Sorry my picture is so big.

Pleasure to Meet All of You

Telling my story with some photos

Hi. Sorry my picture is so big. I didn’t have any good ones except this one. I was hoping it would show up smaller. I tried cropping it, but that only helped a little. It is from a couple of years ago, when I still worked as a lawyer.

Oops. I forgot the first rule already: never start with an apology. Sorry about that. Shoot, did it again.

Introduction

My name is Chris J. Kowalski. I am a writer, but I am still looking for my voice.

I like to be called CJ because, when I was a kid, I asked everyone to call me that, but they wouldn’t. They either called me “Ski” or “Killer.” “Ski” because everyone with a last name ending in “Ski” was called “Ski,” and “Killer” because of the famous wrestler “Killer Kowalski.” So, call me CJ. Please. Because I know now you are going to call me “Ski.’ Or “Killer.” I should have deleted that part.

I live in San Diego, and came here from Detroit. When people asked, I used to say it was a good place to be from. When I left in the mid eighties, it wasn’t a pleasant place. Now, I realize it is a part of what made me who I am today.

College

I went to college in Detroit. I studied Theater. That’s “Thee-ate-her” for you stuffy folks. I studied acting. I only did it because I was in my senior school play and there were lots of cool, friendly girls in the show. And, I had no idea what to do with my future and it sounded fun.

Makes sense, too. Because I was real shy back then. So I thought, “Why not study a major that requires you to stand in front of a thousand people and bare your soul as someone else?” Of course, standing there in tights and a leotard didn’t help much. But I managed to get through it and graduate with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, Speech/Theater. Also, I got to learn some ballet, jazz, tap, and sing and dance in musicals.

My most defining moment in college theater was when I was chosen to play Frances Flute/Thisbe. I played a male character who had to dress as and play a female lover, Thisbe, to Pyramus, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by Bill. . .something. Can’t remember at this moment.

Careers

I have been a police officer, a prosecutor, a defense attorney, and a police defense attorney. I’ve had a lot of fun, all of the tragedy involved in these careers notwithstanding. Below is an old picture of me, probably around 1988 or so. I moved out to San Diego around 1985 to become a police officer.

Below is a picture of me singing the National Anthem at a San Diego Padres game, somewhere in the early nineties. I was injured on duty soon after this event, and forced to retire after two surgeries failed to correct the injury.

I decided to go to law school, after working as a PI and realizing it wasn’t going to provide for my family. Below is a picture of me and my new best friend Eric Estrada from about two years ago, when I was a police defense attorney. Watching CHiPs during the late seventies and early eighties definitely influenced me in deciding to become a police officer. Eric is a great guy, too. He raises funds and appears in benefits for police officers all over.

Below is a photo of me with, in my humble opinion, the best President the US has ever had, Martin Sheen. This is from 2011, and he was visiting the jail I was also visiting. We met in the parking lot as we were both leaving. He stopped me and told me I looked like his good friend, Tom Hanks. You decide. Others have said the same thing. That painful look on my face is because the photo was taken just as I said, “Does my hair look okay?”

Writing

Earlier, I said I was trying to find my “voice.” I have tried a few different styles of writing since joining Medium. One of the first pieces I published was an attempt at comedy. It’s still out there, but I’ll skip it for now. I cringe when I think of it.

This is one I thought was pretty good, but one person accused me of “clickbait.” Personally, I thought “If you believed you could accomplish what my title suggested and didn’t understand it was satire, I could probably sell you some beachfront property in Arizona.” Here it is, below:

Many thanks to Susan Brearley, the publisher of MuddyUm for publishing it. I wrote this as a “newbie” writer after reading a ton of stories on how to make money on Medium. I figured it was just as easy to do it my way as it was to do it the way others wrote about.

But I really think my “voice”may be related more to the old adage of “write what you know.” Even though I like to take risks with my writing, I also like to do heavy research into some “heavy” topics. What I know is police work and legal stuff. Below is a story I published in my own publication, copforum, that I am trying to get off the ground, as well as the substack blog I am trying to get traction on, also called copforum.

Here is an article I published in my substack blog and my publication. This is one of the types of writing I like to work on:

What I truly enjoy is helping legal fiction writers with realistic portrayals of cops, PI’s, and the legal system. The few who have reached out to me asked some great questions about investigative procedure and how a PI would handle a certain type of investigation.

Unfortunately, like most “essential” personnel, I am working a lot and haven’t had the time to commit to each of them that they need. And I don’t like rushing this type of writing.

I am currently researching and writing a story about line of duty deaths of police officers. But every time I put it down for a few days and come back to it, more cops have died and I have to revise it. I’m really pissed off about so many cops, and other first responders, dying out there. Especially with the coronavirus taking so many.

Conclusion

After reading many of Dr. Yildiz’ articles, and watching Illumination grow so quickly, I realized this was the perfect place to learn how to be successful as a writer, whatever your definition of success may be. There are so many accomplished writers on here that I read every spare moment of the day. I just have to remember to start clapping and commenting. There is so much encouragement in this community, I can’t wait to contribute.

So, that’s me in a nutshell. Nothing very exciting, but I am getting there.

Please feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.