A Note from our New 2021 Board President

by Lynn Slaughter

I’m honored to serve as the next president of Derby Rotten Scoundrels. My term will begin on January 1 of 2021. With multi-published author Beth Henderson opting to step down from the presidency, I have big shoes to fill. We are all so grateful to Beth for her wonderful work on our behalf.

Speaking personally, I’ve always found change hard. We have a brand new board  in the middle of a global pandemic! But change also offers us an opportunity to evaluate where we’ve been, and where we hope to go as a chapter.

Our first order of business is to resume meeting, albeit via Zoom. On Saturday, January 9^th, we’ll meet from noon to 12:50 for a welcome back meeting and then at one P.M., we have an exciting guest speaker, courtesy of the Sisters in Crime Speakers Bureau. Award-winning thriller writer Libby Fischer Hellmann will speak to us about “Building Suspense.” (see Events Calendar for details).  Regardless of what genre we write in, we all want to keep readers turning the pages, and suspense is an essential element. In her interactive workshop, Hellmann will illustrate techniques we writers can apply to our own work immediately.

Hellmann left a career in broadcast news in Washington, DC and moved to Chicago where she began writing gritty crime fiction. Sixteen thrillers and twenty-five short stories later, she claims they’ll take her out of the Windy City feet first. She has been nominated for many awards in the mystery and crime writing community and says she’s even won a few! A past president of Sisters in Crime, she’s also a member of MWA, CWA, and the Society of Midland Authors.

Susan Bell, our new secretary of the board, will be sending an invitation and a link to all chapter members. We also plan to invite other interested writers and readers to join us free of charge. If you’re interested in attending, please email Susan for the link at susancbell@yahoo.com. We have Zoom capacity for 100, so get your request in to Susan as soon as possible.

In addition to Hellmann’s presentation, our new program chair, Elaine Munsch, has an exciting array of speakers lined up for the coming year. Meantime, we’ll resume the critique portion of our meetings in February with a slightly altered format. But more on that in our January welcome back meeting.

I should also mention that I’ve begun hosting guest authors once or twice a month on my weekly blog at www.lynnslaughter.com. I’m beginning by featuring chapter members. I’d love for you to take a look at my December 5^th guest blog by new member Lynda Rees at https://lynnslaughter.com/2020/12/05/meet-author-lynda-rees/ Coming up is a guest blog by outgoing president Beth Henderson on December 19^th and another by Elaine Munsch, author of the Dash Hammond comedic mystery series, on January 9^th.

I’ve missed our chapter meetings so much and look forward to seeing you on January 9^th!