On January 8, eleven of us met online to usher in a New Year for Derby Rotten Scoundrels. We thanked outgoing Treasurer, Debi Huff, for her service, and welcomed two new members to the board: Leanne Edelen, Secretary, and Patience Martin, Treasurer. I feel so grateful to everyone who has been pitching in on behalf of Derby Rotten Scoundrels!

Following our business meeting, chapter member Jeanette Pope led a terrific session on Chapter Two of the 10^th edition of Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction. Next month at our February 12 meeting, beginning at noon, after a short business meeting, Miki Reilly-Howe will lead us in a discussion of Burroway’s Chapter Three which deals with characterization.

I’m also excited about our speaker for the February meeting, Erv Klein, whose debut novel, Subterfuge, won Imaginarium’s award for the best historical fiction. Erv is also President of the board of Louisville Literary Arts. I had the chance to spend quite a bit of time with Erv at the Lexington Book Bash this past fall, and he is delightful! His presentation will begin at one PM.

Quite a few writing events are coming up this spring and summer, and our intrepid vice-president, Lynda Rees, is making sure we know what’s happening regionally and nationally. She is regularly communicating with our webmaster, Susan Bell, on upcoming events.

Meantime, Elaine Munsch is on the hunt for a meeting space that might accommodate both face-to-face and online access for our meetings beginning in May. We will definitely keep you posted!

With a global pandemic continuing, the specter of climate change, and political tensions, this has been such a challenging time for our country and world. Especially during tough times, sharing our stories matters. My hope is that 2022 will bring you time to write and share your gifts with readers.

And if you have writing news, be sure to share your news both with me and ex-vice president Carol Preflatish, who has traded board jobs with Lynda Rees and is now our publicist. Meantime, we have a few items of Member News to report this month.

Member News

Beth Henderson is offering two mystery-related workshops online:

Jan 17-Feb 13, 2022
MASTER CLASS: Writing the Paranormal Mystery with Beth Daniels

February 1st through 28th
WRITING ROMANTIC SUSPENSE Outreach International RWA
OIRWA 2022 Workshops

Lynn Slaughter was so grateful that several DRS members attended her online reading as part of Louisville Literary Arts author series on January 13. She was also thrilled to receive a positive review for LEISHA’S SONG in Midwest Book Review. They “highly recommended” the novel and described it as “a captivating story of intrigue, tangled relationships, and passion for music.”

Happy Writing, and I hope to see many of you in February!

On December 4, eleven of us gathered at Olive Garden for our annual holiday luncheon. I can’t begin to describe how lovely it was to be together face-to-face! I actually got to meet (in person) two of our more recent new members, Leanne Edelen and Lynda Rees, which was a special thrill!

 

In addition to catching up with one another, we did manage to do a couple of important pieces of business. One was to honor Susan Bell, our Volunteer of the Year, who not only served as our secretary and webmaster this past year, but who also coordinated our playwriting efforts and served as co-editor with Elaine Munsch of the anthology, Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon. We are so grateful to Susan for her generosity in sharing her many gifts with Derby Rotten Scoundrels!

 

We also announced the results of our Board elections for the coming year:

President – Lynn Slaughter
Vice-President – Lynda Rees
Secretary – LeAnne Edelen
Treasurer – Patience Martin
Program Chair – Elaine Munsch
Webmaster – Susan Bell
Publicist – Carol Preflatish

We’re delighted to report that Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon made such a splash at the Kentucky Book Fair that Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lexington has invited Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch back to Lexington for an additional book signing at the store on Saturday, December 18, at 2 PM. The anthology includes stories from several chapter members and makes a great Christmas gift (hint, hint!).

 

As we look to 2022, one of the things on our wish list is to resume face-to-face meetings this spring, hopefully at a location which will have web access so that folks can attend the meetings via Zoom if they’re unable to attend in person. We also hope to continue to improve our offerings for members and friends in the New Year, and our Programs Chair, Elaine Munsch, has some great speakers planned for 2022!

In February, Erv Klein, winner of Imaginarium’s Award for best historical fiction and President of the Board of Louisville Literary Arts, will be our guest speaker.

Member News

Beth Henderson’s novels UNTIL… and MARKED RAVEN (Written under her pen name, J.B. Dane) were named finalists for best book of the year in the Historical and Fantasy categories by N.N. Light Book Heaven. This is an incredible honor, especially considering that 1800 books were reviewed! Meantime, Beth continues to collect glowing five-star reviews for her new comedic paranormal mystery series, Whichur-Wolfe Detection. The fourth and final book in the series is due out this month. Congratulations on all of your good news, Beth!

Lynn Slaughter will read from her recently released novel, Leisha’s Song, as part of Louisville Literary Arts’ InKY Reading series on January 13 at 7 PM.

https://www.louisvilleliteraryarts.org/

 

 

 

 

Pamela Turner’s novel, When Angels Threaten, a celestial supernatural thriller, is now available.

Pam also has a short story, “Onryo,” in the forthcoming anthology, Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard. An onryo is a vengeful spirit that can harm the living. In addition, Pam’s short screenplay, “Cemetery,” is slated to begin production, and after meeting with the production team, Pam is very excited about the direction the project is taking. We’re thrilled for you, Pam!

 

That’s it for now, except to wish all of you a beautiful holiday season and joyful New Year filled with love, laughter, and lots of writing!

 

In this season of Thanksgiving, I’m feeling very thankful for the wonderfully supportive writing community we have in Derby Rotten Scoundrels!

I have so many folks to thank for the terrific work that’s been happening this fall on behalf of DRS— most especially I want to thank Lynda Rees for her awesome work as publicist, Susan Bell for her beautiful work on the website, and Elaine Munsch for arranging fabulous speakers and programs for our chapter.

Elaine brought us a terrific speaker for our November meeting, Andrew Welsh- Huggins (awhcolumbus.1@gmail.com; https://www.andrewelshhuggins.com),  who spoke to us about his writing career and his process for creating his successful mystery series featuring private eye and ex-quarterback Andy Hayes. Andrew creates, dates, and saves multiple drafts until he is ready to share and submit his work. Along the way, he maintains a separate document in which he makes notes of things he needs to fill in, check on, etc. He is a great example of the discipline involved in being a successful author. He writes for two hours every morning before going to his day job as an AP reporter!  

Meantime, we are still basking in the glow of the tremendous success of Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon at the Kentucky Book Festival. The anthology, co-edited by Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch and featuring the work of several chapter members, had sold out by 2 PM! Rumor has it that Karen Block and Lorena Peter excelled at being sales folks. Elaine also participated in a well-received panel at the festival on “Building a Writing Community.”

Elaine Munsch also inaugurated our Speaker’s Bureau by doing a presentation on “A Brief History of Women Crime Writers” at the Daviess County Library in Owensboro on October 28. We’ve also been invited to present our offerings at Imaginarium coming up July 8-11. (Our chapter will have a table at the conference.) If you know of any clubs, groups, or libraries who might be interested in our free of charge presentations, let them know about our new Speaker’s Bureau. The complete listing of offerings is now up on our site.

Thanks to Lynda Rees, our publicist, we also now have active accounts for Facebook and Twitter:

• • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derbyrottenscoundrels

• • Twitter:   https://twitter.com/DerbyRotten

Please go on to our pages and Like, Follow, and Share, so we can help grow our organization.

Chapter members! You’re also invited to contribute blogs to our website on writing (especially mystery writing) and anything having to do with the chapter. Send your blogs (600-1000 words) to Susan Bell, our webmaster, at susancbell@yahoo.com

Our annual elections for board positions are coming right up. As of now, I’m aware that we do have openings for the positions of Secretary and Treasurer. The Secretary is responsible for taking notes at the chapter meetings and disseminating them to the membership, and the treasurer is responsible for keeping track of our finances (writing checks, making deposits, and reporting to the chapter and Board on our expenditures and income). Neither job is hugely time consuming, but they are vitally important to our functioning. Be thinking about whether you’d be willing to step up and assume one of these all-important volunteer jobs—we need you!

At our November chapter meeting, we discussed ways to improve our monthly meetings. We decided that beginning with our January meeting, we’ll start our meetings with an intentional check-in to share writing news, minimize the business portion, do a short writing prompt, and review chapters from the craft book we began several months ago, Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction, A Guide to Narrative Craft.

As is our custom, in place of our usual December chapter meeting, we will have a holiday luncheon on the first Saturday of the month, December 4^th, at the Olive Garden on Hurstbourne, beginning at 11:30 AM. We will honor Susan Bell, our Volunteer of the Year, at our luncheon. For directions, click  Olive Garden Italian Restaurant .

Member News

Gloria Casale will sign her books at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lexington on Saturday, December 4^th, from 2-4 PM. Her books include:

• • • SHADOW ROAD: WHERE SHADOWS FIND YOU
• BIOTERROR: THE ESSENTIAL THREAT

 

 

Congratulations to Leanne Edelen, whose short story, “Big Freak,” was the first-place winner of the Beartooth Anthony’s Annual Halloween Campfire Story Contest. Check out Leanne’s terrific story at: https://beartoothanthony.com/2021-results-beartooth-anthonys-halloween-campfire-story-contest/ 

 

 

Beth Henderson now has three titles out in her cozy mystery paranormal comedy series, Whichur-Wolfe Detection, which include:

• • • • WHEN HARRY KILLED SALLY
  • WHEN CURTSEY KNIFED SAMMY
  • WHEN KENEDY STRANGLED BRISCO

The series has been collecting rave 5-Star reviews! Book Four, WHEN KURT BLUDGEONED RUSTY, is due out on December 15.

 

Carol Preflatish is doing NaNoWriMo  this month and going great guns! She hopes her next Nathan Perry mystery will be out by Christmas.

 

Lynn Slaughter’s LEISHA’S SONG was awarded a Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards’ bronze medal in the YA horror/mystery category. The novel also received a lovely review and five-star rating for its entry in the Reader’s Favorite Awards.

 

 

 

 

 

All for now. Have a beautiful and blessed Thanksgiving, and Happy Writing!

Thanks to our amazing Chair of Programming, Elaine Munsch, we hosted a terrific speaker for our October meeting, Shay McAlister, an award-winning investigative reporter for WHAS who has been instrumental in investigating several cold cases. Shay was delightful and informative as she spoke about her career and the sheer doggedness involved in researching cases. You can view a recording of Shay’s talk here: Speaker Series.

For our November 13 meeting, we’re hosting Andrew Welsh-Huggins. Andrew is an Associated Press reporter and author of seven mystery novels featuring a former Ohio State and Cleveland Browns quarterback turned private investigator, the most recent of which is An Empty Grave. Andrew will talk about creating and sustaining a successful mystery series. He’ll speak from 1-2 PM EST following our noon business meeting.  See this link for Zoom meeting details: Andrew Welsh-Huggins – AP Reporter / Mystery Author

Meantime, our publicist Lynda Rees has been very busy getting the word out about DRS. She hopes you’ll follow, like, and share chapter posts on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/derbyrottenscoundrels/  and on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/DerbyRotten  This is a great way to interest folks in our chapter and our mission to advance the development and recognition of regional women crime writers.

We’ve also purchased a table at Imaginarium coming up on July 8-10 2022 and are thrilled that we’ve been invited to present our Speakers’s Bureau workshops as part of the convention.

Meantime, we’re looking forward to the Kentucky Book Festival on November 6 at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon, an anthology co-edited by chapter members Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch, has been selected for inclusion in this prestigious festival. The works of several chapter members appear in the anthology. Elaine will also take part in a panel at the festival, “Creating a Writer’s Community.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Member News

Elaine Munsch will speak on “A Brief History of Women’s Crime Fiction” as part of the chapter’s Speaker’s Bureau in Owensboro on Thursday, October 28, 6-7 PM Central Time, at the Daviess County Public Library. Check out our video recording of Elaine’s talk on this topic to our chapter: Speaker Series

Jeanette Pope’s book launch signing for Desperate Angles on September 18 was a huge success!

Lynda Rees’s picture book, NO FEAR, designed to help children face their fears, recently launched as a hardcover and can be found at:

AMZ:  https://amzn.to/2V6rf2m            

B&N   NO FEAR by Lynda Rees, S. Sathi | NOOK Book (eBook) | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)           

KOBO NO FEAR eBook by Lynda Rees – 1230004964599 | Rakuten Kobo United States

WEBSITE:  WWW.LYNDAREESAUTHOR.COM/NO FEAR/

The audio launch of NO FEAR comes out this month and features spectacular voice actress and chapter member, Patience Martin from Peabod Audio. You can find NO FEAR in audiobook at https://adbl.co/3fYLQLh

If you’d like to be one of the first to listen and review, contact Lynda Rees for a FREE audiobook download code.

Lynda Rees’s No Fear Learning Activity Book launched in September. Designed for preschoolers and kindergarteners, the book includes activities that make learning fun and involve counting, drawing, coloring, learning numbers and the alphabet, and solving puzzles. It can be found at:

AMAZON:   

NO FEAR Children’s Activity Book: Rees, Lynda Author, Jones, Aria: 9781732311695: Amazon.com: Books

Barnes & Noble:

NO FEAR Children’s Activity Book by Lynda Author Rees, Aria Jones, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Lynda Rees has also been accepted into the Book Global Network:

https://bookmarketingglobalnetwork.com/global-authors-directory/lynda-rees-books/

Lynn Slaughter will participate in a panel with writers Mary Popham and Ellen Birkett-Morris on “Creating Authentic Women Characters” from 12-1 PM EST on October 23 at the online Louisville Book Festival. For the full schedule of events at the festival, go to: https://www.louisvillebookfestival.com/festival-info/festival-schedule/

Lynn also appeared on Gmap Broadcast Network shows to discuss her novels on September 29, October 6, and October 13: https://www.gmap1.com/

That’s it for now! Hope to see you at our next meeting on November 13!

 

September 11^th is a somber day in our nation’s history, but it felt good to spend time with eight other chapter members at our monthly meeting.

Not surprisingly, we talked a lot about spreading the word about our chapter. One of the big takeaways from our retreat was the need to increase our publicity efforts and social media presence. All I can say is that our new publicist, Lynda Rees, with able assistance from Susan Bell and Miki Reilly-Howe, has been hard at work and done an amazing job! Press releases about our new Speakers Bureau have gone out to multiple outlets, and Lynda has created a chapter brochure set to arrive at my house later this week, in plenty of time to take to the Flemingsburg County Library Book Fair on October 2.   We now have bookmarks, a banner, and brochures—all featuring the gorgeous new logo created by Miki Reilly-Howe’s colleague, Doug Sovonick.

You can also now find out what we’re up to on social media. We’d love for you to like us and follow us!

	Twitter: derbyrottenscoundrels.com
	Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derbyrottenscoundrels
	Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsAFuiQ13WwstSUHT082iA

 

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In other news, our newly formed online critique group, which includes Susan Bell, Elaine Munsch, Lorena Peter, Jeanette Pope, and Miki Reilly-Howe, reports they had a great first meeting. Lorena Peter submitted an excerpt from her new novel, Inexplicable Dread, and Elaine Munsch submitted another chapter From her new Dash Hammond novel, Maude (Working title).

 

 

Meantime, our chair of programming, Elaine Munsch, has lined up some exciting speakers for the coming year. For our next meeting on October 9^th, Shay McAlister, WHAS-11 investigative reporter, will talk about her career and the ongoing interest in cold cases. The public is invited to attend! For the Zoom link, please contact Susan Bell at: susancbell@yahoo.com. Read more here: Shay McAlister – Investigative Reporter for WHAS: Working with LMPD Cold Case Squad

 

 

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Member News

Beth Henderson’s second book in the Whichur-Wolfe Detection series, WHEN CURTSEY KNIFED SAMMY, (paranormal, cozy mystery, comedy, with a touch of romance) went live on September 15^th. Lots is happening in Book Two, including a second murder! Beth is delighted with the five star reviews she’s received for the first book in the series, WHEN HARRY KILLED SALLY.

Jeanette Pope will celebrate her newly released DESPERATE ANGLES and sign books on September 18^th at Mike Linnig’s Restaurant- 9308 Cane Run road, Louisville KY  340258 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

Carol Preflatish submitted book number three, WITCH HUNT, in her Nathan Perry Mystery Series to her publisher. It should be released by Christmas.

Lynn Slaughter’s article, “The Three Best Pieces of Writing Advice I’ve Ever Received,” appeared in the creativity issue of Teen Ink: https://www.teenink.com/TipsFromAnAuthor-LynnSlaughter

Lynn was also recently interviewed for Hasty Book List:
https://www.hastybooklist.com/home/author-interview-lynn-slaughter

Our chapter will be well represented at the upcoming Book Fair on October 2nd at the Flemingsburg County Library: https://virginiasmith.org/event/fleming-county-library-book-fair/

Gloria Casale, Elaine Munsch, Lynda Rees, and Lynn Slaughter will be participating authors.

 

That’s it for now! Please stay safe. We hope to see you at our October 9^th chapter meeting!