Category: Uncategorized

Join us for our first in person DRS meeting in quite awhile! On September 14 at 11am, join us for a celebration of Agatha Christie’s birthday. 

Sandra Leonard and Elaine Munsch will give a talk about Dame Agatha’s life, her works and her writing techniques. A birthday cake will be on hand so please RSVP so we know whether to order a cupcake or sheet cake. A quiz (with prizes) just might take place as well. Invite your friends.

• When: September 14, 2024
• Time:  11:00 am EST
• Where:  Middletown Library.
•  
• This meeting will also be zoomed. Please use the following link to register. 

Zoom Registration Link

In addition to our celebration of Agatha Christie, the following items are on the gaenda:

Business: We need candidates for the 2025 Chapter Board. ALL positions will be available. Interested parties should email miscmunsch@gmail.com so we can put your name in the hat. Don’t be shy. Ask any questions about the positions.

There is an interest in forming a ‘marketing’ subcommittee to promote the chapter and the authors within. We’ll talk about this at the meeting but if you are interested, please reach out to Lorena.

Critiques: Beginning in October, we will try to accommodate anyone who wishes to submit a piece. We can only read/review two submissions at a meeting. Please remember that the piece should be 3000 words or less, double-spaced, New Times Roman, 12 point. Submissions should be sent to the membership one week before the meeting. Interested in sending something in for October, please let Miki know so she can schedule it.

Join us on June 8 for a repeat performance from Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Jo-Ann Farmer.

Ms. Farmer’s spoke to our group in November 2023, and we were so wowed by her presentation we asked her to talk to us again, and she graciously accepted. 

Be advised this is a very graphic presentation, and no one under the age of 18 will be allowed to attend.

Jo-Ann Farmer was elected Jefferson County Coroner in November 2022. Previously, she served as a Deputy Coroner for nearly 23 years, and the last 17 were as Chief Deputy Coroner. She earned “Advanced Coroner” designation in 2005 and achieved “Master Coroner” designation in 2011.

Jo-Ann is the keynote speaker for Bellarmine University several times per year, lecturing on Forensics, and speaks to high schools and community organizations on Forensics as well. She conducted a six-week Forensic seminar at the Louisville Free Public Library and two full-day seminars at the University of Central Florida.

A graduate of the University of Kentucky Nursing Program, Jo-Ann’s nursing experience includes: Charge Nurse of Trauma/Emergency Room, Labor and Delivery, Coronary Care and Intensive Care Units in Lexington, Covington and Louisville.

She is a native Louisvillian, a wife, a mother of two adult sons, and “Mimi” to two young grandsons.

Note: At the request of Ms. Farmer, this meeting will not be recorded.

When: Saturday, June 11, 2024

Time: 11am-1pm

NOTE: Arrive at 10:45AM. We need to wait outside the entrance until the entire group has arrived.

We will be dining at Selena’s at Willow Lake Tavern for lunch after the presentation. Selena’s is just down the road from the coroner campus. 

Where:

Central State Campus, Bingham Building

10511 La Grange Road

Louisville, KY 40223

Google Map

Directions on the campus:

Go in the main entrance and veer right.

There will be a building on the left with mosaic tile on it.

This is the Bingham Building.

Jeanette C. Pope gave a very informative and entertaining presentation last weekend on Prewriting and Prewriting Strategies to help get the writing process started. Enjoy the recording below!

 

Jeanette C. Pope has been a member of the Derby Rotten Scoundrels for 7 years. She is a retired teacher from Jefferson County Public Schools who still tutors elementary students 3 days a week and coaches her former students on their career paths and vocational choices. Her passion for writing fiction has been a part of her life since her early teens. However, becoming an author wasn’t encouraged. Her hard-working parents did not see writing as a good way to become self-sufficient. As a middle-of-the-road agreement, she and her parents decided a teaching career would suffice for financial security. Jeanette agreed because she knew she could dazzle her students with stories in every subject. 

Jeanette has published two novels, Double Triangles and Desperate Angles. Jeanette lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband. She is proud of her son and daughter who are very successful in their work choices. Her two granddaughters bring joy, love, and excitement to her life.

 

Join us on February 10^th to learn about adding romance to your mystery from DRS member Lynn Slaughter.

In this workshop, we’ll talk about the differences between romantic mysteries and romantic suspense, and the ways in which injecting romance into our mysteries can up the emotional stakes and enhance reader engagement. We’ll look at examples of romantic mysteries with various scenarios and some things to keep in mind when integrating romance into our mysteries. Time-permitting, we’ll also do some brainstorming to generate ideas for a romantic mystery.

Lynn Slaughter is addicted to the arts, chocolate, and her husband’s cooking. After a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator, she felt so sad about not being able to dance anymore that she wrote her first novel, WHILE I DANCED, as a therapy project. That got her hooked on writing fiction. So, despite being older than dirt, she returned to school and earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her first mystery for adults, MISSED CUE, came out from Melange Books in August.

In addition to WHILE I DANCED, she is also the author of three other award-winning young adult romantic mysteries: DEADLY SETUP, LEISHA’S SONG, and IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU. The ridiculously proud mother of two grown sons and besotted grandmother of five, Lynn lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where she’s at work on her next novel, sings original music with her guitar-playing husband, and plays with her newly adopted cat, Lacy Lou Lommasson.

When: Saturday, February 10, 2024

Time: DRS Meeting from 11am to noon. Lynn Slaughter speaks from noon to 1pm

Where: Zoom ONLY

Please use the following link to register FOR zOOM Meeting: 

ZOOM LINK

Join us on March 9th to learn about the business side of mystery writing from DRS member, Lynda Rees.

If you are nearing completion of a manuscript you want to publish, you might wonder what happens next. What options are available for publication? What is the right decision for you?

As an author, regardless of which route you take to publish your work, you are the CEO of your own business. You own your brand.

Taking charge of your business isn’t complex, but it is time-consuming. There is a learning curve to getting your book published, managing your brand and your company, and being taken seriously by the industry (and staying out of trouble with the IRS). Lynda will discuss the business side of writing and share what she’s learned along with insightful tips to help you manage the process.

Lynda Rees, the Murder Guru, is a multi-award-winning author of several genres. The free-spirited world-traveler’s diverse background and previous corporate experience as a Marketing and Global Logistics Manager at Procter & Gamble brings varied expertise and rare perspective to her writing. An Appalachian-born coal miner’s daughter, Lynda is also part Cherokee. Her love affair with books, mystery, and American history stem from being immersed in the Mob’s reign when Northern Kentucky prospered as a mecca for gambling and sin.

Lynda brings you the best in mystery and suspense with a dash of romance and a smidgen of history. She is published in mystery/suspense, contemporary and historical romance, middle grade mystery, children’s books, and nonfiction.

When: Saturday, March 9, 2024

Time: DRS Meeting from 11am to noon. Lynda Rees speaks from noon to 1pm

Where: Zoom ONLY

Please use the following link to register for Zoom Meeting: 

ZOOM LINK