Author: susancbell

Tony Acree – So You Want to Write a Screenplay

We are delighted to welcome local author/publisher Tony Acree, who will speak to our chapter about how to write a screenplay. We are devoting most of our chapter meeting time to this, and hope you can join us, either in person or via our hybrid zoom meeting.

Date: April 8, 2023

Time:  11:00AM (after a brief business meeting)

Where:  Middletown library + via Zoom

Zoom: please click link to register for zoom 

https://sistersincrime-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEqf-GqqTksHdU3KlnJ5kjf3cXGTAwYQhaT

Tony Acree is an award-winning publisher, novelist, and screenwriter. He lives near Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, twin daughters, two female dogs, two female cats, and says the way the goldfish looks at him, he’s sure she’s female, too.

Dark Harbor Pictures will be producing two streaming shows, one based on his Victor McCain thrillers, and the other on his Samantha Tyler thrillers. In addition, his screenplay, Songs of Bloody Harlan has been optioned for the silver screen by Jamezz Hampton and 1209 Productions. His publishing house, Hydra Publications, won the Jason Sizemore Award for best small press, and Publisher of the Year by the AOF Megafest and Conquering Disabilities w/Film International Film Festival.

His screenplay, The Hand of God, co-written by Sarah Gardiner, won Best Horror Screenplay at The LA Film Awards.

His first solo screenplay, Songs of Bloody Harlan, took Best Long Format Screen Play at the Imadjinn Film Festival.

Tony is currently the Creative Writer in Residence at the Oldham County Schools Art Center.

Tony is also on the board of Louisville Literary Arts.

Follow Tony on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTonyAcree, on Twitter @TonyAcree, or on his website, Tonyacree.com. You can email him at Tonyacree@Gmail.com.

 

Author Meet and Greet – Saturday April 1 at 1:30PM Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch

Join Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch at Jeffersonville Library for a Meet and Greet. We’ll be talking about the chapter’s anthology, Mystery With a
Splash of Bourbon, and Elaine will be talking about her new novel, A Haunting at Marianwood.

Time: 
Saturday, April 1, 2023 at 1:30PM
Location:
Jeffersonville Library, 
211 East Court Avenue
Jeffersonville, IN 47130
Haunting Front Cover
 
 

Member News – March

 

Lynn Slaughter

Lynn reports that she is an M & M Finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Awards in the mystery category.

Also, she is a finalist in the Book Excellence Awards in mystery for DEADLY SETUP.

Lynn will be joining the board of Louisville Literary Arts.

Congratulations Lynn!

 

Elaine Munsch and Susan Bell

Elaine and Susan would like you to join us at the Jeffersonville Library, Saturday, April 1st, from 1:30 until 3 p.m.

The library is located at 211 E. Court St., Jeffersonville, IN, 812-285-5630

We will be discussing:
Haunting Front CoverA HAUNTING AT MARIANWOOD
By E. M. Munsch
Marianwood, located in central Kentucky, is the motherhouse for the Sisters of the Blessed Mother of God. When the president of the order experiences odd happenings, she calls on her cousin Dashiell Hammond, retired Army colonel, to sort out the events. Is there really a ghost or more sinister beings at work?
This is the sixth book in the Dash Hammond series.
MYSTERY WITH A SPLASH OF BOURBON
by Derby Rotten Scoundrels authors
From historical adventure, gritty realism, and madcap humor, the crime stories in MYSTERY WITH A SPLASH OF BOURBON are fermented in the history and culture of Kentucky bourbon and distilled through the imagination of the writers. Murder, Mayhem and Bourbon –What’s more Kentucky than that?
We hope you can come out and see us!

Leanne Edelen

Leanne has a short story, Playing Possum, which will be published in an anthology called Strangely Funny X (publisher: Mystery and Horror, INC).  The anthology is due to be released in May of this year.

She is also submitting a short story to a fellow Sisters in Crime chapter, Speed City (Indianapolis). The story is titled The Perfect Match, and our fingers are crossed that her story is accepted for the anthology, Amber Waves of Graves.

Several other members are also planning to submit to this anthology, but I won’t put them on the spot unless they ask. Good luck to anyone and everyone who submits! For more information on this anthology, click the link (submission deadline is March 24, 2023):  https://www.speedcitysistersincrime.org/amber-waves-of-graves.html

 

That’s all for now, folks!

 

Member News – February

Lynn Slaughter

Check out Lynn Slaughter’s essay on the importance of backstory  on hastybooklist.com:

Also, Lynn and Ellen Birkett Morris gave a delightful talk at Jo-Beth’s bookstore. Lynn and Ellen were superb, talking about their writing process, and reading from their latest novels. Well done! Susan and Elaine drove down to show support, along with Miss Whitney Vale (Susan’s sister).

Lynda Rees

DRS Member and Author, Lynda Rees, The Murder Guru, will be teaching The Business of Publishing workshop online for the Womens’ Fiction Writer’s Association, classes from April 20-30. It’s only $20.

Lynda is also honored to have been selected to help judge as Unpublished Category Coordinator for the Kiss of Death, Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery / Suspense contest. You DO NOT have to be a KOD or RWA member to enter. This year short stories are a new category! Entry information is in the graphic below.

Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon

Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon

The Kentucky Derby Museum recently ordered 36 copies of our anthology to stock in their gift shop.  And they just told us that, instead of doing consignment, which we have been doing the past 6 months, they will now buy outright! Great news, and much easier to keep track of. We hope we get more orders from them as the Derby approaches. Fingers crossed!
Also, in January, Susan and Elaine dropped off copies of the anthology to Keeneland and the Kentucky Horse Park. Sadly, Keeneland said no. We haven’t heard back from Kentucky Horse Park. NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED!

Comma Long With Me

Few elements of punctuation are as daunting as the comma. When do I use it? Where do I put it? There are rules, and sometimes controversy (Oxford commas come to mind).

Reference this article on  8 basic uses of commas:  Commas (Eight Basic Uses)

This month, we will focus on independent clauses.

An independent clause is also called the main clause. It expresses a complete thought, and it can stand alone as a sentence. Its counterpart is a dependent clause, which cannot stand alone. Dependent and independent clauses can combine to make different types of sentences.

A clause is a phrase that contains a subject and a verb or verb phrase

Every complete sentence has an independent clause, but not every sentence contains a dependent clause.

reference: Independent Clause: What It Is Explained with Examples

 

Independent Clause plus a Dependent Clause:

Boomer, a cat who started life in the park, enjoys playing in my backyard.

The independent clause in this sentence is:

Boomer enjoys playing in my backyard.

This is a complete thought, with a subject (Boomer), a verb (enjoys), and an object phrase (in my backyard). As an independent clause, the above statement does not require a comma.

The following clause is dependent, because it cannot stand alone:

a cat who started life in the park

The dependent clause is almost a parenthetical description, used to provide a little ‘background’ info on Boomer, but not essential to the main clause. When you add the two clauses togther, you need to separate them with a comma (in this case, two commas, because the dependent clause is dropped into the middle of the independent clause:

Boomer, a cat who started life in the park, enjoys playing in my backyard.

Two Independent Clauses in one Sentence:

We can connect two independent clauses in a few different ways. The first method is to use a coordinating conjunction.

There are seven coordinating conjunctions in English: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. You can remember these with the acronym FANBOYS.

Example:

The following two clauses are independent because they can each stand alone as a complete thought:

My dog is an Australian shepherd.

I don’t have any sheep for him to herd.

When combined, they need a comma and a conjunction (but) to connect them.

My dog is an Australian shepherd, but I don’t have any sheep for him to herd.

 

You don’t have to use a coordinating conjunction to connect independent clauses. You can also use certain punctuation marks. These are semicolons, em dashes, and colons.

When you use a semicolon, you do not include a coordinating conjunction. You can use a transitional word or phrase after the semicolon, like “however” or “as a result.” These are called independent markers.

Examples:

I used to live in Montreal; however, I am not fluent in French.

We discovered the thief—it was my next-door neighbor!

You don’t usually see colons separating independent clauses. The independent clauses must be closely related to use a colon. The emphasis should also be on the second clause.

  • The results of the study surprised us: the animals responded positively to the visual stimuli.

reference: Independent Clause: What It Is Explained with Examples

I hope you have enjoyed my TED talk!