Carol Preflatish
Carol’s screenplay, The Witch’s Descendant, was named Best Feature Screenplay at the Chicago Women Film Fest.
Carol noted: “I am honored to have won in this most prestigious competition.”
Congratulations!
Author: susancbell
DRS Chapter Meeting – October 11 at 11:30am ** Zoom Only
Reading Like a Writer Book Club
This month the Scoundrels will be discussing When Cicadas Cry by Caroline Cleveland. Henry has already done his homework! Hopefully you all have had a chance to read the book. Scroll down to the very end of this post to see who the killer is!
Elaine and Bev will lead the book discussion in which they’ll focus on the writing and craft issues
All writing consists of a series of choices. As we read Cicadas, we’ll examine Cleveland’s choices in structuring the story she wanted to tell.
Just to get you started, here are a few thoughts that occurred to us on a second read:
- Bev thought she’d identified the killer by around page 68. Wrong! The author led us right down the garden path.
- Cleveland starts the book with a first-person scene in the killer’s head and continues to work these in. Would the book work as well if she’d left these out?
- The crimes involve a present-day murder and a cold case murder. Different characters focus on separate investigations that are deftly woven together to reach a climax. How did this structure affect your reading experience?
- Set in the Deep South, the novel uses racial issues not just as background but to drive the plot and increase tension. How do you feel Cleveland handled these themes?
- Does the romantic subplot detract from or add to the tension?
Date: October 11, 2025
Time: 11:30 am EST
Location: This meeting will be zoom only
The Killer is . . . . are you kidding? I’m not going to tell you who the real killer is. Read the book!
Member News
Meet Frances Gossen
I can’t remember the first time I used writing as a form of creative expression, but by the time I entered middle school, I had already discovered an easy love of poetry. Perhaps it was the influence of my early years as a theater kid and young love affair with Shakespeare, but using descriptive language to encapsulate intense to me, unnoticed to others experiences greatly appealed to me.
I still remember some of those early works: seeing an otter off the docks of Prince Edward Island, the sensation of waking up from a dream. The way letters, syllables, syntax, and stanzas could express patterns of beautiful meaning fascinated me as did the idea of treating language as an equation not to cheapen but expand understanding.
Unsurprisingly, I went on to obtain an English degree from Boston University where I spent two years as chief poetic editor for Clarion literary magazine and worked as an copy editor for Pen and Anvil press both before and after graduation. My writing grew as well as I began to experiment more with prose and fiction, especially world building.
In my late teens, I developed my first fantasy world, which now has its own phonetic alphabet, detailed trade routes, five distinct cultural traditions, and three storylines that will eventually become series, although I’m only about one hundred scattered pages into the first book.
During my twenties, I completed my first collection of poetry, Conversations about the Weather, as well as early drafts of a collection of short stories tentatively called Rose’a’sharn, which explored the line between magical realism and fantasy. Currently, I’m developing a new collection of science fiction shorts as a fun experiment in a different kind of world building, and particularly to work on dialogue and concise storytelling. Regardless of the project, I always have more ideas and inspiration than time to write them down.
— Frances Gossen
Member News September 2025
Meet Eileen Trauth
I write in a variety of genres. I retired as a college professor in 2017. During my academic career I published ten nonfiction books and an award-winning play, iDream, based on my research. My poetry appears in Ordinary Time (Kelsay Books), as well as in print and online journals, and several anthologies.
My current prose writing projects include a historical murder mystery, and a family memoir. I find that my experience writing poetry has been very helpful in my fiction writing. My interest in writing a historical mystery novel grew out of my genealogy work. The characters I uncovered became the inspiration for my novel.
My mystery-writer sister, Suzanne Trauth, introduced me to Bouchercon, which I have attended with her since 2018. The conference panels and author interviews have been a source of valuable insights about mystery writing. It was at Bouchercon that I learned about Sisters in Crime. I have attended SinC workshops, both at Bouchercon and virtually. I have also taken several Jane Friedman courses on aspects of novel writing.
I am a member of the Greater Cincinnati Writers League, the Ohio Poetry Association, Fourth Friday International Poetry Group, Sisters in Crime, Derby Rotten Scoundrels and Queer Crime Writers. My wife, Kathy, and I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. www.eileentrauth.com.
Rhonda Lane
Rhonda announces that her first novel, Fatal Image, has been released and can be found on Amazon.
Rhonda has been a stringer news photographer, a reporter with a split beat covering “cops & courts” as well as feature stories, and a TV broadcast technician for live and recorded programming. In her TV days, her colleagues dubbed her “Chyronda” for her ability with a computer graphics generator during live news and sporting event coverage. In her print journalism days, she helped her small metro daily newspaper bring cameras into the courtroom for the first time.
As for her equestrian credentials, she grew up in rural Kentucky, but circumstances prevented her from being a lifelong horsewoman. In midlife, she entered the equestrian world as soon as she could after healing from a health scare.
For twelve years, she ran the horses-in-culture blog known as The Horsey Set Net.
She lives with her husband and their cats in an oak grove in New England.
Lynn Slaughter
Lynn’s most recent novel, MISSING MOM, has been long listed for the M&M Chanticleer Awards. Lynn said “even to get that far feels great!”Lynn also wants to thank translator Lynn Taylor, MISSING MOM is now available in German!
Congratulations!
Trace Conger – Elements of Suspense Video
Trace Conger spoke to our chapter today on Writing the Thriller – Elements of Suspense. It was very informative! Watch below:
Trace Conger is an award-winning author in the crime, thriller, and suspense genres. He writes the Connor Harding (Thriller) series and the Mr. Finn (PI) series, among others. His Connor Harding series follows freelance Mirage Man Connor Harding as he solves problems for the world’s most dangerous criminals. The Mr. Finn series follows private investigator Finn Harding as he straddles the fine line between right and wrong. Conger won a Shamus Award for his debut novel, THE SHADOW BROKER. His novel, FIVE WILL DIE has been optioned for film and will go into production in 2026.