In lieu of our monthly meeting, several DRSers attended Imaginarium, a lively  convention for “creatives” (authors, filmmakers, composers, visual artists, gamers, etc.) held annually in Louisville.

Susan Bell, Elaine Munsch, Lynn Slaughter, Carol Preflatish, and Leanne Edelen held down our chapter tables.

 

Elaine Munsch, making the rounds, chatting up an author, looking for speakers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol Preflatish, selling her her Nathan Perry Mystery series.

 

 

 

 

Susan Bell, getting a little “Air” outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lorena Peter and Lynda Rees also shared a table, and we got to see many friends, including authors Beth Henderson and Pam Turner.

 

 

We managed to sell a few books and talk to several folks interested in our chapter. But as usual, the best part of the conference was meeting and talking with other writers. (Editor’s note: Lynn Slaughter won the Imadjinn Award for LEISHA’S SONG in the young adult category.)

We sat near a delightful Cincinnati crime writer, Trace Conger (I’m currently reading his novel, FIVE WILL DIE- really good!), and our inveterate program chair, Elaine Munsch, wasted no time approaching him about being a speaker at one of our chapter meetings. She also connected with award-winning author and journalist John DeDakis who expressed interest in speaking with our  chapter.

There will be a memorial service for long-time chapter member Debi Huff on:

August 7 from 2-5 PM at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Louisville.

We miss Debi, who was a delight with a terrific sense of humor.

 

 

 

We hope to have a guest speaker for our August 13 meeting via Zoom (last minute speaker cancellation has us scrambling!) but meantime, we’re looking forward to another presentation by Miki Reilly-Howe on a chapter from Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction. And on September 10 at the Middletown Library,  Carol Preflatish will talk with us about “how to be an organized writer.”

Additional Member News

Carol Preflatish will be speaking at the Jeffersonville Indiana Library on August 6 at 1:30 pm. She’ll be discussing her Nathan Perry Mystery series, and specifically the research she did on her latest book, WITCH HUNT. Seating is limited, and registration is on the library’s Calendar of Events page on http://Jeff.library.org

 

 

 

Lynn Slaughter’s DEADLY SETUP came out on July 5. On July 8, her guest essay, “Beyond the External Plot: What’s Your Book Really About?” appeared on Sarah Glenn’s blog:

https://saraheglenn.blogspot.com/2022/07/lynn-slaughter-beyond-external-plot.html 

Lynn was also thrilled to receive the Imadjinn Award for LEISHA’S SONG in the young adult category. LEISHA’S SONG is also a Silver Falchion finalist. Lynn will be one of the participating authors doing a reading at Voice & Vision: Presented by Spalding’s School of Writing, The Louisville Review & 21c Museum Hotel. The in-person reading event will take place 6:00-7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 21, at 21c Museum Hotel in downtown Louisville. 

 

All for now. We hope to see many of you at our August meeting!

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!

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

 

On January 19, longtime chapter member and former treasurer, Debi Huff, passed away. She was a wonderful supporter of our chapter and a lover of mysteries and thrillers. Debi contributed Wild Turkey Distillery to our  latest anthology, MYSTERY WITH A SPLASH OF BOURBON. She will remain in our hearts and memories.

Meantime, the chapter Debi cared so much about is growing. Fifteen folks attended our February 12 meeting, including guests Sherry Youngquist and Pam Gibbs Hirschler. Both have expressed interest in joining our chapter, and we are delighted to welcome them!

Our Saturday meeting included the announcement that thanks to Elaine Munsch, our wonderful Program Chair, we will have a combined face-to-face/Zoom meeting on May 14 at the Middletown Library. Kathy Stearman, a former FBI agent and author of IT’S NOT ABOUT THE GUN, will be our featured guest speaker. This will be the first time in two years that we will have a face-to-face meeting! I can’t wait.

Meantime, we are managing to have stimulating presentations on Zoom. Miki Reilly-Howe discussed Janet Burroway’s Chapter Three on characterization from her classic craft book, WRITING FICTION, A GUIDE TO NARRATIVE CRAFT, now in its Tenth Edition. Along with her excellent talk, Miki provided us with a fabulous Power Point presentation.

Our guest speaker was the delightful author Erv Klein, the president of the board of Louisville Literary Arts and the 2020 winner of the Imadjinn Award for Best Historical Fiction for his debut novel, SUBTERFUGE. Erv’s second novel, SQUAT, recently came out.

In his talk, Erv stressed the importance of listening and being open to feedback about our works-in-progress. If more than one person identifies a problem area, it’s vital to pay attention. He also recommends reading craft books and taking courses, even if you’re an experienced author. Sometimes, he says, “you have to stop periodically to sharpen your writing blade.” Often, he advises, it’s a matter of trying different approaches and figuring out what works for you as a writer.

Coming up for our March 12 meeting, new chapter member and veteran author Lisa Haneberg, the founder of Lexington’s Writer’s Room, will be our guest speaker. Her presentation is entitled “Are You a Methodical Writer, Mystery Maverick, or Both?”

Prior to Lisa’s talk, Miki Reilly-Howe will discuss Janet Burroway’s Chapter Four from WRITING FICTION on indirect methods of character presentation.

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Member News

Lisa Haneberg was Lynn Slaughter’s guest author on her blog. Her hilarious essay, “Attention, Shoppers,” describes a book signing that didn’t go quite as planned:

The Book Signing That Wasn’t: Meet Lisa Haneberg

 

 

 

 

Beth Henderson reports that WHEN KURT BLUDGEONED RUSTY received another Five Star review. RAVEN’S EDGE and GHOST NOTES have passed their galley okays and will seen be available for pre-sale orders. Beth plans to attend Imaginarium where she hopes to present workshops on paranormal mysteries and romantic suspense.

Jeanette Pope was interviewed on January 25 and discussed her novels, DOUBLE TRIANGLES and DESPERATE ANGLES, on Black Authors Matter.

 

Carol Preflatish’s fourth Nathan Perry Mystery, WITCH HUNT, comes out on February 21st. Carol will also be a guest on the Star Chamber Show podcast on February 23 at 9 PM EST, talking about her book and her writing:

Star Chamber Show

 

 

 

 

 

Lynda Rees will be signing books along with her granddaughter and co-author of two of her books on March 5 from 10-2 PM at the Campbell Ridge Craft Show, 2500 Grandview Road, Alexandria KY 41001.

Lynn Slaughter’s coming-of-age romantic mystery, LEISHA’S SONG, has been nominated for an Agatha Award for best mystery novel in the children’s/YA category. Her unpublished adult mystery novel, MISSED CUE, has been named a finalist in the 2022 Florida West Coast Writers Contest.

All for now. We hope to see many of you at our March 12 chapter meeting!