At WILDBLUE PRESS, we're a true-crime book publishing firm like nobody else. Why? Because we consider your input essential in our most vital work. It's a known fact that many readers of all shapes and sizes make a decision whether to buy a book based on the title and based on the cover. Over the past week, we've received hundreds of comments from TC readers all over North America as we posted several different dummy designs of … [Read more...]
A small Iowa sheriff’s office comes up big in Ferak’s new book, DIXIE’S LAST STAND
(Seated: Shelby County Sheriff Gene Cavenaugh, with chief deputy Mark Hervey ) Photo Courtesy of The Harlan Newspapers As I set out to produce this story as an original True-Crime Feature for WildBlue Press, there was no shortage of angles. Questions about self-defense, justification and mandatory sentencing laws. The crime was bizarre given the length of time that Scott Shanahan's body was left in his bedroom. A body in the bed. A … [Read more...]
DIXIE’S LAST STAND — Why Ferak chose this Iowa murder case
It was the third week of October in 2003. My first week at the Omaha World-Herald newspaper in Nebraska when a news alert came over the Associated Press wire from neighboring Iowa. A woman in a small-town was put in jail, accused of killing her husband. (More about DIXIE'S LAST STAND: Was It Murder or Self-Defense?) I grabbed my reporter's notebook. I hopped into one of the newspaper's many company cars with Rudy Smith, a long-time and … [Read more...]
Award-winning John Ferak Applies Twenty-Year Investigative Journalism Career To His True Crime Book And Feature Writing
My passion for writing, particularly storytelling and investigative journalism, traces back to my senior year of high school – when I dug into a fascinating story about the Ghost of Joliet Catholic High School for my school newspaper. Despite spending several frightful nights worried that the ghost of the dead priest would visit me, I quickly became enamored with writing about the darker things in life. For nearly twenty years, I’ve led a … [Read more...]
John Ferak Discusses Bloody Lies, a True Crime Story – Part 2/2
John Ferak Discusses Bloody Lies, a True Crime Story out of Omaha, Nebraska Part 2 of 2. … [Read more...]
