Having missed our last chapter meeting due to my grandson’s high school graduation, I was so glad our wonderful webmaster Susan Bell had recorded the talk, and I could watch it on YouTube. Wow! It was terrific.

Lisa Haneberg, author of the Spy Shop Mysteries and co-founder of the Lexington Writer’s Room, discussed what we could learn from the career of Agatha Christie and apply to our own writing. Christie approached her work with a playful attitude and was open to experimentation. Despite being a member of the Detection Club, she regularly broke the rules to write her stories. These rules included admonitions to never have the narrator or detective be the culprit, never allow readers access to the killer’s thoughts, and always give readers the same access to the clues that the detective has. Yet, in Christie’s classic work, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), the narrator/detective/sidekick was in fact the killer, readers learned his thoughts, and while he didn’t lie, he also didn’t fully share all of his clues, for obvious reasons!

Of course, Christie wasn’t perfect and some of her characters expressed negative biases and prejudices which today might make us cringe. Lisa advises challenging ourselves to avoid stereotypes and demonstrating in our writing “what fairness and inclusion look like.” We also need to retire tired tropes, which for Lisa include things like cheating husbands as a motive for murder.

In addition, she suggests looking at how we can fully engage our readers in today’s world which includes so many distractions. We must look at things like our pacing, word choice, chapter length (short is better!), and white space on the page.

Finally, we need to encourage one another as writers!

All in all, it was a stimulating talk with lots of input from participants, and I was so glad to get to watch it. Many thanks to Elaine Munsch, our Program Chair, for arranging for Lisa’s talk.

Member News

A quick reminder that there will be no chapter meeting in July due to several members participating in Imaginarium July 8-10. I hope you’ll attend if you can, as this is an exciting festival with lots of informative panels and presentations.

DRS panelists include: Elaine Munsch, Carol Preflatish, Lynda Rees, Lorena Reith, Jr. (Lorena Peter), Lynn Slaughter, and former DRS President Beth Henderson. Susan Bell will also be on hand to help staff the Derby Rotten Scoundrels table with Elaine and Lynn. The DRS table will have information about our chapter, copies for sale of our very popular anthology, MYSTERY WITH A SPLASH OF BOURBON, co-edited by Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch, as well as Elaine’s comedic mysteries, the Dash Hammond series, and Lynn’s young adult romantic mysteries. Carol will have a table for her books, and Lynda and Lorena will share a table featuring their work.

Sales and responses to MYSTERY WITH A SPLASH OF BOURBON, co-edited by Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch, continue to be excellent.

Heaven Hill just ordered an additional 15 copies! The anthology was also recently placed on the shelves at the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs. Kudos to Elaine Munsch for all the leg work it took to find the right retail representative at these various locales, make the contact, and follow up with  a sale. Currently the book is on the shelves at these gift shop/locales:

• The Frazier Museum
• Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs
• Shaq and Coco bookstore, Bardstown
• Heaven Hill

 

Prolific author Lynda Rees is passionate about ending drug trafficking and building awareness to prevent victimization and help victims recover and heal. On July 1, she’ll release the third of the Reggie Chronicles, Magnolia Blossoms, which follows Hart’s Girls, RC#1 and Heart of the Matter, released on June 1. Early reviews of Magnolia’s Blosssoms have been effusive, calling the book a “page turner” with “complex and interesting characters,” as well as lots of unpredictable “twists and turns.”

In the Reggie Chronicles, quirky, irreverent FBI Special Agent Reggie Casse finally meets her match with U. S. Marshal Shae Montgomery. Reggie has been a favorite character of Lynda’s fans as a player in The Bloodline Series, Bks.1-10, also set in Kentucky. The unlikely pair of lawpersons’ personalities clash, as they struggle to join forces against evil infecting rural Kentucky and the Midwest U.S.A.

 

Links: AMZ: https://amzn.to/3NqasgX
BARNES & NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w?ean=2940186749875
KOBO RAKUTEN: https://bit.ly/3NtzoUy
APPLE: http://books.apple.com/us/book/id644294888

 

 

 

Lynda also shared the news that her middle-grade mystery, Freckle Face & Blondie #1, co-written with her then ten-year-old granddaughter, Harley Nelson, will launch on July 1 in audiobook at all audio retailers.

The new release is the first in a series featuring rambunctious girls, Freckle Face and Blondie, who dream of becoming detectives. They open a private investigation company to start solving mysteries so they’ll be experts by the time they’re adults. When their friend Katy disappears suspiciously and her mother is frantic, police search for the girl. They should stay out of it, but Freckles and Blondie follow leads and reveal new clues. Sharing discoveries with authorities, they’re told to stop looking. Timing is critical and could mean the difference between life and death to the missing girl.

Links:
B&N http://bit.ly/2sWqFW4
AMZ http://bit.ly/2sWqFW4
KOBO
AUDIBLE https://adbl.co/3fYLQLh

Lynn Slaughter is also getting excited about an upcoming release. Her young adult novel, Deadly Setup, comes out on July 5 from Fire and Ice/Melange Books. In Deadly Setup, seventeen-year-old Samantha (Sam) has a strained relationship with her mom even before she goes on trial for the murder of her mother’s fiancé. She fights to prove her innocence with the help of her boyfriend’s dad, an ex-homicide cop.

Meantime, Lynn appeared on Big Blend Radio’s June 8 panel of writers: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/big-blend-radio

She also contributed an essay, “Confessions of a Nosy Writer,” on Lois Winston’s June 15 blog: https://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com/2022/06/ya-mystery-author-lynn-slaughter.html

Lynn will be one of the readers in July as part of the literary series, “Voice & Vision: Presented by Spalding’s School of Writing, The Louisville Review & 21c Museum Hotel.” The in-person reading is from 6-7:30 PM Thursday, July 21, at 21c Museum Hotel in downtown Louisville.

All for now. We hope to see many of you at Imaginarium next month!

On May 14, we had our first combined in-person and Zoom meeting held at the Middletown Library. What a thrill to get to see chapter members Susan Bell, Leanne Edelen, Patience Martin, Elaine Munsch, Lorena Peter, Jeanette Pope, and Miki Reilly-Howe in person!

And many thanks to Elaine Munsch for arranging such a dynamic speaker for us. Kathy Stearman, author of IT’S NOT ABOUT THE GUN, LESSONS FROM MY GLOBAL CAREER AS A FEMALE FBI AGENT, was a wonderfully informative storyteller and was refreshingly open about her opinions as well as her experiences.

Elaine had terrific technical help from Susan and Leanne on Zooming the meeting, and assistance from Patience, Jeanette, and Lorena on everything else!

 

For our June 11 meeting, our favorite motorcycle-riding author and chapter member Lisa Haneberg will be our guest speaker at 1 PM.

Her talk is titled: “Are you a Methodical Writer, Mystery Maverick, or Both?” I am already intrigued!

Read more about Lisa here.

Prior to Lisa’s talk, we’ll have a short business meeting and Miki Reilly-Howe will do another brief presentation on the craft book we’re working our way through, Janet Burroway’s WRITING FICTION, A GUIDE TO NARRATIVE CRAFT.

 

As some of you know, we’ve made some changes this year that grew out of our retreat. I’m especially delighted that our critique group is going strong. It is so valuable to get regular encouragement and feedback from fellow writers. I also love that we’ve added a professional development piece to our programming, and a special shoutout to Miki Reilly-Howe who volunteered to take over leading our sessions on Burroway’s craft book. Miki is an excellent presenter who designs the world’s best Power Points!

Critique Group

The Critique group meets bi-weekly to share our manuscripts for review. The merry band now includes Leanne Edelen, as well as Elaine Munsch, Miki Reilly-Howe, Susan Bell, Pamela Hirschler, and Sherry Youngquist. Sadly, Lorena Peter is taking a hiatus due to a busy schedule this summer.

Because our group is geographically scattered, we do these critique sessions exclusively via zoom.

Member News

Elaine Munsch reports that she’ll be attending the Writer’s Police Academy at the beginning of June. 

On June 25, she’ll participate in the North Coast Indie Authors Book Fair held in Lorain, Ohio.

 

 

 

All for now. We hope to see you on June 11th!

Spring is finally here, with all the tumultuous, roller coaster weather so typical of Kentucky. Trees are leafing, flowers are blooming, and Derby Rotten Scoundrels is spreading its wings towards our first, in person meeting since 2020.

On May 14, we will welcome as our guest speaker, former FBI Special Agent Kathy Stearman. The Middletown Library will be hosting the event, and we will be providing some light refreshment. The event will be open to the public, and this will be our first hybrid event – we will combine the in-person with zoom, for those who can not attend. We really hope we can get good participation from our members. Louisville’s locally-owned bookstore, Carmichael’s, will be providing books for sale – both Kathy Stearman’s It’s Not About the Gun, and our anthology, Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon.

Please email me to RSVP for the event. The Middletown Library needs to know how many people will attend. We hope to see you there! I’ll send out a second email about this event, and the particulars. Stay tuned for that.

 

 

Kentuckiana Independent Authors Fair

The Kentuckiana Independent Authors Fair was held on April 9th, in LaGrange. In lieu of an April chapter meeting, a few of your fellow Scoundrels participated in the event.

On a rainy and snowy morning, Susan Bell, Lorena Peter, and Gloria Casale put on their book-seller hats (plus winter coats) and trekked out to Eastern Jefferson County. It was a cold, blustery day, which reduced crowd size, but we did have some success selling books. DRS sold six bourbon anthologies and three older Derby anthologies (for a net return of $91 + change). In addition to that, we sold one of Elaine’s Dash Hamond series books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Gloria Casale and Lorena Peter for participating. And special thanks to Lorena for her deft skills in wrangling customers to the table and engaging them in conversation . . . leading to sales!

And a special shout out to Karen Block, who made delectable bourbon balls – the recipe for which is in our bourbon anthology – these were a big hit with customers and also led to sales.

I didn’t count the total number of authors there, but some of our previous speakers participated: Lee Pennington, Erv Klein, and Bill Noel.

One wonders: are these events worth the effort? It’s a long day, physically challenging loading books into and out of the car, hours of sitting. But there are benefits outside the sales. First, we’re promoting the organization by attending. One gentleman there was interested in setting up a book fair in Louisville, to rival that of other cities. He took our contact information. Second, an event like this is a reminder that there is a community of writers here in the region. I enjoyed chatting with Lee Pennington and his lovely wife. It turns out Lee taught my brother Benn writing, at JCC, many years ago, and they are still good friends. Building connections with other authors has merit in its own right, but you never know where those connections may lead in the future.

We’re Growing

DRS boasts two new members: Pamela Hirschler and Sherry Youngquist. Pam is out of Frankfort, a published poet, current member of SinC, and is an unpublished mystery writer. Sherry is out of Bowling Green and is currently working on an amateur sleuth/cozy mystery. Both Pam and Sherry have joined our Critique Group – more on that below.

Critique Group

For the past seven months, a small group of Scoundrels has been meeting bi-weekly to share our manuscripts for review. Our merry band includes Elaine Munsch, Miki Reilly-Howe, Lorena Peter, Susan Bell, and our two new DRS members, Pam and Sherry.

Every two weeks, we get together via zoom and share our feedback on three manuscripts per session. We try and offer useful commentary to the author, while supporting their effort to tell their tale. I find it very useful to know, as I write content, that there will be intelligent minds reading the material, and soon. Writing is such a solitary journey, it is very helpful to remember that you are doing this to be read by others. This focuses the mind: entertain them, make them think, make them feel, don’t disappoint!

Here’s a brief blurb about each (the titles indicated are sometimes working titles):

Saving Remy (Miki): this story focuses on the murder of a single mother from Ukraine. Her orphaned son is the only witness, but his refusal to speak forces a child psychologist to work with police to find the killer.

Maud – working title (Elaine): another installment of Elaine’s delightful Dash Hammond series; this time Dash must solve events surrounding the death of his distant Irish cousin, Maud, and resolve loose ends of her mysterious past, including murders and a missing girl.

Inexplicable Dread (Lorena): Lorena explores the fevered politics of our time in a mystery melded with a little science fiction and tarot cards.

Drowning in Doubt (Susan): Hannah is a 14-year old girl who witnesses what she thinks is a murder, but which authorities believe to be a tragic boat accident. She and her cousin Luke seek to reveal the killer.

Tree’d (Pam): Quarreling neighbors lead to unintended consequences in this funny take on the hazards of living in suburbia.

Coastal Town Georgia – working title (Sherry): in this cozy/mystery, Sherry introduces us to a colorful array of small-town inhabitants, white squirrels, cheddar-bacon ranch pretzels, and murder, all set in a small coastal community in Seabrook, Georgia.

Bourbon Anthology News

A big shout out to Elaine Munsch, who has been quite busy the past several months marketing our bourbon anthology, Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon. She has cold called multiple distilleries, museums, gift shops, and traveled to Bardstown to find anyone and everyone who might be interested in stocking our book for sale. So far, we have the book on shelves at The Frasier, in downtown Louisville and at Shaq & Coco bookstore in Bardstown. The book is also on the shelf at Carmichael’s, here in Louisville.

Elaine has made contact with Old Forester, Maker’s Mark, Keeneland, Kentucky Horse Park, the Talbot Inn, the Derby Museum. We actually left a copy with Old Forester for their buyer to peruse before making a decision. We hope to make further inroads with these initial outreach efforts in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

 

 

Member News

Leisha’s Song by Lynn Slaughter is a finalist for the Imadjinn Award for Best YA Novel.

Lynn’s novel, Missed Cue, won the Florida West Coast Writers contest for unpublished work in the mystery-suspense category.

Congratulations Lynn!

 

 

You know you have a vibrant organization when the president is down for the count, and things continue without a blip as we usher in spring! As some of you know, I had major spinal surgery on February 23. I had no idea that three weeks out, I’d be in pretty severe pain and barely able to function. As John Lennon famously said, “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” At any rate, I appreciate all of the get well wishes. I treasure every one of them.

VP Lynda Rees did a great job running our March chapter meeting. Two of the fourteen attendees are new members, and I want to say a special welcome to Pam Hirschler and Sherry Youngquist. We’re thrilled to have you both on board!

Carol Preflatish has been doing a great job posting chapter members’ news on Twitter and encourages everyone to like and follow chapter posts.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DerbyRotten

Facebook: https://www/facebook.com/Derby-Rotten-Scoundrels

Following the business meeting, Miki Reilly-Howe did another superb job of leading a discussion on Janet Burroway’s craft book, Writing Fiction. And if you’re looking for a writing prompt to get your creative juices rolling, Mikki has provided a host of terrific prompts at the end of her talk (the video of  which is posted on youtube: Miki Presentation). We are so grateful to Miki for her excellent presentations (including Power Points to die for!).

In April, in lieu of our regular chapter meeting, several of us will participate in the Kentuckiana Independent Author Fair’s in LaGrange, coordinated by Tony Acree. This is a fun fair, a great place to meet regional authors and readers. We hope to see lots of you there.

And in May (drum roll please), we will have our first face-to-face (combined with Zoom) meeting in more than two years!

On May 14 at the Middletown Library, we will host guest speaker Kathy Stearman, a former FBI agent and author of IT’S NOT ABOUT THE GUN. We’ll have refreshments on hand and copies available for sale of Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon, co-edited by Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch. The anthology includes stories by many of our chapter members and is an especially fun read as we approach the Kentucky Derby.

In other news, the national organization of Sisters in Crime has awarded our chapter a $400 grant to use as needed. I can hardly wait for the lively discussions we’ll have as to how to spend the money!

Member News

In case you missed it, Carol Preflatish’s fourth Nathan Perry Mystery, WITCH HUNT, is out!

Carol was a guest on the Star Chamber Show podcast on February 23 talking about her book and her writing:

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/starchambershow

 

 

 

Former DRS President Beth Henderson continues to get rave reviews on her work.

Her newly released RAVENS EDGE, written under the name J.B. Dane, was awarded a 5 ++ stars rating by Mrs. N. at NN Light’s Book Heaven who described the book as a brilliant “mash-up of urban fantasy, paranormal mystery and comedic mystery.”

 

 

 

 

All for now! We hope to see many of you at the Kentuckiana Independent Authors Fair! Hours are 10-4 PM at:

La Grange Community Center
307 W Jefferson St, La Grange, KY