for criminals plying their trade, and cops looking for a task force to become a part of, yet, hard on taxpayers and the overburdened prison system.

The grow house is today’s answer to the speakeasy and the still. As the law stands now, cultivating pot indoors is the perfectly enticing “gateway” crime in that the perpetrator can easily rationalize his or her involvement, when balanced against future economic uncertainty and the over-all, alleged negligible impact to an already shaky, disjointed society. Where there is a crop of new, inexperienced, would-be criminals who have suddenly seen the light on how to make a quick buck, there is also mid-level of “management” in place, willing to exploit the supply of the naïve; leading the newbies into the weaponized, dark side of felonious behavior from which they find escape very difficult. Still, this country’s fascination, and yet legal disdain for the plant called pot, make it nearly the perfect enticement. In a high-intensity setting, the growing is hardly labor intensive, although the preparation is. The lack of controls, taxes and FDA regulations make it boundlessly profitable in potential.Recently, analysts for CNN announced that strip clubs which are legal, and marijuana sales - conditionally legal in California - could provide the answer to California’s recent economic shortfall.

Those of us between the ages of 35 and 55 were likely surrounded by it in college. We who remember this time of innocence form a quietly grinning, dwindling minority these days. Those upwardly-mobile captains of industry, or the space and defense cabal with advanced government security clearances who should also remember it, somehow have outwardly forgotten the heyday of Lady Dope. And this selective memory about marijuana - hardly a medical condition caused by the drug - perhaps mirrors our nation’s attitude about it.Do it for a little while you’re young, starting out perhaps, but like any adult, give up those childish things when the time comes. And if you get some troubling questions on a polygraph interview, why, a small tack placed in the bottom of your shoe, should do the trick in fuddling the data enough to fool the machine.Similarly, on the distribution end, one wants to be of the Joe Kennedy, Sr. model of trafficking in that which is illegal. Let it be the mere whiff of rumor adding only to the spice of a businessman’s rich and colorful character. In other words, don’t get caught.

Kearnspalmbay@Netzero.net

Little Green Houses 2

Dave Says:Whew, responses pouring in now! A couple of folks were miffed at the stiff time-line, as in, this has to be done NOW! Some folks out for summer vacation. Some are peaved at me for not waiting...(tick ...tock..........tick....)

In journalism, we had these stories on standby; like, when a former president dies or a major celeb. Every newspaper, and I know I am not telling anybody anything they don’t know, has a massive splurge ready to go immediately to print when Larry King goes the way of all life, God Bless the man and may it never happen, or when Martha Stewart goes, or when Tony Danza goes, for that matter. And may they all see 1,000 (example, please)

The same principle applies in publishing I would imagine. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a quick turn-around for a Michael Jackson book.

Then there are stories like this one: that you literally can't see coming until they are right in front of you: in which the content is so hot, yet the landscape could change within eight months. Right?

Now, we’re talking about grow houses in Florida. A year from now, we’re seeing something new: perhaps a year from now, meth houses see an explosion. (Personally I’d much rather grow houses, but without the organized crime. No one wants to live next to that.) Point being, some stories are just too damned hot to wait for the arcane machinery to catch up. I am sorry but if publishing wants it, now is the time. Nuff said. Here’s more of the proposal:

Copyright David A. Kearns Aug. 4 2009

2. The Market.Tallahassee Florida, 2008. State enforcement officials proudly announced that the annual, statewide seizures of homegrown marijuana had a street value of more than $41.6 million. Let that figure sink in. Give it a minute if you need to. That’s just what they captured, not what was grown in one year in little houses, all over the Sunshine state.This information came while Gov. Charlie Christ and lawmakers in his camp were celebrating stiffer statutes enacted to slam the door on so called “grow houses;” residential properties modified to handle the covert, high-intensity cultivation of marijuana.

If we accept that law enforcement had successfully captured 40 percent of the illegal home-grown market over the course of the previous year - a first in Florida law enforcement history; eliminating 40 percent of any crime problem in one year - this would mean home-grown marijuana in Florida is likely a $100 million dollar-a-year business, putting the indoor pot farms on a par with fish farms, and certainly way ahead of solar power sales in the state named after sunshine, and brimming with fish ponds. If we accept that police had only captured 20 percent of the crop, or even 10 percent, as is far more likely, pot grown under intense household conditions now begins to show itself as a statewide industry perhaps worth as much as $400 million per year.Looking at the market from the bottom up it represents the perfect recession-era hand-hold up and out of the abyss to the primary producer or the small, mom-and-pop operator. Perhaps outwardly at least. Looking at it from the top down, it is an opportunity for organized crime the like of which we have not seen since prohibition gave rise to Al Capone.

And with Freddie Mae and Fannie Mack holding a $5.4 trillion inventory of mortgaged assets, the math says the problem or the opportunity, depending on your point of view, will only continue to grow. In fact, it’s growing, right now as you read these words. With that come the guns, the threat of rippers, the security measures, the booby traps. With it comes the increased burden on law enforcement to do something about all the aforesaid.

Little Green Houses 1

Dave Says

"Because of the overwhelming response to the query letter, requesting so many proposal submissions, each with a different set of rules I have decided to post the proposal below. It will run as a series of posts until I get the representation I need. I want to thank all the wonderful agents for their excellent response to the initial query. I have never had so much interest, so fast, including responses to queries for my published work Where Hell Freezes Over (Thomas Dunne Book 2005)

Little Green Houses: Florida Grow Houses and the Rise of Home Grown Organized Crime

Non-fiction, current events, roughly 300 pages with photos.

By David A. Kearns

Agent (TBD)!!!

Publisher(TBD) !!!

Copyright David Anthony Kearns

I. Overview

1. Meet the Flintstones: a hypothetical case: They’re the modern stone-age family. Only in this case, Wilma, Fred, Pebbles and Dino are part of a living ruse, a human diorama put on display to thwart the suspicions of law enforcement and nosy neighbors. Months after Fred’s lay-off, when all the unemployment benefits had run out, and just after Wilma was downsized from the car dealership where she worked as a part-time book-keeper, Fred got an idea. He knew a guy down the street who mentioned something about this deal. Before long, Fred agreed to move his entire family into a three-two ranch house out in upstate, East Jesus, Florida, and pretend to be a normal, law-abiding citizen.

Fred had been snapped up into a funnel feeding him directly into the high-volume, no mercy production end of the business attached to organized crime. Multiple houses, multiple employees who are considered expendable to the management. The money is great at first, a welcome break from poverty. Fred and Wilma receive $10,000 per month to live rent free. Most of that income is off-the-books. On the books, Fred runs his own tile business. But neighbors whisper that he never seems to have any customers and he’s always just sort of hanging around the house, watching and waiting.Yes, the snag attached to this dream job is the weed, the marijuana stuffed into two rooms, and the garage. It’s everywhere they look. It’s not funny or cute anymore. Fred and Wilma have to take care of that weed, make sure it gets the proper lighting, and nutrition; make sure the water pumps, lights and air handlers are working 24-7. And because Pebbles is a toddler now, they have to watch her to make sure she doesn’t get into the chemical fertilizer, or touch the wrong wire on the jury-rigged electrical system which is tapping into the next door neighbor’s property; feeding and snaking throughout the house; cords leading to overloaded outlet boxes beneath blaring lights in hallways and closets.“No no, don’t touch! That’s youchy!”They are raising their little girl in a safety hazard. They don’t know what it’s doing to her, either.This new existence of theirs is an all-engrossing, all-encompassing nightmare because, these aren’t Fred and Wilma’s plants anymore than the house is. And the couple doesn’t even want to think about what would happen if they disappointed the real owners.Do you think you know Fred? Think you can judge him? Fred is a growing statistical population that mirrors the entire spectrum of Florida, and the United States, for that matter. Part black, part white, part Hispanic, part Asian, part Native American. Yes, he’s all of it. Think you can judge him from his socio-economic background? Well, statistically speaking, Fred just got through ten years working as an aircraft mechanic, or maybe he’s a former real estate agent, or a perhaps he’s a drywall hanger with no more drywall to hang in this market. Or maybe Fred and Wilma are exploited immigrants brought here from Cuba because this thing cuts a wide swath in this state.

It’s got no preference for race, creed, sex, sexual orientation, religion, or national origin. In this particular hypothetical case, Fred used to deal a little herb in college, which is typically what happens; entry level people have a familiarity with the drug under reasonably innocent, pleasant circumstances in the past. And like some people who thought they weren’t going to have to go back to waiting tables, and did anyway, here’s Fred involved in weed again. He’s doing whatever it takes to feed his family, and keep a roof over all of their heads, because he lost the last one to foreclosure, and if he hadn‘t thought of something fast, Wilma might have left him, taking Pebbles with her to her mother‘s in Tampa.Yes, instead, Fred was open to anything. Nothing does that to you like having your Chevy Silverado repossessed right in front of your wife and baby daughter. Now he wishes he hadn’t; wishes he had just bought some seed off the internet and started small, or maybe not gotten involved at all. Because different from back-in-the-day, this weed is strong stuff. It makes everyone jumpy just being around it. You can smell the THC coming from those gigantic, pine-cone-sized buds. The juvenile plants go for $1,000 a pop for God‘s sake. The adults are valued at four grand! Fred has never seen anything like this. There must be a chemist up the chain of command somewhere, because half the stuff they’re telling him to do anymore is organic chemistry, gobblety-gook. He can’t keep up and they are getting pissy; never a good sign in any employment situation.There are all these creepy guys who keep showing up ordering him to do this and that, sometimes in the middle of the night. Every so often they show up with a bunch of ATVs, and they drive around to about twenty other little houses that Fred helps them manage. They use the drainage canal systems to access the homes from the back yards, but the feds may be wise to that too now, apparently, as the water control district started putting up fences and unmarked cars have been spotted staking those canals out in the middle of the night. The neighbors are getting suspicious with all the late-night ATV runs too. I mean, who rides an ATV in the middle of the night? Fred is sure that any day he’s going to get caught. He wants to put the family in the car and head north, or west. But now, so many different sets of eyes are on him. He thinks the organization has moved someone in down the street just to keep tabs. He knows his wife and daughter aren‘t safe anymore. Never mind Dino, who ran off when the company brought in a pit-bull and chained him up in the back yard.And let’s not even talk about the rippers; the gangs and other desperate types who could break down his doors at any minute, and wipe out Fred, Wilma, and little Pebbles in spray of bullets just to get after all that weed. And it’s happening, too. Last week four people were murdered inside a house two streets over. Fred thinks they may have been involved, or had been, a few months ago.The organization doesn’t have an HR department he can complain to, either. And like any organization there’s infighting, new people showing up, others leaving mysteriously. Last week they brought in a team of people to trim the pot plants, and bag the product. None of them spoke English, and a few of them were obviously making rude comments about Wilma.Fred’s goose is cooked. He can’t believe he’s put his family into this situation but there doesn’t seem to be a way out now.He thought about going to the local police but Fred’s sure he recently saw an off-duty cop talking to one of his handlers down at the Home Depot. Had money been exchanged? Who knew? Pretty soon, whoever these people are, they won’t need Fred, Wilma and Little Pebbles, anymore.Fred and Wilma are out there right now, either being recruited, involved up to their neck or being processed through the court system, somewhere in Florida. A new franchise is going up all the time. Little Green Houses, will document their stories, as well as the stories of law enforcement. This work of non-fiction is a ringside seat in real time complete with photos from law enforcement, diagrams of some of the homes and the equipment used in them. All the weapons, solar panels, power inverters, screens, ventilation devices; specific up-to-date information on the extent the growers are using to get the job done.